The tip of th e iceberg that we call the American media. It's not what it once was (if it EVER was, to begin with)... John Stauber is a left-wing American writer and political activist who co-authored five books about propaganda by governments, private interests and the PR industry. They include one book about industry manipulating science, Trust Us, We're Experts, one about the history and current scope of the public relations industry (Toxic Sludge is Good for You), and one about mad cow disease (Mad Cow USA), which predicted the surfacing of the disease within the United States. In July 2003 he and Sheldon Rampton wrote Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq, that argued that the Bush administration deceived the US into supporting the war. In 2004, the two wrote Banana Republicans, which argued that the Republican Party is turning the U.S. into a one-party state. The book argues that the far-right and its functionaries in the media, lobbying establishment and electoral system are undermining dissent and squelching pluralistic politics in the United States.
Stauber is the founder and executive director of the The Center for Media & Democracy, which sponsors PR Watch and SourceWatch. Since the 1960s, he has worked with public interest, consumer, family farm, environmental and community organizations at the local, state and national level. He edits and writes for the Center's quarterly newsmagazine, PR Watch.