According to Wikipedia,”Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message (e.g. political, advertising, or public relations) to give the appearance of it coming from a disinterested, grassroots participant. Astroturfing is intended to give the statements the credibility of an independent entity by withholding information about the source’s financial connection. The term astroturfing is a derivation of AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to look like natural grass.” Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is Astroturf. While MDA receives [undisclosed] financial contributions from its membership, if they didn’t receive direct [undisclosed] funding from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (of Mayors Against Illegal Guns) they wouldn’t exist. But that’s not the worst of it . . .
The worst thing about Moms Demand Action is that they receive millions of dollars of free, entirely positive publicity from the news media—another source of support without which MDA could not exist. And the really, really horrible part of that equation is that MDA can’t muster more than two dozen participants for any of their publicity stunts (masquerading as political protest).
Nick and I saw it in Austin. MDA held a counter rally to the Come and Take It open carry demonstration at the Alamo. MDA attracted less than twenty adult participants. Less than that if you discount the organizers themselves. At least 500 people attended the open carry demo. Did the media give MDA equal time? You know they did.
You can see it in the picture above. MDA held a Domestic Violence Awareness Month-themed rally in Colorado, attended by Representative Hudak, who’s facing recall for voting to disarm Rocky Mountain state residents. Also in attendance, ten other women. Ten. A number that just barely outnumbers the empty chairs representing “nine women who die every week form domestic gun violence.”
That’s denver.cbslocal.com‘s typo, not mine. Speaking of attention to detail, click on that link to see how the local CBS affiliate does what every news station does when “reporting” on MDA: editing the video to hide the fact that no one’s there. Other than ignoring the MDA’s anti-gun agit prop—which isn’t a bad idea—the least that new reporters could do is show the truth about their level of support.
Truth be told, the progressive press couldn’t be any more in the tank for MDA if they were Shamu the killer whale. Unfortunately, traditional media [still] has more influence than independent bloggers. Fortunately, gun owners are a motivated lot. This kind of blatant BS keeps them angry. Active. Focused. And determined. So go ahead MDA, make my day. The bigger the mainstream media circle jerk the faster you’re going down. So to speak.