Antinuclear

Sandi Keane explains how Australia’s fossil fuel industries deceive us with ASTROTURFING

The Landscape Guardians, their front group, the Waubra Foundation, with their links to mining interests, skeptics, the Liberal Party and the Institute of Public Affairs, were first exposed by this author in an investigation in July last year. Their bogus health scare campaign is a classic example of how genuine citizens were duped to disregard the mounting evidence by the large and growing body of evidence (now numbering some 17 reviews) from around the world debunking “Wind Turbine Syndrome”.

Deception is our product Independent Australia 9 Feb 2012,  http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/environment/deception-is-our-product/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IA+Newsletter%3A+PR+astroturfing+-+deception+…&utm_source=YMLP&utm_term=Astroturfing.jpg

Environment editor Sandi Keane exposes the shadowy world of PR, where astroturfing and propaganda is used to coerce the public into sacrificing their own interests for those of big corporations.

Deceiving the public these days is a lucrative industry. Experienced PR practitioners now coerce you through astroturfing and other socially engineered forms of brainwashing to sacrifice your interests for those of their clients – especially those with the biggest war chest – the fossil fuel industry….

Classic examples were Hands Off My Healthcare in the US, and, in Australia, the watering down of tax on miners, the about-turn by the public on the ETS, and the recent success of the Landscape Guardians to stop wind farms replacing coal-fired power in Victoria.

Like the fake flies used as bait to lure unsuspecting fish, fake grassroots are used as bait to lure unsuspecting people, who, in turn provide a veneer of green shoots amongst the plastic to fool other “real” citizens (into getting on board) and an unsuspecting media, helped by complicit governments.

The Landscape Guardians, their front group, the Waubra Foundation, with their links to mining interests, skeptics, the Liberal Party and the Institute of Public Affairs, were first exposed by this author in an investigation in July last year. Their bogus health scare campaign is a classic example of how genuine citizens were duped to disregard the mounting evidence by the large and growing body of evidence (now numbering some 17 reviews) from around the world debunking “Wind Turbine Syndrome”.

As a result, the Baillieu government in Victoria has all but made future wind farming in Victoria impossible, with an estimated $3 billion in investment gone offshore…..

Faked “citizen action” was the brainchild of PR heavyweight Burson Marsteller, whose leaked email “Doubt is our Product” laid bare the ruse behind tobacco’s denial campaign during the tobacco wars.

The same ruse has been used for the last decade by the mining industry to create doubt about global warming.

Few mining magnates – or the army of policy wonks, PR hacks, scientists, front groups, think tanks or political parties they fund – doubt the world is warming — just as the tobacco industry was in no doubt about the link between cigarettes and lung cancer……

What of the current raid by Gina Rinehart on Fairfax?  Last week, enviro-blogger, Graham Readfearn,exposed Christopher Monckton (who has been sponsored by Rinehart to push the free-market, climate skeptic agenda) urging the super rich at a mining strategy think tank to

“capture the high ground on what are still the major media”.

Sounds like Rinehart was listening.

The mining industry is spending up big on political campaigning — most of it political donations to the Liberal and National parties. The Australian Electoral Commission revealed a spend of $8 million in the 2010/2011 year on top of $22 million the previous year. Another $70 million in political donations is unaccounted for, thanks mostly to Howard’s trigger for transparency being raised from $1,000 to $11,500.  Not surprisingly, neither the Labor Party nor the Greens received a cent.

Just how ethical is the Australian PR landscape? I asked the question of the National President of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, (not to be confused with the IPA) Nicolas Turner. He was clear on where PRIA stood in relation to astroturfing:

“our members operate under a code of ethics which govern and guide responsible behaviour …. [W]e believe PR practitioners recognise and understand the need to build and maintain good relationships with their communities and stakeholders, thus safeguarding the trust and respect of customers, suppliers, shareholders, and various levels of government.”

In other words, the freedom for Australian citizens to have access to the facts instead of drowning in a sea of propaganda.

But not if Monckton and his paymasters have anything to do with it.

The battle lines have been drawn. Democracy versus plutocracy.

On one side, the genuine climate scientists, those politicians not yet in the pockets of the miners and those who care about the planet and their children’s future. Their opinions will struggle to be heard as independent mastheads come under siege and ethical PR resources dry up.

On the other, all those who have jumped on board the mining gravy train and turned their backs on our democratic ideals of a fair go for all.

February 9, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, spinbuster