Trust Us, We're Experts PA
Page 41
20 Merrill Rose, “Activism in the 90s: Changing Roles for Public Relations,” Public Relations Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 3 (1991), pp. 28-32.
21 Susan B. Trento, The Power House: Robert Keith Gray and the Selling of Access and Influence in Washington (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), p. 62.
22 Douglas Walton, Appeal to Expert Opinion: Arguments from Authority (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), pp. 33-35.
23 Edward L. Bernays, Public Relations (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952), pp. 163-164.
24 Jack O’Dwyer, “Hire a PR Firm to Get the Two ‘I’s’—Ink and Intelligence,” O’Dwyer’s PR Services Report, May 1997, p. 57.
25 Scott Cutlip, The Unseen Power: Public Relations: A History (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1994), p. 210.
26 Brian Tokar, “The Wise Use Backlash: Responding to Militant Anti-Environmentalism,” The Ecologist, vol. 25, no. 4 (1995), p. 151.
27 Jack O’Dwyer’s Newsletter, vol. 31, no. 36 (September 16, 1998), p. 8.
28 Neal Cohen, “Fine Tuning for Grassroots Effectiveness 1994,” presentation to the Public Affairs Council National Grassroots Conference, February 1994.
29 Jennifer Sereno, talk to the Madison, Wisconsin chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, March 26, 1998.
30 Martin A. Lee and Norman Solomon, Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in the Media (New York, NY: Carol Publishing, 1991), p. 66.
31 Trento, p. 233.
32 Kevin E. Foley, “Ethics and Sigma are in ‘VNR Cartel,’ ” O’Dwyer’s PR Services Report, April 1993, p. 13.
33 Debra Hauss, “Ways to Save Money on VNRs,” PR Week, July 19, 1999, p. 24.
34 Darren Bosik, “TV Stations Desire Health, Medical VNRs the Most,” O’Dwyer’s PR Services Report, April 1991, p. 12.
35 Ted Anthony, “Film Review—Thirteenth Floor,” Associated Press, May 27, 1999.
36 Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York, NY: Free Press Paperbacks, 1997), pp. 27-28.
37 Ibid., p. 10.
38 Ibid., pp. 41-42.
39 Ibid., pp. 19-20.
40 Ibid., p. 241.
41 Ibid., p. 244.
42 Ibid., p. 251.
43 Ibid., p. 158.
44 “O’Dwyer’s 1999 PR Buyer’s Guide: Celebrities,” O’Dwyer’s PR Services Report, January 1999, p. 42.
45 Gerard F. Anderson and Jean-Pierre Poullier, “Health Spending, Access, and Outcomes: Trends in Industrialized Countries,” Health Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 3 (May-June 1999), pp. 178-192.
46 “PR Pros Are Among Least Believable Public Figures,” O’Dwyer’s PR Services Report, August 1999, p. 1.
47 Ibid.
48 Randall Rothenberg, “The Age of Spin,” Esquire, December 1996, p. 71.
CHAPTER 2: THE BIRTH OF SPIN
1 Thomas L. Haskell, “Power to the Experts” (review of Burton J. Bledstein’s The Culture of Professionalism), New York Review of Books, October 13, 1977.
2 Chicago Times-Herald, October 22, 1897; University of Chicago, University Record, II (October 22, 1897), pp. 246-249.
3 Howard S. Miller Dollars for Research: Science and Its Patrons in Nineteenth-Century America, (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1970), p. 184.
4 Stephen F. Mason, A History of the Sciences (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1962), p. 591.
5 Ibid., p. 142.
6 Quoted in David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1997), p. 204.
7 Quoted in Lewis A. Coser, Men of Ideas: A Sociologist’s View (New York, NY: Free Press, 1970), pp. 28-29.
8 Frank Fischer, Technocracy and the Politics of Expertise (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 1990), pp. 67-68.
