How far can federal regulators go in cramming ugly — if accurate — messages onto packs of cigarettes over the objections of the tobacco companies that sell them?
By funding its own research, industry has raised unwarranted doubts about a range of scientific issues — from the risks of tobacco to the reality of climate change — delaying response to public dangers for decades. Can scientists and journalists learn to beat the doubt industry before our most serious problems beat us all?
The University of California–San Francisco's Legacy Tobacco Documents Library demonstrates how the tobacco industry pioneered modern techniques for manipulating politics, scientific research, and public opinion. It's a sort of Rosetta Stone for deciphering corporate propaganda.