Sponsored by the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy:
www.prwatch.org

To support our work now online visit:
https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
further information about media, political spin and propaganda. It
is emailed free each Wednesday to subscribers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

SHARE US WITH A FRIEND (OR FIFTY FRIENDS)

Who do you know who might want to receive “The Weekly Spin”? Help
us grow our subscriber list! Just forward this message to people
you know, encouraging them to sign up at this link:
www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. Kill The Messenger? Pro-War Advocates Should Blame Themselves for the Mess in Iraq
2. John Rendon’s Long, Strange Trip in the Terror Wars
3. Money Funny
4. Congresspedia takes on constitutional amendments

== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. The ABCs of Adult Marketing to Children
2. Jefferson Joins Interesting Client List
3. U.S. Military Gets Picky about Whom It Embeds
4. Blogging for Dollars (Again)
5. Wal-Mart’s New Targets
6. Newspaper Showdown in Santa Barbara
7. When Newspapers Fall for Political “Drops”
8. Free Trip Drug Zones: Paris and Budapest
9. FOIA’s 40th Birthday Marked By Plans to Weaken It
10. BAT Dodges Document Shredding Case
11. Inspectors: British Nuclear Reactors Rotten to the Core?

--------------------------------------------------------------------

== BLOG POSTINGS ==

1. KILL THE MESSENGER? PRO-WAR ADVOCATES SHOULD BLAME THEMSELVES FOR THE MESS IN IRAQ
by John Stauber

As conditions in Iraq continue to deteriorate, supporters of the war are casting around for someone to blame, and journalists are becoming an increasingly popular scapegoat — an ironic turn of events, since the mainstream media’s uncritical support for the war helped get us into this mess in the first place.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4941

2. JOHN RENDON’S LONG, STRANGE TRIP IN THE TERROR WARS
by John Stauber

In his hippie youth as a Merry Prankster, Stewart Brand bounced around San Francisco in Ken Kesey’s day-glo bus, dousing people with LSD-laced Kool-Aid at the legendary Acid Tests. Those were strange days, but his latest trip is also bizarre. Brand and his Long Now Foundation are bringing to San Francisco John Rendon, the elusive head of the Rendon Group, one of the CIA’s favorite PR firms.

John Rendon is the self-described “information warrior” who, under contract with the CIA, named and nurtured the infamous Iraqi National Congress. INC leader Ahmed Chalabi was a Rendon protégé embraced by the Project for a New American Century and other advocates of war with Iraq. Rendon and Chalabi probably did as much as anyone to deceive the US into war.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4954

3. MONEY FUNNY
by Sheldon Rampton

We got an email from Eveline Lubbers today, asking, “Could you please let us know when the money will come?”

Eveline works with a Europe-based group called SpinWatch, whose activities there are broadly similar to the work that we do in the United States at the Center for Media and Democracy. SpinWatch monitors the European PR industry, corporate lobbying, front groups, government spin, propaganda and other tactics used by powerful groups to manipulate media, public policy debate and public opinion.

Eveline’s joke about having us send money came after she came across a blog posting by Lene Johansen, who also writes for a couple of conservative, corporate-funded think tanks including Tech Central Station. Johansen said that CMD “runs SpinWatch” and urged people to “check out CMD’s dirty little funding secrets at ActivistCash.com.”

For the record, CMD does not run SpinWatch, and we won’t be sending Eveline a check, much as we think she deserves one. (If you want to send them money, they do accept donations online — but if you send the money to us instead, we promise not to share.)
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4948

4. CONGRESSPEDIA TAKES ON CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
by Conor Kenny

As part of the expansion of Congresspedia beyond articles on individual members of Congress, we’ve recently created pages on the Federal Marriage Amendment and flag burning amendment. We’ve also created pages on the process to amend the Constitution and integrated existing pages on the Constitution itself.

