The Enron scandal may be touching us in unknown ways. The National Association of Information Destruction says hundreds of thousands of tons of shredded office paper goes to recyclers. "It just so happens that office paper makes very high quality toilet tissue. (Reader's Digest, 4-02)
John Stauber speaks at length about the public relations industry in an interview titled "War on Truth, The Secret Battle for the American Mind." Stauber states that secrecy is essential to the public relations industry, invisibility is key.
Public relations is most effective in manipulating opinion and public policy when people believe that what they are being covertly told is not propaganda but instead common sense or accepted reality. Corporations spend billions each year to hire PR firms to "cultivate the press, discredit their critics, spy on and co-opt citizens groups, and use polls to find out what images and messages will resonate with target audiences.
Most of us have never heard of nor would recognize most of the PR firms that influence us.
One firm's promotional material claims that "the role of communication is to manage perceptions which motivate behaviors that create business results" and that the firm helps clients "manage issues by influencing..,. public attitude, public perceptions, public behavior and public policy."
Stauber claims half of everything in the news originates from PR firms which are owned by advertising agencies.
The PR industry "might be the single most powerful institution in the world," lobbying, creating public policy and getting political candidates elected. The industry "exploits the democratic rights of millions on behalf of big business by fooling the public about issues."
Propaganda is used by the powerful to maintain control. The solution Stauber offers is for the rest of us to develop "critical thinking capabilities and maintain a strong commitment to reinvigorating democracy." Ironically, the PR industry "grew out of the democratic process of debate and decision making."
Public relations is now a "huge, powerful, hidden medium available only to wealthy individuals, big corporations, governments and government agencies.” Its purpose is "to increase power and profitability for clients." Issues in Washington, DC are now "managed" by the trio of public relations experts, business lobbyists and phony "grassroots" organizations. Stauber asserts the PR industry grew out of the Woodrow Wilson administration's campaign to get Americans to support US entry into World War I. After their success, PR practitioners found business clients in tobacco, oil and other industries.
Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, gave the name "public relations" to "a scientific method of managing behavior" that he developed from his uncle's psychoanalytical techniques.
Bernays wrote in his book Propaganda that "it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it." Through this "engineering of consent" he proposed that "those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."
Not until Bernays learned that Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels had read all his books, did it occur to him "that his science of propaganda could be used to subvert democracy and promote fascism."
According to Stauber, "Journalism is in drastic decline ... Academics who study public relations report that half or more of what appears in newspapers and magazines is lifted verbatim from press releases generated by public relations firms." Media has "become dependent on PR firms for the stories they do write ... Frankly, if you're not cynical, you're not understanding what's happening."
PR industry schemes to engineer our consent include funding biased or phony research, polling the public to find which messages "resonate with people's values and desires," hiring '"scientific experts' to say things beneficial to the industry's clients," using lies to "manage issues and public perception," controlling public debate by control of the news media, reporters and journalists, contributing to charities and non-profits "to deceive us into thinking that they care and are making things better," infiltrating and fracturing social change movements, exploiting public-interest organizations that have themselves become big business, multinational nonprofit corporations, and recruiting "so-called activists" to work against the public interest.
That they succeed reflects "the sorry state of democracy in our society.
We really have a single corporate party with two wings, both funded by wealthy special interests ... the US political and social environment is corrupt and deeply c functional." But we deeply want to believe all the lies that we live in a functioning democracy. "We need to come real citizens and get personally involved in reclaiming our country."
A main thrust of PR business is to get the public ignore atrocities. "Managing the outrage is more important than managing the hazard. A hazard isn't a problem if you're making money off it. It's only when the public comes aware and active that you have a problem, or rather, a PR crisis in need of management." (The Sun, 3-99)
The president of the Public Relations Society of America said Americans have become distrustful of companies, government and church officials and the lack of confidence "in corporations can lead to unique opportunities for public relations officials." She said, "It's a golden era for us in communications." (The Morning News, 3-02)