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further information about media, political spin and propaganda.
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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. Inside the Tobacco Industry’s Files
2. Correction: DuPont & Invista Hype Nanotechnology-Free Product as “Nano”
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Even Propagandists Need Good PR
2. Botox Injects Astroturf into Anti-Tax Campaign
3. On TV News, the Ads Never End
4. McDonald’s Sends In Their CSR Clown
5. WHO Rejects Corporate-Funded Research Institute
6. ‘Arab Spring’ Fades From the News
7. All the News That’s Fit To Censor: International Edition
8. Army Biometrics Scanning PR Firms
9. The Axis of Urban Marketing
10. Propaganda – In the Eye of the Beholder?
11. Steven Milloy, the Usual Suspect in Paid-For Punditry
12. A New Nuke Sell: Reprocessing
13. Romancing the Smokes
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. INSIDE THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY’S FILES
by Bob Burton
As the Center for Media and Democracy has noted, the tobacco industry pioneered many deceptive public relations tactics, casting a long shadow over science and health reporting, as well as the public’s right to know.
Before its fall from grace, tobacco industry created front groups courted journalists and obscured damning scientific evidence. But, inadvertently, the industry is now helping independent researchers and reporters understand how PR is used to obscure facts and shape public debates.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4414
2. CORRECTION: DUPONT & INVISTA HYPE NANOTECHNOLOGY-FREE PRODUCT AS “NANO”
by Bob Burton
In the original version of the blog post, “Environmental Defense or Nanotech Defense”, I cited a webpage, which stated that a DuPont created Teflon leather protection product “works on the nano scale”, as an example of the company having nanotechnology products on the market.
Subsequently, a reader disputed that Teflon could be a nanotechnology product and described the company’s use of the word “nano” as marketing hype. After requesting clarification from DuPont, one of its nanotechnology researchers, David B. Warheit, has confirmed that the Teflon leather protector is not a nanotech product. We have corrected both the original blog and the article in SourceWatch. Invista’s promotional page on the DuPont Teflon leather product, however, remains unchanged and potentially deceives consumers of its product into think that it is based on nanotechnology. A request to DuPont’s PR section for a copy of the June 3, 2003 media release announcing the new Teflon product, which I noted in the original post has gone missing from its news archive, has so far gone unanswered.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4422
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. EVEN PROPAGANDISTS NEED GOOD PR
www.prweek.com/us/search/article/538390/lincoln-group-answers-critics-dixon-hire
The Lincoln Group, the PR firm charged with placing U.S. friendly stories in the Iraqi press, has recently created a new staff position: director of media relations. The firm, which was one of three defense contractors awarded a $300 million Pentagon contract to help out with winning the information war, apparently needed help burnishing its own image. According to PR Week, the Lincoln Group’s new hire Bill Dixon will be responsible for “telling more positive stories about the agency’s work to a cynical press. When asked if his hiring was based on negative external events, Dixon said, via e-mail, that it had more to do with the agency’s growth than any other factors.” “Trying to place good stories about their work with deeply skeptical US journalists will take more than a fistful of dinars,” former White House global communications director Tucker Eskew told PR Week, adding, “Successfully repositioning this firm will require a new openness, some happy-warrior determination, and light-touch persistence [not] ham-fisted flackery.”
SOURCE: PR Week, January 30, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4424
2. BOTOX INJECTS ASTROTURF INTO ANTI-TAX CAMPAIGN
www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/14135931p-14964759c.html
When Citizens Against Unfair Health Care Taxes called Californians warning that a proposed state tax on Botox might lead to new taxes on other drugs, the group failed to disclose that it had been created by a PR firm working for Allergan Inc., the maker of Botox, according to the Sacramento Bee. The astroturf group was the work of Direct Impact, “a Virginia-based affiliate of global public relations giant Burston-Marsteller Inc., specializes in developing what its Web site calls ‘grassroots communication marketing campaigns,’” the Bee’s Andrew McIntosh writes. “The company had signed on with Irvine-based Allergan to quarterback a $400,000 lobbying effort aimed at convincing California consumers and state officials that Botox cosmetic products should not be hit by a state Board of Equalization sales tax.” Among the deceptive features of Citizens Against Unfair Health Care Taxes campaign was the group’s website – www.stophealthcaretaxes.com – which is registered to an employee of Burston-Marsteller’s New York office. Neither Allergan’s nor Burston-Marsteller’s ties to the group, however, are disclosed on the website, McIntosh reports.
