John Stauber is an American progressive writer. Stauber has co-authored five books about government propaganda, private interests and 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. P ...

industry. His work includes one book about how industry manipulates science ('' Trust Us, We're Experts''), one about the history and current scope of the public relations industry (''Toxic Sludge is Good for You''), and one about

mad cow disease Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of t ...

(''Mad Cow USA''), which predicted the surfacing of the disease within the United States. In July 2003, Stauber and

Sheldon Rampton 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 industry and what he sees as other forms of corporate and government prop ...

wrote ''

Weapons of Mass Deception Weapons of Mass Deception is pejorative expression used by some people to describe U.S. President George W. Bush's claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction as justification for the war on Iraq. The variation Weapons of Mass ...

: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq'', which argued that the Bush administration deceived the American public into supporting the war. In 2004, the two co-authored '' Banana Republicans,'' which argued that the Republican Party is turning the U.S. into a

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...

. The book argues that the far-right and its functionaries in the media, lobbying establishment and electoral system are undermining dissent and squelching pluralistic politics in the United States. In 2006 the two wrote ''The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq,'' which builds upon the arguments they posited in ''Weapons of Mass Deception''. Stauber is the founder and former executive director 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 ...

, which sponsors

PR Watch 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 ...

and

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 progr ...

. Since the 1960s, he has worked with public interest, consumer, family farm, environmental and community organizations at the local, state and national level. He edits and writes for the Center's quarterly newsmagazine, ''PR Watch''. He is also a member of the Liberty Tree Board of Advisers. Stauber grew up in a conservative Republican household in

Marshfield, Wisconsin Marshfield is a city in northwest Wood and southwest Marathon counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 10, Highway 13 and Highway 97. The largest city in Wood County, its population was 18,929 at t ...

, but the

war in Vietnam The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

turned him into an

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

and environmental activist while still in high school.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stauber, John American media critics American political writers American male journalists Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Historians of public relations Propaganda theorists Living people People from Marshfield, Wisconsin Framing theorists American anti-war activists American environmentalists