astroturfing

[Grant Barrett]

"Astroturf" v. is well-attested and common enough that I am surprised
not to find it in mainstream dictionaries. WordSpy has it since 1986;
I found it in 1985 for the Oxford Dictionary of Political Slang. Both
quote Lloyd Bentsen.

http://www.wordspy.com/words/astroturf.asp

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
http://www.doubletongued.org/

On Aug 16, 2006, at 22:32, Mark A. Mandel wrote:
> *"Astroturfing" is the process of commenting all over the place
> anonymously
> to make it sound like there's a widespread opinion about something,
> when
> it's actually just a handful of people, or a paid publicity firm, or
> something. The term means "fake grassroots" -- something that LOOKS
> like
> grassroots support, but isn't.

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