Coined by sociologist William Freudenberg, this all-too-appropriate acronym summarizes how policymakers have distorted the process of science itself to push their agendas.
Pioneered by the tobacco industry and used effectively by global warming deniers and creationists, the technique makes use of the fact that
"Scientists like to think of ourselves as providing answers, while lawyers and politicians are in the business of changing the question . . . Scientists don't recognize that technique for what it is, and that's a big part of what makes this work." - Freudenberg
By ignoring the big picture - that smoking causes cancer, that CO2 emissions exacerbate the greenhouse effect - and focusing on largely irrelevant details, the policymakers whet the publics' appetite for conflict. Those policymakers present themselves as fearless underdogs crusading for The TruthTM, and shudder when their substantial ties to the tobacco/oil industry are revealed.
The problem is exacerbated by the use of he-said, she-said style of reporting where both sides of an issue are given equal weight in an article even when one side is completely bogus. The media knows that its readers/viewers are more likely to pay attention when an issue is posed as a controversy, and media outlets can't ignore the bottom line.
So . . . what does this have to do with the Little Blue Pill?
Remember how you giggled about green M&Ms in junior high? If we owned M&M/Mars and had a malfunctioning conscience, here's how we could implement the SCAM:
1.
Fund a study which would show - surprise! - that green M&Ms are more effective than Viagra.
2.
Use the reported Viagra-associated deaths to point out that Viagra is inherently dangerous and should be avoided.
3.
Introduce a bill into state legislatures to guarantee malpractice immunity for doctors who unfailingly tout green M&Ms instead of Viagra.
4.
Produce a list of a few hundred folks who have signed the following statement: "We are skeptical of claims for the ability of Viagra to increase the libido of aging men. Careful examination of the evidence for the use of Viagra should be encouraged."
5.
At every opportunity, accuse the pharmaceutical companies of being anti-chocolate, anti-green, and unAmerican.
6.
Find an atheist who uses Viagra, and quotemine him so that the public will start to believe that using Viagra leads to genocide.
7.
Produce a mockumentary - "Expectorated: No M&M Swallowing Allowed" - telling the stories of a few researchers who were supposedly booted for questioning "Big Viagra" or for proposing that green M&Ms Exist For A Reason.
8.
Run a few ads on pro-chocolate radio stations: "Tired of feeling blue? Go green! Green M&Ms, the all-natural choice. Chocolate was intelligently designed by our Creator to lift your . . . mood; try them, give them to your husband, and your friends will be green with envy! Green M&Ms, the right choice."
Ridiculous, you think? Maybe not so much. The tobacco industry and global warming deniers successfully re-focused public attention on the supposed controversies; meanwhile, millions more smokers died of lung cancer and our carbon emissions continue to rise. Likewise for creationists: by re-directing public attention toward teaching evolution, the science teacher shortage and falling qualifications for licensure are ignored.
Fortunately, journalists seem to have caught on to the fact that post-modernist reporting - where an issue is reduced to conflicting, subjectively-constructed "truths" - is inherently misleading.
Michelle Nijhuis at the Miller-McKune report has written an excellent piece detailing how ideologues have subverted public opinion by deliberately offering doubt and confusion instead of honestly-researched findings.
Keep standing up for REAL science - and don't fall for the SCAMs!
posted by Cheryl Shepherd-Adams
