Customer Reviews

Trust Us We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

...and only half of what you see. That's how an old friend paraphrased some public figure many years ago. And this book makes that statement far less cynical.

While "Toxic Sludge is Good for You" by the same authors was a fine book, this is somewhat of an evolution. It's even better.

So, let's see, you may have been impressed with the findings of a study that has been in all the major daily newspapers and network news. After all, the findings were applauded by the Association for Warm Cuddly Chemicals, they were endorsed by your favorite authors, and, after all, what would we do without the wonderful products available that were the subject of the study?

What the trusty newspapers and networks didn't tell you is that the aforementioned association--the list of such front organizations will boggle your mind--is a front for the manufacturers of the chemicals making up the product they're endorsing, and the "study" written up by professional PR flacks. (I took a writing course six years ago in which the instructor, who claimed to be well-informed, was astonished when I told her the percentage of column inches in the most well-read newspapers in the US have been composed by PR "professionals.")

As the structure of a text means a lot to me, this is one I endorse on that ground too. It starts with a history of the public relations industry. Of course, Edward Bernays--an old New Deal liberal, incidentally--was PR's patron saint.

The authors dissect the PR process brilliantly. For instance, PR professionals have their consultants to call upon. I was amazed and amused by the process our favorite software manufacturer used to minimize the allegations of monopoly. One of the "consultants" called upon was a former Supreme Court nominee who has vigorously argued against antitrust laws. Once hired by the corporation, though, he issued a 7,000 word tirade against federal prosecutors in favor of the company. Various other politicians, also getting paid by the company, were also enlisted as spokespeople for the company. Shocked, huh?

There's a valuable analysis of how industry has taken the route of "risk analysis" rather than a principle of precaution, i.e., go for it because the consequences are likely minimal vs. let's wait until we find the product is safe before we release it. Industry pushes the former, though you think they--and we--would learn what with the number and amount of settlements in law suits against drug manufacturers, for example.

In addition to that level of commentary, the text reminds the reader of the perils of things like global warming. These are items industry goes out of its way to deny. After all, were we to face the consequences of our excess consumption, we might buy less! Oh, and there?s lots in the text to be learned about bovine growth hormone and its manufacturer/promoter. You'll learn a lot about things we've been prodded to take for granted.

A further complication of our perception is that there is a genre of commentator that a fellow skeptic refers to as "crank skeptic," i.e., an author or commentator who claims to challenge norms or speak for reality but who actually has an ideological motive. This text mentions a few of them whose names I'll let you get from the text.

The only thing I wish the book had covered more of is how the PR industry has infected the electoral process in the United States. In contemporary elections, ISSUES are meticulously avoided so that we can discuss the essentially meaningless (e.g., "character," whatever that is.) But I must admit that's probably the subject of a dozen books, and a slightly different focus than that of this book.

Were I taking notes while reading the book, there is far more I could have written. But I'd rather you take the time to read the book than my comments thereon.

I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. We MUST know how the PR process works, how we are influenced by it, and who controls the media by which we are ostensibly "informed."

Having just finished "Trust Us, We're Experts" I was *astounded* to find the two reviews above saying (essentially) that it was bunk because it was anti-corporate and citing "cases" that the reviewers seem to think help their cause (when they actually just suggest that the reviewers are themselves either paid corporate PR drones or lobotomized "consumers" who abhor anyone actually peering behind the veil of monopoly media and showing that it is mainly about keeping the rabble in line).*****The most important thing about Stauber and Rampton's work from the point of view of a critical review is that it is extensively footnoted and sourced ... don't agree with their positions? Fine -- write a book even half as well sourced and you'll be far ahead of most of what passes for popular scientific literature.****Trust Us, We're Experts does, in fact, seem redundant to parts of "Toxic Sludge is Good for You" -- but that's not too surprising given that the same PR consultant/flacks are giving corporations the exact same advice on how to overcome public participation and avoid any real critical scrutiny.****These two books (and their newsletter "PR Watch") are among the most powerful deprogramming tools available today -- anyone interested in media, democracy, citizenship, public policy formation, or the environment should definitely equip themselves with them or, if only one, then "Trust Us!" because it's the most current.