9 Coser, pp. 150-152.
10 E. H. Carr, Studies in Revolution (New York: Grossett and Dunlap, 1964), p. 2. Cited in Fischer, p. 69.
11 Howard P. Segal, Technological Utopianism in American Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), pp. 62-63. Cited in Fischer, p. 69.
12 Fischer, p. 69.
13 Ibid., pp. 74-75.
14 H. H. Gerth and C. W. Mills, trans. and eds., From Max Weber, Essays in Sociology (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1947), pp. 232-233. In Coser, p. 174.
15 V. I. Lenin, “The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government,” in Lenin: Selected Works (New York: International Publishers, 1971), p. 417. In Fischer, p. 303.
16 Fischer, pp. 125, 306, 335.
17 Ibid., p. 132.
18 Ibid., p. 84.
19 Quoted from Ralph Chaplin in Howard Scott, Science Versus Chaos (New York: Technocracy, Inc., 1933), foreword. In Fischer, p. 85.
20 Fischer, p. 86.
21 Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1959), pp. 69, 140.
22 Scott Cutlip, The Unseen Power: Public Relations: A History (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1994), pp. 170-176.
23 Irwin Ross, The Image Merchants: The Fabulous World of Public Relations (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1959), pp. 51-52.
24 Ibid., p. 61.
25 Ibid., p. 52.
26 Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: 1928), p. 9.
27 Richard Swift, “One-Trick Pony” (interview with Stuart Ewen), New Internationalist 314 (July 1999), pp. 16-17.
28 Stuart Ewen, PR! A Social History of Spin (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1996), pp. 9-10.
29 Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion (New York, NY: 1923), pp. 109, 122.
30 Ibid., p. 109.
31 Bernays, Propaganda, pp. 47-48.
32 Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion, p. 217.
33 Ibid., p. 122.
34 Cutlip, pp. 162-163.
35 Ibid., pp. 196-197.
36 “The Public Relations Counsel and Propaganda,” Propaganda Analysis (Institute for Propaganda Analysis), August 1938, p. 62.
37 Cutlip, pp. 208-209.
38 Edward L. Bernays, Biography of an Idea (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1965), p. 445.
39 Cutlip, p. 185.
40 Bernays, Biography of an Idea, p. 445.
41 Ibid., p. 446.
42 Ibid., p. 449.
43 Ibid., pp. 458-459.
44 Neil Baldwin, Edison: Inventing the Century (New York, NY: Hyperion, 1995), p. 396.
45 Cutlip, p. 207.
46 Bernays, Biography of an Idea, pp. 456-457.
47 Ibid., pp. 466, 468-472.
48 Ibid., p. 645.
CHAPTER 3: DECIDING WHAT YOU’LL SWALLOW
1 International Food Information Council, “How Americans Relate to Genetically Engineered Foods” (research report), September 14, 1992, pp. 1, 2.
2 Ibid., pp. 1, 4-5.
3 Ibid., p. 6.
4 Ibid., p. 13.
5 Ibid., p. 31, 32.
6 Libby Mikesell and Tom Stenzel, “Re: Refining the Dictionary” (memo to Biotech Research Core Team), International Food Information Council, October 28, 1992.
7 Robert Youngson, Scientific Blunders: A Brief History of How Wrong Scientists Can Sometimes Be (New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1998), p. 301.
8 Ibid., pp. 225-226. Isaac Asimov reached similar conclusions in his encyclopedic New Guide to Science (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1985), p. 845: “Psychoanalysis still remains an art rather than a science. Rigorously controlled experiments such as those conducted in physics and the other ‘hard’ sciences are, of course, exceedingly difficult in psychiatry. The practitioners must base their conclusions largely on intuition or subjective judgment. . . . Nor has it developed any all-embracing and generally accepted theory, comparable to the germ theory of infectious disease. In fact, there are almost as many schools of psychiatry as there are psychiatrists.”
9 “Television Show Spotlights Major PR Controversies,” O’Dwyer’s PR Services Report, April 1991, p. 62.
