What is Astroturfing?
Astroturfing is when individuals, companies, or organizations mask their motives to get support for a certain cause, policy, or product. These are often presented as grassroots campaigns, when in reality they are funded by a company.
It can be quite misleading when you see the advertisements for some of the campaigns, if I didn't know any better I might believe them myself. The stories are carefully crafted to look like they are in the best interest of the public or consumer, but those who are funding it have something to gain.
John Oliver had an informative piece on astroturfing that brought a few examples to viewers attention.
Save Our Tips
One of the campaigns in John Oliver's video that peaked my attention was called Save Our Tips. Seeing as I have been in the service industry for ten years, and currently work full time as a bartender this is a cause that I can relate to.
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| Picture source: saveourtips.com |
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| Picture source: saveourtips.com |
The Save Our Tips campaign is against the minimum wage increase in Washington D.C. stating that this would take away the incredible earning potential that restaurant workers have through tips. The campaign claims that restaurant workers typically take home between $20-$40 dollars an hour, but the minimum wage for tipped workers is a mere $2.33.
Another key factor to focus on is who is funding this campaign? According to an article by the Columbia Journal Review one conservative group has successfully infiltrated the media through the Save Our Tips campaign. The restaurant workers often speaking up against these wage increases consists of six restaurant employees on the board of Restaurant Workers of America, or RWA. The RWA is funded by restaurant owners. Yes, you read that right. Restaurant owners fund this campaign against raising the minimum wage for tipped workers. The article also goes on to explain that the RWA "regularly appears with restaurant industry trade groups and Republican politicians to praise the exception to the minimum wage that is made for tipped waiters and bartenders. Its most prominent spokespeople are tipped waitstaff who publicly support the interests of restaurant owners."
The problem is that it has been found out that the board members are being bought-out. Ryan Aston who is a RWA board member has been quoted multiple times explaining that he is your bartender, and he doesn't want a raise. It later was found that Aston had been paid $800 from the National Restaurant Association for advertising. This is a clear conflict of interest.
Another interesting fact about the Save Our Tips campaign from The Intercept is that "the Save Our Tips campaign is managed in part by Lincoln Strategy Group, a company that did $600,000 worth of work in 2016 canvassing for the Trump presidential campaign. Lincoln Strategy Group is a firm co-founded and currently managed by Nathan Sproul."
The Intercept also notes that Nathan Sproul was accused in 2016 for mobilizing fake grassroots campaigns against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency who protects consumers from exploitation by financial companies.
What's to Gain?
If the Save Our Tips campaign was really for the average restaurant worker, than the restaurant workers should have the most to gain. Unfortunately, that is not true within this situation. Those who stand to benefit from denying the raise in minimum wage would be the restaurant owners, restaurant lobbyists, and many corporate entities.
The Intercept article featured an economist named David Cooper who stated that there have already been other places who have increased the tipped minimum wage and “in those places, there still are restaurants, customers still tip when they go into those restaurants, and in fact, servers in those states make on average about 17 percent more per hour than tipped workers in states that have a lower minimum wage.”
Journalists Beware
As journalists how can we protect ourselves from these organizations who are posing as something they're not? It could damage our credibility if we cite these astroturfing campaigns if they are not vetted before hand. This happened to Buzzfeed when they did a profile on the RWA, and a month later had to come back and fix their mistakes noting that the RWA was funded by restaurant owners.
These astroturfing methods can be dangerous, and are being used now more than ever to manipulate messages in the media. Astroturfing is contributing to the spread of misinformation, and it is important that consumers are able to recognize it when they see it. This is why it is important to ask ourselves; who is behind the mask? As responsible media consumers and responsible journalists this is another example of why it is so important to know where our information is coming from.
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