Tobacco companies have fallen far in recent years, but this zingy documentary explores how very high their p.r. machines set the bar for public misdirection.
Director Robert Kenner (“Food Inc.”) begins with some choice vintage selections from internal Big Tobacco memos — “Doubt is our product”; “It’s not about cigarettes, it’s about freedom” — and ends on the topic du jour, climate change.
As Kenner shows, the subject matter may have changed, but the MO hasn’t: A targeted, cynical campaign introducing skepticism about a public health issue creates the illusion of a two-sided story — in which one side may be entirely financed by a vested interest.
Unsurprisingly, many of the same faces repeatedly appear in Kenner’s montage of punditry, most having originated in tobacco.
One oft-quoted “climate change skeptic,” Marc Morano, admits in the film, “I’m not a scientist, but I do play one on TV occasionally … hell, more than occasionally.”
Pepping up this dismal state of affairs is commentary from a magician, Jamy Ian Swiss, who likens the showmanship of paid pundits to a dishonest version of his own profession, with serious consequences.
As they’re akin to spectators at a magic show, viewers ought to keep an eye out for what the “Merchants of Doubt” don’t want us to see.