So consider this fictitious example that's inspired by real life say you're watching the news and you see a story about a new study on the cholesterol lowering drug called collects traumatic the study says collector so if To the doctor should consider for scribe get two adults and even children who don't yet have high cholesterol is it too good to be true you're smart you decide to do some of your own research you do a Google search you consult social media Facebook and twitter you look at wikipedia weapon the nonprofit website and you read the original study in a peer reviewed published medical Journal it all confirms how effective collector is you do run across a few new Negative comments that a potential link to cancer but you dismiss that because magical experts call the cancer link enough and say that those who think there is a link there are quacks and cranks and nuts finally use you learn Joan doctor recently attended a medical seminar the lecture that he attended confirmed how effective collector is so we send you off with some free samples and a prescription you really done your homework but what if all isn't as it seems What if the reality you found was falls a carefully constructed narrative by unseen special interest designed to manipulate your opinion a truman show ass ultimate reality all around you can place a See in the news media combined with incredibly powerful propaganda and publicity forces mean we sometimes get little of the truth special interests have unlimited time and money to figure out new ways to spend us while cloaking their role sir Dishes astroturf methods are now more important to this interesting traditional lobbying of Congress there's an entire industry built around it in Washington what is astroturf it's a perversion of grass roots as a fake Grassroots astro turf is when political corporate or other special interest disguise themselves and publish blogs start facebook and twitter accounts publish ads letters to the editor or simply post comments online to try to Full you in to thinking and independent or grassroots movement is speaking the whole point of astroturf is to try to give the impression there's widespread support for or against an agenda when there's not asked or seeks to mean Get you and the changing your opinion by making you feel as if you're an outlier when you're not one example is the Washington redskins name without taking a position on the controversy if you simply were looking at news media coverage of the course The past year or looking at social media you probably have to conclude that most Americans find that name offensive and think about to be changed but what if I told you 71 percent of Americans say the name should not be changed that's more than 23 Hertz asked return for seek the controversial lies those who disagree with them they attack news organizations that publish stories they don't like whistle blowers who tell the truth politicians who dare to ask the tough questions And journalist who have the audacity to report on all of it sometimes astroturf or simply shove intentionally so much confusing and conflicting information into the mix that your left to throw up your hands and disregard all of it including the Truth drown out a link between the medicine and the harmful side effects a vaccines and autism by throwing a bunch of conflicting paid for studies surveys and experts into the mix confusing the truth beyond recognition Hen then there's the peons astro turf Dream come true build is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit the reality can't be more different anonymous wikipedia editors country Roll and Co op pages on behalf of special interest they forbidden reverse ad it's the go against their agenda they skew and delete information in blatant violation of beauty is own establish policies with impunity always superior to Porsche celebs who actually believe anyone could it with a pdf always discover their barred from correcting even the simplest factual accuracy try adding a foot noted fact or correcting a factor on one of these monitored look at pda ages of pages of proof Sometimes it in a matter of seconds you'll find your edit is reversed in 20 12 famed author Philip ross try to correct a major factor about the inspiration behind one is book character sited on a wikipedia page but no matter how How hard he tried wikipedia's editors wouldn't allow it they kept reverting back to the false information when rock finally reach the person that we could which was no easy task and try to find out what was going wrong they told him he simply was not can Saturday credible source on himself a few weeks later there was a huge scandal when with beauty officials got caught offering a pr service this cute and edit information on behalf of paid publicity seeking Clients in other opposition to wikipedia supposed policies all of this may be why would a medical study looked at medical conditions described in wikipedia pages and compared to actual peer reviewed published research with Pdf contradicted medical research 90 percent of the time you may never fully trust what you read on wikipedia again nor should you let's now go back to that fictitious collects for example and all the research you did it turn Out the facebook and twitter accounts you found that were so positive were actually written by paid professionals hard by the drug company to promote the drug wikipedia page had been monitored by an agenda editor also paid by the drug company the drug The also arrange to optimize Google search engine results so it's no accident that you stumbled across that positive non profit that had all these positive comments the non profit was of course secretly founded and funded by the drug company the Drug Co also finance that positive study and use its power of editorial control to omit any mention of of cancer as a possible side effect once more each and every Dr who publicly touted collects traumatic or call the Cancer link a myth or ridiculed critics as paranoid pranks and cracks or served on a government advisory board that approved the drug each of those doctors is actually a paid consultant for the drug company as for your own doctor the medical Electra he attended that how this positive valuations was in fact like many continuing medical education classes sponsored by the drug company and with the news reported on that positive study it didn't mention any of that I have tons Personal examples from real life a couple of years ago news asked me to look into a story about a study coming out from the non profit National sleep foundation supposedly this press release coming out said the study concluded we are a nation with an Epidemic of sleeplessness and we don't even know it and we should all go ask our doctors about a couple of things struck me about that first I recognize the phrase ask your doctor is a catch phrase promoted by the pharmaceutical industry they know that if they can get your foot To the door of the doctor's office to mention the malady you're very likely prescribe the latest drug that's marketed second I wondered how serious an epidemic of sleeplessness could really be if we don't even know that we have it right It didn't take long for me to do a little research and discover that the National sleep foundation non profit and the study which was actually a survey not a study responsive part by a new drug that was about to be launched on the market called nesta sleeping film I reported the study is bs news ask of course I disclose the sponsorship behind the non profit and the survey so the viewers can weigh the information accordingly all the other news media reported the same survey directly off the press release as written with Out digging pass the superficial it later became an example written up in the Columbia journalism review which quite accurately reported that only with Cbs news had bother to do a little bit of research and disclose a conflict of interest behind this widely reported survey So now you may be thinking what can I do I thought I done my research what chance do I have separating fact from fiction especially season journalist with years of experience can be so easily fooled well I have a You strategies that I can tell you about to help you recognize signs of propagate and astro turf once you start to know what to look for you begin to recognize it everywhere first hallmarks of astroturf include use of inflammatory language such as great Quack nutty lives paranoid studio and conspiracy astroturf is often claim to debunk myths that aren't myths at all use of the charge language test well people here something is a myth maybe find on snow Hopes and they instantly declare themselves to smart to fall for it but what if the whole notion of the myth is itself a myth and you and snopes fell for that be where when interest attacking issue by controversy Realizing attacking the people personalities and Organization surrounding it rather than addressing the facts that could be astro turf and most of all astro turf is 10 to Reserve all of their public skepticism for those exposing wrong doing Rather than the wrong doers in other words instead of questioning authority they question those who question authority you might start to see things a little more clearly it's kinda like taking off your glasses and wiping and putting a back on and realizing for the first time how far view they've been all along I can't resolve these issues but I hope that I've given you some information that will at least motivate you to take off your glasses and wipe them and become a wiser consumer of information in an increasingly artificial paid for reality thank you