Stauber, John C. and Rampton, Sheldon. Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies,
Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. Monroe ME: Common Courage
Press, 1995. 236 pages.
As transnationals become more powerful than many governments, they
discover that information control is the key to further expansion. Today
the shock troops of the New World Order are neither the commandos with U.N.
patches, nor the gray men from the CIA, but rather the flacks and hacks in
the public relations industry. Some academicians estimate that about forty
percent of all "news" is fed from PR firms to newsrooms. Journalists get
two versions: a slick final version, and a raw one that they can edit. Most
budget-conscious newsrooms simply present the slick version as hard news.
PR practitioners in the U.S. now outnumber reporters, and some of the best
journalism schools send more than half of their graduates into these firms.
Along with those catchy "video news releases" that newsrooms love so
much, some PR firms offer industrial espionage, infiltration of civic and
political groups, planted stories, and phony grass-roots campaigns. Their
corporate clients call this "integrated communications." The grass-roots
campaigns, commonly referred to as "astroturf movements," are disguised
as concerned citizens driven by conscience to petition the government.
Since big money is available just underneath this facade, many politicians
are no doubt grateful for the cover that astroturf provides.
ISBN 1-56751-060-4
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