Back in May, with Agriprocessors in the middle of its downward spiral (how far down it goes, nobody knows…), it seemed like there were people in Postville who still had some respect and appreciation for the jobs brought by the slaughterhouse, and felt their town was being unfairly picked on. On their blog Postville Voices, they wrote “We’ve had enough of every organization with an agenda cynically misrepresenting our town and workplace to further their own ends,” and added that, “There is one thing we do know — the people that run Agriprocessors are good, decent, honest people and we trust that they have acceptable answers.”

Well folks, the Associated Press has reported that the blog, was in fact created by none other than the son of Agriprocessors’ CEO Sholom Rubashkin, Getzel Rubashkin. And according to a professor of government at Harvard, this type of fake-grassroots known as “astroturfing” is common and generally accomplishes its goal.

“There’s not a big penalty associated with doing this and being caught,” said the professor, Herman B. Leonard. “There’s a potentially substantial benefit from being able to get out there with something that seems like a well-informed and active and energetic view that does not seem to be self-interested. So if you get away with it, it’s a plus. If you don’t, they say, ‘Well, it’s not too surprising.’”

Rubashkin claims that at the time, it did not occur to him that he ought to present his name on the blog in conjunction with the views espoused, and he did not intentionally leave off his identification in order to be deceptive. We’ll believe that when we also have all the accurate information about the meat coming out of the plant and the way it’s produced.

Note to self: Be sure to investigate the last names associated with all so-called front group blogs. Maybe it will be clear that they are barely even front groups after all.