Bob Burton Takes Readers "Inside Spin" [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
The PR industry in Australia "employs more than 10,000 people and turns over more than $1 billion a year," writes the Center for Media and Democracy's Bob Burton [3], drawing on research published in his new book, "Inside Spin [4]." While some PR campaigns are beneficial or harmless, others "smother dissenting points of view and degrade the quality of our democracy," he warns. Burton gives the example of a Melbourne think tank [5], the Institute of Public Affairs [6]. "When the Sydney advocacy group Aid/Watch was stripped recently of its tax-deductibility status, it became the first victim of an institute campaign to curb non-government groups. What the institute hadn't publicly disclosed was that the campaign was bankrolled by corporations, including the Tasmanian woodchipping company Gunns [7]." Burton advocates for more citizen "spinbusters," [8] along with better freedom of information laws [9], regular reporting on PR, and real regulation -- not self-regulation -- of the PR industry.