Toxic Sludge Is Good for You

View other editions of Toxic Sludge Is Good for You.
View books by John Stauber, Sheldon Rampton.

Interesting but boring... - Rated
I'm getting fed up of reading poorly written American non-fiction. Here's another book that reads like a PhD thesis. Don't get me wrong, I'm with these guys 100%, but the style is boring and there's too much detail and padding: "Based in Jefferson, Wisconsin, Morgan & Myers is the nation's 42nd largest PR firm..." Zzz.

brilliant investigative work that will open you eyes... - Rated
This book is a great read. It is interesting, funny and shocking. If you want to know about the secrets of mutli nationals and the american electoral process this book will not disappoint. It is an interesting read for anyone that feels decieved by the marketing and public relations industry as well as politics. Get an inside view of modern day campaigning and public oppinion shaping.

Very, very interesting... - Rated
A wide-ranging exposure of how US industry and government use PR to cow the many into supporting the unscrupulous vested interests of the few - so good I'm surprised it is still available!

This book has changed my view of the world. - Rated
Must reading for everyone. I bought a bunch of copies and am giving them as gifts to my friends.

I used to wonder why I heard so much contradictary news in the major media pertaining to health and the environment. First, a news item quotes an authority saying a food is safe, the next year the same newspaper says it's dangerous, and the next year after that they claim it's good for you. After reading this book, I know why. There are thousands of environmental and health , and scientific organizations. According to this book, many (but not all) of these organizations are not much more than clever PR fronts, funded mainly by industry. For example, I have often seen and continue to see information provided by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) in the major newspapers and magazines. The media usually takes this organization at its word as a credible scientific source.

According to this book: The ACSH is an industry front group that produces PR ammunition for the food processing and chemical industries. They praise the nutritional values of fast food and receive money from the fast food industry. They claim pesticides are very safe and take money from a host of pesticide manufacturers. The list goes on and on.. Yet the journalists usually take the ACSH words almost verbatim as fact and print it in their newspaper. Most journalists don't check their sources, or they're puppets of industry. Then the public reads this stuff as if it were scientifically proven fact. Public policy and law often gets decided on the basis of this "knowledge." Of course, some readers of these "facts" are skeptical, but no one seriously challenges the ACSH's credibility. Thus the ACSH continues to operate as if it were an objective science institute. Thousands of front groups worldwide use many of the same techniques. It then becomes obvious why so many people have a mistrust for science and don't know what to believe.

I used to think this country was a democracy, but now I know who really pulls the strings on many key issues. It's not the PR firms, it's the companies who hire the PR firms. Don't miss this book. For related info on health and environmental issues, I recommend "Our Stolen Future" by Theo Colborn.

A must-read for any PR professional. - Rated
This book was required reading for my Public Relations seminar class. As a p.r. major, I wondered why this was assigned, since it seems to do nothing but malign the whole industry. As I continued to read, however, I began to see why it was assigned: We as public relations professionals need to know what the opposition is saying about us.

This book is great because it shows p.r. people what NOT to do when practicing the trade. As stated before in the previous reviews, this book is one-sided, but, as you can tell by the title, that's what it sought to be. However, it's unfortunate that the author's didn't explore all the positive aspects of public relations, since many p.r. campaigns help keep the U.S. economy healthy.

So, as I said before, every p.r. professional should read this book to get a feel for the history of public relations, but they should also take into consideration that this doesn't cover the good aspects. Just as the book said public relations people only show the positive attributes of their clients, this book only shows the negatives of the industry.

Toxic Sludge is very well-written and informative, and I commend the authors for a book that makes the required reading list.