Will Media Investigate Astroturf Recruitment At Craigslist?

August 9th, 2009 6:25 PM

While the media pointed their hypocritical fingers at town hall meeting protesters for supposedly being organized by conservative backers, they've conveniently ignored an aggressive recruiting campaign by liberal organizations looking to help President Obama get his agenda through Congress.

Take for example the following advertisement placed at the online website Craiglist for New York City Monday (h/t Patrick Ruffini):

**TALENTED LEADERS needed to work for health care reform $11-16/hour**

Or how about some of these identified by Dr. Melissa Clouthier Sunday for Sacramento, California (h/t Walt Gilbert):

Aug 7 – Make social change – Help Pass Obama’s Health Care Reform!!! – (Sacramento) img <

Aug 4 – Help pass Obama’s Health Care Reform!!! Earn $9-14 an hour!!! – (Sacramento) img <

Aug 3 – ***Help Pass Obama’s Health Care Plan and Earn $325-$500/Week – (Sacramento, CA) img <

Jul 31 – Help Pass Obama’s Health Care Reform! Earn $325-550 per week! – (Sacramento) img <

What do these ads seem to all have in common other than helping to pass ObamaCare? 

A group called The Fund for the Public Interest:

Fund For The Public Interest is a national nonprofit organization working to increase the visibility, membership and political power of the nation’s leading environmental and progressive groups.

The Fund was launched in 1982 to develop campaigns and technologies to engage Americans in public interest advocacy efforts. Through our fundraising and non-fundraising canvasses,  we've gathered over 20 million petition signatures over the past 25 years and raised over $20 million for our partner organizations in the last year alone.

Current Fund partners like Sierra Club and Human Rights Campaign are expanding their donor base and passing tougher legislation against air pollution, forest clear-cutting, hate crimes, and special interest money in politics. We owe our success to the fusion of our staff’s grassroots organizing experience, cost-conscious attitude and work ethic with our partner groups’ issue expertise, initiative and vision.

Now, they're recruiting for folks to help pass ObamaCare.

Is there anything wrong with it? No.

But if the media are going to accuse town hall protesters of being organized by outside forces, maybe they should take a close look at what the Left is doing to get Obama's agenda passed.

Or would that be too much like journalism?

*****Update: same ads in Washington, D.C. (h/t NBer BKeyser).

We could probably search Craigslist for every major city in America and find these ads.

Grassroots...hardly!!!