The ability to criticize is one of the great strengths of our democracy. ..

Messy Myths The Lunatic Fringe of Spinmeisters

Mike Seccombe offers a sobering assessment of perfect spins by the post Cold War Caesars in my favourite paper the Sydney Morning Herald this very morning.
Mike profiles John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, the PR Watchers who for months have been busy exposing the president's penchant for marketing - as opposed to truth-telling.
Stauber and Rampton, the Madison-based debunkers of corporate spin, have written up their compelling case against the White House's "case" for war in an exceptional new book, "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq" (Tarcher/Putnam). It is difficult to imagine a more timely text.
This is not a matter of ideology, but of ethics. The systemic corruption resulting from the new spin is just as serious in Britain or Australia as in the US. The tools of manipulation are as available to the Labor Government of NSW as to the Liberal Federal Government.
I met the authors in Sydney in late 1990s when Wendy Baker invited them to discuss their other books called "Toxic Sludge Is Good for You" and "Trust Us, We're Experts." John Stauber predicted the limited chances of my story ever being noticed by big publishers. Indeed, George Lucas of Simon & Schuster fame repeated Staubers sober observations along the lines of any story of escape dated 1980 would be considered too old by publishing houses. ... I have an email from Lucas to prove that it was not only old it was ancient (spinning smile)
Brought to you by The Smilling Funnel Webs of the Oz Underground [Thanks to the underground connections for this link as it is not available directly from SMH site]
· Unveiling Myth's of Mass Deceptions [Alternet]
· Take people seriously - seriously [SMH ]
(PS:: Seriously, later, much later after the UTS workshop, I found out that Wendy assumed I was some kind of a spy (grin))