Sheldon Rampton

Toxic sludge is good for you blows the lid off of today's multi-billion-dollar propaganda-for-hire PR industry, revealing how public relations wizards concoct and spin the news, organize phony "grassroots" front groups, spy on citizens and conspire with lobbyists and politicians. --Publisher.

"For the first time since 1932, the Republican Party controls every major institution of the federal government: the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate and the House of Representatives - not to mention the "fourth branch of government," the mass media. How did this come to pass? Banana Republicans reveals how the GOP leadership maintains its hold on power through the systemic manipulation of the electoral system, the media, the lobbying establishment, and the political culture at large."--BOOK JACKET.

The book that unmasks the sneaky and widespread methods industry uses to influence opinion through bogus experts, doctored data, and manufactured facts."Finally a long-overdue exposé of the shenanigans and subterfuge that lie behind the making of experts in America." (Jeremy Rifkin)"If you want to know how the world wags, and who's wagging it, here's your answer." (Bill Moyers)"Meticulously researched . . . Rampton and Stauber's documentation of PR campaigns proves that they are the real 'experts.' " (Brill's Content) AUTHOBIO: John Stauber is the founder and director of the Center for Media & Democracy. He and Sheldon Rampton write and edit the quarterly PR Watch: Public Interest Reporting on the PR/Public Affairs Industry.