10 Ibid.
11 Randall Rothenberg, “The Age of Spin,” Esquire, Dec
ember 1996, p. 71.
12 Jack O’Dwyer, “Marketing is Perception—Not Truth,” Jack O’Dwyer’s Newsletter, vol. 25, no. 8 (February 19, 1992), p. 7.
13 Rothenberg, p. 71.
14 “Cutlip Tells of Heroes and Goals Encountered in 55-Year PR Career,” O’Dwyer’s PR Services Report, May 1991, p. 12.
15 Rothenberg, p. 76.
16 William Greider, Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy (New York, NY: Touchstone Books, 1992), p. 54.
17 James E. Lukaszewski, “When the Press Attacks: Should You Stonewall or Cooperate?” presentation at Media Relations ’98, Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York, NY, April 27, 1998.
18 James E. Lukaszewski, “Face the Press: Media Training for Public Relations Professionals,” presentation at Media Relations ’98, Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York, NY, April 28, 1998.
19 Lukaszewski, “When the Press Attacks.”
20 Lukaszewski, “Face the Press.”
21 Ibid.
22 A news release based on the study is available at CSPI’s website:
23 PR Newswire, “Much Ado About Nothing—Sound Science Group Responds to the Latest CSPI Scare” (news release from The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition), February 21, 1996.
24 Ibid.
25 Bob Condor, “Dr. Robert Kushner” (interview), Chicago Tribune, July 18, 1999, p. 3.
PART TWO—RISKY BUSINESS (PREFACE)
1 Peter Bernstein, Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk (New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1998).
2 Matthew White, Atlas—Wars and Democide of the Twentieth Century,
CHAPTER 4: DYING FOR A LIVING
1 Rachel Scott, Muscle and Blood (New York, NY: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1974), p. 293.
2 David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, “Workers’ Health and Safety—Some Historical Notes,” in Rosner and Markowitz (eds.), Dying for Work: Workers’ Safety and Health in Twentieth-Century America (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987), p. xvii.
3 Marie H. Bias-Jones, “For Survivors of the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel, It Was Just a Job,” Charleston Gazette, August 7, 1996, p. 4.
4 Scott, p. 175.
5 Rosner and Markowitz, p. xvii.
6 Abid Aslam, “Environment: New Book Records Neglect by Union Carbide,” Inter Press Service, May 2, 1990.
7 Robert D. Bullard, Unequal Protection (San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 1994). Quoted in Craig Fluorney, “In the War for Justice, There’s No Shortage of Environmental Fights,” Dallas Morning News, July 3, 1994, p. 8J.
8 James L. Weeks, “Deadly Dust” (book review), Science, vol. 256, no. 5053 (April 3, 1992), p. 116.
9 Scott, p. 175.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid., p. 179.
12 Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, “The Reawakening of National Concern About Silicosis,” Public Health Reports, vol. 113, no. 4 (July 17, 1998), p. 302.
13 “Preventing Silicosis and Death in Construction Workers,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cited in James E. Roughton and John C. Pierdomenico, “Crystalline Silica: The New Asbestos,” Professional Safety, vol. 43, no. 5 (May 1998), pp. 12-13.
14 Gardiner Harris, “Dust, Deception and Death,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), April 19, 1998, p. 01K.
15 Jim Morris, “Silicosis: A Slow Death,” Houston Chronicle, August 9, 1992, p. A1.
16 Ibid.
17 Quoted in Markowitz and Rosner, “The Reawakening of National Concern About Silicosis,” p. 302.
18 David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the Politics of Occupational Disease in Twentieth Century America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), p. 186.
19 Mark Savit, “Will Crystalline Silica Become the Next Asbestos?” Aggman Online, March and April 1997,
20 Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, “The Reawakening of National Concern About Silicosis,” p. 302.
