The Rev. Owens' NOM astroturf ruse

When the Rev. William Owens called for President Obama to recant his stand in favor of same-sex, marriage, CNN, NBC, the New York Post, the Christian Post and others treated the black pastor's claim to speak for thousands of members of a Coalition of African-Americans Pastors (CAAP) as a valid news story. There was, as intended, hyperventilating speculation that Obama's stand on gay marriage would somehow cost him "the African American vote."

Not taken in was Lisa Miller of the Washington Post's "On Faith" column. She wrote:

In reality, though, Owens isn’t a story. He’s a figurehead in what political operatives call an “Astroturf” campaign. It looks like a grass-roots movement, but it’s really a political stunt. And his threat is not a threat

Longtime religious liaison for the National Organization for Marriage, a Southern Poverty Law Center hate group, he's simply attempting to carry out the NOM wedge strategy. As Think Progress explained:

To see what NOM is trying to do here, one need only look at that leaked internal memo: “Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage.” Bill Owens is that spokesperson, even though CAAP only boasts about a dozen members. CAAP’s only purpose since its founding has been to attack same-sex marriage. According to Owens yesterday, there is “not one issue more important than holding the family together.”

Having contrived the vague, unpersuasive appearance of something, NOM then went out and proclaimed it to be real:

To drive home the point: The day after Owens’s press conference, NOM’s president, Brian Brown, went on Fox and said that “key Democratic constituencies do not support same-sex marriage.” NOM created a truth and then went out and proclaimed it.

Yet CAAP is still transparently a NOM vanity publication for which their is no broad market. This cynical series of manipulations underestimates the intelligence of its target market.