The bulk of this book is given over to detailing the consistent patterns big money has used to manipulate the flow of knowledge from those who have it to those who need it. In practice, this means the book details how "industry" (a term used but never clearly defined) is standing in the way of public health, environmental concerns, and more. Perhaps this book was printed with soy ink on recycled paper? Or are publishers not an industry?

That quibble aside, Stauber and Rampton attempt to demonstrate, primarily through pattern recognition, how easy it is to see through PR-motivated lies and hucksterism if we simply know what to look for. Uncomfortably cozy relationships with "independent" third parties are an obvious example, as is a tendency to divert attention from the credibility of the statement to the credibility of who makes the statement. In fact, an elementary knowledge of the rules of formal debate are well rewarded in reading this book, since you quickly discover that, if an "expert" is defying these rules, that expert is probably trying to take you to the cleaners.

The book is patently left-leaning. The authors are idealistic about human nature, for example, believing people would do the greatest good for the greatest number if they knew how to do it. The authors also appear to believe that government regulation is the necessary answer to inevitable government excess. This seems awfully naïve in its sheer repetition at times. In Chapter Nine, the concession is briefly made that "public advocacy" groups will sometimes distort facts and figures to achieve their desired ends, but that assertion is ultimately deemed less important than the tendency of conservative forces to distort.

The ultimate chapter actually goes into some pointers for seeing through distortion and arming yourself to stand up for your beliefs. At least one previous reviewer seems to have missed this fact. This isn't just a list of information, there are actual pointers for action in here. Don't be shy about standing up for what you believe in, that's the message of this book, and one worth repeating, since we Americans allow ourselves to forget it all too easily.

This book shouldn't be sought out by anybody too in love with their conservative beliefs, their love of mass manufacturing, or a belief that prosperity must come on the heels of pollution. Despite its leanings, it maintains no sacred cows. Those willing to allow themselves to be challenged, however, will be richly rewarded by going out on a limb. This sophisticated, well-documented book tries to show the point where truth and lies intersect, and it is a view you will not soon forget.

Several reviews below prompted me to read this book. This is not so much a book about pseudoexperts and their opinions, as an expose of the public relations industry and its attempts to deliberately deceive us with "junk science." The authors tell us they "have written this book both to expose the PR strategies used to create many of the so-called experts whose faces appear on the TV news shows and scientific panels, and to examine the underlying assumptions that make these manipulations possible" (p. 4). Along the way, this book becomes a meticulously researched "catalogue of disturbing trends and failures to live up to the promise of an informed, democratic society" (pp. 311-312).

Using the theories of Sigmund Freud, Edward L. Bernays, "the father of public relations," believed that "people are not merely unconscious, but herdlike in their thinking" (p.43), and that the public is "irrational and pliable" (p. 208). In his elitist view, Bernays believed that the "average citizen is the world's most efficient censor. His own mind is the greatest barrier between him and the facts. His own 'logic-proof compartments,' his own absolutism, are the obstacles which prevent him from seeing in terms of experience and thought rather than in terms of group reaction" (p. 43). Similarly, major corporations and "snake oil salesmen" alike are using "the mantle of science" not only "to market all kinds of potions and remedies" (p. 222), but to sell us tort reform, cigarettes, genetically-modified foods, and to tell us that global warming, well, that just isn't happening. The same PR industry is labeling anyone who disagrees with its tactics "infantile" (p. 209), "neurotic" (p. 210), or a chicken little. In their book, Rampton and Stauber are to be commended for encouraging us to question the PR spin doctors behind the Oz-like curtains, and to think for ourselves.

