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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Bad Data, and Compromised Limits, on Chromium
2. DP World Seeks Many PR Ports in Political Storm
3. Virtual Marketing Realities
4. Old-Style Repression under ‘New Maldives’ Makeover
5. A Crude Attempt To Gain LNG Support
6. TIA’s Different Names, Same Spy Games
7. Finding a Chemical Harmless, For a Fee
8. Oil for Food, Lobbyists, and Corporate Profits
9. Is Fair Trade Coffee a Quick Corporate Fix?
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== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. BAD DATA, AND COMPROMISED LIMITS, ON CHROMIUM
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-chromiu
m24feb24,1,7640474.story?coll=la-news-a_section
“This was a 10-year campaign to shape the science to fit the industry’s agenda rather than shape the regulation to fit the science,” Professor David Michaels said of industry attempts to avoid lower exposure limits for hexavalent chromium. In 2004, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed reducing the exposure limit set in 1943 more than fifty-fold. Michaels and other researchers “obtained internal documents through an industry foundation’s bankruptcy proceedings that showed the industry representatives were aware in 2002 of an elevated cancer risk.” They found that a study commissioned by the industry group Chrome Coalition, and carried out by ENVIRON, manipulated data to hide increased cancer risks at all but the highest exposure levels. Some 380,000 U.S. workers are exposed to chromium. An executive at the company Elementis Chromium denied an “orchestrated effort to hide anything,” but said the data “may have not been handled well.” OSHA finally set the new chromium exposure limit at one-tenth the old limit.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, February 24, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4505
2. DP WORLD SEEKS MANY PR PORTS IN POLITICAL STORM
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0224dpw.htm
Even as the United Arab Emirates-owned company DP World (Dubai Ports World) requested a 45-day “further review of its deal to buy management rights to terminals at major U.S. ports,” it’s building a massive public relations team to support the $6.8 billion deal. To “tamp down Congressional criticism,” DP World hired the firm Clark & Weinstock, according to O’Dwyer’s. The firm’s Vin Weber, a former Republican Congressman, will head the account. (PR Week is reporting that firm partner Davis Weinstock said they “represent the embassy of the United Arab Emirates,” not DP World.) DP World has also retained the Albright Group, which is headed by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Alston & Bird, which counts former Senator Bob Dole among its lobbyists; and the Downey McGrath Group, which is headed by former Congressmen Tom Downey and Ray McGrath. Downey “is a good friend of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who has been spearheading opposition” to the ports deal. DP World’s lead PR firm is the Britain-based Bell Pottinger.
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (sub req’d), February 24, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4501
3. VIRTUAL MARKETING REALITIES
today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&sto
ryID=2006-02-26T165858Z_01_N26385839_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIZFEATU
In April 2005, “a breakthrough in television advertising debuted without fanfare” — a new technology that allows product placements to be digitally added, after scenes are filmed. The technology, called Digital Brand Integration (DBI), was developed by Marathon Ventures, as part of “an unprecedented marketing deal with CBS.” DBI has added brands like Kellogg’s to the sitcom “Yes, Dear,” and StarKist and Chevrolet to “CSI” and “How I Met Your Mother.” Marathon “expects to unveil a new pact soon with the Fox network,” reports Reuters. But “virtual product placement” dates back to at least 1999, when “images of several brands, including Coca-Cola and Blockbuster video, were digitally spliced into an episode of the now-defunct drama ‘Seven Days.’” “According to Nielsen Media Research, network placements in prime time last year numbered 108,261, up more than 30 percent from 2004.”
SOURCE: Reuters, February 26, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4500
4. OLD-STYLE REPRESSION UNDER ‘NEW MALDIVES’ MAKEOVER
www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=1827
A Maldives news service criticizes the ‘New Maldives’ project launched by President Gayoom in October 2005 as “nothing more than an image make-over for an unpopular and authoritarian regime.” The editorial notes that the opposition political party, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), has highlighted contradictions between the government’s words and actions, including “government rhetoric over judicial reform while MDP Chairperson Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) is refused a fair trial” and “assertions over press freedom, while the Police Chief harasses foreign-based journalists.” For several years, the PR firm Hill and Knowlton has promoted tourism to the Maldives, on behalf of the government. Hill and Knowlton plays a “seemingly central role” in the ‘New Maldives’ project and “remain [a] close advisor to the ‘reform ministers’,” according to the editorial.
