Toxic Sludge Is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry

by John C. Stauber, Sheldon Rampton

isbn: 1567510604
subject: Nonfiction, Media
finished: 10/22/2000

The thesis of Toxic Sludge is that the public relations industry helps concentrated interests work against the well being of the general population. They do this by systematically spreading misleading (or downright false) information in order to influence public opinion or to make legislators believe that public opinion is different than it is. The book is extremely biased, but not in a deceptive way because the authors are up-front about their biases; they appear to be genuinely worried that it's so easy to subvert one of the conditions necessary for a democracy to work: a well-informed populace.

Most of the book is spent examining a number of examples in which the authors feel that the PR industry went too far by, for example, helping to convince farmers that sludge extracted from sewage is a good thing to spread on their fields (it often contains high levels of toxic chemicals). This is depressing material - the PR industry appears to have become very good at exploiting the irrational side of human behavior in order to further their clients' ends. Toxic Sludge is frightening, entertaining, and often funny. It's also well documented. Recommended.