Review // Merchants of Doubt

Many documentary films highlight the apathy of modern society and call people to action over one cause or another, however Merchants of Doubt – from Food Inc. director Robert Kenner based on the book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway – focuses instead on the debate around these causes. It takes for it’s focus the professionals hired by industries to muddy the waters around contentious issues, transforming scientific fact into ideological debate and sowing the seeds of doubt.

The film begins with a look back at the tobacco industry and their public relations maneuvering beginning in the 1950s: that smoky decade when scientists discovered cigarettes weren’t all that great for us. Realizing they couldn’t win the scientific debate, big tobacco saw the virtue in simply maintaining a skeptical conversation. As long as the public doubted the science, their sales would not be drastically hurt because, y’know, cigarettes are hard to quit. Kenner shows footage of tobacco execs testifying before congress that cigarettes are not harmful or addictive, juxtaposed with memos from within the industry that show that their own labs had proven the opposite. It’s at once enraging and sickly amusing, and it was the birthplace for a revolutionary new PR strategy. It is the evolution of this manufactured doubt that the documentary follows across a range of issues.

One of those issues is chemical flame retardants. In the film’s second chapter Kenner tells the story of Chicago Tribune investigative reporters Patricia Callahan and Sam Roe, who originally pulled the curtain back on carcinogenic retardants like asbestos. Back in the day couches often erupted in flame as a result of cigarette embers, causing great concern for the fire safety community. Their idea? Create a cigarette that would burn out on it’s own. Instead, the public wound up with toxic chemicals added to almost all household furniture thanks to the tobacco PR machine shifting the debate from creating a fire-safe cigarette to creating a fire-safe home.

The sheer number of tobacco lobbyists, climate change deniers and lying doctors that allowed themselves to be interviewed for a film titled Merchants of Doubt just goes to show you how confident they are in their abilities.

While these first two examples are disturbing, Kenner presents them in an almost whimsical fashion, allowing the viewer to imagine society is past such transparent debates. But when the film gets to it’s biggest fish, climate change, it becomes clear that the last half-century has proven much better practice for the PR machines than it has for the scientists. Kenner brings in a variety of climate change denying quacks who could have been created in a comedy writers room, but who actually hold powerful sway over public perception. In fact, they’re treated with the same respect as those in the scientific community, perpetuating a debate that should never exist. A debate that still rages on cable news channels daily.

It’s this salesmanship that is at the heart of Kenner’s film. Within all the film’s examples their exists the dilemma that hard science is not a sexy, salable commodity. Kenner even trots out scientists from various fields in order to juxtapose them against the brash, charismatic pundits working for the PR machines. The sheer number of tobacco lobbyists, climate change deniers and lying doctors that allowed themselves to be interviewed for a film titled Merchants of Doubt just goes to show you how confident they are in their abilities. You find yourself searching their faces for some winking grin, some apologetic tick that says “I know this is wrong but gosh I need the money.” But it’s not there.

The power of this message-muddling is even apparent in some of the critics reviewing the film who have argued that Kenner does exactly what he demonizes the PR machine for doing. That is, presenting only one side of a complicated debate. Well when it comes to things like tobacco or climate change the debate is an illusion, that’s the point, and Kenner does well to simply treat these issues as a given and instead focus on the immoral individuals paid to poison the public’s trust.

Kenner has clearly got his own message. He presents a rationally thought-out argument backed by facts, but he has the wherewithal to dress it up a bit. Humourous asides and slickly cut interviews make Merchants of Doubt an enjoyable viewing experience, even if the subject matter gets your blood boiling. Kenner isn’t really saying anything new or revolutionary, but he provides a rare glimpse into the surreal machinery that drives public discourse, and for that it’s worth a watch.

Reviewed by Evan Arppe.