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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. “True Spin”: An Oxymoron or a Lofty Goal?
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. At Lincoln Group, the Propaganda Never Ends
2. PR Czar Hughes Loses the Reporters
3. The Tobacco Industry’s Secondhand Science
4. The Long, Protracted, Not-Going-To-Be-Over-Soon, War
5. U.S. Government Media Contracts Revealed
6. The “Center for Union Facts” Is Rick Berman’s Newest Fiction
7. Shell’s Greenwash Stunt: Driving Around (Some of) the World
8. Perusing Peru’s News for Political Clues
9. Too Much Fat in Kolata’s Coverage?
10. Iraq PR: Same as it Ever Was
11. On MTV, the Ads Never End
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. “TRUE SPIN”: AN OXYMORON OR A LOFTY GOAL?
by Diane Farsetta
“Officials from giant corporations meet all the time to share their latest and greatest PR strategies,” read the conference website. “Now it’s our turn.” On February 2 and 3, some 180 people attended the True Spin Conference in Denver, Colorado, which was billed as “a PR conference for progressives.” The event was organized by CauseCommunications, a small Denver PR firm whose clients have included Ben Cohen’s Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, Winona LaDuke’s Honor the Earth, and The Progressive magazine.
As a representative of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), I found myself generally agreeing on the ends, but sometimes disagreeing on the means, of conference attendees’ media work.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4453
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. AT LINCOLN GROUP, THE PROPAGANDA NEVER ENDS
www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/politics/15lincoln.html
The Lincoln Group, which planted Pentagon-written stories in Iraqi newspapers, won U.S. military contracts “after claiming to have partnerships with major media and advertising companies, former government officials with extensive Middle East experience, and ex-military officers with background in intelligence and psychological warfare,” reports the New York Times. “But some of those companies and individuals say their associations were fleeting. … ‘They appear very professional on the surface, then you dig a little deeper and you find that they are pretty amateurish,’” said former Marine officer and former Lincoln “strategic adviser” Jason Santamaria. Lincoln had short-lived partnerships with The Rendon Group and the New York ad firm Della Femina Rothschild Jeary and Partners. Lincoln also told U.S. Special Operations Command that it worked with the ad conglomerate Omnicom Group, but an Omnicom spokesperson said, “We’re not aware of any relationship with Lincoln Group.” Lincoln continues to bid for U.S. government contracts.
SOURCE: New York Times, February 15, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4467
2. PR CZAR HUGHES LOSES THE REPORTERS
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021201079.html
“In September, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes … took 16 reporters on her first trip to the Mideast,” Al Kamen writes. “We all know how well that trip turned out. So this time, Hughes, heading later this week for Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Germany, has reduced the media contingent … to zero.” Hughes did grant an interview to Time magazine, in which she described the State Department’s new media monitoring unit. In addition to live Arab TV broadcasts, she says, “We have a young man who’s watching the blogs, the Web chats.” Hughes also describes public diplomacy plans around the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament: “We’re going to have our embassies very involved in inviting kids to come watch the games this summer.”
SOURCE: Washington Post, February 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4463
3. THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY’S SECONDHAND SCIENCE
bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/332/7537/321-a/DC1
A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that the tobacco industry “recruited and managed an international network of more than 80 scientific and medical experts in Europe, Asia and elsewhere in a bid to avoid regulations on secondhand smoke.” In 1991 alone, the industry spent $3.3 million (2.8 m Euros) on the program, according to company documents. The program’s goal was “to influence policy makers, media and the public” by having industry consultants attend conferences, present papers and lobby, all while hiding or obscuring the tobacco industry’s role. The program began in 1987. By 1991, “every member of the organising committee of an international conference on indoor air quality in Bangkok … was a tobacco industry consultant.” And, “as of early 2004, no document has been located indicating that the program has been terminated.”
SOURCE: British Medical Journal, February 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4461
4. THE LONG, PROTRACTED, NOT-GOING-TO-BE-OVER-SOON, WAR
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/
Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1139611812970&call_pa
Reporter Tim Harper notes the Bush administration’s shift from “War on Terror” to “The Long War.” Communications professor Christopher Simpson explains, “The War on Terror brand had gone sour.” Moreover, “if it is a Long War,” then expanded executive powers “will be needed not just this year, but next year and for decades.” Harper writes, “Although the first use of the term ‘Long War’ is credited in 2004 to Gen. John Abizaid … it really had its public coming-out Jan. 31 in the U.S. president’s State of the Union address.” The new name is also used in the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Policy Review. Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations says the administration doesn’t “want this to be defined as a conventional war where the entire burden will fall on the military and they will be expected to win quickly.” Heritage Foundation fellow James Carafano, who co-authored the 2005 book “Winning The Long War,” says the Pentagon considered “The Protracted War,” but “’protracted’ is a five-dollar word.”
SOURCE: The Toronto Star (Canada), February 11, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4460
5. U.S. GOVERNMENT MEDIA CONTRACTS REVEALED
www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-06-305
The nonpartisan investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), released a report on the media contracts of seven agencies — Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs. (These departments “account for nearly all the obligated federal dollars for public relations and advertising activities in fiscal year 2003.”) The departments self-reported on 343 media contracts, worth $1.62 billion, from fiscal year 2003 through the second quarter of 2005. The Defense Department spent the most on media contracts, at $1.1 billion. Fifty-four contracts, worth $197 million, were with public relations firms. Fourteen contracts, worth $1.2 million, involved video news releases, for the Census Bureau, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Transportation Safety Administration, National Park Service, and U.S. Mint. The top recipients of federal media contracts were Leo Burnett, Campbell-Ewald, GSD&M, J. Walter Thompson, Frankel & Company, and Ketchum.
