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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Mad Cows and Mad Policies
2. Dow Shalt Spin
3. Growing Old with FOIA
4. Whitewashing Guantanamo in the UK
5. Local TV News May Be Hazardous to Your Health
6. ‘Brand America,’ Now with More Terror
7. Regime Change Part III: Iran
8. Channel One: Zero Educational Value
9. Lincoln Group: The Little Propaganda Shop that Could
10. The Sorry State of U.S. News Media
11. Anti-Enviro Front Groups Grow on Trees
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== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. MAD COWS AND MAD POLICIES
www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/03/14/ap2594725.html
“Despite the confirmation of a third case of mad cow disease” in the United States, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) “intends to scale back testing for the brain-wasting disorder blamed for the deaths of more than 150 people in Europe,” reports Libby Quaid. The USDA’s John Clifford mentioned the decrease in testing when he announced the latest mad cow case, in an Alabama animal. The lower testing levels haven’t been finalized, “but the department’s budget proposal calls for 40,000 tests annually,” or one-tenth of one percent of U.S. cattle slaughtered. Consumer Union’s Jean Halloran called the reduction “a policy of don’t look, don’t find.” The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Gary Weber said, “The consumers we’ve done focus groups with are comfortable that this is a very rare disease.” The Christian Science Monitor notes that current, higher testing levels are “far lower than the percentage tested in Europe or Japan.” The new case of mad cow may delay the opening of Asian markets to U.S. beef.
SOURCE: Associated Press, March 14, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4541
2. DOW SHALT SPIN
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0313gh.htm
Golin Harris, a firm in the massive Interpublic public relations and advertising conglomerate, has been appointed to run a global campaign to help clean up the poor reputation of Dow Chemical. In an email to O’Dwyers PR Daily, Dow Chemical staffer Terri McNeill wrote that the company wants “stakeholders to better understand how its products, people and actions contribute to human progress.” Dow has refused to compensate the victims of the 1984 Bhopal disaster in India, a liability it inherited when it took over Union Carbide.
SOURCE: O’Dwyers PR Daily (sub req’d), March 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4540
3. GROWING OLD WITH FOIA
www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/03/13sunfoia.html
The U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which is 40 years old, “is plagued by chronic backlogs, unjustified rejections and inconsistent responses, according to interviews with open government advocates and lawmakers and a new study by the National Security Archive,” reports the Austin American-Statesman. The oldest outstanding FOIA request is from law professor William Aceves who, sixteen years ago, requested information on a defense program that monitors international waterways. In a separate review of state-based Freedom of information laws, Associated Press reporter Robert Tanner found that following September 11, 2001, “legislatures have passed more than 1,000 laws changing access to information, approving more than twice as many measures that restrict information as laws that open government books.” Meanwhile, Australia’s government ombudsman has found that the Australian FOI Act “works well in facilitating public access to personal information but not so well in providing access to policy-related information.”
SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman, March 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4539
4. WHITEWASHING GUANTANAMO IN THE UK
www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1730270,00.html
“The innocence of (Moazzam) Begg, the Tipton Three and the other British detainees who have come home is a part of the story of Guantanamo that no official wants people to hear,” writes Victoria Brittain, the co-author with Begg of the book Enemy Combatant. Brittain points to a Daily Telegraph story titled, “Begg told FBI he trained with al-Qaeda.” The story was based on an FBI report of a confession that Begg signed after he “had been tortured, threatened with death, offered a job undercover by the CIA, and come to believe he would never see his family again.” The U.S. deputy assistant for public diplomacy, Colleen Graffy, recently gave a BBC radio interview about how she “had visited Guantanamo and witness no unpleasant interrogation, no torture and plenty of sports facilities,” writes Brittain. Graffy showed her interviewer “a sample tube used for force-feeding prisoners and explained … that it had no metal edges and was therefore humane.”
SOURCE: Guardian (UK), March 14, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4538
5. LOCAL TV NEWS MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH
www.ajmc.com/Article.cfm?Menu=1&ID=3090
After studying health segments on 122 local television stations, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Michigan concluded, “Few newscasts provide useful information, and some stories with factually incorrect information and potentially dangerous advice were aired.” Yet, “Americans rate television as their primary source of health information.” The researchers noted “pervasive health stories” that aired in “more than 10 media markets” sometimes included “identical video,” suggesting the use of video news releases (VNRs). Since TV health segments are around 30 seconds long, “only small portions” of the VNR package “make it onto the air.” PR Week’s “PR Toolbox” column suggests including “a personal story” in healthcare VNRs. “A news station doesn’t want to appear as if it is promoting a product,” but “someone who has a personal story to tell … will be viewed as a Good Samaritan who wants to help others … not merely as a spokesperson.”
