The Red Brick Times

And the waters get even murkier. Say hello to Astroturf sites.
Posted 7:11 AM by whatley (4) comments

       Comments:

Here's a real beauty called Handsoff.org. A groundswell of popular opinion? Nope. It's really these guys.

# posted by  whatley : May 16, 2006 7:49 AM
 
That's very interesting. I wonder who their client is for this one? Or perhaps they are defending the medium that makes it possible for them to do businesss? Nah. It's all about money and assembling a "grass roots" supporter base from people who log onto the "handsoff" site out of curiosity or via accidental links from other sites. Go and look at one of the clients on their (Mercury Group's) web site - Tejon Ranch. They pitched it as condors vs giant energy. But the landowner is a huge land developer, after all. And the energy giant? Enron Wind, of course (as in "the answer is blowin' in the").

# posted by  Andy : May 16, 2006 8:56 AM
 
Tejon ('badger") ranch, Mexican land grant 1842, 164 years of history, tradition of continuing stewardship ("carrying on the pioneering spirit of their forefathers"), conservation (up to 100,000 acres of sensitive habitat, condor preserve, environmentally sensitive development), Tejon Industrial Park, Development Plans ("The developments feature extensive areas of open space so the total acreage actually built upon during that 25-year period will represent only about five percent of the Ranch’s land."). So they hired the Mercury Group to mount an advertising campaign to defeat Enron Wind's plan to build a gimongous windmill generating farm. Make the Ranch safe for development, housing, industry, freeways and traffic. Heritage of ranching and farming (picture #1 at this page shows a huge double pipeline laid across the land surface). I wouldn't mind so much if they were more honest about the changes wrought on the semi-desert landscape by the traditional ranching and farming over the past centuries: soil loss, erosion, flooding, fires, species diversity reduction, pollution. Wherever humans go, these changes will occur. Be forthcoming about it.

# posted by  Andy : May 16, 2006 9:45 AM
 
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

# posted by  A. O. : May 16, 2006 10:18 AM
 
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