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TEA PARTIES AND REVISIONISM: Jon Henke corrects Paul Krugman on the difference between ?astroturf? ?

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TEA PARTIES AND REVISIONISM: Jon Henke corrects Paul Krugman on the difference between “astroturf” and “grassroots organizing.”

If I said Paul Krugman was a plagiarist because he quoted other people in his columns (with attribution), that would be ridiculous. I would owe him a correction. And possibly monetary damages. Words mean things.

Yet, in today’s New York Times column (in which he makes some reasonable points about the sad state of the Republican Party), Paul Krugman grossly misuses a term to libel a variety of people. What Freedomworks and various other organizations are doing is not “astroturf” any more than the anti-war protests of some years back were astroturf because ANSWER and Moveon.org helped organize people around those events. Astroturfing is paid activism by an organization; it is not genuine grassroots activism that funded groups are simply helping to organize.

The Center for American Progress & Think Progress, of all groups, should know better than to use the word “astroturf” against funded, ideological 501c(4) organizations that are trying to organize activists. Especially considering how many funded, ideological 501c(4) organizations they have trying to organize activists.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Related item here. Yes, the irony of Jane “where’s my cut?” Hamsher calling people astroturf is . . . well, pretty predictable, actually.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on April 13, 2009 (boomark / email).