Chewing on Astroturf

In their struggle to be seen as "fair," Washington reporters swallow the lies and spin of their sources, acting more as stenographers than as journalists.

In what is otherwise a fairly good article on the subject of network neutrality, Danny Glover of The National Journal never mentions that Scott Cleland of the Precursor research and consulting firm is acting as a mouthpiece for the Bell companies.

Instead he swallows Cleland's spin whole, and expects readers to do as well, without questioning where it is coming from.

Cleland is Astroturfing. That is, he's pretending to be a "grassroots" activist when in fact he's a paid corporate lobbyist. It's an old Bell game. Pretend to grass-roots support with phony grassroots efforts.

Just five minutes online would have shown Glover Cleland's pro-Bell testimony before the Senate, his approval of the mergers consolidating local and long distance companies, and a long history of shilling for the Bells -- including their entry into long distance.

The Bells have a long history of playing this game, setting up so-called "independent" analysts and "consumer" groups who Astroturf for their corporate desires. Precursor is a good candidate for this. It exited the independent research business in January, and said that it would instead provide "its high value research to a more limited number of clients."

Glover's reporting on Cleland is simply sloppy, and I don't think that's an accident. I think Cleland insisted on it. Cleland and his "netcompetition.org" is an Astroturf "blog" for the Bells. Cleland re-worked his own business model to become, essentially, a lobbyist, and he's always been for whatever the Bells wanted.

To make the paid-for shilling of a Scott Cleland into the moral equivalent of what individuals are doing on their own (and at their own expense) is absurd.

But that's the Washington press corps for you. And that's why more and more thoughtful readers prefer blogs.