SOURCE: The American Journal of Managed Care, March 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4537
6. ‘BRAND AMERICA,’ NOW WITH MORE TERROR
www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/10/of_propaganda_and_policy.php
While George W. Bush’s domestic poll numbers find a new low, the U.S. image abroad continues to scrape bottom. Addressing the White House’s failure to win “hearts and minds,” John Brown writes, “Personnel and programs matter in foreign policy, but what counts most is policy itself. … This policy, no matter how public diplomacy or propaganda ‘explains’ it, cannot possibly win the world over because of its appalling consequences, shocking and sickening to non-Americans if not to Americans as well … . Thanks to the mass media and the Internet, the abominations of a terror-obsessed U.S. policy have become the new American ‘brand’ worldwide, with the administration’s calls for planetary democratization — so selectively implemented — widely seen as fake packaging, hypocrisy at its worst.”
SOURCE: TomPaine.com, March 10, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4535
7. REGIME CHANGE PART III: IRAN
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201016.html
“President Bush and his team have been huddling in closed-door meetings on Iran, summoning scholars for advice, investing in opposition activities, creating an Iran office in Washington and opening listening posts abroad,” reports the Washington Post. “Members of the Hoover Institution’s board of overseers who met with Bush, Vice President Cheney and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley two weeks ago emerged with the impression that the administration has shifted to a more robust policy aimed at the Iranian government.” The State Department recently created an Iran desk and increased the number of full-time positions on Iran from two to 10. The U.S. Embassy in Dubai, and “other embassies in the vicinity,” are also adding staff “to watch Tehran.” Voice of America broadcasts into Iran will increase from one to four hours a day by April 2006, with plans to expand to 24 hours.
SOURCE: Washington Post, March 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4534
8. CHANNEL ONE: ZERO EDUCATIONAL VALUE
www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002156883
The controversial in-school television program Channel One “airs 10 minutes of news and public affairs and two minutes of commercials or public service announcements daily.” But a new study published by Pediatrics magazine found that students “had a stronger recall of the ads than the programming itself.” Moreover, “students reported having purchased during the preceding three months an average of 2.5 items advertised on the program.” Channel One is broadcast in some 350,000 U.S. schools. The company provides schools with approximately $30,000 worth of audiovisual equipment in exchange for airing the show.
SOURCE: Mediaweek, March 13, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4532
9. LINCOLN GROUP: THE LITTLE PROPAGANDA SHOP THAT COULD
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0309lincoln_pak.htm
The Lincoln Group, whose covert Iraq program was recently OK’d by the Pentagon, “is working to boost economic development in Pakistan.” Lincoln is working with former U.S. diplomat Carol Fleming to increase “investments in the country’s textile, energy, technology and telecom” industries. The firm produced “a documentary” of areas devastated by the October 2005 earthquake, “to remind countries to honor their pledges to support the victims.” Lincoln has also “expressed interest” in a contract to help the U.S. Army Reserve communicate its “vision of the future.” The contract includes “speech writing, research, development of a comprehensive … communications plan,” support for “national outreach programs,” and media outreach for Army Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. James Helmly. Other firms seeking the Army contract include CorpComm Group, MyMic, Polestar Applied Technology and ICOR Partners.
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (sub req’d), March 9, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4531
10. THE SORRY STATE OF U.S. NEWS MEDIA
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002157352
The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s “State of the News Media 2006" study claims, “The troubles of 2005, especially in print, dealt a further blow to … journalism in the public interest.” While newspaper circulation, ad income and staff levels decreased, “the industry will still post profit margins of 20%.” The study also examined news coverage across numerous print, broadcast and online outlets on one randomly-chosen day, and found “enormous repetition and amplification of just two dozen stories.” This means that “while there were more media outlets … they were covering less news,” reported the New York Times. Noting that national broadcast reports repeatedly quoted the same few people, the study cautions that “more coverage … does not always mean greater diversity of voices.” The “shallowest” news media was cable news, according to the study. Bloggers “raised new issues,” but “did almost no original reporting.”
SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, March 12, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4530
11. ANTI-ENVIRO FRONT GROUPS GROW ON TREES
pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2006/mar/policy/pt_bigindustry.html
Paul Thacker reports on “one short-lived ‘grassroots’ organization” based in Oregon, whose leaders “played a key role in passing President Bush’s Healthy Forests legislation and are now promoting changes” to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that would reduce protections and require compensation for landowners. One key figure is Tim Wigley, the director of the PR firm Pac/West Communications. After working for a timber industry trade group and a forest-products company, Wigley led the group Project Protect, which supported the Healthy Forests bill and was run out of the offices of the American Forest Resource Council. Wigley is now the campaign director of the Save Our Species Alliance (SOSA), “which has become a prominent voice in convincing voters that change to ESA is needed.” Other SOSA figures include Steve Quarles, a timber industry lobbyist; supporters include the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Center for Public Policy Research.
SOURCE: Environmental Science & Technology, March 8, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4529
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