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Fake Astroturf Lobbying Rears Its Ugly Head Once More
Published on April 14, 2007 04:00 AM
File Under: Disclosure, Lobbying Regulation
According to the breathless release on Public Citizen's website, "special interests are dumping truckloads of cash on fake 'grassroots organizing' to sway Congress." So Public Citizen's website gives you a way to automatically send form email letters to Congress, so your representative will know what a problem this is. You don't have to learn about the issue, or understand it, or know the details of what Public Citizen is proposing. Just point and click, and Congress will know how much you care about the issue and support Public Citizen's solution, ably represented by Public Citizen's registered lobbyists on the Hill.
To some cynics, it might appear that Public Citizen, by stirring up the public with half truths and a one-sided discussion of the issue, and making it easy to contact members of Congress, is trying to create the false impression that citizens have given this a lot of thought and are carefully contacting their members of Congress. But nothing could be further from the truth. It's only "fake," you see, when the other guy does it.
