All The Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons and Politicians

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Description

After nearly two decades in the Washington PR business, Elwood wants to come clean, by exposing the dark underbelly of the very industry that's made him so successful. The first step is revealing exactly what he's been up to for the past twenty years - and it isn't pretty.
Elwood has worked for a murderer's row of clients, including Gaddafi, Assad, and the government of Qatar -namely, the bad guys. In All the Worst Humans, Elwood unveils how the PR business works, and how the truth gets made, spun, and sold to the public - not 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 Elwood's disarmingly funny and entertaining voice. He recounts a four-day Las Vegas bacchanal with a dictator's son, plotting communications strategies against a terrorist organization in Western Africa, and helping to land a Middle Eastern dictator's 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 spies - the 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 all -until Elwood receives ashocking 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.

Reviews

Journalists often wonder what spinmasters are doing to influence them. The reality Phil Elwood reveals is worse-and more interesting-than we usually imagine. All the Worst Humans is an exhilarating ride through the underbelly of global power structures. -- Ben Smith, author of Traffic and editor in chief of Semafor
Hilarious and harrowing, and hard to put down. Indeed, I didn't put it down. -- Christopher Buckley, author of Thank You for Smoking
With All the Worst Humans, he spills the secrets, surpassing the tired genre of Washington tell-all with a gripping, nonfiction bildungsroman... Ultimately, All the Worst Humans is a redemption story about becoming a better human, a story Elwood tells with vulnerability, heart, and brutal honesty. -- James Kirchick, New York Times bestselling author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington
Exciting and full of bluster, this thrilling tale is hard to look away from... A rowdy, dirty-pleasure story of how it feels to cater to unsavory people for money and excitement. * Kirkus *
I have raced through this book and been gripped by every page... it is absolutely exactly what I wanted to read. * Sophie Heawood *
[A] raucous debut memoir ... Elwood's picaresque features mordantly funny scenes (a standout chapter involves shepherding client Muammar Gadafi's deranged adult son Mutassim around Las Vegas) and a savvy exploration of the machinery of public relations, including how astroturfed nonprofits and content-hungry journalists function as PR mouthpieces. The result is an entertaining, wised-up account of the dark arts of reputation laundering. * Publishers Weekly *

Author Bio

Phil Elwood is a public relations operative. He was born in New York City, grew up in Idaho, and moved to Washington, DC at age twenty to intern for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He completed his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, and his graduate studies at the London School of Economics before starting his career at a small PR firm. Over the last two decades, Elwood has worked for some of the top - and bottom - PR firms in Washington. He lives in DC.