The Tobacco Playbook: 3. The White Coats

How They Made Us Doubt Everything

The tobacco industry’s white coats are ready, the battle of science vs science begins. The battle for public opinion will be played out in the media. In this episode we hear how the tobacco industry chose to fight science with science, pitting one scientist wearing a white coat against another. It worked. Tobacco industry scientists made it on to Ed Murrow’s prominent documentary series “See It Now”.

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