Astroturfing

My brother sent me this 10 minute talk by investigative journalist Sheryl Attkisson and it changed my life, and scared the shit out of me. As a person who avidly researches, this floored me. I understand that information is widely manipulated, but I had no idea that it was this bad. It's terrifying, and disgusting, and it makes sense. I hope you find it as interesting as I did, and half as disheartening. Think again about what you think you know, and who you think you can trust.

"In 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."

So what do you do? How can you protect yourself? How do you know what to believe? How much further can you really get with a discerning mind if there's so much conflict of interest, and little disclosure? Sheryl has some tips at the end to help you analyze distorted media.

This is a major issue for me with research studies. There are drug companies that fund studies, or they donate [endowments] to [medical] schools within colleges. It's blatantly a conflict of interest. Everything is so tainted, so tangled. Where's the truth? How is it that our knowledge base that is our researchers, and scientists are so exploited? You could even go as far as say they're bought. It's getting uglier and uglier, and I don't see how people can wade through the sludge to protect themselves. It's just gross.