Sheldon Rampton is an American editor and author. He was editor of ''

PR Watch The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a Progressivism in the United States, progressive nonprofit watchdog journalism, watchdog and advocacy organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. CMD publishes ExposedbyCMD.org, SourceWatch.org, and ALE ...

'', 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. Pu ...

industry.

Career

In 1995, Rampton teamed with

John Stauber John Stauber is an American writer. Stauber has co-authored five books about government propaganda, private interests and the public relations industry. His work includes one book about how industry manipulates science ('' Trust Us, We're Expert ...

as co-editors of

, 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 progr ...

(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 the Denver metropolitan area. it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 mil ...

'', their 1995 book, ''Toxic Sludge Is Good for You,'' offered "a sardonic, wide-ranging look at the public relations industry." 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 maintains 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 a ...

initiative led by

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...

chief information officer Andrew Hoppin. In 2010, Hoppin and Rampton co-founded NuCivic, an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

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. He also serves on the board of directors of Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

that catalogs

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geolog ...

and renewable energy projects worldwide in support of

clean energy Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Definitions of sustainable energy usually look at its effects on the environment, the economy, and s ...

Writings by Rampton

*With Liz Chilsen: **''Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities'' (1987) *With

: **'' 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 ''Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future'' is a book written by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. It is published by Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc. of the Penguin Group. The book focuses on the role expert ...

: 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) **'' 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 20th-century Mormon missionaries American media critics American Mormon missionaries in Japan American social sciences writers Former Latter Day Saints Framing theorists Historians of public relations Princeton University alumni Propaganda theorists Public relations theorists Wikipedia people Writers from California