Rating: 
Summary: Every American should read this book!
Review: I won't waste your time repeating what others have said before me and said so well. The facts and observations in this book paint a chilling picture of a Whitehouse that functions almost exclusively as the propaganda wing of the exclusive Carlyle Group by manufacturing public opinion, manufacturing a state of endless war (thus creating a market for the Carlyle Group's principle product: arms) and making legal and acceptable activities that would otherwise be unthinkable. This book helps cut through the rhetoric and makes it clear that we are no longer in a situation that can be defined as Republicans vs. Democrats, or Conservative vs. Liberal values. What is made clear is that the highest offices in our country have been hijacked by criminals, idealogical extremists and terrorists. It's a shame that most Republicans will dismiss this as so much "liberal propaganda"; it's their party that's been hijacked and if they ever face the truth, I suspect they'll be mighty cheesed off.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: for steve585, who wrote the moronic review. I don't see you over in Iraq laying your life on the line. I know you're too busy watching Fox News and O' Lie-ly factor. Iraq gassed the Kurds during the FIRST Bush Administration and we did NOTHING! So where are those WMD's? How long are we going to look, 5-10 yrs?
Bush has finally admitted that there is no connection between 9/11 and Iraq. Hmmm, can we say liar?? Little Stevie, I bet you didn't read the book.
Rating: 
Summary: the truth, finally.
Review: In the wake of 9/11, the publishing market has been flooded with a glut of tomes dripping the bile of the yellow-smiley-face brand of fascism that John Ashcroft would approve of, and worse yet, convincing feeble-minded reactionaries that this is, indeed what we have to look forward to as Americans. Just look at the efforts of Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly to insist we should embrace the wild promise of another four years of Bush, and that the problems of this country boil down to the fact that we haven't installed a Republican Dictatorship to "take care of things." Well, for the rest of us, "Weapons of Mass Deception" is like the light at the end of the tunnel--simply a riveting work (backed up with oodles of footnotes) that nails the forthright and more subtle lies of the Bush Administration in manipulating information to "manufacture" a war with Iraq (even now, the Bush Boys are claiming Hussein had no link to Al-Qaeda, when earlier this year that was the key selling point of their little vanity war), and, more disturbingly, the mainstream media's lobotomized regurgitation of this information. Not only is it well-written (I wonder why more 'liberal' tomes seldom resort to childish mudslinging the way conservatives like Coulter and O'Reilly do), riveting, and immediately engaging--it blows the lid off the hypocrisy and true Anti-American attitude of this administration and the media lapdogs that bark on cue for it. Along with Al Franken's book and Michael Moore's upcoming "Dude, Where's My Country?", "Weapons of Mass Deception" is a fine addition to the pantheon of reckless truth-seekers in this country. Bravo.
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Summary: Really first rate investigative scholarship
Review: The authors write that if searched hard, one could find such reports on as in the LA Times from Greg Miller about reports from human rights groups and doctors about hundreds of casualties, killings and maiming of Iraqi civilians, from cluster bombs. The authors write that civilian defense crews, presumably from the U.S. , were cleaning up a thousand unexploded cluster bombs a day in Karbala alone. The International Committee for the Red Cross visited Al-Hilla south of Baghdad and described a "horror" with "dozens of smashed corpses." Amnesty International reported that video from the Hilla hospital showed innumerable persons injured or dead from shrapnel from those bombs, with children cut in half with their limbs blown off. The authors note that that year the senate passed a measure called the Prevention of Genocide Act that would have imposed sanctions on Iraq. Senators Al Gore, Clairborne Pell (democrats) and Jesse Helms sponsored it. The White House then helped kill the measure in the house...the authors note that there were several stories that came out in the mainstream press detailing U.S. provision for Saddam of materials to make WMD during the 1980's. In September 2002 the warrior and father figure Rumsfeld was the victim of some unusual sassiness while being interviewed by Pentagon correspondent Jamie McCintyre of CNN. Macintyre showed him video of he, Mr. Rumsfeld, shaking hands with Saddam back in December 1983 when he was a special emissary for Reagan. Rumsfeld did not have time to let forth with "Well, we thought Iran was the greater threat at the time..." and instead burst forth with "Where did you find this, Iraqi TV?" Rumsfeld claimed that he had "cautioned" Saddam about using chemical weapons. Not true. He only mentioned them to Tariq Aziz, the authors note in their endnotes, as part of a list of things that were preventing the U.S. from giving even more aid to Iraq. The U.S. had more "similarities than differences" with Iraq, he told Aziz. The authors write interestingly about Laurie Myorlie....... Well, back in 1987, she was providing quite a different argument than she is now for the state she