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Title: Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry by John C. Stauber, Sheldon Rampton ISBN: 1-56751-060-4 Publisher: Common Courage Press Pub. Date: October, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.45 (38 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Book! Openned my eyes to the PR Industry.
Comment: This is a great introduction to the tactics and influence of the PR industry. It could have gone in to more depth, offered more analysis, and been more 'objective' whatever that is, but that wasn't the point. Toxic Sludge brings attention to an industry that has been manufacturing the consent of the public for corporate america and other monied interests. I think it was weakest in it's suggestions about what to do to combat the PR Industry. Their assertion that the only successful activism is NIMBYism is not only wrong but dangerous in that it doesn't lead to a larger movement to reign in corporate power. This book is a must read for anybody who wants to understand where the media is coming from and what corporations are doing to manage their image.
Rating: 5
Summary: This book has changed my view of the world.
Comment: Must reading for everyone. I bought a bunch of copies and am giving them as gifts to my friends.
I used to wonder why I heard so much contradictary news in the major media pertaining to health and the environment. First, a news item quotes an authority saying a food is safe, the next year the same newspaper says it's dangerous, and the next year after that they claim it's good for you. After reading this book, I know why. There are thousands of environmental and health , and scientific organizations. According to this book, many (but not all) of these organizations are not much more than clever PR fronts, funded mainly by industry. For example, I have often seen and continue to see information provided by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) in the major newspapers and magazines. The media usually takes this organization at its word as a credible scientific source.
According to this book: The ACSH is an industry front group that produces PR ammunition for the food processing and chemical industries. They praise the nutritional values of fast food and receive money from the fast food industry. They claim pesticides are very safe and take money from a host of pesticide manufacturers. The list goes on and on.. Yet the journalists usually take the ACSH words almost verbatim as fact and print it in their newspaper. Most journalists don't check their sources, or they're puppets of industry. Then the public reads this stuff as if it were scientifically proven fact. Public policy and law often gets decided on the basis of this "knowledge." Of course, some readers of these "facts" are skeptical, but no one seriously challenges the ACSH's credibility. Thus the ACSH continues to operate as if it were an objective science institute. Thousands of front groups worldwide use many of the same techniques. It then becomes obvious why so many people have a mistrust for science and don't know what to believe.
I used to think this country was a democracy, but now I know who really pulls the strings on many key issues. It's not the PR firms, it's the companies who hire the PR firms. Don't miss this book. For related info on health and environmental issues, I recommend "Our Stolen Future" by Theo Colborn.
Rating: 4
Summary: I have three words: beautiful, researched, moving.
Comment: See, long ago (how long? More than one hundred years...) advertising, and not circulation (that small fee you pay when you buy a magazine or daily newspaper) was already the number one source of income for most newspapers. Is it too difficult to predict that advertisers can exert power over publishers?
And when you learn from this book that 10 out of the top 15 Public Relations firms (already back in 1994) are owned by advertising firms, and you do the math, I believe you'll then find easy to understand why some unpleasant news don't find their way through the "free" press...
This book is extremely well researched; it pushes you to think twice at problems; it is a good handbook on how to spot deceit; it is a source of hope.
It is also somewhat scary and somewhat difficult as well (many quotations save the authors from lawsuits but slow the reading speed; there are topics on international politics; there's some reasoning about chemistry...) so I don't recommend it to the average reader (choose "Trust us, we're experts" by the same authors and "Influence" by Robert Cialdini first, then come back and dig this one).
Quotations follow:
"The radioactive waste from nuclear power plants contains the deadliest substances known. It consists mostly of spent fuel which, although it is no longer suitable for generating power, will remain radioactive and lethal for over 100,000 years."
"The business class dominates government through its ability to fund political campaigns, purchase high priced lobbysts and reward former officials with lucrative jobs."
"When an issue is actually coming up for a vote, [this direct-marketer] turns to his phone banks: 'Phones are for speed. Another advantage of phones is that it's really flexible. You test mail, get results in three weeks, and make adjustments. With phones you're on the phones today, you analyze your results, you change your script and try a new thing tomorrow. In a three-day program you can make four or five different changes, find out what's really working, what messages really motivate people, and improve your response rates'. "
Everybody hates junk mail and junk phone calls. Problem is, this stuff works...
"Every day 20 million Americans tune in and turn on to the Limbaugh talk radio show, which is aired on 650 stations across the United States. However, few people realize the degree of technologically sophisticated orchestration behind Limbaugh's power. [Someone] explained how his coalition used paid ads on the Limbaugh show to generate thousands of citizen phone calls urging legislators to kill health reform. First, Rush would hip us his 'dittohead' fans with a calculated rant against the Clinton health plan. Then during a commercial break listeners would hear a anti-health care ad and an 800 number to call for more information. Calling the number would connect them to a telemarketer, who would talk to them briefly and then 'patch them through' directly to their congressperson's office. The congressional staffers fielding the calls typically had no idea that the constituents had been primed, loaded, aimed and fired at them by radio ads on the Limbaugh show, paid by the insurance industry, with the goal of orchestrating grassroots opposition to health reform".
One wonders (might I add?) how naive and unfit for the job American congresspersons are! They just don't know a trick played on some 20 million fellow citizens!?
Do you know SLAPP lawsuits? They are Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, their goal is to force the defendant to run up huge bills: and shut up, of course. And what happens if lawsuits fail?
"And if lawsuits fail, some anti-environmentalists urge even stronger tactics. Former Interior Secretary James Watt (who in 1996 pleaded guilty to trying to influence a Federal grand jury) told a gathering of cattlemen in June 1990, 'If the troubles from environmentalists cannot be solved in the jury box or at the ballot box, perhaps the cartridge box should be used.' ".
There are tens of quotable lines in this book, I just think those above are enough to give you some clue about its relevance.
I tried to imagine how to describe a country where less than half the citizens bother to vote, politicians get massive amounts of money from corporations (why? and what's the compensation?), consumers lemmingly follow what the media tell them. I have three words: apathy, greed, gullibility. This book is a very effective antidote.
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Title: Trust Us We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future by John Stauber, Sheldon Rampton ISBN: 1585421391 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: 10 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq by Sheldon Rampton, John C. Stauber ISBN: 1585422762 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast ISBN: 0452283914 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 25 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda by Noam Chomsky ISBN: 1583225366 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies by Russ Kick ISBN: 0971394202 Publisher: The Disinformation Company Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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