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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. It Was a Very False Year: The 2005 Falsies Awards
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Pentagon OK’s Online Propaganda
2. The First Lady’s Steely Public Diplomacy
3. Another Journalist on the U.S. Payroll, in Haiti
4. Product Placement: It’s Not Just for Movies Anymore
5. WANTED: Citizen Journalists To Bust More Jack Abramoffs
6. Fighting to Keep New Jersey Toxic
7. Iraq Propaganda, Sunni Side Up with a Rubin
8. Freeport Fronts Its Way into Activists’ Emails
9. Taking Researcher-Industry Conflicts To Heart
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. IT WAS A VERY FALSE YEAR: THE 2005 FALSIES AWARDS
by Diane Farsetta
As Father Time faded into history with the end of 2005, he was spinning out of control.
Over the past twelve months, the ideal of accurate, accountable, civic-minded news media faced nearly constant attack. Fake news abounded, from Pentagon-planted stories in Iraqi newspapers to corporate- and government-funded video news releases aired by U.S. newsrooms. Enough payola pundits surfaced to constitute their own basketball team — Doug Bandow, Peter Ferrara, Maggie Gallagher, Michael McManus and Armstrong Williams. (They could call themselves the “Syndicated Shills.”)
Then there were the public relations campaigns that sought to redefine reality itself. The oil and nuclear industries could be greenwashed! Rights-abusing governments and labor-abusing companies could be whitewashed! Junk food companies could be nutriwashed and genetically-modified foods poorwashed! The only limitations were PR flacks’ imaginations — and their expense accounts.
Viewed in sum, the extensive pollution of last year’s information environment could either make you cynical or have you convinced that two plus two really does equal five.
Here at the Center for Media and Democracy, we realized that sorting through a year’s worth of outrageous spin to bestow this year’s Falsies Awards was no small task. We asked our readers for help, and 846 people answered the call, filling out our Falsies Awards Survey.
Here, then, are the winners of the second annual Center for Media and Democracy Falsies Awards, followed by our Readers’ Choice Falsies. Lastly, we recognize groups and individuals who used information, reason, independent media and community organizing to counter 2005's flack attacks with the Center’s first ever Win Against Spin Awards.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4335
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. PENTAGON OK’S ONLINE PROPAGANDA
www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-infowar29dec29,1,3675853.story
“U.S. military websites that pay journalists to write articles and commentary supporting military activities in Europe and Africa do not violate U.S. law or Pentagon policies,” concluded the Pentagon’s inspector general. The websites, the Southeast European Times (launched in 1999 by President Clinton) and Magharebia (launched in 2004 by President Bush), often use “freelance reporters hired by Anteon Corp.” The U.S. military’s Pacific Command in Asia and Central Command in the Middle East are also developing “regional information websites.” The Pentagon inspector general’s report did not address the fact that U.S. audiences, which the government is forbidden from propagandizing, can access the websites. A related investigation into Pentagon-planted stories in Iraqi newspapers, headed by Navy Rear Adm. Scott R. Van Buskirk, is expected to be completed soon.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, December 29, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4346
2. THE FIRST LADY’S STEELY PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
online.wsj.com/article/SB113589800171734179.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
“At a time when the U.S. is eager to repair its image around the world, the administration has found a willing envoy in Mrs. Bush,” who traveled to Afghanistan, the West Bank, Rwanda and Tanzania in 2005. “Increasingly convinced the war on terror won’t be won at gunpoint, the administration hopes Mrs. Bush’s trips can draw on her domestic popularity to make inroads abroad,” writes Christopher Cooper. U.S. public diplomacy czar Karen Hughes called Mrs. Bush “a wonderful messenger.” This summer, Mrs. Bush “met in Rwanda with a 13-year-old orphan raising her younger siblings. While the girl’s story left staff members in tears, a grim-faced Mrs. Bush rose from her seat, walker to her next stop in a nearby chapel, sat down in a front pew and smiled.” One staffer commented, “She’s got that steely gene, I guess.”
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req’d), December 30, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4345
3. ANOTHER JOURNALIST ON THE U.S. PAYROLL, IN HAITI
www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2005/12/30/ap2421131.html
“The Associated Press has terminated its relationship with a freelance reporter in Haiti after learning she was working for a U.S. government-sponsored organization,” the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In October 2005, reporter Regine Alexandre began working for NED as a “part-time facilitator” between the U.S. organization and Haitian non-governmental organizations. After another journalist questioned the relationship, Alexandre “denied she was an employee.” However, NED confirmed her employment, saying “it was unaware when it hired Alexandre that she worked for the AP or any other media organization.” Alexandre has also reported for the New York Times and National Public Radio, though it’s unclear whether she contributed to either while working for NED.