serves and worships when that state had a different policy. She authored a piece for the New Republic with fellow commissar Daniel Pipes arguing that Iraq was a bulwark for the West in the Middle East and would stabilize oil flows The U.S. would continue to support Saddam, after the Iran-Iraq war, giving him a billion in credits to buy U.S. products in late 1989. The authors go over how the Bush administration terrorized Americans into endorsing their disgusting war. They quote from a prominent PR journal a Republican insider who allowed that it was quite nice that during the 2002 elections nobody was talking about corporate scandals or the economy. Andrew Card, white house chief of staff, was quoted in the New York Times as saying that one did not begin marketing campaigns in August. That was his excuse for the coincidence that the campaign for war with Iraq, was began in September 2002, when the congressional election races went into full swing. The Republicans won last November from the minority of voters that bothered to cast ballots, on the Iraq-Al Qaida bugaboo. The authors notes that by Spring 2002 the New York Times was reporting that the Iraqi embassy official in the Czech republic, involved with the used car business, actually met with a used car dealer from Germany that was not but looked like Mohammed Atta. Atta was in Florida or in some place at the time. Later in the year it was reported in the Times that Czech president Vaclav Havel visited the U.S. and quietly tried to put the story previously advanced by his officials about the supposed Atta meeting to rest. But administration officials cynically kept leaking reports that the Czech story stood up and there was a lot that was classified and more info would be coming. Richard Perle, the Prince of Darkness, advanced the most fancy of thesis in September 2002 to an Italian business publication that Atta had met with Saddam himself and evidence of this would be forthcoming which, of course, it was not. The author's note some important other lies floated by the administration. Bush claimed that the International Atomic Agency had said that Iraq was very close to developing nuclear weapons; the actual report that the authors quote said that they had no such weapons and the infrastructure to make them had been completely dismantled. He claimed that the IAEA had stated in January 2003 that Iraq had high strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for nukes; it had actually stated that such tubes were too weak to enrich uranium and were probably used for the conventional missiles Iraq was allowed. The authors quote Colin Powell's in his harangue to the UN as saying that there was a poison weapons factory in Khurmal in NE Iraq; Luke Harding went to see the supposed factory and found a bunch of dilapidated buildings. The townspeople expressed fear about the U.S. targeting them; during the bombing, they were hit and several dozen of them were killed. Bush quoted Hussein Kamal but didn't point out that as the John Barry article in Newsweek containing transcripts of Kamal showed, Kamal claimed that had destroyed all its weapons after the Gulf War. He quoted Khidir Hamza, but failed to note that in Kamal's words the latter is a "pathological liar.' There's lots of other interesting things in this book. The authors discuss the manipulations of SUV advertising. They discuss how the Donahue show was eliminated in spite of being the highest rated show on MSNBC; according to a memo leaked to AllyourTV.com the network feared that having a liberal anti-war show was not good business in the midst of jingoist wartime. They discuss in detail the famous incubator story and its roots in the PR firm Hill &Knowlton and how it re-emerged in 2002 in the HBO movie "Live From Baghdad." They discuss Saudi Arabia and the Carlyle Group.
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Summary: metajournalism on the PR propelling Iraq conquest
Review: Rampton and Stauber have in the past done outstanding jobs dissecting the uses of PR in ``Toxic Sludge is Good for YOU!'' and ``Trust Us, We're Experts!'' I found those to contain rather original scholarly research, and to coherently synthesize the ways that we are bombarded by PR. This attempts to do the same thing for the Iraq war. The writing and synthesis are terrific, but the sources are really nearly all from newspapers or the web. To name one, I was excited to get the lowdown on how the Iraqi National Congress was established by a PR firm, as I heard about from R&S on a radio show, and it turned out that it was first revealed by Peter Jennings five years ago (of course it was not resuscitated by Mr. Jennings in time for this war!). In this sense, I have come to view R&S's work here as a valuable example of metajournalism, in which the collate, comment, and coherently synthesize news which is already out there. It is very important and useful. You will find it all here, all the lies or distortions of the administration and the places where these were first exposed. I do hope that they go back to some primary source work for their next efforts.
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Summary: Interesting, but thats all I'll give it.
Review: Interesting reading, but remember to take it for what it's worth.
I see a lot of reviewers that seem to think this book proves something. It proves nothing, it simple gives you one side of the story.
Remember to read other book on the subject. And believe 25% of what you read and 50% of what you see.
