Brought to You By

How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy

Amy Westervelt (Author)

Brought to You By

How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy

Amy Westervelt (Author)

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Recommended by BILL McKIBBEN on the EZRA KLEIN SHOW
"A book that every citizen needs to read." -JILL ABRAMSON, author of Merchants of Truth

A gripping account of the corporate propaganda that has invaded our media, our democracy, and now the very nature of truth itself-from investigative reporter and Drilled podcast host Amy Westervelt.

Whether it's the tobacco industry lying about the health dangers of cigarettes, Big Pharma burying studies that make its products less marketable, or Big Oil misleading the public on the dangers of the climate crisis, we all know corporations use doubt and science denial to avoid responsibility. So why do we continue to let them get away with it?

In Brought to You By, Amy Westervelt exposes the plot hidden within the familiar story of science denial. Over the last century, Big Industry has built a vast apparatus of think tanks, lobbyists, sponsored university labs, and obliging news networks to con the public and fool decision-makers, poisoning the informational ecosystem and warping the nature of truth along the way.

With her signature wit and incisiveness, Westervelt shows how the masterminds of corporate misinformation-people like Herb Schmertz, the public relations pioneer who made Mobil “the thinking man's oil company,” Richard Edelman, the PR guy who helped the dairy industry vilify oat milk, and David Petraeus, the disgraced spy chief using counter- insurgency tactics to discredit climate science, have ushered in an era of unprecedented corporate control.

Only by exposing this well-oiled machine can we begin to repair the social contract; reclaim truth and democracy; and redraw the lines between corporate speech and individual speech, a lie and an opinion, a dollar and a word.

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Product details

Published	Sep 22 2026
Format	Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition	1st
Pages	336
ISBN	9781639736331
Imprint	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Author

Amy Westervelt

Amy Westervelt, an acclaimed investigative climate…

Absolutely essential reading... This is no subtle cautionary tale; this is a blaring, screaming, flashing-red-lights emergency alert.

Booklist
Urgent…Most edifying are Westervelt's profiles of the individuals that built the modern PR machine…she convincingly conveys how dire corporate influence on knowledge production is for democracy.

Publishers Weekly
Well, thank heaven for this book. The indefatigable Amy Westervelt uncovers the spin at the base of so many of our current confusions, and in meticulous fashion she makes clear not only what's gone wrong but how we might start to fix it. She diagnoses the function of reporting in the best possible way-with great reporting.

Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of THE END OF NATURE
Both daunting and empowering. Daunting to realize what we're up against; empowering to learn the history, names, and playbook of those subverting truth and democracy. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to defend and advance both.

Annie Leonard, author of THE STORY OF STUFF
In this brilliant and fascinating book, Amy Westervelt tells the important story of how large corporate interests have clouded the truth and twisted facts to the point that democracy itself is threatened. With scrupulous accuracy and vivid examples, Westervelt investigates the "information polluters," unearthing stories that are original, colorful, and frightening. With her signature masterly reporting, she has created a book that every citizen needs to read.

Jill Abramson, first woman executive editor of the New York Times and author of MERCHANTS OF TRUTH
A blistering indictment of the long history of corporate pollution and corruption of our information landscape. What Westervelt shows-with both justified anger and wit and charm-is that corporate American realized long ago that democracy was bad for business. And so they set out to undermine it, and undermine it they have. A must read for anyone trying to figure out how we begin to reclaim our democracy.

Naomi Oreskes, coauthor of MERCHANTS OF DOUBT