That's not astro-turfing, it's traditional journalism. Sources generally give more details to reporters who they like. Astro-turfing would be if Gruber actually worked for Apple while writing this stuff. It's generally true that the result is sources controlling journalists more than they should, but at worst, Gruber's as ethically shady as WashPost journalists.

Further, Gruber's not been afraid to come down on Apple for things, like when Apple announced the iPhone tethering and MMS and in fine print said "Not in the US", or many of the App Store shenanigans prior to this one, and for the iPhone developer's NDA, just to name ones off the top of my head.