Rating:
Summary: Unmasking the wizards of spin
Review: Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's "Weapons of Mass Destruction" is a timely book that provides valuable context and analysis about the recent war with Iraq. The authors are seasoned media critics who are skilled at deconstructing propaganda and unearthing the motives that drive U.S. policy in the Middle East. Like in the movie 'Wizard of Oz', we realize that almost everything we have been told by the political leaders who have been hiding behind the proverbial curtain of PR spin has been patently untrue. Rampton and Stauber begin the book by discussing the role U.S. propaganda has played in the Middle East from the post-WW II era to today. The authors contend that America's self-professed image of promoting democracy has clashed severely with the reality of its support for petty dictators and monarchs who, in return for U.S. support, ensured a steady supply of oil. The authors insist that this is the reason why the post-9/11 "branding" campaign to favorably influence Arabic opinion of America failed miserably. On the other hand, selling the Iraq war to the American public has been much more successful. The authors discuss the role that PR professionals, the CIA and conservative groups played in the anti-Saddam media blitz that was heaped upon the U.S. citizenry. Perhaps not surprisingly, we learn that many of these players could profit handsomely when Iraq's oil reserves become privatized. Rampton and Stauber examine the increasingly close relationship between the U.S. military and the media. The authors debunk the infamous 'incubator babies' story from the Gulf War era but show how such misinformation can be used to successfully influence public opinion. Likewise, claims that a Saddam-Al Qaeda connection may exist and that Saddam may possess weapons of mass destruction were known to be false, but the repetition of these lies by authority figures implied truth and persuaded many people of their validity. In possibly the most important section of the book, Rampton and Stauber remind us that most of the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi Arabian. The authors contend that deep financial ties between the Bush administration and Saudi Arabia has compromised U.S. response to the terror crisis. We learn that the Kingdom funds anti-American Wahhabism in order to channel street-level resentment of elitist privlege away from the Saudi monarchy and towards the U.S. government. This duplicity is deeply disturbing and is a sad testament to how badly American foreign policy has been compromised as a result of its selling out to big oil. The authors go on to discuss the use of doublespeak, fear and the corporate ownership of media in shaping public discourse. Interestingly, we discover that people who watch TV the most actually know less about important topics than others. No doubt this phenomenon has something to do with the deployment of Pentagon "combat camera" crews and "embedded" TV reporters who overwhelmingly presented a pro-U.S. bias with little critical context or analysis. On the other hand, images played to foreign audiences more often depicted the brutal realities of war: the dead and injured Iraqi people, their devastated homeland, and the contradictions of U.S. policy. In the end, "Weapons of Mass Deception" warns us about the dangers posed to democracy when leaders and citizens believe their own propaganda. I strongly encourage everyone to read this outstanding book.
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Summary: A Look into the Weapon of Spin
Review: The authors of this book present a rational analysis of the massive PR machine that this adimistration mobilized in order to 'sell' the Iraq war to the public. These authors - PR watch-dogs as their profession - take an analytical approach to dissecting the PR campaign, explaining the world of PR and connecting the PR firms responsible for 'spinning' the government's war message, as well as describing what worked and what did not work. More importantly, however, is the overwhelming sense that public opinion has been 'spun' into believing innuendo - such as the unproven connection between 9/11 and Iraq - as well as the incredible control Washington exerted over the meida throughout the war. A must read for anyone who feels they were mis-led by the government.
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Summary: I knew it!
Review: When I heard of the concept of "embedded" journalists, I knew it was the ploy of a PR flack. Sure enough, the Pentagon hired a flack from Hill & Knowlton, one of the better known PR firms. These authors are true experts in the realm of public relations, aka the manufacture of consent, as others have called it. (That's a pedantic term, I suppose, for a colloquialism Amazon and others are not likely to print.) Early in the text, they mention "The Second Front," also available from Amazon.com--from which I immediately purchased it--as the best description of the Pentagon's manipulation of the media in the last "gulf war." During that "event," editors of major newspapers disregarded letters to the editor that challenged it, while they printed story after story of VFW troops and such doing their patriotic thing. It was so biased, it bordered on comical, hence my interest in the subject. The authors cover a great deal of the history of the US's involvement in the Mideast and, rightfully, describe that if an American relies on this country's mass media for information, he or she would see us as helpless victims of unscrupulous and insatiable terrorists from that portion of the world. The history they cover, though, shows that much of what has happened has been a consequence of US actions in that portion of the world. Oh, and they raise an interesting point that's been covered in other texts too, that people who rely on television actually know LESS than those who avoid that medium. As a book's title indicated a few years ago, "The more you watch, the less you know." Maybe that's why I won't allow television news on in my house. Oh, in that last war, the story of the many, many babies being thrown from incubators was concocted by an allegedly anonymous young woman. She turned out to be a member of the Kuwaiti royal family. By the time the story was revealed as a hoax, the damage had been done. In the same vein, in the more recent war, while there was no evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Quaida, Bush and his boys hinted that there was a connection. In a manner of months, the few percent of Americans who believed there was a connection had grown to a vast majority. There it is: PR at work again. Anyway, I agree with an earlier reviewer, that the ones who need to read this won't. May the book be spread through classrooms, or other means by which people may be awakened by it. The mass media have been so, yes, embedded in the propaganda apparatus that any sense of "objectivity" has been rejected for the party line. Reminds a guy of Tass, doesn't it? If I were to attempt to cricitize it, the only thing the book lacked was more detail on the manufacture of the "heroism" story on Jessica Lynch. The mainstream media picked that one up without so much as a question. It's media like the National Catholic Reporter and other deviant publications that I've found that the Lynch story was a complete fabrication. However, maybe that story will be covered in books dedicated to just that subject, truly worthy a study itself--aside from the massive contract Lynch is getting for her "memoir." Anway, thanks again Messrs. Rampton and Stauber. I've read your other books and found them enlightening. This book, focusing on one subject of the PR explosion, was another winner I'm recommending to everyone I know.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, intellectual, and to the point
Review: Weapons of Mass Deception is just what the public needs. Written professionally and without bull, this book focuses on how we were deceived about the war in Iraq. In this to-the-point book, we learn about how the media likes war, how there was NO link between Osama and Saddam, and how this Administration is ruining public relations between the United States and Middle East. This book is truly a read for all who want to know the truth. Warning,
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