G. Merritt

A lot of people know that the mass media spin stories, people, events, and opinions. But few of us can get an inside look at how the PR and opinion industries work with the mass media. How they use science, social science, and pseudo-science to sell toxic products, to ignore their devastating impacts, and to undermine democracy coldly, deliberately, and cynically.

This powerhouse of a book is first aid for those of us weary of all that, but still hoping for a sane, reasonable way to respond and arm ourselves with the real truth.

In /Trust Us, We're Experts/, Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber continue as America's number one watchdogs of the PR industry. This book gives you permission to smell something stinky in the fishy proclamations of media-hyped experts who are wooing our wallets...even when it's packaged as roses, peddled in big showy bunches and enthusiastically delivered to your door using everything from direct mail to the Internet to letters to the editor of your local newspaper to products carefully and expensively placed in your supermarket. And the book leaves the reader with a sense of passion and hope, rather than feeling defeated. What an accomplishment!

/Trust Us, We're Experts/ is meticulous in detail, painstaking in its research, unrelenting in its patient disentangling of complicated issues. Yet it's hugely, easily, fabulously readable, the kind of book I kept quoting portions of out loud to anybody within earshot. The kind of book where you howl aloud on public transit, and people lean over and ask what you're reading, and before you know it, a cluster of folks are engaging in a spontaneous citizen-to-citizen democracy-building session. Just the kind of thing the big PR firms fear, because citizens armed with the truth stop listening to spinmeisters paid handsomely to tell them what and when to buy.

What I liked best about /Trust Us, We're Experts/: it's immediate and concrete-not a heady bunch of theory. The authors' examples come from today's news-global warming, genetic engineering of food, big tobacco, pharmaceuticals, Microsoft, and more. Never mind what you've heard about conspiracies or subliminal programming-Rampton and Stauber show how the most powerful engineering of consumer awareness operates right under our noses, but cloaked in wiggle words, misinformation, and outright lies.

How can we get clear of the tar-pits of opinion, packaged as fact, that "neutral" "third-party" "experts"have flung us into? Read this book, and you will walk away with a tar-pit-rescue toolkit that the La Brea Coast Guard would envy. I give it five stars, though want Rampton and Stauber to know they're not finished yet, and must keep writing for years and decades to come! Thank you, authors, for this book.

Michele Gale-Sinex

You might call me the "aging hippie mom" wondering when and if my teenaged son would *ever* get passionate about, and see, some important truths of what is happening in the world today. He's a great kid, but frankly he's pushing eighteen and I had given up hope of his ever "seeing the light" if he didn't by now -- the "light" in this sense meaning a lot of the truths that were important to me at his age and that are pressingly important more and more for the world at large.

A huge *spark* happened when he read some articles on thedoctorwithin.com, especially an article that cited this book. When he said, "I'd like to get that book," I was happily astounded in his interest and purchased him a copy as soon as I could. He's been reading it now for weeks and several times has commented on how much he appreciates the book, has used facts from the book for arguments in his high school debate class (with great results -- he won the debate "hands down") -- and better yet, he is now "turned on" to learning more.

Shoot, because of this book, "Trust Me, We're Experts" my son has also gotten turned on to reading again for the first time in years. Said so himself! When he saw my fresh-off-the-press copy of "Our Toxic World: A Wakeup Call" by Doris J. Rapp., M.D., sitting on the coffeetable -- where before I would have gotten from him a distinterested "Hum," he said, "I'd like to borrow that book sometime!" WOW.

It's today's youth that will gain the mantle and have to deal with this world and all the problems of corporate greed/control. I strongly feel that becoming aware of the kinds of things this book delineates is a very, very hopeful sign for our future and the future of this planet. This book is a radical TURN-ON, and for that I give it a big two hands up! (Hey, he's even gaining interest in organic food now!)

This book is extremely important - it shows clearly that big corporations will go to extraordinary lengths to advance their own agendas at the expense of the consumer. Their tools are fake "grassroots" groups, scientists with undisclosed big financial ties to corporations, and behind the scenes influence on university research to hide results that are unfavorable to them.

