The Invisible Government
*****************************************************************
. .
. THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT .
. ========== .
. Environmental Research Foundation .
. P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403 .
. Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@rachel.clark.net .
. ========== .
. Back issues available by E-mail; to get instructions, send .
. E-mail to INFO@rachel.clark.net with the single word HELP .
. in the message; back issues also available via ftp from .
. ftp.std.com/periodicals/rachel and from gopher.std.com. .
. Subscribe: send E-mail to rachel-weekly-request@world.std.com .
. with the single word SUBSCRIBE in the message. It's free. .
=================================================================
THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT
The description of America is all too familiar:
"The business class dominates government through its ability to
fund political campaigns, purchase high-priced lobbyists, and
reward former officials with lucrative jobs. Meanwhile, the
working-class majority of the American people has felt its
economic and political power diminish or disappear.... Many of
the social institutions that should be the bulwark of grassroots
democracy --stable neighborhoods, vigorous unions,
independently-owned small farms and businesses --are rapidly
disappearing. Fewer than half of eligible Americans even bother
to vote, and those who do vote have little faith that good will
come of it, telling pollsters they are often voting for the
'lesser of two evils.' Both major parties have become wholly
dependent upon the same corporate dollars to pay a new
professional class of PR consultants, marketers and social
scientists who manage and promote causes and candidates in
essentially the same manner that advertising campaigns sell cars,
fashions, drugs, and other wares....
"This degraded political environment has created a rich bed of
business opportunity for the public relations industry. As
citizens remove themselves in disgust from the political process,
the PR industry is moving in to take their place, turning the
definition of 'grassroots politics' upside down by using
rapidly-evolving high-tech data and communications systems to
custom-design 'grassroots citizen movements' that serve the
interests of their elite clients."
This description of contemporary America, which probably rings
true to nearly everyone who is paying attention, is taken from
the recent book, TOXIC SLUDGE IS GOOD FOR YOU (subtitled, Lies,
Damn Lies, and the Public Relations Industry) by John C. Stauber
and Sheldon Rampton.[1] If you think you are already about as
cynical as it is possible to be, this book will jolt you: the
situation is worse than anything you could have imagined.
If you want to know how American-style "democracy" works in the
late 20th century, you simply MUST read this short book. In
recent years, Stauber and Rampton have made it their business to
describe the PR industry, which manipulates the media, public
opinion, and elections to control public debate and public
policy. Since publishing their riveting little book, Stauber and
Rampton have kept up a steady stream of eye-opening reports in
their quarterly journal PR WATCH.
The current PR WATCH (available on the world wide web at
http://users.aol.com/srampton/center.html) reveals a typical
instance of democracy subverted by PR corporations who engineer
consent for the Fortune 500 using "dirty tricks."
In this instance, PR WATCH reveals that the Philip Morris Company
---the tobacco and food giant with 1991 earnings of $39.1 billion
--has paid a PR firm to create a phony "public interest"
organization called Contributions Watch which is masquerading as
an "independent nonprofit" group, supposedly gathering unbiased
data on campaign contributions in all 50 states.[2] In reality,
Contributions Watch is doing something quite different.
According to internal company documents leaked to Stauber and
Rampton, Contributions Watch was created with bundles of Philip
Morris money for the specific purpose of influencing the
Presidential election, creating massive pressure on Congress for
"tort reform," and tarnishing the reputations of legitimate
consumer advocacy groups such as Consumer's Union, publishers of
CONSUMER REPORTS, and the public-interest law firm, Trial Lawyers
for Public Justice.
