Just finished an excellent article in the Union of Concerned
Scientists’ magazine, Catalyst. It discusses the corporate disinformation tactics
that come from a playbook that is intended to discredit science as a basis for
policy decisions by government. Very appropriate right now as 45 continues to decimate
science advisory committees and appoint decidedly anti-science cabinet members
and department heads. And you have to love the football analogies.
The gist of the article is that there are 5 different
tactics: “The Fix”, “The Fake”, “The Diversion”, “The Blitz” and “The Screen”.
In the Fix, the corporations simply use their money and
connections to influence decisions. Given Runaway Inequality, corporations and
their wealthy benefactors have accumulated massive amounts of money to
contribute to politicians (thanks “Citizens United”) to ensure that their views
will trump (pun intended) science.
The Fake is just what it sounds like – funding fake studies
to call into question real science. For example, taking a page directly out of
the tobacco companies playbook, Georgia-Pacific funded no less than 13 studies
to call into question whether exposure to asbestos was dangerous. Duh!
The Diversion is somewhat similar to the Fake. It involves
getting (or in many cases creating) fake groups to create uncertainty about the
science or raise other objections, like potential job loss. Coal, oil and gas
companies have become experts at this in opposing clean energy policies and climate
change science.
The Blitz involves attacking scientists and their
organizations. A recent example of this occurred in my home town of Wilmington,
NC when a state legislator accused local university scientists, who were analyzing
the health threats from a chemical plant, of having a “political agenda”.
Finally, the Screen is a tactic used by very wealthy
corporate donors to fund programs or whole schools at major universities, with
the real political agenda of influencing the direction their research takes. The
Koch Brothers set the table on this one with their funding of the Mercatus
Center, a think tank on campus of George Mason University that studies markets
and regulation and produces “scholarly” support for their reactionary agenda.
Perhaps this is not news to some, but it’s put together very
clearly by the folks at UCS, who are on the front lines in defense of science. They
only ask that we spread the word.
More information can be found at www.ucsusa.org/playbook
