(This diary's slightly modified and shamelessly borrowed from SquareState.net)
The other day DriveCongress dropped by SquareState.net, created a login, and left a couple of comments in favor of watering down the fuel efficiency (CAFE) standards legislation that Sen. Salazar had just announced he'd support. DriveCongress.com, as you may be aware, is an auto industry astroturf operation working to defeat increases in fuel efficiency standards.
Anyhow, DriveCongress made two comments and that was it.
A little later, I did some Googling ...
Here's an excerpt from what DriveCongress wrote at SquareState:
I do some consulting work with the Alliance for Auto Manufacturers and ...
... You can visit our site at http://www.drivecongress.com for more information.
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from: http://www.squaresta...
To be sure, it's good that the two comments disclosed the connection with industry. It caught my eye, though, that they were written by someone with a new login created that same day, and that the sum of the participation was two comments related to an astroturf group in the industry for which the person works.
So, I started punching some keywords into Google, and found a bunch of interesting links, including links to comments at sites I frequent: mydd.com, workingassets.com, and coloradoconfidential.com.
Here's what turned up via Google:
AnInconvienientPoster
I
[sic] group that I work with is actually trying to help get some positive attention on this issue is www.drivecongress.com.
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from: http://www.workingas...
(four identical comments)
and
Regarding the CAFE standards in the omnibus, there is no question that we have to do something about global warming and the environment. However, bad legislation is not the answer ... I'm working with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers to spread the word about this potentially harmful provision ... If anyone is interested, check out www.drivecongress.com for more info.
by DClivin on Mon Jun 11, 2007 at 04:31:32 PM EST
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from: http://g1967.mydd.co...
and
Jackson said... ... I'm working with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and there is no doubt that increasing fuel economy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions are among the most important issues we face. However, solutions must be practical and workable. Information is available at DriveCongress.com
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This one's in the comments at http://thegrapesvine...
and
... I’m working here in DC, for the Auto Alliance (aka DriveCongress.com).
Long story short: S. 1419 is a bill that’s going to raise CAFE standards. Specifically, unrealistic fuel standards for light trucks (pickups, SUVs, etc) ...
Otto Van Druck on June 8, 2007 at 11:42 am
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from: http://sayanythingbl...
and
VWB Says:
June 5th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
... But what happens if the manufacturers can’t meet that set date? Go out of business? Pull cars off the road? They need encouragement, not mandates.
Full disclosure being: I work on this for DriveCongress.com — which is also a good resource for this issue.
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from: http://www.middlerag...
and
Great post! I do some work with http://www.drivecongress.com , and biofuels and similar alternative resources are exactly what we need to achieve energy security. What we don't need are more extreme federal regulations coming out of Washington that only serve to stifle innovation. I'd encourage you to check out our site for more information.
Posted at 3:24PM on Jun 5th 2007 by DriveCongress
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from: http://www.bloggingn...
and
I work with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and I think it's incredibly important that more people pay attention to the new fuel economy standards the Senate is now trying to unrealistically impose on pick-ups, minivans and SUV's ... you should check out www.drivecongress.com ...
Posted by: AltWire | June 5, 2007 10:32 AM
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from: http://www.arktimes....
I'm totally into disclosure of the connection to industry, which DriveCongress/AnInconvenientPoster/DClivin/Jackson/Otto Van Druck/VWB/AltWire provided at every stop in the blogosphere. No complaints there.
It sure looked like drive-by commenting, though. The most extensive "discussion" (discounting the four identical comments at the Working Assets page) from DC/AIP/DCl/J/OVD/VWB/AW happened at SquareState.net, where DC/AIP/DCl/J/OVD/VWB/AW actually did respond to a reply to his/her first comment. On the rest of the sites it was a single quickly dropped comment and nothing more.
I've long been aware that the PR industry sets up front groups (astroturf groups) that purport to be grassroots. And in this specific case, there's never been any mystery that DriveCongress.com represents the auto industry in trying to kill increases in CAFE standards.
What I hadn't seen before is industry people running around from blog to blog leaving comments. Coupla thoughts about that:
- It figures, and it's not really surprising. The PR industry is all about manipulating public opinion, and non-industry blogs are just another medium. It's apparently not just luminaries like kos who get paid to blog. ;-)
- At some level, blogs are supposed to be about enabling discussion, so why not? Of course, the effort was more drive-by than discussion, which leads to ...
- It wasn't very sophisticated blog-commenting, and may not have very sophisticated manipulation of public opinion, either. I'd go so far as to call it shallow "participation" (making sure to put quotation marks around the word participation!) In fact, DC/AIP/DCl/J/OVD/VWB/AW did no discussion on any of the sites I checked out, other than the one responding comment at SquareState. It made for low credibility on a blog that has a fairly tight user community. Further, the similarity of comments across multiple sites had a vaguely spammy look to me, which decreases credibility further.
- Check out all those different names! Why not pick just one and stick with it? Trying to look like many people commenting instead of one godawful monolith of an industry? But then, why bother with the full disclosure of the industry connection? Maybe the names are just for fun: Otto Van Druck is actually pretty clever -- kind of along the same lines as the credits at the end of Prairie Home Companion.
- Despite the full disclosure, the commenting has an ever so slightly sneaky flavor when I read it. The best public relations work is invisible. In this case, the full disclosure is a nod to the authenticity that bloggers value, but I thought it also came across as lending a "hey, I'm just a regular guy/gal" cover for industry's nefarious objectives -- sort of a twist on the invisibility thing.
What's great about blogging is how easy it makes publishing and distributing information online, and how it levels the playing field for anyone to be involved in writing & publishing, or discussing the work of others. But, that's obviously different than saying all posts and comments are equally valued.
Certainly we can expect that the PR/public opinion manipulation industry will engage in the blogosphere. I'm guessing efforts like the one highlighted here have a relatively small impact -- there's not much engagement in authentic conversation, though the disclosure of connection to industry is authentic.
I'm left wondering about several things:
- What other, more sophisticated, manufacturing of consent and manipulation of opinion is the PR industry doing in the blogosphere? Are there studies? Examples?
- How common is rudimentary drive-by astroturfing (like that seen in this case)?
- How well does the blogosphere filter phony stuff? How well does it assess credibility of stuff that's only quasi-phony? I'm thinking we do a pretty good job, but is bullshit still making it through unnoticed?
It's worthwhile to take a look at episodes like this one and highlight the source of the participation and the objectives of that participation. All other things being equal, I figure the PR industry would rather have its work be invisible -- or at least not subjected constantly to public scrutiny. It's nice to shine a light on it whenever possible.
Bigger context: we're facing the largest global calamity in human history, in the form of climate change. Watching big industry and subsidiary tools in DC do the usual shortsightedly self-centered bullshit pisses me off to no end. I think about what kind of world the kids of today will face when they're my age. I wonder about what's going to happen to tens of millions of people in places like Bangladesh, who live right at (a rising) sea level. I think about anthropogenic mass extinction -- the Earth may be facing one of the greatest losses of species since the asteroid killed off dinosaurs (and others) at the end of the Cretaceous. So, I can do a little googling and dissect what I find, but I can't stay detached for long.
I get even more irate when I think about the loss of jobs caused by fossilized corporate giants that fail to adapt to changes in the world over which they have little control.
Goddamn car companies.
(Note -- I found several more hits after a day or two of giving Google a chance to catalog fresh content. Three are here)