Is this Astroturfing — or just coincidence?

When a company or political figure manufactures a grass-roots movement, it’s called Astroturfing. One communicator and blogger in Alabama thinks he spotted an example of it. Why, the blogger asked, did a newspaper story about a brewing political scandal in Alabama receive dozens of comments — all bashing Alabama Gov. Bob Riley — at precisely the moment the story was published online? Seems fishy, doesn’t it?