Sheldon Rampton

Sheldon Rampton is an American editor and author. He was editor of PR Watch, and is the author of several books that criticize the public relations industry.

Sheldon Rampton
Occupation(s)	Editor, author

Career

In 1995, Rampton teamed with John Stauber as co-editors of PR Watch, a publication of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). They were described as liberal,^[1] and their writings are regarded by some members of the public relations industry as one-sided and hostile, but their work drew wide attention.^[2] ActivistCash, a website hosted by Washington lobbyist Richard Berman, has castigated them as "self-anointed watchdogs," "scare-mongers," "reckless" and "left-leaning."^[3] Rampton and Stauber have in turn argued that the ActivistCash critique contains a number of "demonstrably false" claims.^[4] According to a review in The Denver Post, their 1995 book, Toxic Sludge Is Good for You, offered "a sardonic, wide-ranging look at the public relations industry."^[5]

After leaving the Center for Media and Democracy in 2009, Rampton became a website developer, joining an open government initiative led by New York State Senate chief information officer Andrew Hoppin.^[6][7] In 2010, Hoppin and Rampton co-founded NuCivic, an open source software company,^[8][9] which they sold in December 2014 to GovDelivery, a software services company now known as Granicus.^[10][11] Rampton currently works as a software engineer at Granicus.^[12] He also serves on the board of directors of Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a non-governmental organization that catalogs fossil fuel and renewable energy projects worldwide in support of clean energy.^[13]

Writings by Rampton

• With Liz Chilsen:
  • Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities (1987)
• With John Stauber:
  • Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry (1995)
  • Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? (1997)^[14]
  • Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future (2001)
  • Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq (2003)^[15]
  • Banana Republicans (2004)
  • The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq (2006)