The last vote on the flag burning amendment was on June 27, 2006, when it failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate. The vote was 66-34 in favor, with Republicans voting in favor by 52-3, and Democrats voting against by 30-14. There was one amendment to the amendment, offered by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), which would have turned the constitutional amendment into a simple law and ban “flag desecration” only if it was done in conjunction with the destruction of federal property (if the flag belonged to the government), an incitement of violence or an attempt to intimidate someone. The amendment, which required a simple majority, failed in a 64-36 vote against it.

In looking over the transcripts of the debate, we noticed that senators both for (Dianne Feinstein) and against (Daniel Inouye) the amendment were constantly debating whether or not it was the flag burning or the constitutional amendment to ban flag burning that was more offensive to veterans. Being committed to dealing in documented facts rather than rhetoric at Congresspedia, we decided to take a look at how the veterans in Congress actually voted on the amendment.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4944

== SPIN OF THE DAY ==

1. THE ABCS OF ADULT MARKETING TO CHILDREN
abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=2164932&page=1
“Adult shopping decisions might be affected by a sociological change called ‘age compression’—the idea that kids may be getting older younger and demanding adult products,” reports Andrea Canning. By ABC’s count, kids are demanding cell phones, iPods, and may even want Japan’s nonalcoholic “Kids’Beer.” The story twice quotes Paul Kurnit, president of KidsShop Youth Marketing Company: “There is focus on a more savvy, more informed, more inclusive kid today,” he notes. Two problems with ABC’s report: first, ABC fails to disclose that Kurnit is also a product consultant to ABC’s parent company, Disney. Second, ABC suggests that it’s the kids demanding adult products. Compare that to the Canadian Broadcast Company’s story on the same topic, which describes “age compression” as a: “marketing strategy in which adult products and attitude are pushed on younger kids.” But give half a spin point back to ABC: the story ends with a therapist calling on parents to avoid thinking that “the child is a miniature adult. The child is not.”
SOURCE: ABCnews.com/Good Morning America, July 8, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4957

2. JEFFERSON JOINS INTERESTING CLIENT LIST
www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1152253000191230.xml&coll=1
U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat from Louisiana who’s currently the target of a federal investigation into wire fraud and bribery, has hired a crisis communications consultant whose past clients include Monica Lewinsky during her testimony against then-President Bill Clinton, the Saudi Arabian government post-September 11th, and then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas when accused of sexual harassment by his former assistant Anita Hill. Enter Judy Smith, founder and partner with the Washington communications firm Impact Strategies. While Smith’s exact responsibilities have yet to be announced, a Jefferson aide was quoted as saying that Smith has been successful in getting the “other side of the story” told on behalf of her previous clients. How much and by whom she will be paid is also not public, but Jefferson has already accumulated $119,000 in a defense fund. Despite the public relations nature of her work for him, as an attorney, Smith’s conversations with Jefferson will be considered off-limits to prosecutors under attorney-client privilege.
SOURCE: The Times-Picayune (Louisiana), June 7, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4956

3. U.S. MILITARY GETS PICKY ABOUT WHOM IT EMBEDS
web1.foreignpolicy.com/issue_julyaug_2006/covering_iraq/covering_iraq.html
In an interview with Foreign Policy, former Newsweek Baghdad bureau chief Rod Nordland said the situation in Iraq is “a lot worse … than is reported. The administration does a great job of managing the news.” He added, “The military has started censored many [embedded reporting] arrangements. Before a journalist is allowed to go on an embed now, [the military] check[s] the work you have done previously. They want to know your slant on a story — they use the word slant — what you intend to write, and what you have written from embed trips before. If they don’t like what you have done before, they refuse to take you.” In response to the question, “Are journalists and the military seeing two different pictures in Iraq?” Nordland said, “To some extent they are victims of their own propaganda.”
SOURCE: Foreign Policy, July 5, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4953

