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The Tobacco Playbook: 8. Jerry gets ‘duped’

As climate change goes prime time, a superstar climate change sceptic wins his last TV debate.

As climate change goes prime time, a super star climate change sceptic wins his last TV debate. Jerry Taylor was working at CATO, a free market think tank and was regularly on TV putting forward contrarian arguments. One day, all that changed.

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.

Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane

Available now

14 minutes

Broadcast

  • Wed 5 Aug 2020 13:45

How the oil industry made us doubt climate change

How the oil industry made us doubt climate change

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how to manufacture doubt.

Podcast