The low risk, high rise of phony grassroots groups
Does fear of being outed deter companies and interest groups from hiding behind fake grassroots organizations?
Not so much.
Fueled by the Internet, counterfeit citizen groups are spreading like mushrooms in the soggy shadows of special interests. Every once in a while some high-profile deception will make headlines, like when Wal-Mart got caught blogging about an average American couple traveling cross-country in their RV. Wal-Mart's PR agency shrugged it off as an inconsequential publicity stunt that wasn't as "transparent" as it should have been.
Some faux grassroots groups are more brazen. Take for example AngryRenters.com, an amateur-looking web site representing "renters and responsible homeowners against a government mortgage bailout." Tens of thousands of people have signed its petition. But what the site doesn't explain is that it's the work of a conservative advocacy group led by publisher Steve Forbes and former House majority leader Dick Armey.
When news media revealed that the group pays Armey more than $500,000 dollars a year, AngryRenters.com proclaimed that "You know a web site is making a difference when the Wall Street Journal publishes a hit piece on the front page!"
The victimized underdog theme is common to many so-called "astroturfing" campaigns. So is the belief that gaining a PR advantage is worth the risk of getting a PR black eye.
"There's not a big penalty associated with doing this and being caught," said Harvard professor of government Herman B. Leonard in a recent Associated Press story. "There's a potentially substantial benefit from being able to get out there with something that seems like a well-informed and active and energetic view that does not seem to be self-interested. So if you get away with it, it's a plus. If you don't, they say, 'Well, it's not too surprising.'"
This can't be good. To the principals of free speech, astroturfing is the unseen voice yelling fire in a crowded movie theater. Americans are being pushed with increasing sophistication into reacting to messages from sponsors who are intentially misleading, if not hidden completely.
The thing about the information age, however, is that the whole truth eventually finds daylight. And regular people will become absolutely cynical of even legitimate efforts to inform and persuade them.
Then it won't matter if you hide your true identity or not.
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