Last month, President Obama held a
conference call with a small group of liberal bloggers,
asking them to keep pressure on Congress in the health care
fight. Now those same bloggers are part of an orchestrated effort
by the Democratic Party and the White House to portray protests
against their health care legislation as, well, orchestrated.
"It is important just to keep the pressure on members of Congress
because what happens is there is a default position of inertia
here in Washington," Obama instructed the bloggers last month.
"And pushing against that, making sure that people feel that the
desperation that ordinary families are feeling all across the
country, every single day, when they are worrying about whether
they can pay their premiums or not... People have to feel that in
a visceral way. And you guys can help deliver that better than
just about anybody."
Obama later added, "I know the blogs are best at debunking myths
that can slip through a lot of the traditional media
outlets...And that is why you are going to play such an important
role in our success in the weeks to come."
Since then, support for legislation has cratered, and those
bloggers who get their marching orders from the White House and
DNC have become part of the effort to attack ordinary Americans
expressing their beliefs about an issue of great importance.
John Amato of Crooks and Liars
was on last month's conference call with Obama. Yesterday,
Amato
asked, "How long will it take the traditional media to expose
the corporations that are running this con and even mention the
word 'astrotufing' in a serious way?" In the same post, he
praised Robert Gibbs for accusing the protesters of being phony.
David Dayen of the blog D-Day was
on the call. Yesterday, he wrote a post
titled, "Top-Level Democrats Assault The Extremist
Astroturfers." It began, "The White House took the lead on this,
publicly calling the teabagger disruptions an example of
astroturfing and citing conservative industry-backed groups
taking credit for activating the rioters. Now other elements of
the Democratic Party are taking up the baton. Dick Durbin and
Chuck Schumer blasted the clown show today..."
Joan McCarter of Daily Kos was also
on the call. Yesterday, she
wrote of the protesters, "It's kind of sad, isn't it? They
think they're part of a real populist movement, but the freedom
they're fighting for is the freedom of corporations to make even
more money off of them. It's that cynicism of this astroturf
campaign that's particularly disturbing, because it's not about
the rights of citizens to freely express their dissent."
So just to sum up, Obama enlists the aid of a small group of
liberal bloggers in the health care fight, and then those same
bloggers write posts echoing White House and DNC talking points
-- and in the very process of doing that, accuse their political
opponents of astroturfing!
