Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

Throughout the narrative, conservative think tanks arise as a medium through which these scientists disseminate misinformation. These organizations, such as the Marshall Institute, represent the simulacrum of science, using graphs, charts, references, and reports to convince both the public and the White House of the lack of need for government regulation. However, these organizations are not subject to peer review. Essentially, they can propagate whatever reports they want and misuse statistics and other evidence in whatever way they please:

This was the Bad Science strategy in a nutshell: plant complaints in op-ed pieces, in letters to the editor, and in articles in mainstream journals to whom you’d supplied the ‘facts,’ and then quote them as if they really were facts. Quote, in fact, yourself. A perfect rhetorical circle. A mass media echo chamber of your own construction (147).

Mainstream science does not take these organizations seriously, as they are not subjected to the same rigorous standards of proof as academic science. Despite this fact, many of the merchants of doubt have close ties to these organizations, suing their scientific bona fides to garner authority within these institutions.

Most tellingly, many of these institutions are indirectly funded via various corporations and industries.