User:Digwuren/Artificial controversy

An artificial controversy, or variously a contrived controversy, engineered controversy, fabricated controversy, or manufactured controversy, is a controversy that does not stem from genuine difference of opinion. The controversy is typically developed by an interest group, such as a political party or a marketing company, to attract media attention, or to facilitate framing of a particular issue. Creating controversy is also a controversial legal tactic used to gain advantage in a negotiation or trial.

The controversy may stem from a minor incident blown out of proportion, from a false claim of controversy where no serious dispute exists, or unintentionally from misinterpreting data.

The term is also applied in a pejorative or dismissive sense to an actual controversy in an attempt to diminish its importance in public debate.

Denialism
A common method of making denial look legitimate is generating artificial controversies over the subject matter. For an example, Holocaust deniers often try to brand the historical consensus of the Holocaust genocide of World War II as 'controversial' in the hope that repeated often enough, the general public would believe there's a genuine difference of opinions between reputable historians, or that there is reasonable doubt as to the reality of Holocaust.

Tobacco industry documents show that the industry created controversy over the dangers of tobacco smoking, and later passive smoking, without actually denying the claims. A 1969 Brown and Williamson internal document describes the strategy: “Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy. ... Spread doubt over strong scientific evidence and the public won’t know what to believe.”

Teach the Controversy, a Discovery Institute ideological denialism campaign against the Theory of Evolution is often labeled as artificial or manufactured controversy. The issue reached the United States federal court system in the 2005 case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. Several students and their parents challenged the school board's policy inspired by the intelligent design movement ((IDM) requiring science teachers to read a prepared statement on intelligent design (ID) in science class. After a 40-day trial, conservative judge John E. Jones III wrote in his his 139-page findings of fact and decision, "ID’s backers have sought to avoid the scientific scrutiny which we have now determined that it cannot withstand by advocating that the controversy, but not ID itself, should be taught in science class. This tactic is at best disingenuous, and at worst a canard. The goal of the IDM is not to encourage critical thought, but to foment a revolution which would supplant evolutionary theory with ID."

Some notable usage examples
A partial list of notable controversies labeled as artificial, contrived, engineered, fabricated, or manufactured by a credible, though not necessarily objective, source:

Artificial controversy

 * Former U.S. Army Aviator and Philippine political prisoner William J. Pomeroy called opposition to the 1933 Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act for Philippine independence an "artificial controversy" launched for political advantage.
 * Steven's Handbook of Experimental Psychology states that arbitrary statistical thresholds for interpreting experimental data cause unnecessary confusion and "artificial controversy"

Contrived controversy

 * Mark Beeson, a senior lecturer in International Relations at Griffith University, characterized possible reunification with Malaysia in Singapore as "highly contrived controversy."
 * Former FBI profiler Stephen G. Michaud wrote that the media circus surrounding the 1987 Tawana Brawley rape case in New York was a "contrived controversy."

Engineered controversy

 * The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in India has termed the uproar over the Sripada Sagar Project on the Pranahita River an "engineered controversy" designed to delay work.
 * Biographer Andrew Morton contrasted the "engineered controversy" and deliberate chaos the entertainer Madonna causes in her artistic life with the order and regimentation of her business routine.
 * Writer Laura Miller characterized the 2001 brouhaha over the display of artist Renée Cox's "Yo Mama's Last Supper" at the Brooklyn Museum as an "engineered controversy" on the part of the museum.

Fabricated controversy

 * U.S. Senator and 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama accused his opponent, fellow senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, of creating a "fabricated controversy" over his foreign policy comments in July 2007.
 * Pace University Professor of Law John A. Humbach argues that "fabricated controversy" as a lawyering technique undercuts the trial as a "search for truth," and thereby undermines justice and the rule of law.

Manufactured controversy

 * In early 2007, U.S. retail giant Walmart claimed a "manufactured controversy" forced it to drop plans to open an industrial loan corporation, a type of bank.
 * Time Magazine dubbed Ken Starr's investigation into U.S. President Bill Clinton's infidelity a "manufactured controversy" in a 1998 cover feature story.
 * United Kingdom's National Secular Society has called the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy a "manufactured controversy," and expressed concern over this incident's influence on free speech in Europe.
 * Roger A. Pielke (Jr), a climate change scientist, argued that a June 8, 2005 New York Times cover story about a Bush Administration official's editing of two high level climate reports was a "manufactured controversy."
 * Musician Mathew Callahan wrote that sex and violence in popular music are intended by the music industry to create "manufactured controversies."
 * Canadian politician Howard Hampton wrote that in the pre-World War II period, Ontario Hydro expansion plans were hampered by political interference and "manufactured controversy."
 * Patrick Troy, Professor of Urban Research at the Australian National University, called lack of choice in Australian housing "manufactured controversy."
 * Journalist Eric Boehlert called criticism of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of a murder on Haifa Street in Baghdad a "manufactured controversy" for censorship purposes.