4. BLOGGING FOR DOLLARS (AGAIN)
www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_28/b3992034.htm
“Media today is so cynical that you have to come out and say that shilling without disclosure is a bad idea,” writes BusinessWeek’s Jon Fine. Fine reports on product placement on web logs or blogs. Ted Murphy of the Tampa, Florida ad agency MindComet launched the BlogStar Network in 2004, which paid $5 to $10 per post. He said “a couple thousand” bloggers had cashed in, via the network. Murphy’s new project, PayPerPost.com, “will automate such hookups between advertisers and bloggers and thus codify a new frontier of product placement,” writes Fine. “Advertisers pay to post details about their ‘opportunity,’ specifying, among other things, how they want bloggers to write about, say, a new shoe, if they want photos to be included, and whether they’ll pay only for positive mentions.” Murphy does not encourage bloggers to disclose the deal, saying they should “be their own morality police.”
SOURCE: BusinessWeek, July 10, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4952

5. WAL-MART’S NEW TARGETS
adage.com/article?article_id=110295
Latinos, African-Americans, baby boomers, high-income and rural shoppers — Wal-Mart wants you. Those are the key communities identified in a six-page document that outlines Wal-Mart’s future marketing plans. The giant retailer is reviewing its marketing strategy, due to slow growth. The document asks advertising agencies to describe how they would handle Wal-Mart’s $570 million account. It suggests that Wal-Mart’s “nontraditional media, in-store marketing, customer-relationship management and loyalty programs” may increase.” One goal is to get the “selective Wal-Mart shopper” to buy more at the store. Wal-Mart is asking ad agencies “to help the company better understand the diverse needs of its customers in order to create more compelling reasons to cross-shop the store and drive loyalty.” The retailer is expected to choose four agencies, which will work together in what it calls its “dream team.”
SOURCE: Advertising Age, July 2, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4951

6. NEWSPAPER SHOWDOWN IN SANTA BARBARA
www.latimes.com/la-me-newspress8jul08,0,7285764.story?track=mostviewed-homepage
Seven reporters and editors have left the Santa Barbara News-Press, saying owner Wendy McCaw and interim publisher Travis Armstrong “had censored or killed news stories over editors’ objections.” On July 6, Armstrong “escorted the newspaper’s editor, Jerry Roberts, out of the News-Press offices” while other employees “shouted obscenities at Armstrong.” The departing staff say “standard journalistic ethics” were violated by such incidents as McCaw killing a story on Armstrong’s recent drunk driving sentence. O’Dwyer’s PR Daily reports that McCaw has retained Sam Singer of the PR firm Singer Associates. Singer “has extensive media experience, gained from representing Hearst Corp. in its purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle and Anschultz Investment’s acquisition of the San Francisco Examiner.” The firm has also represented San Francisco’s KPIX-5, one of the TV stations named in the Center for Media and Democracy’s report on video news releases.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, July 8, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4950

7. WHEN NEWSPAPERS FALL FOR POLITICAL “DROPS”
www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/truth-loses-when-only-half-the-story-will-do/2006/07/02/1151778807051.html?
“Next time you see an ‘exclusive’ tag on a story about state politics, stop and have a closer look. The chances are that the story, far from being a feat of journalistic endeavor, is what we call in the trade ‘a drop,’” writes Anne Davies in the Sydney Morning Herald. “You’ll be able to tell it’s a drop because it’s likely to quote one side of politics only. This is often a condition of the drop.” Drops, especially those in Sunday papers, help politicians influence the week’s media agenda. Presenting government-sanctioned leaks as “exclusives” also helps newspapers gain a marketing edge over their rivals. Uncritical reporting of a drop, Davies concludes, “may be of mutual benefit to newspapers and politicians, but it’s certainly not in the public’s interest.”
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, July 3, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4947