SOURCE: Minivan News (Maldives), February 22, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4499
5. A CRUDE ATTEMPT TO GAIN LNG SUPPORT
www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/
02/24/big_pr_firm_is_behind_grass_roots_lng_effort/
“Controversy over LNG [liquid natural gas] terminals is growing as demand soars,” reports the Boston Globe. There are four proposals for new LNG terminals in Massachusetts — and one has its own astroturf group. The Coalition for an LNG Solution, which describes itself as “a grass-roots neighborhood organization,” supports new LNG terminals on Boston Harbor islands. But the phone number for the coalition “is a line to Regan Communications, a powerful public relations firm that has been hired by AES Corp. of Arlington, Va., the company that wants to build the Boston Harbor terminal on Outer Brewster Island.” An AES spokesperson referred calls to Regan, saying the firm does “grass-roots and community organizing, and we rely on them to respond to questions and coordinate those activities.” One Boston-area activist, John Vitagliano, has addressed neighborhood associations on behalf of the coalition. Vitagliano said “he receives no compensation” from Regan or AES.
SOURCE: The Boston Globe, February 24, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4498
6. TIA’S DIFFERENT NAMES, SAME SPY GAMES
nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0223nj1.htm
The U.S. Defense Department’s Total Information Awareness (TIA) program, “which developed technologies to predict terrorist attacks by mining government databases and the personal records of people in the United States,” was not ended, as lawmakers directed in 2003, but merely moved and renamed. While “it is no secret that some parts of TIA lived on,” the National Journal reports details of how TIA continued. Two key programs moved to the Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA), at the National Security Agency. One, a $19 million contract given to Hicks & Associates “to build the prototype system,” was renamed “Basketball.” The other is a $3.7 million contract given to SAIC, “to help analysts and policy makers anticipate and pre-empt terrorist attacks.” That work, initially called “Genoa II,” was renamed “Topsail.” Whether these programs are still active is unclear. ARDA itself is being moved to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte’s office and renamed the “Disruptive Technology Office.”
SOURCE: National Journal, February 23, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4497
7. FINDING A CHEMICAL HARMLESS, FOR A FEE
pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2006/feb/business/pt_weinberg.html
In a April 2003 pitch to DuPont, The Weinberg Group proposed a strategy to help defuse the growing controversy over the health impacts of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a compound used to make Teflon. Weinberg’s Vice-President of Product Defense, P.Terrence Gaffney, said, “DuPont must shape the debate at all levels.” One of his suggested strategies was to facilitate the “publication of papers and articles dispelling the alleged nexus between PFOA and teratogenicity as well as other claimed harm.” (Teratogenicity is used to describe the damaging effects of an agent on a fetus.) Gaffney also proposed to “develop ‘blue ribbon panels’ of thought leaders on issues related to PFOA” and to “coordinate the publishing of white papers on PFOA, junk science and the limits of medical monitoring.” DuPont confirmed to reporter Paul D. Thacker that they had hired the Weinberg Group to help with “scientific third party experts,” probably on PFOA issues.
SOURCE: Environmental Science and Technology, February 22, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4493
8. OIL FOR FOOD, LOBBYISTS, AND CORPORATE PROFITS
www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/02/21/1140284067758.html
Prior to the October 2005 release of Paul Volcker’s report on violations of the United Nations’ Iraq oil-for-food program, the Australian wheat exporter AWB Limited hired the Washington DC lobbying firm The Cohen Group, which is headed by former U.S. defense secretary William S. Cohen. AWB paid approximately $A300 million in trucking fees on its wheat contracts to a Jordanian company, Alia, which owns no trucks. The funds were funnelled to Saddam Hussein’s government, according to information given to an Australian government-appointed Royal Commission. Last week, AWB Middle East Marketing Manager Chris Whitwell mentioned The Cohen Group when asked about diary entries related to “develop[ing] a communications strategy.” Whitwell said “Chalabi – link to Alia” referred to Ahmed Chalabi, as “he and Alia have some issues.” Stanley McDermott, a partner in the law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, which has a “strategic alliance” with The Cohen Group, has also advised AWB.
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, February 22 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4492
9. IS FAIR TRADE COFFEE A QUICK CORPORATE FIX?
www.wedge.coop/newsletter/article/630.html
Writing in the newsletter of the Minneapolis-based Wedge Co-op, Rodney North warns that the token use of fair trade certification can “prematurely undermine the public pressure for real change.” North points to a web-based survey by U.K.-based Baby Milk Action, which asked supporters what they thought of the fair trade certification of Nestlé’s Partners Blend coffee. Two-thirds of 500 survey respondents, of whom 79% are currently boycotting Nestlé, thought the certification meant the whole company had been audited for fair trade practices. “The truth is the Fair Trade certification system examines only the individual products bearing the seal, and not companies,” he writes. North points out that fair trade coffee accounts for just 0.1% of Nestlé’s annual coffee imports, and has no effect on numerous other commodities the company buys.
SOURCE: Wedge Co-Op Newsletter, February/March 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4491
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