“Manufactroversy” (a “manufactured controversy”) was used and defined by Leah Ceccarelli, on April 11, 2008, in a Science Progress article titled “Manufactroversy: The Art of Creating Controversy Where None Existed.” The term was further popularized later that same day, in a Valerie Tarico article in The Huffington Post titled “Ben Stein: Front Man for Creationism’s Manufactroversy.”
 
A similar “controversy” neologism is the “non-controversy,” or “nontroversy.”
   
 
Urban Dictionary
Manufactroversy
A manufactured controversy, motivated by profit or extreme ideology, that intentionally creates public confusion about an issue that is not in dispute.
Back in the 1960’s, tobacco companies created a manufactroversy that there was scientific doubt about whether cigarettes were linked to lung cancer. Now other groups are doing the same thing with evolution, global warming, and AIDs.
by Ru7th Apr 16, 2008
   
science progress
Manufactroversy
The Art of Creating Controversy Where None Existed
By Leah Ceccarelli | Friday, April 11th, 2008
Manufactroversy (măn’yə-făk’-trə-vûr’sē)
N., pl. -sies.
1. A manufactured controversy that is motivated by profit or extreme ideology to intentionally create public confusion about an issue that is not in dispute.
2. Effort is often accompanied by imagined conspiracy theory and major marketing dollars involving fraud, deception and polemic rhetoric.
   
CommonSenseNMS.com
11 Apr 2008, 5:31am
We Made Up A Word But Not The Project.
Today launches the public phase of a very interesting project we are working on - pushing back and exposing the manufactured controversy of ‘intelligent design’ and especially as it relates to Ben Stein’s new movie coming out next week, Expelled.

Part of this involved coming up with a word, manufactroversy, to bring attention to the concept of Manufactured Controversies. Here is one of the first posts about this subject. (The citation above—B.P.)
   
The Huffington Post
Valerie Tarico
Posted: April 11, 2008 02:12 PM
Ben Stein: Front Man for Creationism’s Manufactroversy
(...)
University of Washington professor, Leah Ceccarelli has pointed out that their “teach the controversy” strategy depends on a very specific sleight of hand: blurring the difference between scientific controversy and manufactured controversy or Manufactroversy.
 
You can say you first heard it here, well, if you haven’t heard it already on MySpace or Facebook: Manufactroversy—a made up word for a made up controversy. There’s even a new website, Manufactroversy.NewsLadder.net that aggregates articles and blog posts about this manufactroversy and some other pretty famous ones as well.
 
Scientific controversy exists only when the jury of relevant experts is out on whether a new finding meets the standard of evidence. The debate and evidence gathering still are in process. A manufactroversy is when someone motivated by profit or ideology fosters confusion in the public mind long after scientists have moved on to the next set of questions. Think tobacco and lung cancer. Think Exxon and global warming. Now think Ben Stein and evolution.
   
Stranger Fruit
Word of the Day: Manufactroversy
Posted on: April 11, 2008 4:27 PM, by John Lynch
As in “Teach the Manufactroversy”. See here. (The citation above—B.P.)
   
The Atheist Experience
Friday, April 11, 2008
Word of the Year: “Manufactroversy”
Valerie Tarico modestly admits to not having invented it, but it’s a brilliant neologism that I’m sure will gain new cachet within the reality based community, now that it’s been used to mock the intelligent design crowd in general and the claims of Expelled in particular.
   
The Huffington Post
Word Of The Week: Manufactroversy
Andrew Daley
Posted: April 18, 2008 06:44 PM
(...)
In fact, the word itself was actually coined by none other than Huffington Post blogger Max Bernstein who is also our Director of Social Networks And Cool New Media Tools (His actual title.)
 
Manufactroversy was first used here on the Huffington Post exactly one week ago today when Valerie Tarico put up this post. Last Friday, as part of the project, we also launched the Manufactroversy NewsLadder . The NewsLadder is an aggregator tool which captures, with user help, all the articles, posts and videos about the movie and other manufactroversies.
 
Early last Friday, we googled the word “Manufactroversy” and found there were less than 50 instances of the word online and 100% of them tracked back to the NewsLadder.
 
What has happened in the last week has been a remarkable example of not only how powerful Google’s robot and ability to scour the web has become, but also how the world of communication has evolved in the last twenty four to thirty six months.