David Dinsmore Comey was a remarkable American environmental campaigner, who I once had the privilege to meet. Here are his Principles:
1) The basis for all successful propaganda is the truth.
2) The key to credibility is accurate information.
3) An advocate cannot afford to make mistakes.
4) It is the understatement which succeeds best.
5) The message must be credible to the other side, not your own.
6) The successful advocate is the person who seeks to educate.
These Principles represent Comey’s reworking of notes he made at a lecture on psychological warfare delivered in 1953 by RHS Crossman, senior British Officer in charge of Allied propaganda during World War II [in ‘Tell the Truth’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Jun 1975, p11].