Question Authority AND Experts!
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Question Authority AND Experts!
Do you believe what the experts tell you when you read newspapers or view their televised comments? You'd be a better informed citizen if you could read or view what they had to say in the stories that the media kills before publication, according to Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, authors of Trust Us, We're Expert's!.
Fox network affiliate WTVT, in Tampa Florida, invested substantial time and money into a 1997 story on genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. The story was developed by veteran investigative journalists Jane Akre and Steve Wilson. Among the principle points the story would cover were:
*Bovine Growth Hormone was never adequately tested before FDA allowed its' use on dairy cows.
*Some Florida dairy herds grew sick shortly after starting rBGH treatment.
*Florida dairy officials refused to back up rBGH manufacturer Monsanto's claim that every truck load of milk from rBGH treated cows was tested for excessive antibiotic use.
*Of seven random dairy farms visited by the reporters all were using rBGH on their cows.
*Area supermarket chains who had promised customers not to sell milk from rBGH cows had not kept their promises. *rBGH may be linked to cancer.
WTVT promoted the four part series heavily in the week before it was scheduled to run. Then, on the eve of the broadcast, Fox received a threatening letter from Monsanto. Fox killed the story. Akre and Wilson eventually left the station and sued Fox. They won their suit. But the public never saw the report. Monsanto had successfully quelled public discourse.
That is just one of the chilling stories from "Trust Us, We're Expert's: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future.", Rampton and Stauber's new book.
Rampton and Stauber have spent the last decade shining a light on the illicit attempts of corporations and their public relations courtiers. Their newsletter, PR Watch, and their earlier books "Toxic Sludge Is Good for You" and "Mad Cow USA", have shown how PR flacks have twisted public opinion to favor the causes of their sometimes nefarious clients.
"Trust Us, We're Experts!" is their most comprehensive expose' of the unholy corporate-PR industry alliance yet.
The book's major accomplishment is to expose the industry's shameful use of third party endorsement of a product or behavior. Whether it's a shoe company paying millions to an athlete to endorse a shoe or a tobacco company prostituting doctors by paying them to write newspaper opinions articles favoring tobacco, PR firms know this truth: "We count on the experts. They tell us who to vote for, what to eat, how to raise our children. We watch them on TV, listen to them on the radio, read their opinions in magazine and newspaper articles and letter to the editor."
