The public relations industry is not just about celebrity gossip. This book shows how, whenever big business is threatened, spin doctors, lobbyists, think tanks and front groups are on hand to push the corporate interest, often at the public's expense.  Written by leading activists and writers, this book reveals the secrets of the PR trade including deception, the use of fake 'institutes', spying and dirty tricks. The impact can be devastating -- when the public is denied access to the truth, the results are rising inequality and environmental catastrophe.  Exposing the misdeeds of famous companies including Coca Cola, British Aerospace, Exxon and Monsanto, and revealing information about the covert funding of various apparently independent thinks tanks and institutes, the authors offer a guide to campaigns that can help us roll back corporate power and resist deceptive PR. 'Essential reading for anyone concerned with the rise of corporate power and with seeing the world as it really is' - Mark Curtis, journalist and author of 'Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses' (2007) 'Corporate spin is one of the great toxins of democracy and a free society. Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy is a foundational book to educate us about this sleazy realm and equip us to do battle with it' - Robert W. McChesney, author, Communication Revolution: Critical Junctures and the Future of Media 'Essential reading for anyone concerned with the rise of corporate power and with seeing the world as it really is' 'Corporate spin is one of the great toxins of democracy and a free society. Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy is a foundational book to educate us about this sleazy realm and equip us to do battle with it' David Miller is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath. He is the co-editor of What is Islamophobia? (Pluto, 2017) and the author of Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy (Pluto, 2007) and A Century of Spin (Pluto, 2007). Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy Corporate PR and the Assault on Democracy By William Dinan, David Miller Pluto Press Copyright © 2007 William Dinan and David Miller All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7453-2444-9 Contents Acknowledgements, vii, Introduction: Unearthing Corporate Spin William Dinan and David Miller, 1, Part I Global Corporate Power and Corporate Spin, 1. Public Relations and the Subversion of Democracy David Miller and William Dinan, 11, 2. Achilles Has Two Heels: Crises of Capitalist Globalisation Leslie Sklair, 21, 3. A Tour of the United Kingdom's Public Relations Industry Chris Grimshaw, 33, Part II How Corporations Use Spin to Undermine Democracy, 4. Powers Behind the Throne: Washington's Top Political Strategists Laura Miller, 53, 5. Spinning Farmed Salmon David Miller, 67, 6. Exxon's Foot Soldiers: The Case of the International Policy Network Andy Rowell, 94, 7. Biotech's Fake Persuaders Jonathan Matthews, 117, 8. Fighting Dirty Wars: Spying for the Arms Trade Eveline Lubbers, 138, 9. Manufacturing a Neoliberal Climate: Recent Reform Initiatives in Germany Ulrich Mueller, 155, Part III The Subterranean World of the Power Brokers, 10. Globalising Politics: Spinning US 'Democracy Assistance' Programmes Gerald Sussman, 175, 11. Behind the Screens: Corporate Lobbying and EU Audiovisual Policy Granville Williams, 196, 12. Spinning Money: Corporate Public Relations and the London Stock Exchange Aeron Davis, 212, 13. The Atlantic Semantic: New Labour's US Connections William Clark, 226, Part IV Fighting Back: Campaigning Against Spin and Rolling Back Corporate Power, 14. Unmasking Public Relations Bob Burton, 247, 15. Corporate Power in Europe: The Brussels 'Lobbycracy' Olivier Hoedeman, 261, 16. Killer Coke Andy Higginbottom, 278, Conclusion: Countering Corporate Spin David Miller and William Dinan, 295, Contributors, 305, Index, 311, CHAPTER 1 Public Relations and the Subversion of Democracy David Miller and William Dinan Public relations was created to thwart and subvert democratic decision making. It was a means for 'taking the risk' out of democracy. The risk was to the vested interests of those who owned and controlled society before the introduction of voting rights for all adults. Modern PR was founded for this purpose and continues to be at the cutting edge of campaigns to ensure that liberal democratic societies do not respond to the will of the people and that vested interests prevail. PR functions, in other words, as a key element of propaganda managed democracy. This is the precise opposite of PR industry spin, which boasts that PR facilitates debate and deliberation, and is the hallmark of pluralist democracy. It is widely accepted that the PR industry arose at the same time as the great movements for democratic reform between 1880 and 1920. In the United States this involved coping with the feared elevation of the masses. 'The crowd is enthroned' according to PR pioneer