In this eye-opening talk, veteran investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson

n this eye-opening talk, veteran investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson shows how astroturf, or fake grassroots movements funded by political, corporate, or other special interests very effectively manipulate and distort media messages.

Astroturf is fake grassroot. Astroturf is when political, corporate or other other specials interests, disguise themselves and publish blogs, start Facebook and Twitter accounts, publish ads and letters to the editor, or simply post comments online to try to fool you into thinking and independent or grassroot movement is speaking,.

The whole point of Astroturf is to get the impression, that there is widespread support for or against an agenda when there is not.

Astroturf seeks to manipulate you into changing your opinion, by making you feel as if you were an outlier, when you are not.

Astroturfers seek to controversialize those who desagree with them. The attack news organizations that publish stories that they do not like, whistleblowers who tell the truth, politic