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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.

See also

• Controversy#In propaganda
• Cause célèbre
• Gibson's law
• Publicity stunt
• Succès de scandale

Further reading

• Precaution and the Methodological Status of Scientific (Un)certainty by A. Van Dommelen, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, Volume 15, Number 1, 2002, pages 123–139 (abstract)
• The Media and Political Process by Eric Louw, 2005, ISBN 0761940839
• Prelude and temptation: arresting a vitriolic and defamatory controversy by Leslie G. Roman, published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Volume 16, Issue 2 March 2003, pages 149–156
• The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney, ISBN 0465046762
• GameDaily BIZ: Controversial Games and PR: Warning! Contents May Be Hot

References

1. Bush, Richard Clarence (2004). At cross purposes: U. S.-Taiwan relations since 1942. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-1372-7. His reputation had been tarnished in a Republican-engineered controversy over an internal House financial agency
2. Austin, Thomas (2002). Hollywood, hype and audiences: selling and watching popular film in the 1990s. Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. p. 45. ISBN 0-7190-5775-2. Even in an era well used to the mechanisms of film 'hype' — aggressive marketing, engineered controversy, press sensationalism {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
3. ^ Humbach, John A. (2000). "Abuse of Confidentiality and Fabricated Controversy: Two Proposals" (PDF). Professional Lawyer, Vol. 11, No. 4,. 11 (4). Retrieved 2007-08-05. By contesting issues on which the parties do not really disagree, a diligent advocate can secure for the client an added chance to 'snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.'{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
4. Coleman, Ronny J. (2005) . "How to Swim With Sharks and Survive". Chief's Clipboard: Twenty Years of Ronny Coleman. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. pp. p. 77. ISBN 0-7637-3616-3. ... that individual finds himself or herself in the midst of a fabricated controversy. By fabricated, I mean a relatively minor incident blown out of proportion, ... {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |origmonth= ignored (help)
5. ^ Sarkar, Sahotra (2007). Doubting Darwin?: Creationist Designs on Evolution. (Blackwell Public Philosophy Series). Blackwell Publishing Limited. pp. p. 166. ISBN 140515490X. Moreover, the "controversy" within biology allegedly over evolution versus ID creationism is an artificial controversy generated by the claim that evolution is controversial. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
6. ^ Pashler, Harold E.; Stevens, S. S. (2002). Steven's handbook of experimental psychology. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. pp. p. 348. ISBN 0-471-44333-6. The reject/fail-to-reject dichotomy keeps the field awash in confusion and artificial controversy. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
7. "Fuelling Controversy". UK Watch. Znet. Retrieved 2007-08-04. ...the tobacco industry's plan was not to try and win the scientific argument.... What they could do, appropriately enough, was create a smokescreen: a manufactured controversy fostering enough doubt in the public...
8. "The denial industry : George Monbiot on climate change and Big Tobacco". The Guardian. 2006-09-19. Retrieved 2007-08-05. As a memo from the tobacco company Brown and Williamson noted, '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.'
9. "That this controversy is one largely manufactured by the proponents of creationism and intelligent design may not matter, and as long as the controversy is taught in classes on current affairs, politics, or religion, and not in science classes, neither scientists nor citizens should be concerned." Intelligent Judging — Evolution in the Classroom and the Courtroom George J. Annas, New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 354:2277-2281 May 25, 2006
10. "Some bills seek to discredit evolution by emphasizing so-called "flaws" in the theory of evolution or "disagreements" within the scientific community. Others insist that teachers have absolute freedom within their classrooms and cannot be disciplined for teaching non-scientific "alternatives" to evolution. A number of bills require that students be taught to "critically analyze" evolution or to understand "the controversy." But there is no significant controversy within the scientific community about the validity of the theory of evolution. The current controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution is not a scientific one." AAAS Statement on the Teaching of Evolution American Association for the Advancement of Science. February 16, 2006
11. Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals. A Position Paper from the Center for Inquiry, Office of Public Policy Barbara Forrest. May, 2007.
12. Ruling, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, page 89
