Most of the time, we know clearly if a decision we make is ethical. But sometimes, ethics can be a little cloudy. The act of astroturfing, in my mind, is an ethical no-no. If you see it differently, please comment.
According to an AP story, Agriprocessors Inc., a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, came under fire following a raid in May in which 389 workers were arrested on immigration charges. (The investigation later expanded to include child labor charges, so Agriprocessors has a full-scale crisis on its hands.) In response to criticism shortly after the raid, PostvilleVoices.com was started as "a blog by people who live and work in Postville."
The blog defended Agriprocessors' hiring practices and ranted about media, government, and a labor union. But this was no grassroots campaign. It was the work of the plant manager's son and then-CEO's grandson with the help of two of his friends. This practice known as astroturfing (as opposed to genuine grassroots efforts; I love the name) is becoming more common and harder to identify.
"There's not a big penalty associated with doing this and getting caught," explained Herman Leonard, a professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, in Nigel Duara's AP story. "So if you get away with it, it's a plus."
Astroturfing is becoming easier as some web hosts protect a site owner's identity from anyone without a subpoena. But a person with a vested interest in a business or cause shouldn't pretend to represent anyone without endorsement and permission. It's tempting, but it's unethical. The man who started the blog, Getzel Rubashkin, 24, later said he should have attached his name to the site. He said deception wasn't his intent, but management of the company had discouraged him from expressing his views on the immigration charges.
I found an interesting sidebar when performing a web search for Agriprocessors. It seems this isn't the company's only blogging scandal. The company's New York PR agency, 5W Public Relations -- whose clients include "McDonald's, pornographer Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild, Pastor John Hagee and a slew of right-wing Jewish organizations," according to a Jerusalem Post article -- was accused in July of posting comments on several Jewish web sites using a false identity. The first were allegedly discovered on FailedMessiah.com, a blog on the Orthodox faith. The site is written by Shmarya Rosenberg, who was closely following the raid on the Agriprocessors plant in Iowa because of its impact on the kosher-consuming public. He noticed an increasing number of comments advocating on behalf of Agriprocessors(http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2008/07/jerusalem-post.html).
One post supposedly was attributed to Rabbi Morris Allen, founder 0f a conservative initiative that is attempting to create an ethical standards-based certification for kosher food. Rosenberg checked the IP address and saw the comments in question all were coming from the same 5WPR address. Allen was attending a funeral at the time and hadn't even been on line the day of the post.
"Agriprocessors is being investigated for encouraging identity theft, and for their PR company to now feel it's appropriate to steal my identity seems too eerily similar to the company's behavior," said Allen.
I can't find any comments attributable to 5WPR, so I don't know its side of the charges. But it appears that Agriprocessors and 5WPR have been caught up in crossfire between followers of conflicting Jewish doctrine. I don't understand it and so won't go there. My interest is in the crises that can come from web sites and blogs that pass for factual news reports. Agriprocessors, by the way, doesn't appear on 5WPR's extensive list of clients (http://www.5wpr.com/clients/index.cfm). Neither do the Girls Gone Wild guy or Pastor John Hagee, as claimed by the Jerusalem Post. This age of instant communications available to all is both wonderful and a crisis waiting to happen.
The Postville Voices blog referenced above is still live if you're interested in checking it out. It carries an interesting rebuttal to the AP story about astroturfing. The post is written by Rubashkin, the plant manager's son. http://postvillevoices.com/
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I've read that 5W admitted that the forged blog comments were made from their office. They claimed that they were made by an intern without authorization. Of course, there is no way to verify said claim.
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