New Word for the Day: Astroturfing

What About Our Daughters has an interesting post this morning.  I really like this blogger, she's done many posts focused on the cultural hitjob of the Black woman's mind and well being.  Most recently, she did a three part series on Essence magazine's "new normal" for Black women and the best they can expect to get out of life.  I admire her for standing up and saying that the absurd is NOT the norm, regardless of how many media outlets push it.  Coincidentally, she was recently attacked by a media outlet. And I have seen this behavior on other newsblogs.  Heck, just read the comments over at CNN on Sarah Palin's most recent speech on the blatant wave of control the government is trying to exert.  You will see the most vicious skewering of an American citizen, you thought you'd never see.  It should give everyone pause.

From WAOD, the definition of Astroturfing:

"What I do not admire are deceitful, insecure, cowardly, duplicitous, dishonorable, unprofessional, neurotic employees of one of the largest media companies in the world PRETENDING to be someone else by using a pseudonym and a FAKE email address to try to defame me on MY OWN BLOG in the comments section I PAID FOR and have the audacity to do so from said LARGEST MEDIA COMPANY IN THE WORLD’S COMPUTER NETWORK! I believe its called ASTROTURFING:

Astroturfing is a word in English describing formal political, advertising, or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous “grassroots” behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass, AstroTurf.
The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity—a politician, political group, product, service or event. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual pushing a personal agenda or highly organized professional groups with financial backing from large corporations, non-profits, or activist organizations."

Read the rest over at her blog. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that astroturfing is the New Norm of the left, the media, and those who try to control our impressions. The media is much more powerful than we think, and we have given them that power.

Hang in there, WAOD. You are right, they are wrong.