13. Pomeroy, William J. (1992). The Philippines: colonialism, collaboration, and resistance. New York: International Publishers. pp. p. 86. ISBN 0-7178-0692-8. ...the artificial controversy that was created over the initial measure approved by the US Congress, the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
14. Beeson, Mark (2002). Reconfiguring East Asia: regional institutions and organizations after the crisis. London: RoutledgeCurzon. pp. p. 111. ISBN 0-7007-1477-4. Indeed, in the highly contrived controversy in Singapore over possible re-merger with Malaysia, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong distinctive features of the Singapore polity that would preclude a possible merger with Malaysia, and prominent in this list was the existence of the 'rule of law' {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
15. Hazelwood, Roy; Michaud, Stephen G. (2000). The Evil That Men Do. St. Martin's True Crime. pp. p. 263. ISBN 0-312-97060-9. As the contrived controversy gained momentum, and national attention, New York governor Mario Cuomo named Bob Abrams, the state attorney general, as a special prosecutor. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
16. Pradesh (2006-10-03). "Hyderabad News : It's engineered controversy, says CLP". The Hindu. Retrieved 2007-08-04. The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has termed the uproar over the estimates of Sripada Sagar Project an "engineered controversy" aimed at stalling the project work. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |firs= ignored (help)
17. Morton, Andrew R. (2002). Madonna. New York: St. Martin's Paperbacks. pp. p. 24. ISBN 0-312-98310-7. The engineered controversy and deliberate chaos she causes in her artistic life contrast with the order and regimentation of her business routine. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
18. Miller, Laura (2001-02-17). "The new victimology". Salon.com News. Retrieved 2007-08-04. Cox (whose media-readiness, it must be said, makes the whole brouhaha seem like an engineered controversy on the part of BMA) describes the work as a critique of the church...
19. Jenkins, Philip (2003). The new anti-Catholicism: the last acceptable prejudice. Oxford : Oxford University Press. pp. p. 127. ISBN 0-19-515480-0. In many such incidents, it looks very much as if the artists and the galleries concerned were deliberately seeking a succes de scandale. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
20. Healy, Pattrick (2007-07-25). "Clinton and Obama Campaigns Spar Over Debate". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-04. Mr. Obama responded swiftly, saying the Clinton campaign was concocting a 'fabricated controversy.'
21. "Wal-Mart ends attempt to start bank : FDIC calls move wise, retailer cites 'manufactured controversy'". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2007-08-01. 'Unlike dozens of prior ILC applications, Wal-Mart's has been surrounded by manufactured controversy since it was submitted nearly two years ago,' Wal-Mart Financial Services President Jane Thompson said in a statement.
22. "In defense of Clinton". Time. 1998-09-21. Retrieved 2007-08-01. Ken Starr's Overzealousness--A Manufactured Controversy
23. "New EU Meeting Will Push For Europe-Wide Restrictions On Free Speech". National Secular Society. Retrieved 2007-08-01. The meeting has been prompted by the manufactured controversy over the Mohamed cartoons, and religious leaders are now trying to cash in on the advantage this brought them by demanding that there is some kind of Europe-wide restriction on disrespect for religion.
24. "- Prometheus: Manufactured Controversy Archives". Prometheus. 2005-06-08. Retrieved 2007-08-04. In short, the front page New York Times story today is a manufactured controversy.
25. Callahan, Mathew (2005). The Trouble With Music. Stirling, Scotland, UK: AK Press. pp. p. 101. ISBN 1-904859-14-3. Manufactured controversy, such as that surrounding sex and violence, is desirable. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
26. Howard Hampton (2003). Public Power: Energy Production in the 21st Century. Insomniac Press. pp. p. 97. ISBN 1-894663-44-6. In pre-World War II Ontario, Hydro's struggles to keep up with rapidly growing demand for power were plagued by political interference and manufactured controversy. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
27. Williams, Katie; Jenks, M.; Burton, Elizabeth (1996). The Compact city: a sustainable urban form?. Patrick Troy. London: E & FN Spon. pp. p. 162. ISBN 0-419-21300-7. the lack of choice in Australian housing is manufactured controversy and much of it is an implied criticism of people's choice of houses over flats {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
28. Eric Boehlert (2006). Lapdogs: how the press rolled over for Bush. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-8931-5. The manufactured controversy over the photographs was an end run at censorship, plain and simple.

• Public relations
• Propaganda techniques
• Sociology
• Legal ethics