Junk Science - Philip Mirowski (2011)

The key tenets were to promote otherwise isolated scientific spokespersons (recruited from gold-plated universities, if possible) who would take the industry side in the debate, manufacture uncertainty about the existing scientific literature, launder information through seemingly neutral third-party fronts, and wherever possible recast the debate by moving it away from aspects of the science that it would seem otherwise impossible to challenge. As one famous tobacco company memo put it:

"Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the “body of fact” that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy. Within the business we recognize that a controversy exists. However, with the general public the consensus is that cigarettes are in some way harmful to the health. If we are successful in establishing a controversy at the public level, then there is an opportunity to put across the real facts about smoking and health. Doubt is also the limit of our “product”… Truth is our message because of its power to withstand a conflict and sustain a controversy. If in our procigarette efforts we stick to well documented fact, we can dominate a controversy and operate with the confidence of justifiable self-interest"

Science Mart 2011 - P Mirowski