Flack Attack

Many of you have called during the last couple of months wondering why you haven't received a recent issue of PR Watch. The reason this issue is so late is that we have been busy wrapping up a new book, soon to be published by Penguin/Putnam. Titled Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future, it provides an indepth look at many of the themes explored in our earlier book, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. We will provide you with ordering information as soon as it is available.

Some people, of course, think that we should also apologize to the PR industry for the harsh things we say about them. They will be disappointed with this issue, especially the section beginning on page 5, which carries an apology from PR industry defector Eric Sparling, who writes that he worked in the industry "for a year before I was utterly disgusted."

As the other stories in this issue illustrate, PR is a propaganda industry, misleading citizens and manipulating minds in the service of special interests. Dustin Beilke's report on last year's conference of the Public Relations Society of America shows how industry insiders are responding to the emerging "age of information" and the growth of online activism.

Industry's war against the environmental movement remains one of the biggest PR battlegrounds. Our cover story by teacher John Borowski reports on how polluters are targeting kids in the classroom with slick PR. And our review of the anti-environmental book Facts Not Fears shows how industry's effort to infiltrate the classroom is accompanied by an assault on existing environmental education programs.