Episode Two Of the "Rigged" Podcast: How The Rockefellers Polished Their Image

 Episode one of Rigged, the new podcast exploring the history of disinformation, introduced the publicist who made bacon-and-eggs the "classic American breakfast" as part of his work for the bacon industry in the 1940s, procuring "doctors" to convince Americans that a heavy breakfast was healthier. 

Now, Episode two presents America's First "Crisis Actors." In 1914, Ivy Lee, the father of modern public relations, worked with the coal industry to improve public perception after a deadly at a Colorado mine turned deadly. 

 

Rigged Host Amy Westervelt explains:
"When the Rockefellers hired Lee they were one of if not the most hated family in the country. They'd been raked over the coals by journalist Ida Tarbell in a series of stories that led to an antitrust case against them. They lost that case and Standard Oil had been broken up into several smaller companies (Chevron, Exxon, and Texaco were all former parts of Standard Oil). Then they decided to send in security guards to crush a protest at their Colorado mine, killing women and children in the process."

Lee turned the tide for them. He massaged the details of the Ludlow strike, insinuating that the union had hired people to protest. He created an independent-sounding experts bureau on mining labor issues. And he created modern corporate philanthropy as a way for the Rockefellers to clean up their image. It worked--when John D. Rockefeller Sr. died 20 years later, the Ludlow Massacre was left out of his obits entirely.

Rigged uses new interviews and never-before-heard archival audio to bring these stories to life in short episodes. 

Listen to Rigged on all podcast platforms: https://podlink.to/rigged