How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
2001
Spin of the Day
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Trust Us was sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy and a series of non-profit organizations and sponsors who are listed in the acknowledgments, written by media critics Rampton and Stauber. This is information you need to know in order to function intelligently in the U.S. today. If you are not specifically familiar with the clever methods used by industry to make the pitches they want you to hear and believe, you have no defense against being brainwashed by advertising which is masquerading as unbiased information.

Believing that advertising is fact, and making political, financial, and especially health decisions based on those “facts,” is dangerous. It has long been a truism that “you can’t believe what you read.” Now it is literally true that, as a vice-president of a prominent PR firm put it, "Most of what you see on TV is, in effect, a canned PR product. Most of what you read in the paper and see on TV is not news."

There has been a lot of attention since the 2000 election placed on how the Republican party has used generously-funded “think tanks” for many years to create “independent experts” who can promote a unified right wing view of the issues, and to figure out how to define the terms of political discourse in the country: the “clean air” act which rolled back regulations on pollutants, the “tax burden” which citizens of the nation should not be expected to bear, etc. And their strategy is very effective.

What is not so commonly known is that every industry, including the so-called “health” industries, and even government agencies, constantly use the same tactics to spin the beliefs of the public about their product or policy and to suppress or discredit information about the ineffectiveness or outright danger of the product or policy.

Of course corporations work with highly-paid PR firms to create advertising campaigns, which are obviously product promotions. But it is also common practice for companies to use PR firm advice on how to manufacture a whole web of associated organizations and “experts” which have the appearance of neutrality and independent expertise, and often are represented as non-profit foundations or grassroots citizens’ groups, but are actually funded by the corporation.

When these organizations denounce the critics of corporate practices or products, or present opposing “research” which supports the contentions of the company, or release stories to the media which question the credentials of the critics, it creates the illusion that there are objective parties who don’t agree with the critics, which nullifies the perception of danger in our minds. The authors point out that industry-sponsored organizations frequently adopt misleading names: the Foundation for Clean Air Progress, The National Environmental Policy Institute, The Science and Environmental Policy Project, Citizens for Sensible Control of Acid Rain…” (p.305)

This is basic education for navigating the culture - highly recommended. 

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