Editing Sheldon Rampton

{{Short description|American editor and author (born 1957)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Sheldon Rampton
| image       = SheldonRampton.jpg
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| occupation  = Editor, author
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'''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.

==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,<ref>Chisun Lee, a writer for the ''[[Village Voice]]'', noted of Rampton and co-author John Stauber's work: <blockquote>There isn't likely to be much corporate support there. These guys come from the far side of liberal. Saying so is not to detract from their exhaustively detailed reportage and calmly convincing tone; indeed, the book is generally light on rhetoric, and there's hardly a radical quoted.</blockquote> Chisun Lee, [http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0115,lee2,23736,10.html  "The Flack Catchers"], ''[[Village Voice]]'', April 10, 2001.</ref> and their writings are regarded by some members of the public relations industry as one-sided and hostile, but their work drew wide attention.<ref name="ManningProfile">{{cite news |last1=Manning |first1=Anita |title=Their message: Don't trust experts The public must be skeptical, authors say (profile) |newspaper=USA Today |date=4 February 2001|id={{ProQuest|408879145}} }}</ref> [[ActivistCash]], a website hosted by Washington lobbyist [[Richard Berman (lawyer)|Richard Berman]], has castigated them as "self-anointed watchdogs," "scare-mongers," "reckless" and "left-leaning."<ref>[http://www.activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/oid/12 Organization Overview] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928025814/http://www.activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/oid/12 |date=September 28, 2007 }}, ActivistCash.com website.</ref> Rampton and Stauber have in turn argued that the ActivistCash critique contains a number of "demonstrably false" claims.<ref>[http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=A_Visit_to_the_ActivistCash.Com_Web_Site A Visit to the ActivistCash.com Website], ''SourceWatch'' (wiki [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=A_visit_to_the_ActivistCash.com_web_site&oldid=286006 permalink Feb. 25, 2008]).</ref>  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."<ref name="Rosenberg">{{cite news |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Paul |title=All's safe in twists of public relations experts Authors decry manipulation to downplay dangers (book review) |newspaper=[[Denver Post]] |date=4 February 2001}}</ref>

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]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.informationweek.com/software/information-management/cio-seeks-open-government-in-brawling-new-york-state-senate/d/d-id/1080910 |last1=Wagner |first1=Mitch |title=CIO Seeks Open Government In Brawling New York State Senate |date=29 June 2009 |publisher=Information Week |access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lullabot.com/podcasts/drupal-voices/sheldon-rampton-on-the-new-york-state-senate |title=Sheldon Rampton on the New York State Senate |date=27 April 2010 |website=Lullabot.com |access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref> In 2010, Hoppin and Rampton co-founded NuCivic, an [[open source]] software company,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://socialcapitalreview.org/open-government-state-of-the-union/ |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Matt |title=Open Government: State of the Union |date=11 November 2014 |publisher=Social Capital Review |access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.innovationtrail.org/post/state-senate-tech-guru-taking-his-gov-20-skills-elsewhere |last1=Seward |first1=Zack |title=State Senate tech guru is taking his gov 2.0 skills elsewhere |date=15 February 2011 |publisher=Innovation Trail |access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref> which they sold in December 2014 to GovDelivery, a software services company now known as Granicus.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://granicus.com/blog/govdelivery-acquires-nucivic-to-bring-proven-open-source-solutions-to-government/ |title=GovDelivery Acquires NuCivic to Bring Proven Open Source Solutions to Government |date=17 December 2014 |website=Granicus.com |publisher=Granicus, Inc. |access-date=29 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://technical.ly/dc/2016/10/25/govdelivery-merger-granicus/ |last1=Chappellet-Lanier |first1=Tajha |title=Merger news: GovDelivery and Granicus are now one |date=25 October 2016 |publisher=TechnicallyMedia |access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref> Rampton currently works as a software engineer at Granicus.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheldon-rampton-72311a2/ |title=Sheldon Rampton (profile) |website=LinkedIn.com |access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref> He also serves on the board of directors of [[Global Energy Monitor]] (GEM), a [[non-governmental organization]] that catalogs [[fossil fuels|fossil fuel]] and [[renewable energy|renewable]] energy projects worldwide in support of [[fossil fuel phase out|clean energy]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://globalenergymonitor.org/about/people/ |title=People |website=GlobalEnergyMonitor.org |access-date=6 December 2024}}</ref>

==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)
**''[https://web.archive.org/web/20000821192748/http://www.prwatch.org/books/mcusa.html Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?]'' (1997)<ref name="BrownReview">{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Valerie |title=Mad Cow; Could the Nightmare Happen Here? (book review |publisher=[[Eugene Weekly]] |date=29 November 2001|id={{ProQuest|362764093}} }}</ref>
**''[[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)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Philip |date=2003 |editor-last=Rampton |editor-first=Sheldon |editor2-last=Stauber |editor2-first=John |title=Propaganda to Believe In |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40477061 |journal=The World Today |volume=59 |issue=8/9 |pages=20–21 |jstor=40477061 |issn=0043-9134}}</ref>
**''[[Banana Republicans]]'' (2004)
**''[http://www.prwatch.org/tbwe/?q=books/tbwe The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq]'' (2006)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.prwatch.org PR Watch]
*[http://www.sheldonrampton.com Sheldon Rampton's home page]
*{{C-SPAN|87952}}

{{Orwell Award recipients}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rampton, Sheldon}}
[[Category:1957 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century Mormon missionaries]]
[[Category:American media critics]]
[[Category:American Mormon missionaries in Japan]]
[[Category:American social sciences writers]]
[[Category:Former Latter Day Saints]]
[[Category:Framing theorists]]
[[Category:Historians of public relations]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:Propaganda theorists]]
[[Category:Public relations theorists]]
[[Category:Wikipedia people]]
[[Category:Writers from California]]