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All the Worst Humans
All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians | Phil Elwood
3 posts | 3 read | 12 to read
A bridge-burning, riotous memoir by a top PR operative in Washington who exposes the secrets of the $129-billion industry that controls so much of what we see and hear in the mediafrom a man who used to pull the strings, and who is now pulling back the curtain. After nearly two decades in the Washington PR business, Elwood wants to come clean, by exposing the dark underbelly of the very industry thats made him so successful. The first step is revealing exactly what hes been up to for the past twenty yearsand it isnt pretty. Elwood has worked for a murderers row of questionable clients, including Gaddafi, Assad, and the government of Qatar. In All the Worst Humans, Elwood unveils how the PR business works, and how the truth gets made, spun, and sold to the publicnot shying away from the gritty details of his unlikely career. This is a piercing look into the corridors of money, power, politics, and control, all told in Elwoods disarmingly funny and entertaining voice. He recounts a four-day Las Vegas bacchanal with a dictators son, plotting communications strategies against a terrorist organization in Western Africa, and helping to land a Middle Eastern dictators wife a glowing profile in Vogue on the same time the Arab Spring broke out. And he reveals all his slippery tricks for seducing journalists in order to create chaos and ultimately cover for politicians, dictators, and spiesthe industry-secret tactics that led to his rise as a political PR pro. Along the way, Phil walks the halls of the Capitol, rides in armored cars through Abuja, and watches his client lose his annual income at the roulette table. But as he moved up the ranks, he felt worse and worse about the sleaziness of it alluntil Elwood receives a shocking wake-up call from the FBI. This risky game nearly cost Elwood his life and his freedom. Seeing the light, Elwood decides to change his ways, and his clients, and to tell the full truth about who is the worst human.
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Readaholics
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Phil Elwood is the guy you are gonna love to hate! This is an amazing ride through the legislative - lobbyist - PR flywheel in D.C. Somehow he ends up babysitting Gaddafi‘s son in Vegas, advising terrorists in Western Africa and representing the government of Qatar. His stories show how the system works to spin bad news, push agendas and normalize weirdness. It‘s a fast paced easy to read memoir ( he‘s a likable guy despite his misadventures).

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Chelsea.Poole
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I heard about this from @Megabooks review where she described this as “juicy” and it certainly is! Phil Elwood is a PR guy who has done horrible things he‘s now not proud of which he shares here. This really gives readers an idea of how the public relations machine works, in relation to journalism and (often horrible) clients. His conscience gets the better of him and he seeks treatment and begins using his tactics for “the good guys”.

Megabooks Yes! This was short and super interesting. Glad you enjoyed it, too! 3mo
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Megabooks
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This was a great darkly funny memoir from a *slightly* 😏 unscrupulous PR man. If you ever wondered what it would be like to be employed by the Gaddafi family, read this. The path that led him from a college dropout pill popper to caught up in the Mueller investigation wasn‘t for a second dull! Short and juicy 💯💯

Leniverse I can't say that's something I've ever wondered about, no 😂 But now I kinda do. 4mo
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