William M. Adler reports on astroturf op-eds in a Washington Post Outlook piece. Adler’s correct that this phenomenon is fairly widespread. Industry groups are always looking for compelling surrogates to advance their message. While one should be able to evaluate an argument without regard to the author, it helps if a spokesperson has academic credentials or the appearance of independence. My only real quibble with the piece is the suggestion that industry had a monopoly on astroturf articles. They may do it more often, but non-profit public interest organizations do it as well. Activist groups distribute sample op-eds and letters to the editor with regularity, and often ghost articles to be signed by high-profile personalities.
In my public life, I get approached to do astroturf op-eds all the time. Typically what happens is that I get contacted by someone who works for a given industry or political group, or perhaps a PR shop, trying to convince me that I should write an article about their pet issue. Those I know have given up trying to pay for me for such things, but they’ll still offer to help place anything I produce, if not write the article for my byline. My response to these entreaties is always the same: I appreciate receiving any information folks want to send me – especially if I can trust them to give me accurate material or it’s a subject I know very well – but I will not take money to write an article or op-ed, and I’ll never let someone else draft something to go under my byline (and that goes for this pseudonym as well). If other policy experts would hold to this view, the astroturf op-eds would quickly disappear.
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