don't be fooled

whoops - here's a late breaking update to this: (i'll just fix MY posting too)

UPDATE:

Playboy has apparently taken down its story. The Atlantic's Megan McArdle has the full text.

The link between Santelli and the so-called astroturfing groups "is potentially libelous, which is, I assume, why the article disappeared this morning," wrote McArdle.

"If I were Santelli, I'd sue. Aside from the fact that I have absolutely no reason to question Santelli's sincerity, I find it pretty hard to believe that any private group would be willing to front enough money to make it worth a television correspondent's while to risk all his future salary payments."

A phone call to Playboy media relations went unreturned late Monday.

Stephen C. Webster contributed to this report.

these aren't 'ordinary' citizens protesting. they're (allegedly of course) the voices of big big big bid-nez

i'm very apt to believe it too!
(and who knew playboy published such things? i sure didn't. i'm still not going to click over there though. it's the PRINCIPAL of what it is in general. i just can't)

Bloggers charge 'Tea Party' anti-stimulus protests are corporate front
Muriel Kane
When a few hundred protesters showed up in each of some 30 or 40 cities nationwide on Friday to object to President Obama's stimulus plan, they claimed that the well-coordinated protests had arisen spontaneously in response to a tirade against mortgage bailouts, delivered just over a week earlier, on February 19, by CNBC's Rick Santelli..........

...................Now fresh revelations suggest that the skepticism may be well-placed. Mark Ames and Yasha Levine allege in their blog at Playboy.com that the protests were planned well in advance, coordinated by old-line anti-tax organizations, and funded by right-wing corporate interests.

"What hasn’t been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli’s 'tea party' rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine," they write, "from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called 'astroturfing') to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders. As veteran Russia reporters, both of us spent years watching the Kremlin use fake grassroots movements to influence and control the political landscape...............