With all due respect, and I state this sincerely, the Right Wing invented ‘astroturfing’. One would be hard-pressed to find examples of the Left engaging in this practice. To say that the Left doesn’t promote its agenda would be folly … but as to the complex engagement of the media as tool for control … I emphatically challenge your assertion. Again, I’m not suggesting that the Left isn’t engaged in promoting an agenda, but the Right Wing invented this very expensive and (as you can see via the foreign owned Newscorp media – Fox News, FBC, the Weekly Standard, etc….) very effective. It is the equivalent of a blitzkrieg of media inundating the American electorate with a narrative that is developed and controlled by the most powerful and influential resources of the Right, in concert. I defy anyone to intellectually and with evidence to deny this claim. Therefore your assertion of it not being “close to covering the real situation.” is not plausible.

David Axelrod is universally credited with setting the “gold standard” for astroturfing. This is according to the magazine Mother Jones on March 26, 2008, a magazine which I suppose is owned by NewsCorp. Or by NewsCorp’s Newsweek Magazine, which made the same point on May 24, 2008. Axelrod was a master of AstroTurf for political purposes, for big drug companies, and for public utilities, among others. None of the people or groups mentioned in the article under review are 1/10th as experienced in Astroturfing as Mr Axelrod and his companies. Perhaps you consider him a right-wing politician?