We as the public may be skeptical about some of the tactics used by the PR firms, but this book certainly opened my eyes - the practice of outright deceit by means of PR spin is far more widespread than I would have believed otherwise.

Several of the reviews posted here refer to the Alar scare - those who think it was bogus have obviously been swayed by the same PR spin (or are spin doctors themselves) - it's just the tip of the iceberg - there are thousands of chemicals out there, essentially unregulated by an underfunded and impotent EPA. Industry would have you believe that there is no risk.

I prefer to believe those who have no financial incentive to lie.

Buy this book - you will never look at the media and corporate ethics the same way again.

It is a bit sad that in our society the loudest mouth gets the most publicity. This is where Michael Moore comes in. If you want to get the real scoop from two fellows that are pretty apolitical and tell it to you how it is, get this book.

You won't trust any thing you read anymore the way you use to. Whenever you read about a new medical study, you will seek who funded it. You will make direct links between the source of funding and the conclusion of the given scientificy study. You may loose a bit of sleep, but this type of collective critical thinking is one of the most powerful tool of a well developed democracy. On this count, one could easily argue that ours is not a well developed one, as overall our critical thinking skills are not what they should be on a communal level. This book will help.

A most excellent and throught provoking book guaranteed to enrage the reader. Rampton and Stauber detail the history and mechanics of PR(or spindoctoring) with plenty of examples. There is also a good history of the father of propaganda - Edward Bernay. Whose work inspired Joseph Goebbels among others.

They detail the rise of Junk Science - corporate funded scientists and hacks like John Stossel or Lomborg who do hatchet jobs on people/topics that may impinge on corporate profits. And how Junk Science has terribly confused people on what's real and not.

The examples they use are well documented and are not afraid to name those who pretend to be experts but are nothing but PR hacks for hire. Many of those they name are "experts" that corporate conservatives(like Prager, Limbuagh, etc) call on to spin doctor tobacco, asbestos, global warming and pollution as harmless or overblown.

Some reviewers consider the authors leftist - but only to those who believe that corporations know what's best for us. But IMO it's non-political for the most part(I'm a social conservative). It seemingly picks on conservative only in that they use more PR hacks than other group. Or could it be that these so-called conservative spokesmen are corporate PR hacks themselves?

The book's only weak point is the chapter on what to do about it. It does not really give the detail on how to defend yourself against well done spin. Nor how to protect our children against it.

Be that as it may, it's the best book out there on it. After reading it, you'll definityly question pundits and so-called experts who magically appear everytime there is a public protest against something or the news in general. Also you may find yourself both depressed and angry at the extent of PR in our society and how it coopts grass roots movements and trends.
They manage our tastes in clothes, cars, politicians, mindless fads, etc. It's really quite enraging when you realize that a entire industry(340 billion a year) has sprung up to manipulate the ordinary American for greed and political gain, irregardless of the moral, ethical and environmental consequences.

Another book I highly recommend that deals with the mechanics of propaganda and how to defend yourself against it. Is Langauge in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa.

While the cover art of this book looks kind of hokey, don't let it put you off. This is a very well researched, documented and relatively balanced look at the PR industry and its tactics. It details how PR firms, fueled by their clients (typically corporations or interest groups created by corporations) help stop, retard, and/or generally deaden concerns and/or actions relating to everything from hazardous working conditions and new technologies (like genetically engineered crops) to global warming. This is not a book targeted to "liberals", "consumer advocates" and/or "tree huggers" -- although I'm sure that these audiences will be very receptive to this book. Rather, I am a moderate conservative and voting republican, and found that this book was fascinating, filled with insight and that it transcended ideology. I view this book as a "public service" for the average citizen. Read this book and think twice next time you see an "expert" on the evening news talking up a particular topic -- he or she may very well have significant conflicts of interest and/or may be much less credible than he/she appears!