Subscribe for award-winning storytelling.

Critical Frequency

•

Channel • 10 Shows

History

History

Updated Weekly
Documentary

Documentary

Updated Weekly
History

History

Updated 10/01/2020
TV & Film

TV & Film

Updated 01/06/2019
History

History

Updated 10/29/2018
Music Commentary

Music Commentary

Updated Daily
TV & Film

TV & Film

Updated 11/28/2018

10/26/2021

S1 Ep1 | Fake Experts and Real Bacon

In this episode we'll meet the godfathers of American PR, Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays, and explore the origins and evolution of industry-funded experts who shaped everything from the breakfast table to our understanding of the economy and science. Read more: http://rigged.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10/26/2021

•

29 min
08/01/2023

Herb, Ep 3: The Next Citizens United Will Be a Climate Case

In more than 30 climate cases making their way through U.S. courts today, oil companies are using an argument they've been laying the legal groundwork for since the 1970s: that since everything they've ever said about climate change was in the interest of shaping policy or blocking regulation, it's protected speech, even if it was misleading. In this episode we take a look at how those cases are playing out and the likelihood that this new take on "corporate free speech" could make it all the way to the Supreme Court. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

08/01/2023

•

27 min
11/09/2021

S1 Ep3 | A Tie Is A Win

The tactic of science denial is fairly well known these days. In this episode, we dig into a lesser-known aspect: the PR strategy behind science denial, and the origins and architects of that strategy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

11/09/2021

•

36 min
11/02/2021

S1 Ep2 | Ye Olde Crisis Actor Myth

You could be forgiven for thinking the crisis actor myth was cooked up by Alex Jones to sell people on school shooting conspiracies, but in fact it's more than a century old. In this episode we meet the world's first publicist, the legendary Ivy Ledbetter Lee, and learn about his work crushing mine strikes for the Rockefellers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

11/02/2021

•

23 min
11/16/2021

S1 Ep4 | The Birth of SponCon

The legendary Herb Schmertz, VP of Mobil Oil, worked with PBS and The New York Times to invent sponsored content—sponcon—back in the 1960s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

11/16/2021

•

29 min
07/21/2023

Herb, Ep 1: The Panic

In the 1970s, Mobil Oil had invented the advertorial and was aggressively pursuing an entirely new type of marketing, branding the company as a person with a unique personality and opinions that deserved to be heard. When public backlash threatened to undermine their approach, they launched a campaign that would change the course of U.S. history. Transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

07/21/2023

•

35 min
10/19/2018

Rebecca Traister on the Power of Women's Anger

Author Rebecca Traister joins Ashley to answer reader letters on how to move forward when they're filled with rage over everything from politics to #MeToo. Traister is the author of All the Single Ladies and, out this month Good and Mad, about the catalytic power of women's anger.

10/19/2018

•

56 min
11/30/2021

S1 Ep5 | Fun with Front Groups

Astroturfing—the creation of fake grassroots groups to agitate for pro-business policies—has been a favorite tactic of industries and companies trying to avoid regulation for decades. In this episode we take a look at some of the greatest hits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

11/30/2021

•

27 min
12/07/2021

S1 Ep6 | How a Standard Oil PR Guy Shaped Post-War America

In 1944 the greatest threat to American industry wasn't World War II, it was convincing Americans to fall back in love with free-market capitalism after having experienced government systems that actually worked for the greater good. In the season finale of Rigged, we lay out the strategy contained in a never-before-published confidential document from the archive of Earl Newsom, Standard Oil of New Jersey's (today ExxonMobil) top PR guy from the late '30s to the late '60s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12/07/2021

•

35 min
08/01/2023

Herb, Ep 2: A Legal Strategy

Worried that all their work creating Mobil's personality and a multi-pronged issue advertising campaign to go with it would go to waste if the TV networks deemed it all "propaganda" Herb and his boss looked to the courts for protection. In this episode we follow the "corporate free speech" movement through the courts, where it got a big assist from tobacco lobbyist-turned-Supreme Court justice Lewis F. Powell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

08/01/2023

•

31 min

Award-winning storytelling backed by rigorous journalism.

Website

Critical Frequency

Top Shows

Top Episodes

About