10 Years of PR Watch

This year, the Center for Media & Democracy celebrates ten years of exposing manipulative and deceptive corporate and government public relations. Founded as the first public interest organization to address the problem of organized propaganda campaigns and their impact on democracy (especially progressive social change), the Center has exposed flacks in this newsletter, on our website, in countless interviews and articles, and in the five books written by CMD founder John Stauber and PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton.

Starting with the first issue of PR Watch, which profiled the secretive PR/public affairs firm Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin in "Spy for Hire," we've pulled the curtain back to show the behind-the-scenes work done to shape public opinion. Over the years we've tracked tobacco industry PR, corporate greenwashing, and FDA spinning. Unfortunately, we've never faced a shortage of material.

Last year was our busiest year. CMD took a leading role in reporting on the Bush administration's campaign to sell the Iraq war. The culmination of this work is our book Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq. Released in July 2003, it quickly became a New York Times bestseller. We also launched an exciting new project in online, open-content journalism, Disinfopedia.org. (See PR Watch, 4th Quarter 2003.) And at the end of December, a lowly cow in Washington state tested positive for mad cow disease, causing the office phone to ring off the hook and giving us the opportunity to educate the media and public about our compromised governmental agencies.

In response to U.S. government officials and the public being confronted with the threat of mad cow disease here, our 1997 book Mad Cow USA has been re-released. This issue features the book's new forward, "How Now, Mad Cow?," and a short piece on the USDA's blocking private testing for mad cow disease, titled "Where's the (BSE-Free) Beef?"

As we enter our second decade, we've added three new staff members: Diane Farsetta, who does research, writing and development work; Kristian Knutsen, who does grassroots outreach and manages our office; and Bob Burton, who edits Disinfopedia. We are expanding the Center's work and taking important information to an even wider audience.

At the end of May, we have another book hitting the shelves--Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing is Turning America into a One-Party State. We've included an excerpt in this issue,"Pumping Irony," which looks at box-office muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest starring role as governor of California.

This summer and fall, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton will be speaking at events across the country promoting Banana Republicans and highlighting the Center's work. We're also holding meet-the-author events in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. And in our hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, we are excitedly looking forward to our tenth anniversary celebration with Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica's Democracy Now!, on June 18. We would love to see you at one of these events. Supporters from around the country can also be recognized during our tenth anniversary celebration. For more information, see our website, call us at 608-260-9713 or email diane@prwatch.org.

In our decade of covering the public relations and public affairs industry, we've seen time and time again how corporate, political, and ideological groups distort issues, confuse voters, and manipulate public opinion to serve their own interests. We hope our work is an antidote, promoting citizen education and action, and challenging the media to do more than just recite the PR story line.