Trust Us We Are Experts by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber - Book Report/Review Example

These seemingly independent experts- the third party- scientists, institutes, universities are cultivated by large corporates to propagate ideas that impact their sales positively. Perceptions are managed by camouflaging real issues, playing on public emotions and only pretending to be an independent party with no vested interest.//The author’s gives the example of Microsoft’s plot to mold public opinion. With the justice department beginning antitrust investigations of Microsoft, the company’s public relations firm resorted to the circulation of articles, letters to the editor, and opinion pieces all across the country designed to be perceived as heartfelt pieces by the common man.

Independent Institute published a book in defense of Microsoft which could have been passed of as business-as-usual had the truth about financing its publication not been revealed. Rampton and Stauber write, “Microsoft had provided 20 percent of the institute’s operating budget. In addition to helping pay for the publication of Winners, Losers and Microsoft, the software company had paid for the newspaper ads in which the Open Letter appeared” (10). // The authors give the analogy of the “Potemkin village” and liken it to the industry’s activities to build an image of repute.

As the façade of the “Potemkin village”, this image created by the industry is a lie too.// Experts who ostensibly have no stakes in a company are made to endorse its products, which sweep public opinion in the company’s favor. The authors point out that Bristol-Myers Squibb paid $600,000 to the American Heart Association for the right to display the AHAs name and logo in ads for its cholesterol-lowering drug Pravachol. Smith Kline Beecham paid the American Cancer Society $1 million for the right to use its logo in ads for Beechams Nicoderm CQ and Nicorette anti-smoking ads.

//The author goes on to describe the paradox.