SOURCE: Associated Press, December 30, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4344
4. PRODUCT PLACEMENT: IT’S NOT JUST FOR MOVIES ANYMORE
www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2005-12-29-graffiti-ads_x.htm
A “stealth marketing campaign” by Sony in Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York and other large U.S. cities is generating controversy. The “ads” are “black-on-white graffiti” with “wide-eyed cartoon characters riding a PlayStation like a skateboard, licking it like a lollipop or cranking it like a Jack-in-the-Box.” A Philadelphia official sent a cease-and-desist letter to Sony, due to its zoning violations. “This really flies in the face of everything we’ve been trying to do with our anti-blight initiative,” he said. “It’s all about hip-hop, urban and all that,” said a local worker. “They’re just trying to get into the teenagers’ minds.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, December 29, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4343
5. WANTED: CITIZEN JOURNALISTS TO BUST MORE JACK ABRAMOFFS
www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch:Welcome,_newcomers
Artificial Intelligence, a citizen journalist, began an article about lobbyist Jack Abramoff on our SourceWatch website two and a half years ago. Others, including SourceWatch editor Bob Burton, have added to the article. Now, Jack Abramoff’s plea bargain is the biggest U.S. news story, and if you Google Jack Abramoff, one of the top returns will be our SourceWatch article, already read by tens of thousands. This is just one example of the power of citizen journalism, and we invite you to join in. SourceWatch contributors are documenting how lobbyists, public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts manipulate public opinion and policy on behalf of corporations, governments and other special interests. To learn how to become a SourceWatcher, visit SourceWatch:Welcome, newcomers, the Help page, Frequently Asked Questions, or experiment in the sandbox.
SOURCE: SourceWatch, January 3, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4342
6. FIGHTING TO KEEP NEW JERSEY TOXIC
www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-2/1136266738312300.xml&coll=1
“If builders and polluters are on the dark side of New Jersey’s environmental wars, Michael Turner is Darth Vader,” writes Alexander Lane. “A public relations man and lobbyist, he has fought for the Windy Acres development in Hunterdon County, the Xanadu project in the Meadowlands and a strip mall near Edison Township’s beloved Oak Tree Pond. He represents Shieldalloy Corp. as it seeks to leave radiological contamination in South Jersey, Diamond Shamrock Chemicals Co.’s corporate descendants in their bid to leave dioxin in the Passaic River, and Roseland Property as it defends a decision to leave chromium under condominiums in Weehawken.” Lane profiles Turner’s career as an employee of the MWW Group, a PR firm that brainstorms how to “discredit opposition” such as the Interfaith Community Organization, the Meadowlands Conservation Trust and the Hackensack Riverkeeper.
SOURCE: New Jersey Star-Ledger, January 3, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4341
7. IRAQ PROPAGANDA, SUNNI SIDE UP WITH A RUBIN
www.nytimes.com/2006/01/02/politics/02propaganda.html
The New York Times reports that the Lincoln Group “has been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda works … [T]he company’s ties to religious leaders and dozens of other prominent Iraqis is aimed also at enabling it to exercise influence in Iraqi communities on behalf of clients, including the military. … Lincoln has also turned to American scholars and political consultants for advice on the content of the propaganda campaign in Iraq, records indicate. Michael Rubin, a Middle East scholar at the American Enterprise Institute … said he had reviewed materials produced by the company. … Mr. Rubin was quoted last month in The New York Times about Lincoln’s work for the Pentagon placing articles in Iraqi publications: ‘I’m not surprised this goes on,’ he said, without disclosing his work for Lincoln.” Rubin was political adviser for the Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad) following two years as staff assistant on Iran and Iraq in the Office of Special Plans in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
SOURCE: New York Times, January 2, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4338
8. FREEPORT FRONTS ITS WAY INTO ACTIVISTS’ EMAILS
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/international/asia/27gold.html
The New York Times reports that the Louisiana-based mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold worked closely with Indonesian military intelligence officers to monitor the email and phone calls of environmental activists concerned about the impacts of the company’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia’s Papua province. Freeport “set up its own system to intercept e-mail messages, according to former and current employees, by establishing a bogus environmental group of its own, which asked people to register online with a password. As is often the case, many who registered used the same password for their own messages, which then allowed the company to tap in,” Jane Perlez and Raymond Bonner report. Freeport declined to comment. Perlez and Bonner also disclosed extensive details on Freeport’s payments to the Indonesian military. Freeport’s joint venture partner, Rio Tinto, also declined to comment.
SOURCE: New York Times, December 27, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4337
9. TAKING RESEARCHER-INDUSTRY CONFLICTS TO HEART
online.wsj.com/article/SB113573949963432737.html?mod=world_news_whats_news
“After learning that researchers for two studies it published this year didn’t reveal financial ties to the maker of heart-surgery equipment that they evaluated favorably,” the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery decided to go beyond publishing corrections that “reveal the financial ties of the researchers to AtriCure Inc.” The American Association of Thoracic Surgery, which owns the journal, said they will impose “tougher sanctions” when authors don’t disclose ties, including barring “individuals and their institutions from publishing in the journal for ‘some period of time.’” As links between researchers and industry increase, medical journals are trying “to really improve disclosure and to really improve independence,” said Dr. Kevin Schulman. The Journal of the American Medical Association gives “extra scrutiny” to authors who previously failed to disclose relationships. The New England Journal of Medicine handles conflicts on “a case-by-case basis.”
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req’d), December 28, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4333
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