21 J. Paul Leigh, et al., “Occupational Injury and Illness in the United States: Estimates of Costs, Morbidity and Mortality,” Archives of Internal Medicine, July 28, 1997, pp. 1357-1368.
22 William Serrin, “The Wages of Work,” The Nation, vol. 252, no. 3 (January 28, 1991), p. 80.
23 David Kotelchuck, “Asbestosis—Science for Sale,” Science for the People, v. 7, no. 5 (September 1995), p. 10.
24 Jim Morris, “Worked to Death,” Houston Chronicle, October 9, 1994, p. A1.
25 Scott, p. 199.
26 David F. Noble, “The Chemistry of Risk,” Seven Days, vol. 3, no. 7 (June 5, 1979), p. 24.
27 Ibid., p. 25.
28 Quoted in Scott, p. 40.
29 Scott, p. 41.
30 Serrin, p. 80.
31 William Graebner, “Hegemony Through Science: Information Engineering and Lead Toxicology, 1925-1965,” in Rosner and Markowitz (eds.), Dying for Work: Workers’ Safety and Health in Twentieth-Century America (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987), p. 143.
32 David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, “ ‘A Gift of God’? The Public Health Controversy Over Leaded Gasoline in the 1920s,” in Rosner and Markowitz, Dying for Work, p. 125.
33 Ibid., p. 128.
34 Ibid., p. 125.
35 Ibid., pp. 123-130.
36 Quoted in Rachel’s Environment & Health Weekly, no. 539 (March 27, 1997).
37 Rosner and Markowitz, “ ‘A Gift of God’?” p. 131.
38 Ellen Ruppel Shell, “An Element of Doubt: Disinterested Research Casts Doubt on Claims that Lead Poisoning from Paint is Widespread Among American Children,” Atlantic Monthly, vol. 276, no. 6 (Dec. 1995), p. 24.
39 Deborah Baldwin, “Heavy Metal,” Common Cause Magazine, Summer 1992.
40 William Graebner, “Hegemony Through Science: Information Engineering and Lead Toxicology, 1925-1965,” in Rosner and Markowitz, Dying for Work, p. 147.
41 Baldwin.
42 Ellen M. Perlmutter, “Pitt Scientist Prevails Over Lead, Critics, Wins $250,000 Heinz Award,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/1/95, p. A1.
43 Baldwin.
44 Ibid.
CHAPTER 5: PACKAGING THE BEAST
1 Karwoski and Courage Public Relations, “Karwoski & Courage—A Fable,”
2 Karen Silkwood was a chemical technician at the Kerr-McGee company’s plutonium fuels production plant in Crescent, Oklahoma. An activist who was critical of plant safety, she died under suspicious circumstances. During the week prior to her death, she was reportedly gathering evidence to support her claim that the company was negligent in maintaining plant safety, and at the same time she was involved in a number of unexplained exposures to plutonium. On November 13, 1974, she was killed when her car crashed into a concrete embankment en route to a meeting with a New York Times reporter to deliver documents proving her allegations about plant safety. Her files were never recovered from the wreck. Many people believe that her car was forced off the road, causing her death.
3 In 1990, local communities began organizing, and Ken Saro-Wiwa was chosen to head a new activist organization, MOSOP. After an angry mob killed four Ogoni opponents of MOSOP, the government arrested Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight others, subjecting them to nine months of torture before convicting them of “inciting” the murders in a special military trial that was condemned as “fundamentally flawed and unfair” by international legal observers.
4 “Clear Thinking in Troubled Times” (Shell newspaper ad), quoted in “Clear Thinking,” Moneyclips, November 21, 1995.
5 Andy Rowell, “Shell Shocked: Did the Shell Petroleum Company Silence Nigerian Environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa?” The Village Voice, November 21, 1995, p. 21.
6 Polly Ghazi, “Shell Refused to Help Saro-Wiwa Unless Protest Called Off,” The Observer (Londo
n), November 19, 1995, p. 1.