Sheldon Rampton (born August 4, 1957) is an American editor and author. He was editor of '' PR Watch'', and is the author of several books that criticize the

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

industry and what he sees as other forms of corporate and government propaganda.

Education

Rampton was born in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. At the age of one, his family moved to

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

, where his father worked as a musician. Raised as a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS Church), he spent two years in Japan as a

Latter-day Saint Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

from 1976 to 1978. Upon returning to the United States, however, he left the LDS Church, influenced in part by

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...

feminist

Sonia Johnson Sonia Ann Johnson, (''née'' Harris; born February 27, 1936) is an American feminist activist and writer. She was an outspoken supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and in the late 1970s was publicly critical of the position of the Chur ...

Career

Upon graduation in 1982, Rampton worked as a newspaper reporter before becoming a peace activist. During the 1980s and 1990s, he worked closely with the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua (WCCN), which opposed the

Reagan administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...

's military interventions in Central America and works to promote economic development, human rights, and mutual friendship between the people of the United States and

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

. At WCCN, Rampton helped establish the Nicaraguan Credit Alternatives Fund (NICA Fund) in 1992, which channels loans from US investors to support microcredit and other "alternative credit" programs in Nicaragua. In 1995, Rampton teamed with John Stauber as co-editors of PR Watch, a publication of the

Center for Media and Democracy The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a progressive nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. CMD publishes ExposedbyCMD.org, SourceWatch.org, and ALECexposed.org. History CMD was founded in 1993 by prog ...

(CMD). They were described as liberal, and their writings are regarded by some members of the public relations industry as one-sided and hostile, but their work drew wide attention. ActivistCash, a website hosted by Washington lobbyist Richard Berman, has castigated them as "self-anointed watchdogs," "scare-mongers," "reckless" and "left-leaning." Rampton and Stauber have in turn argued that the ActivistCash critique contains a number of "demonstrably false" claims. According to a review in the

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

, their 1995 book, ''Toxic Sludge Is Good for You,'' offered "a sardonic, wide-ranging look at the public relations industry." Rampton is also a contributor to the Wikipedia open content project, and was the person who coined the name "

Wikimedia The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best know ...

" which later became the name of the foundation that manages Wikipedia and its sister projects. Inspired by Wikipedia's collaborative writing model, Rampton founded Disinfopedia (now known as

SourceWatch The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a progressive nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. CMD publishes ExposedbyCMD.org, SourceWatch.org, and ALECexposed.org. History CMD was founded in 1993 by prog ...

), another CMD project, to complement his PR Watch work to expose what Rampton perceives as deceptive and misleading

campaigns. After leaving the Center for Media and Democracy in 2009, Rampton became a website developer, joining an

open government Open government is the governing doctrine which sustain that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state and ...

initiative led by New York State Senate chief information officer Andrew Hoppin. In 2010, Hoppin and Rampton co-founded NuCivic, an open source software company, which they sold in December 2014 to GovDelivery, a software services company now known as Granicus. Rampton currently works as a software engineer at Granicus.

Writings by Rampton

*With Liz Chilsen: **''Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities'' (1987) *With John Stauber: **'' 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) **'' Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future'' (2001) **''Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq'' (2003)Taylor, Philip. "Propaganda to Believe In." (book review) The World Today 59, no. 8/9 (2003): 20-21. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40477061. **'' Banana Republicans'' (2004) **
The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq
' (2006)

References

External links

PR WatchSheldon Rampton's home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rampton, Sheldon 1957 births Living people American media critics American social sciences writers Writers from California Former Latter Day Saints Princeton University alumni Propaganda theorists Public relations theorists Historians of public relations American Mormon missionaries in Japan 20th-century Mormon missionaries Framing theorists