Tort reform was a key piece of the Republican Party's "Contract
With America" when Newt Gingrich became speaker of the House of
Representatives in 1994. The goal of "tort reform" is to shield
corporations by limiting the amount of money that juries can
award to plaintiffs injured by medical malpractice or by harmful
consumer products, such as cigarettes. Both the House and the
Senate --for the first time in our history --passed tort reform
legislation in March, 1996, but President Clinton vetoed it,
saying such a law would encourage "misconduct" by "irresponsible
companies willing to put profits above all else."[3]
Until PR WATCH blew the whistle on Contributions Watch, the
Philip Morris plan was succeeding. Wittingly or not, newspapers
like the WALL STREET JOURNAL were regurgitating stories served up
by Contributions Watch.[4,5] Contributions Watch was creating
support for "tort reform" using the argument that rich
plaintiffs' lawyers are distorting the democratic process with
their money, supporting Bill Clinton for President. This is in
fact true, but the proper public policy to restore democracy
would be far-reaching campaign finance reform, including full
public financing of elections, not tort reform. (See REHW426 and
REHW427.) Tort reform would merely shield corporations from
liability while de-funding the Democratic Party, to the delight
of Republicans. What Contributions Watch --and the WALL STREET
JOURNAL --failed to mention is that Philip Morris itself is the
largest single campaign contributor in America --having spent a
total of $2.7 million during the past 18 months trying to
influence elections --$2.1 million of it to elect Republicans.[6]
The PR industry and dirty tricks are not new. What's new is that
they have grown out of control. The PR industry traces its roots
to the work of Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud.
Bernays frankly discussed his public relations discoveries
--using science to manipulate the public from behind the scenes
--in several books. For example, in PROPAGANDA in 1928, Bernays
said, "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group
mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses
according to our will without their knowing it." And: "The
conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits
and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic
society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society
constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power
of our country."[1,pgs.23-24] He proudly called his scientific
techniques of opinion-molding "the engineering of consent."
Bernays in his later years claimed to be morally motivated. He
had spent a good part of his life nefariously promoting tobacco
products, yet he said, "No reputable public relations
organization would today accept a cigarette account, since their
cancer-causing effects have been proven." However, in a 1994
survey of 38 PR firms, 29 said they would accept a tobacco
account if they had the chance.[1,pg.32]
Even in the early days, it should have been obvious to anyone who
thought about it that a group of corporations with large budgets
dedicated to subverting democracy would succeed. Computers, fax
machines, and overflowing corporate treasuries have simply made
it much easier. Now in the U.S. there are more than 150,000
individuals employed as "PR specialists." To put this number
into perspective, there are only 130,000 journalists in America
and the number is shrinking steadily as news organizations
jettison reporters and rely more and more on "news" manufactured
by PR firms. (In 1991, 38% OF 2432 JOURNALISTS SURVEYED SAID
THEY GET HALF THEIR STORIES FROM PR FLACKS; 31% said they relied
on PR people for 5 to 10 stories a week; 15% said they relied on
them for more than 10 stories; 17 PERCENT SAID THEY USED PR
PEOPLE FOR EVERY STORY. Local news reporters said they get only
15% of their stories from PR people; editors of lifestyle pages
put the figure at 60%, and among entertainment editors, the
figure is 75%. REPORTERS CREDITED PR PEOPLE AS THE SOURCE FOR
90% OF ALL STORIES ON HEALTH. The environment, of course, is
part of the "health" beat.[7])
As Mark Dowie observes, "A single public relations professional
with access to media, a basic understanding of mass psychology,
and a fistful of dollars can unleash in society forces that make
permanent winners out of otherwise-evident losers --whether they
be products, politicians, corporations or ideas."[1,pg.4]
Stauber and Rampton document the dirty tricks that are routinely
used by the PR industry, such as:
** Spying on legitimate citizen groups to learn their strategies,
and in some instances publishing phony documents on the
letterhead of legitimate groups to discredit them;
** Manufacturing phony "grass-roots" groups to create the
impression that there is a groundswell of "real people"
supporting a particular corporate agenda. Michael Dunn of the
Washington PR firm Michael E. Dunn says, "The purpose of the
grass-roots program is NOT to get more Americans involved in the
political system. The purpose of a grassroots program is one
purpose period, and that is to influence legislative
policy."[1,pg.88]
** Conducting smear campaigns against books before they are
published to intimidate editors into not reviewing them;
** Manufacturing gobs of phony news for TV and newspapers;
** Infiltrating groups to urge activists to resort to violence,
even including murder.[1,pgs.61-64]
** Calling every registered voter in a particular district to
find out what issue they care about most, then writing a letter
to each one saying that Candidate X is the champion of their
favorite issue (whether it is true or not).
Such "grass-roots" campaigns are only possible for those with
immense budgets. The NEW YORK TIMES reports that some phony
grass-roots campaigns cost upwards of $3 million per month
--pocket change for a corporation that nets billions each year.[8]
What is the larger meaning of these realities for the republic?
