We have recently heard a new term that was brought to us by Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid as if the word was something new to call conservatives. The word is “astro turf,” but in reality it’s just a new word for a decades old practice.
We have all heard “astro turfed” words, “refuse collection engineer” to describe a garbage man, and “undocumented worker” to describe illegal migrant aliens.
There are individuals, and companies paid to come into a situation, and mold the public opinion from bad to good on a subject that they ordinarily would not want. They approach the situation with thesaurus in hand, take private polls, and then attach new more palatable words to a subject that previously bored and turned people off.
You think to yourself, oh come on Al; nobody can do that for a living, much less in this day and age. Enter ASK Public Strategies. While the main purpose of astro turfing companies is to mold public opinion, this company specialized in political astro turfing. Finding a way to make social issues more palatable is what this company did.
In a TV commercial, constructed by ASK, warned of a ComEd (Chicago Electric Company) bankruptcy and blackouts without a rate hike: "A few years ago, California politicians seized control of electric rates. They held rates down, but the true cost of energy kept rising. Soon the electric company went bust; the lights went out. Consumers had to pay for the mess. Now, some people in Illinois are playing the same game." CORE, which describes itself on its Web site as "a coalition of individuals, businesses and organizations," was identified as the ad's sponsor. After a complaint was filed with state regulators, ComEd acknowledged that it had bankrolled the entire $15 million effort.
Similar ad campaigns were done by ASK on behalf of companies such as Comcast, AT&T,Children’s Museum in Grant Park, on the request of long time friend Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago.
People in the know, are already chuckling, because they know who this man is. His fingerprints are all over the air right now. The administration doesn’t use words such as “socialized medicine,” “socialized healthcare,” or “government run healthcare.” Whether those terms are used or the terms, or the terms, “private option,” “public options,” “co-ops,” or “single payer healthcare,” the system being described is the same. The facts remain, the system will insert a bureaucrat between you and your doctor, to make decisions on your healthcare based on age and cost, the wording in HR 3200 can’t be astro turfed!
Oh yea, by the way, the man who owned the astro turfing company? He is none other than David Axelrod, Senior White House Advisor to President Barack Obama. Name sound familiar? Of course it does, he is the person that keep sending “updates” from the White House on healthcare as spam! So the next time he refers to a recycled human by product on organically grown wheat bread, you will know it's nothing more than a crap samdwich.
http://alspoliticalview.blogspot.com/2008/10/dangerous-tactic-of-astroturfing.html
