For entire sectors of industry, the support of scientific authority is vital. But, by endeavoring to control it, these industries attack the very idea of scientific truth as far as the public is concerned. The battle for control of scientific information is often carried out through the manipulation of language. The words and ideas of their inventors are manipulated to make us wonder whether these researchers, NGOs, and environmental activists are not, in fact, the ones disseminating doubt through fake news?
This book is essential for understanding the maneuvers and power plays that shape public debate today.
Stéphane Foucart and Stéphane Horel are journalists for Le Monde. In 2018 they were awarded the Prix européen du journalisme d’enquête (European prize for investigative journalisme) for their series on the Monsanto Papers. Stéphane Foucart published La Fabrique du mensonge. Comment les industriels manipulent la science et nous mettent en danger (The lie factory. How industries manipulate science and put us in danger) (Denoël, 2013). Stéphane Horel is the author of Lobbytomie. Comment les lobbies empoisonnent nos vies et la démocratie (Lobbytomy. How the lobbies poison our lives and democracy) (La Découverte, 2018).
Sylvain Laurens is a sociologist and senior lecturer at the EHESS. He recently published Militer pour la science. Les mouvements rationalistes en France (Campaign for science. Rationalist movements in France (1930-2005) (Éditions de l’EHESS, 2019).