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PR Watch

PR Watch is a quarterly newsletter whose stated mission is to expose deceptive and misleading public relations campaigns. It frequently writes about anti-environmental PR campaigns but also covers issues ranging from labor rights to world affairs. Its web site states, "Whether the issue is health, consumer safety, environmental preservation or democracy and world peace, citizens today find themselves confronted by a bewildering array of hired propagandists paid to convince the public that junk food is nutritious, pollution is harmless, and that what's good for big business and big government is good for the rest of us."[1]

Articles appearing in past issues have included:

In addition to archives of the newsletter, the PR Watch web site also offers daily reporting on public relations, propaganda and mass media spin in its Spin of the Day section. Its Impropaganda Review offers tips on "How to Research Front Groups" and a "Rogues Gallery of Industry Front Groups and Anti-Environmental Think Tanks." It has also started the Disinfopedia project, a specialized wiki encyclopedia about propaganda and public relations campaigns.

PR Watch is the creation of authors John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton via the Center for Media and Democracy.

Funding

PR Watch and the Center for Media and Democracy reported receiving funding from a number of organizations founded by heirs of industrial and real estate fortunes. Their reported funding sources include, among others, the Bydale Foundation, Careth Foundation, Carolyn Foundation, Changing Horizons Charitable Trust, CS Fund, Deer Creek Foundation, Educational Foundation of America, Florence and John Schumann Foundation, Grodzins Fund, Jenifer Altman Foundation, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, Rockwood Fund, Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Stern Family Fund, Town Creek Foundation, and the Turner Foundation.

See also: junk science, global warming, Ted Turner

External links