Weapons of Mass Deception : The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq

Examines the campaign to sell the Iraq War to the American public, including supposed links to the events of September 11, 2001, rumors of weapons stockpiles, and the reaction of commercial news media to White House reports.

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber both work for the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit organization that Stauber founded in 1993 to monitor and expose deceptive public relations campaigns and other propaganda sponsored by corporations and governments. They write and edit the Center's quarterly publication, PR Watch. They have co-authored three previous books: Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry (1995); Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? (1997); and Trust Us, We're Experts!: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future (2001). John Stauber is a longtime activist who has worked with public-interest, consumer, family-farm, environmental and community organizations at the local, state and national levels. Before founding the Center, he worked for five years for the Foundation on Economic Trends, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization, researching possible health and economic impacts of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) and organizing concerned citizens and farmers. Born in 1953, he is married and lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Sheldon Rampton is a graduate of Princeton University and has a diverse background as a newspaper reporter, activist and author. In college, he studied writing under Joyce Carol Oates, E. L. Doctorow and John McPhee. In addition to books authored with John Stauber, he is the co-author (with Liz Chilsen) of the 1998 book Friends In Deed: the Story of U.S.-Nicaragua Sister Cities. Prior to joining the Center for Media and Democracy, he worked for the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua (www.wccnica.org) on the NICA Fund, a project that since 1992 has channeled $10 million in loans from U.S. investors to support economic development efforts in low-income Central American communities. For further information about the authors, including archived copies of PR Watch, visit the PR Watch website (www.prwatch.org) or contact: Center for Media and Democracy 520 University Avenue, Suite 310 Madison, WI 53703 Phone: (608) 260-9713.