SOURCE: Sacramento Bee, January 31, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4423
3. ON TV NEWS, THE ADS NEVER END
www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=47653
“Local TV news operations hungry for free content have intersected with brand brokers looking for product placement opportunities,” writes Advertising Age. The segments “typically come in the form of four-minute lifestyle segments that are dedicated to one brand and feature a brand’s spokesperson chatting with the show’s host and delivering the product’s message to viewers. Third-party endorsements may also appear, as well as follow-up information about a product on a station’s Web site. The marketer controls how its brand will be presented, who the spokesperson will be, signage, scripting and what the segments will look like.” While many shows “still offer non-bought space,” more TV producers are “adopting a pay-for-play model that could increase the time period’s revenue for a station from between 50% and 100%. Stations — especially those owned by Gannett in markets such as Atlanta, Denver, Cleveland, Phoenix, Sacramento and Minneapolis — are now charging … $2,500 a pop.”
SOURCE: Advertising Age, January 30, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4418
4. MCDONALD’S SENDS IN THEIR CSR CLOWN
csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com/default.asp
On January 19, McDonald’s Senior Director for Corporate Social Responsibility, Bob Langert, posted the first entry on the company blog “Open for Discussion.” Langert wrote, “The purpose of this blog” is “to open our doors to corporate social responsibility (CSR) at McDonald’s – to share what we’re doing and learn what you think.” His second post highlights McDonald’s long-standing “partnership with Conservation International.” Unlikely topics of future postings include the infamous McLibel trial; McDonald’s lobbying against a California proposal to require large employers to provide health benefits; and McDonald’s establishing the questionable “Socially Accountable Farm Employer” program instead of negotiating farmworker rights with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
SOURCE: McDonald’s, January 30, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4417
5. WHO REJECTS CORPORATE-FUNDED RESEARCH INSTITUTE
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/27/AR2006012701302.html
The United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) barred the U.S.-based International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) from taking part in “WHO activities setting microbiological or chemical standards for food and water.” The decision followed warnings from health, environmental and union groups, including the Environmental Working Group and Natural Resources Defense Council, that WHO risked “scientific credibility and may be compromising public health by partnering with ILSI.” That’s because 60 percent of ILSI’s budget comes from “hundreds of chemical, food and drug companies.” ILSI’s corporate funders include Coca-Cola, DuPont, ExxonMobil, Merck, Monsanto, McDonald’s and Pfizer. ILSI director Suzanne Harris countered, “We are not a back door for industry. … We’re not trying to sell anything.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, January 27, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4416
6. ‘ARAB SPRING’ FADES FROM THE NEWS
www.smh.com.au/news/world/careful-what-you-wish-for/2006/01/27/1138319450188.html%20Careful%20what%20you%20wish%20for
The success of Hamas in the Palestinian elections is the latest election result to temper earlier claims by pundits that a spin-off benefit of the invasion of Iraq would be the flowering of Western-friendly Middle East democracies. Numerous columnists pondered on what they dubbed the “Arab spring.” “So what happened to the Arab spring? This time last year, as we faced the prospect of a series of elections in the Middle East, many commentators hit their keyboards to welcome the Arab spring – about 160 of them, according to one news database,” writes Paul McGeough in the Sydney Morning Herald. “But it seems that with the results in we don’t like the term any more – only 23 mentions in the past six months. Funny that.”
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, January 28, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4411
7. ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO CENSOR: INTERNATIONAL EDITION
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13709126.htm
“The Internet may be new, but not the issue of whether an American corporation should do business with bad people,” writes Richard Cohen. He argues that the claims of Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Yahoo and other tech companies that they are assisting the Chinese government’s attempts to censor information online because they must “comply with local laws” ring false. “The law in China is what the Chinese leaders say it is,” Cohen counters. The Washington Post reports that Google, in agreeing to block “objectionable” content from searches on its Chinese portal, has joined the list of shame. Chinese authorities have also shut down the China Youth Daily publication Freezing Point, after it “criticized the history textbooks used in Chinese middle schools.” According to Reuters, the BBC’s Farsi-language news website has been blocked by Iranian authorities.
SOURCE: The Mercury News (San Jose, California), January 25, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4410
8. ARMY BIOMETRICS SCANNING PR FIRMS
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0127biometrics.htm
The U.S. Army is looking for “guiding PR” for its biometrics operations in Virginia and West Virginia. “Biometrics encompasses technology like iris, face and hand scanning and voice recognition, along with traditional fingerprint identification, usually for security applications. The science has been implemented in the ‘Global War on Terrorism’ by the Pentagon, which is building a large database of known and suspected terrorists,” explains O’Dwyer’s. A dozen firms have applied for the Army biometrics account, including the Lincoln Group, Hill & Knowlton and Fleishman-Hillard. CRT/tanaka, Public Strategies Inc., APCO Worldwide and Strat@comm are also being considered. The account will last five years and be worth $5 to 10 million.