SOURCE: Government Accountability Office, February 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4459
6. THE “CENTER FOR UNION FACTS” IS RICK BERMAN’S NEWEST FICTION
unionfacts.com/
On February 13, full-page advertisements in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, along with a media stunt involving a dinosaur, announced a new union-bashing front group called Center for Union Facts. Who is behind the ad and their UnionFacts.com website? Nothing in the advertisements or the webpage mentions Rick Berman, but — Bingo! — that’s who owns the website domain name. Rick Berman is a right-wing lobbyist who has built a lucrative career establishing industry-funded front groups including FishScam.com, the Center for Consumer Freedom, the Employment Policies Institute, the Employment Roundtable and ActivistCash.com. Berman specializes in personal attacks, smear tactics and playing loose with the facts. He has raised millions of dollars from tobacco, booze, biotech, fast food, grocery and other businesses eager to pay Berman to do their dirty work. Another Berman connection to the Center for Union Facts is Sarah Longwell, the group’s PR contact, who has also worked for Berman’s Employment Policies Institute.
SOURCE: UnionFacts.com, February 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4458
7. SHELL’S GREENWASH STUNT: DRIVING AROUND (SOME OF) THE WORLD
news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article344467.ece
“In a bid to underline its ‘green’ credentials, Shell is currently sending a fleet of Volkswagen Golfs in [Around the World in 80 Days’ protagonist Phileas] Fogg’s footsteps, on an expedition ‘around the world in 50 fill-ups’,” reports The Independent. The goal is “to win a place in the Guinness Book of Records for circumnavigating the globe in the most fuel-efficient manner possible,” using “Shell’s specially customized vehicles.” However, unlike Fogg, Shell’s journey will avoid Africa. Guy Adams writes, “Shell has a – shall we say? – dodgy record in those parts, as a result of its ongoing operations in Nigeria.” Environmental, social and human rights concerns – including the 1995 murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa – have resulted in Shell boycotts. Shell spokespeople have called Nigeria the company’s “worst public relations nightmare,” according to the Multinational Monitor. But the company insists that its “strange itinerary” is simply due to “difficulties taking all the cars through customs” in Africa.
SOURCE: The Independent (UK), February 10, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4451
8. PERUSING PERU’S NEWS FOR POLITICAL CLUES
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13837816.htm
“The lack of transparency in politics in general and in media in particular is huge in this country,” said the director of the government-supported Peruvian organization Citizen Participation. “Like everywhere else in the world, the big owners of communication chains aren’t absolutely neutral or transparent. They respond to certain interests.” So the Carter Center, Canadian Foundation for the Americas and the University of Calgary have customized for Peru “mapping software to overlay the location of newspapers, radio and TV stations with demographic data,” including voting records, income and education level. The interactive website was also used for last month’s parliamentary elections in Canada. The project’s goals are “to support campaign-finance reform and democracy-building efforts.” The website is not geared towards average citizens, but “for political watchdog groups to spot trends in radio and TV coverage of candidates.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, February 10, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4450
9. TOO MUCH FAT IN KOLATA’S COVERAGE?
www.cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/a_heaping_serving_of_baked_kol.php
Felix Gillette criticizes a story by Gina Kolata on a major study examining a low-fat diet for postmenopausal women and finding little positive impact. Gillette says Gina Kolata’s article in the New York Times hyped the study: “[T]he warnings about the potential shortcomings of the study were surrounded by quotes from doctors pumping up the study’s ‘Holy Geez!’ index.” Gillette compliments other reporters, saying “perhaps the best article of the bunch was penned by one of the skeptics quoted in Kolata’s story,” low fat diet proponent Dr. Dean Ornish. On Newsweek’s web site Ornish “provided a clear and nuanced take on the study. ‘The real lesson of the Women’s Health Initiative study is this: if you don’t change much, you don’t improve much. Small changes in diet don’t have much effect on preventing heart disease and cancer in those at high risk. Fat is only part of the story. What we include in our diets is at least as important as what we exclude.’ Ditto for good journalism — what a paper such as the Times chooses to include on its front page is at least as important as what it excludes. On this one, we recommend a little less Kolata in the diet, and a few more caveats.”
SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, February 9, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4449
10. IRAQ PR: SAME AS IT EVER WAS
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0209bksh.htm
The PR firm Burson-Marsteller’s lobbying unit, BKSH & Associates, “has added the Republic of Iraq to its client roster,” reports O’Dwyer’s. “The Washington, DC-based firm had worked for the [U.S.-funded] Iraqi National Congress opposition group during the reign of Saddam Hussein.” Burson-Marsteller has already “helped the deputy military attache do outreach to key media outlets,” including the Wall Street Journal and CNN, and has contacted the U.S. State Department and National Security Council on behalf of the Iraqi Embassy. The firm’s Iraq contract also includes setting up editorial board meetings, placing op/ed pieces, and strengthening “ties with organizations like the American Enterprise Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Council on Foreign Relations and Business Council for International Understanding.”
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (sub req’d), February 9, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4447
11. ON MTV, THE ADS NEVER END
Unilever’s advertising firm, the Publicis Groupe agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), and the production company Radical Media are behind a new MTV show. “The Gamekillers” is both “a scripted reality show” and “the first major marketing push behind the new Axe Dry antiperspirant stick.” This foray into “branded entertainment” will not directly feature the Unilever product, but the show’s characters, “visual look and typography will be tied to the brand when they appear in an ad campaign that breaks a week after the show makes its debut,” on February 6. BBH’s Kevin Roddy said, “The whole show is about making a brand statement without mentioning the brand.” Unilever covered production costs, while “MTV brought air time and marketing support.”
SOURCE: Advertising Age, February 6, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4446
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