FACES: Grassroots Fail
- Rob Perks
- Director, Center for Advocacy Campaigns, Washington, D.C.
- Blog | About
- Posted August 27, 2009 in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
First there was Reclamation Fail (inspired by my new favorite funny website). Now there is...
Grassroots Fail
The back story is that the coal industry hired a PR firm to concoct this faux grassroots group to support its dirty energy political agenda. But as is usually the case with industry's propaganda-driven tactics, the group was quickly exposed as nothing more than pure astroturf -- that is, a phony, industry-funded front group utterly lacking in genuine citizen support or involvement.
In fact, the faces for FACES are not real people who support the industry -- the soul-less PR firm that put this project together simply used stock photos to populate the website. Kudos to the good folks at Appalachian Voices for debunking this effort.
My buddy Jeff Biggers has all the dirty details on this troubling yet hilarious fiasco.
In your face FACES -- what a bunch of fossil fools!
[UPDATE: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow recently covered the FACES scandal, referring to it as "momentous political fakery."]
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