Video: Rachel Maddow dissects the anatomy of astroturf; You can, too.

Rachel Maddow dissects the particulars of astroturf campaigns: Public relations campaigns designed to influence public policy.  They're funded by corporations, but made to look like the work of "average citizens."

She ends with a look at Energy Citizen, the corporate funded fake grassroots effort to undermine climate change policy, which I've been covering here at Stop Global Warming.

Update, 12:04 pm: As Maddow notes, anyone can do it! When you encounter one of these web sites purporting to be a grassroots campaign against enactment of a reform policy, go to the bottom of the screen and click on the "about us" link (or its nearest equivalent). Then find the names of the entities and/or persons sponsoring the site, and begin digging back until you figure out exactly where the money's coming from and who's created the astroturf.

Some good resources to aid your efforts include:

SourceWatch: A collaborative wiki-based guide to the people, organizations, and companies behind the news, particularly public relations firms and professionals "engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy." A project of the non-partisan Center for Media and Democracy, which also publishes PR Watch.

LittleSis, another collaborative wiki documenting the "key relationships of politicians, corporate executives, lobbyists, financiers, and their affiliated organizations. (Why "Little Sis"? Because she's a watchful eye on "Big Brother.")