8. FREE TRIP DRUG ZONES: PARIS AND BUDAPEST
observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1810829,00.html
The world’s third largest drug company, Sanofi-Aventis, sponsored a tour to Budapest and Paris for a “parliamentary and stakeholder working group” including representatives from British patient groups. The tour included “optional attendance” at lectures at the European Association of Cancer Research conference in Budapest and a presentation in Paris on cancer drugs used in France but not yet approved in Britain. The head of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, Mike Unger, defended participation in the trip: “If we paid, then it would come out of the charity’s fund for research, which would be very wrong.” The company’s communications director, Cressida Ward, described the junket as “a purely educational trip … I can’t see the harm in this.”
SOURCE: The Observer (UK), July 2, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4946

9. FOIA’S 40TH BIRTHDAY MARKED BY PLANS TO WEAKEN IT
www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-07-05-foia-research_x.htm
Jeffrey Addicott, Associate Professor of Law and the Director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas, will head a $1 million project funded by the U.S. government to produce a “model statute” to restrict information disclosed under the 40-year-old Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). “There’s the public’s right to know, but how much?” he told USA Today. “There’s a strong feeling that the law needs to balance that with the need to protect the well-being of the nation.” The First Amendment Center’s Paul McMasters argues that there are significant downsides to restricting information released in the name of protecting national security. “The bad story is that it can also be a great instrument of control. … To automatically believe that the less known the better is really not rational,” he said.
SOURCE: USA Today, July 6, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4943

10. BAT DODGES DOCUMENT SHREDDING CASE
www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/07/05/1151779015440.html
British American Tobacco (BAT) reached an out of court settlement in a case that threatened to explore the company’s “document retention policy,” under which sensitive documents were shredded. In a two-sentence statement, BAT said the case, which dealt with sharing compensation costs for a lung cancer victim, was withdrawn “on terms satisfactory” to the tobacco company. Justice Jim Curtis of the Dust Diseases Tribunal of New South Wales previously found that BAT’s “document retention policy” was developed “for the purpose of a fraud.” He directed BAT to produce documents relating to its shredding policy by the end of June. The settlement, which does “not include payment to or by either party,” has legal observers baffled. “There will be no further comment by either party,” BAT concluded.
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, July 6 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4942

11. INSPECTORS: BRITISH NUCLEAR REACTORS ROTTEN TO THE CORE?
www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1812794,00.html
Some British nuclear reactor cores contain serious cracks that could limit their continued operation and potentially lead to radioactive releases, according to newly released documents from the government’s own nuclear inspectorate. The documents, which had been withheld from the public, were obtained by a group seeking to close one of the most controversial reactors, Hinkley Point B. That reactor has cracks at its graphite core that the owner, British Energy, has little information about and cannot further investigate without shutting down Hinkley and perhaps other similar reactors. The firm asserts that a shutdown could cause energy shortages. British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently reversed his own opposition to new nuclear power development. The Bush Administration has advanced a similar pro-nuke agenda.
SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), July 5, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4940

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at the Center
for Media and Democracy (CMD), a nonprofit public interest
organization. To subscribe or unsubcribe, visit:
www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html

Daily updates and news from past weeks can be found in the “Spin of
the Day” section of CMD’s website:
www.prwatch.org/spin

Archives of our quarterly publication, PR Watch, are at:
www.prwatch.org/prwissues

CMD also sponsors SourceWatch, a collaborative research project
that invites anyone (including you) to contribute and edit
articles. For more information, visit:
www.sourcewatch.org

PR Watch, Spin of the Day, the Weekly Spin and SourceWatch are
projects of the Center for Media & Democracy, a nonprofit
organization that offers investigative reporting on the public
relations industry. We help the public recognize manipulative and
misleading PR practices by exposing the activities of secretive,
little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that work to control
political debates and public opinion. Please send any questions or
suggestions about our publications to:
editor@prwatch.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Contributions to the Center for Media and Democracy are
tax-deductible. Send checks to:
CMD
520 University Avenue, Suite 227
Madison, WI 53703

To donate now online, visit:
https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0
_______________________________________________
Weekly-Spin mailing list
Weekly-Spin@prwatch.org
two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/weekly-spin