How They Made Us Doubt Everything27 Jul 2020

The Tobacco Playbook: 4. Tobacco in the Dock

As the evidence against tobacco mounts, the court suits keep coming. Tobacco keeps winning. ‘Due to favourable scientific testimony, no plaintiff has ever collected a penny from any tobacco company in lawsuits even though 117 such cases have been brought’. An internal memo from tobacco company R J Reynolds reveals a motive behind their funding of research. In this episode the battle is taken to the court room as we hear how a land mark trial toppled tobacco.

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change. With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.

Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev Producer: Phoebe Keane

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(17)

The Tobacco Playbook: 8. Jerry gets ‘duped’

As climate change goes prime time, a super star climate change sceptic wins his last TV debate. Jerry Taylor was working at CATO, a free market think tank and was regularly on TV putting forward contr...

27 Jul 202013min

The Tobacco Playbook: 7. The Opponent

How do you win a battle, if you’re fighting in the wrong arena? A look at how the virtues of science were being used against the scientists. Uncertainty is an inherent part of climate change science, ...

27 Jul 202013min

The Tobacco Playbook: 6. From Fact to Theory

‘Unless “climate change” becomes a non-issue…there may be no moment when we can declare victory’. We reveal the communications plans drawn up by energy groups to make us doubt climate change. From tar...

27 Jul 202014min

The Tobacco Playbook: 5. Big Oil's Big Group

As the world’s scientists agree on man-made climate change, the oil companies come together to form their own coalition. They aren’t just focused on the science, though. From climate change to smokin...

27 Jul 202013min

The Tobacco Playbook: 3. The White Coats

The tobacco industry’s white coats are ready, the battle of science vs science begins. The battle for public opinion will be played out in the media. In this episode we hear how the tobacco industry ...

27 Jul 202013min

The Tobacco Playbook: 2. ‘Doubt is our product'

At a secret meeting, a plan is drawn up to fight claims that smoking causes cancer. In 1953, the tobacco industry was hit by a major storm. ‘Salesmen in the industry are frantically alarmed and the d...

27 Jul 202014min

The Tobacco Playbook: 1. Big Oil’s Big Crisis

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured.In this episode we take you to an oil company’s boardroom as they plan their response to the ‘crisis men...

27 Jul 202013min