Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy

Corporate PR and the Assault on Democracy

Edited by David Miller, William Dinan

Publication date:

20 June 2007

Length of book:

296 pages

Publisher

Pluto Press

ISBN-13: 9781849642958

The public relations industry is not just about celebrity gossip. This book shows how, whenever big business is threatened, spin doctors, lobbyists, think tanks and front groups are on hand to push the corporate interest, often at the public's expense.

Written by leading activists and writers, this book reveals the secrets of the PR trade including deception, the use of fake 'institutes', spying and dirty tricks. The impact can be devastating -- when the public is denied access to the truth, the results are rising inequality and environmental catastrophe.

Exposing the misdeeds of famous companies including Coca Cola, British Aerospace, Exxon and Monsanto, and revealing information about the covert funding of various apparently independent thinks tanks and institutes, the authors offer a guide to campaigns that can help us roll back corporate power and resist deceptive PR.

Introduction: Unearthing Corporate Spin by William Dinan and David Miller - Strathclyde University Department of Geography and Sociology
Part 1: Global Corporate Power and Corporate Spin
1. Public Relations and the Subversion of Democracy by David Miller and William Dinan - Strathclyde University Department of Geography and Sociology
2. Achilles Has Two Heels: Crises of Capitalist Globalisation by Leslie Sklair - London School of Economics and Political Science (Sociology)
3. A Tour of the United Kingdom’s Public Relations Industry by Chris Grimshaw - Corporate Watch
Part 2: How Corporations Use Spin to Undermine Democracy
4. Powers Behind the Throne: Washington’s Top Political Strategists by Laura Miller - Center for Media and Democracy
5. Spinning Farmed Salmon by David Miller - Strathclyde University Department of Geography and Sociology
6. Exxon’s Foot Soldiers: The Case of the International Policy Network by Andy Rowell - Freelance writer and investigative journalist
7. Biotech’s Fake Persuaders by Jonathan Matthews - Founder of GM Watch and Lobbywatch
8. Fighting Dirty Wars: Spying for the Arms Trade by Eveline Lubbers - Investigative Reporter, Amsterdam
9. Manufacturing a Neoliberal Climate: Recent Reform Initiatives in Germany by Ulrich Mueller - LobbyControl, Germany
Part 3: The Subterranean World of the Power Brokers
10. Globalising Politics: Spinning US ‘Democracy Assistance’ Programmes by Gerald Sussman - Portland State University
11. Behind the Screens: Corporate Lobbying and EU Audiovisual Policy by Granville Williams - Media and Journalism, University of Huddesfield
12. Spinning Money: Corporate Public Relations and the London Stock Exchange by Aeron Davis
13. The Atlantic Semantic: New Labour’s US Connections by William Clark - Strathclyde University Department of Geography and Sociology
Part 4: Fighting Back: Campaigning Against Spin and Rolling Back Corporate Power
14. Unmasking Public Relations by Bob Burton - Freelance Journalist, Canberra, Australia
15. Corporate Power in Europe: The Brussels ‘Lobbycracy’ by Olivier Hoedeman - Corporate Europe Observatory, Amsterdam
16. Killer Coke by Andy Higginbottom - Kingston University in London
Conclusion: Countering Corporate Spin by David Miller and William Dinan
Contributors
Index

'Essential reading for anyone concerned with the rise of corporate power and with seeing the world as it really is'