Think Progress’s Lee Fang was practically giddy that he had uncovered the next vast right-wing conspiracy, proclaiming that a powerpoint “obtained” by the website “reveals how the telecom industry is orchestrating the latest campaign against Net Neutrality” via layers of astroturfing “front groups.”
In reality, the powerpoint was the creation not of the giant telecoms that quite openly oppose Net Neutrality, but rather of six students in a contest at a “think tank MBA” program held by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. The whole project cost under $200. And far from being “secret,” as Fang claimed, the powerpoint was posted online, as was the audio of the students’ presentation to the contest’s judges. Some astroturf!
The Think Progress article is hilarious,” David MacLean, the Canadian member of the six-person student team from four different continents, told CNET on Wednesday. “We’ve had a really good laugh in the last day over this. This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.”