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (sub req’d), January 27, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4409
9. THE AXIS OF URBAN MARKETING
www.prweek.com/us/home/article/538421/axis-hires-urban-comms-head/
The PR firm Weber Shandwick’s new multicultural practice, called the Axis Agency, just hired its first senior vice-president of African-American and urban marketing. Kevin Hooks, the new hire, used to handle the Procter & Gamble, Motorola and Bacardi accounts for UPP Entertainment & Marketing. He’s also “planning an effort for Pfizer to launch in June,” reports PR Week. Axis Agency president Armando Azarloza said, “There’s a huge void out there today when it comes to knowing the African-American and urban markets.” Axis also has a senior vice-president of Hispanic marketing, Anita Alban-Gastelum. PR Week also reports that the retail giant Target “is seeking an African-American agency of record. … Target plans a Black History Month initiative in February, as well as a partnership with singer Mary J. Blige.”
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req’d), January 27, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4408
10. PROPAGANDA – IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER?
www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/index.htm
Newly released classified documents show that the Pentagon was aware that military propaganda targeting international audiences would be able to reach the American public. The 74-page “Information Operations Roadmap” explains that “information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa.” The Smith-Mundt Act, however, prohibits the U.S. government from propagandizing Americans. But the Pentagon argued that “the distinction between foreign and domestic audiences becomes more a question of USG [U.S. government] intent rather than information dissemination practices.” The Los Angeles Times reports that the “secret U.S. military program that pays Iraqi newspapers to publish articles favorable to the American mission appears to violate” the “Roadmap,” which was signed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “It’s clearly a violation based on the language used in the Rumsfeld document,” a Pentagon official told the Times.
SOURCE: National Security Archive, January 26, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4407
11. STEVEN MILLOY, THE USUAL SUSPECT IN PAID-FOR PUNDITRY
www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20060206&s=thacker020606
“Over the past year, there have been several instances of political columnists shilling for the Bush administration,” notes Paul Thacker, naming Armstrong Williams and Doug Bandow. “But the trend in paid-for-punditry seems to have spread to the world of science journalism as well.” Thacker noted Michael Fumento’s undisclosed grant from Monsanto, and Fox News columnist Steven Milloy’s long-term, close relationships with corporations, including ExxonMobil and Philip Morris. As the Center for Media & Democracy has written, Steven Milloy is one of the “usual suspects” in fronting for corporate interests, writing columns questioning global warming, clear air regulations and the dangers of secondhand smoke. “But, whereas Scripps Howard fired Fumento and apologized to its readers, Fox News continues to look the other way as Milloy accepts corporate handouts,” Thacker writes. Fox’s Paul Schur told Thacker, “Fox News is unaware of Milloy’s connection with Philip Morris.” Steve Milloy began his PR front group career with The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition organizing stunts like their science writing award to the New York Times science reporter Gina Kolata.
SOURCE: The New Republic, January 26, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4405
12. A NEW NUKE SELL: REPROCESSING
online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113824318540956675-fPJIV2CG1hgy9YOSx25tzFzwMfY_20070125.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
As “part of an effort to jump-start the nuclear-power industry,” the Bush administration is proposing “a $250 million initiative to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.” The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership proposal would allow General Electric and other U.S. companies to sell developing countries “reactors and nuclear fuel on the condition that the U.S. would take back the spent fuel for reprocessing.” An Argonne National Laboratory official said a new reprocessing method “would reduce the nation’s eventual need for more nuclear-waste storage by ‘a factor of more than 100.’” Waste storage is perhaps the nuclear industry’s biggest political, environmental and safety problem. The Nuclear Energy Institute just hired Hill & Knowlton to promote Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as a waste site. In Britain, where a “national debate” on nuclear power is taking place, officials “have dodged the decision of where to put [reactor waste] for 30 years,” reports the Independent.
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req’d), January 26, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4404
13. ROMANCING THE SMOKES
adage.com/news.cms?newsId=47590
“In a controversial bid to revive the romance of a habit that’s costly, potentially deadly and increasingly on the social fringes, R.J. Reynolds” is launching “a new premium-priced line of smokes” that’s only available at “an upscale smoking lounge in a trendy Chicago neighborhood. The lounge has fresh tobacco and a tobacconist who will hand-roll a pack of cigarettes in any of nine flavors.” The “exclusivity of the brand … is creating a buzz,” writes AdAge. “And, perhaps a new way of bringing a much-maligned product to market.” The creative director at RJR’s ad agency, Gyro Worldwide, said the campaign will “create romance.” The idea came from company research suggesting “a sizeable group of adult smokers” wanted a “’super-tier’ brand” of cigarettes. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ president warned, “The most effective marketing campaigns to kids are those that make cigarettes a part of looking like a successful, virulent young adult.”
SOURCE: Advertising Age, January 25, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4403
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