Here is Lewis Lapham, editor of HARPER'S MAGAZINE: "The permanent
government, a secular oligarchy... comprises the Fortune 500
companies and their attendant lobbyists, the big media and
entertainment syndicates, the civil and military services, the
larger research universities and law firms. It is this
government that hires the country's politicians and sets the
terms and conditions under which the country's citizens can
exercise their right --God-given but increasingly expensive --to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Obedient to the
rule of men, not laws, the permanent government oversees the
production of wealth, builds cities, manufactures goods, raises
capital, fixes prices, shapes the landscape, and reserves the
right to assume debt, poison rivers, cheat the customers, receive
the gifts of federal subsidy, and speak to the American people in
the language of low motive and base emotion."[9]
Such descriptions of our homeland have become troublingly
familiar. For people who care about America, it is time to bring
back outrage. Time to remember our history; it hasn't always been
this way. Time once again for the people to define what
corporations can be, can become, and can do.[10]
--Peter Montague
(National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981/AFL-CIO)
[1] John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, TOXIC SLUDGE IS GOOD FOR
YOU (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995). Contact: Common
Courage Press, Box 702, Monroe, Maine 04951; telephone (207)
525-0900. Our opening quote is taken from pages 78-79. And be
sure to check out the quarterly PR WATCH available for $35 per
year; edited by Stauber and Rampton. Contact: Center for Media
and Democracy, 3318 Gregory Street, Madison, WI 53711; telephone
(608) 233-3345.
[2] See PR WATCH Vol. 3 No. 3 (Third Quarter 1996), pgs. 1-12.
And see Douglas Frantz, "Trial Lawyers, Their Money and Their
Influence Have Become issues in the Campaign," NEW YORK TIMES
October 13, 1996, pg. A18.
[3] "Congress Passes Liability-Suit Provisions," FACTS ON FILE
WORLD NEWS DIGEST April 4, 1996, pg. 216B1.
[4] Glenn R. Simpson, "Trial Lawyers, After Flirting With GOP in
1995, Are Sitting at Democratic Party's Table Again," WALL STREET
JOURNAL July 16, 1996, pg. A12.
[5] Max Boot, "Guardian of the Lawyers' Honey Pot," WALL STREET
JOURNAL September 19, 1996, pg. A22, which is an assault on
Consumer's Union, publisher of CONSUMER REPORTS.
[6] Election data from the Center for Responsive Politics
[Washington, D.C.], "Financial Sector leads Political Spending,
Business PACs Slash Democrats as Election Fundraising Shatters
Records," a press release dated October 17, 1996.
[7] Associated Press, "Poll finds PR 'weasels' needed," ARKANSAS
DEMOCRAT, September 11, 1991, pg. 2D. The survey was done by
Jericho Promotions, a PR firm in New York City [(212) 260-3744].
[8] Stephen Engelberg, "A New Breed of Hired Hands Cultivates
Grass-Roots Anger," NEW YORK TIMES March 17, 1993, pg. A1. See
also, Janet Fritsch, "Friend or Foe? Nature Groups Say names
Lie," NEW YORK TIMES March 25, 1996, pg. A1. And Elizabeth
Kolbert, "Special Interests' Special Weapon," NEW YORK TIMES
March 26, 1995, pg. A20. And see "Public Interest Pretenders,"
CONSUMER REPORTS Vol. 59 No. 5 (May 1994), pgs. 316-320.
[9] Lewis H. Lapham, "Lights, Camera, Democracy!" HARPER'S
MAGAZINE August 1996, pgs. 33-38, quoted with permission.
[10] See REHW488 and REHW489.
Descriptor terms: pr industry; public relations industry;
elections; campaign finance reform; corporations; philip morris;
astroturf; sheldon rampton; john stauber; mark dowie; consumer's
union; trial lawyers for public justice; tlpj; contract with
america; toxic sludge is good for you; pr watch; contributions
watch; tort reform; bill clinton; wall street journal; edward
bernays;
################################################################
NOTICE
Environmental Research Foundation provides this electronic
version of RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY free of charge
even though it costs our organization considerable time and
money to produce it. We would like to continue to provide this
service free. You could help by making a tax-deductible
contribution (anything you can afford, whether $5.00 or
$500.00). Please send your contribution to: Environmental
Research Foundation, P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403-7036.
--Peter Montague, Editor
################################################################
BACK TO
*********************************************************************