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further information about media, political spin and propaganda.
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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. U.S. Military Has No Problem with Propaganda
2. Words About “Images”
3. La Raza Unida for Telecom Deregulation?
4. Non-Profit ‘Watchdog’ Well Fed By ExxonMobil
5. Sudan Promotes Self to NY Times Readers
6. Not Necessarily the News
7. Sinclair Further Downsizes Local TV News
8. Public Radio’s Advertising Creep
9. Mexico’s Corporate Media: Consolidation Knows No Borders
10. On TV News, the Ads Never End (Part Two)
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== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. U.S. MILITARY HAS NO PROBLEM WITH PROPAGANDA
www.nytimes.com/2006/03/22/politics/22lincoln.html
The New York Times reports that the U.S. military’s review of a PR firm’s covert propaganda program in Iraq, led by Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, has been completed but not made public. According to military officials, “The findings are narrow in focus, and conclude that the Lincoln Group committed no legal violations because its actions in paying to place American [information operations troops]-written articles without attribution were not expressly prohibited by its contract or military rules.” The report “did not deal deeply” with such issues as how the small, young, well-connected firm received large government contracts, or whether its work was effective. It also did not address how, “in a modern information world connected by satellite television and the Internet, misleading information and lies could easily migrate into American news outlets.” The Lincoln Group’s Iraq work, on “a contract estimated at several million dollars,” remains “fully in effect.” The firm continues to bid for U.S. government contracts.
SOURCE: New York Times, March 22, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4622
2. WORDS ABOUT “IMAGES”
www.cjrdaily.org/politics/are_you_going_to_believe_image.php
“George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld actually need the media now more than ever,” writes the Columbia Journalism Review’s Gal Beckerman. Although the “conventional wisdom … is that this administration views the press as vampires view garlic,” White House criticisms of the media “have become essential to the administration’s contention that progress is being made.” The effect of this argument, Beckerman writes, is to sugggest that “We’re not seeing car bombs ripping entire blocks apart and blowing dozens of Iraqis to bits. We’re seeing images of car bombs ripping entire blocks apart and blowing dozens of Iraqis to bits. … Because the violence is only ‘on their television screens,’ it’s as if it does not actually exist out there in the world; it is only the ‘image’ of violence. … There’s no doubt the administration would love more images of Iraqi children playing in the street. But this same derision of the media also serves a purpose in itself in the administration’s campaign to win over the home front. If the media cannot be trusted, then we shouldn’t trust what we think we know about Iraq. Instead, the administration is saying, just trust us.”
SOURCE: CJR Daily, March 21, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4621
3. LA RAZA UNIDA FOR TELECOM DEREGULATION?
www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-SJVD1142887133785.html
“When 15 Latino groups sent a letter to top Senate Commerce Committee lawmakers urging video-franchising relief for the Bell telecommunications firms, the appeal appeared to be on behalf of Hispanic Americans,” writes David Hatch. “But critics said the letter also was on behalf of the Bell firms AT&T and Verizon Communications, which have financial and business ties to many of the signatories. … Among the signers was the National Hispanic Media Coalition, which became a client of the Washington-based lobbying firm Mickey Ibarra and Associates on Feb. 23. Ibarra is a registered lobbyist for Verizon and Consumers for Cable Choice, which is funded partly by Bell companies.”
SOURCE: National Journal, March 17, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4620
4. NON-PROFIT ‘WATCHDOG’ WELL FED BY EXXONMOBIL
online.wsj.com/article/SB114291044305003774.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
The Wall Street Journal reports that Public Interest Watch (PIW), a non-profit ‘watchdog’ group which sucessfully lobbied for an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax audit of Greenpeace, has been heavily funded by ExxonMobil. Two years after PIW urged an IRS investigation, Greenpeace was subjected to a three-month long audit. Steve Stecklow reports that PIW’s “most recent federal tax filing, covering August 2003 to July 2004, states that $120,000 of the $124,094" came from the oil company. ExxonMobil confirmed that they had funded the group at that time but no longer do. According to Greenpeace USA executive director John Passacantando, the IRS auditor, Charles Walker, told him the investigation was in response to PIW’s complaint. In March this year Greenpeace was informed that it retained its tax exempt status. PIW’s Executive Director Lewis Fein has refused to disclose any of the groups current funders.
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req’d), March 21, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4619
5. SUDAN PROMOTES SELF TO NY TIMES READERS
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0320sudan.htm
The Government of Sudan — tired of international media focusing on the country’s ongoing genocide — paid for an upbeat eight-page advertising insert in Monday’s New York Times. O’Dwyer’s PR Daily reports that Summit Communications prepared the insert which “extols the investment opportunities in the energy-rich state” but “has no rebuttal to United Nations and U.S. accusations that the Sudanese Government is funding the Arab militia that have raped, murdered and driven two million Darfur villagers into refugee camps.” According the its website, Summit Communications specializes in countering the “crisis-driven orientation of American news outlets” that provide “insufficient coverage of the sweeping reforms and positive developments taking place in emerging markets.” In their “Africa Policy Outlook 2006" report, Foreign Policy In Focus writes that this year “is likely to be the pivotal year in determining the course of U.S. relations with Sudan and the ultimate response to the genocide in Darfur.”
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily, March 20, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4618
6. NOT NECESSARILY THE NEWS
funwithhandgrenades.blogspot.com/2006/03/propaganda.html
A soldier who blogs from Iraq is upset that he didn’t hear the country was on the brink of civil war until he happened to phone home to his parents. “That was the first I’d heard about the mosque getting blown up and this was two or three days after it happened,” he writes. “I’m IN Iraq and have no idea what’s going on. A few months back I came to the conclusion that I’m fed nothing but propaganda and now it seems like my theory is dead on.” He says that Stars and Stripes, the newspaper published for soldiers by the military, largely ignores reports on the fighting and instead talks about “how ‘great’ the Iraqi Army/Police are becoming, how we built some school or water plant and how Haji is so grateful for it, or how such and such a unit found the mother of all weapons caches in some garden in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere. … I can tell you that this place isn’t Candy Land. Car bombs are going off killing civilians, people are blowing up mosques, the kidnapping and subsequently beheading of people, these fuckers don’t wear identifiable uniforms, and friends of friends are getting killed over here. I personally find it insulting that what little amount of news I’m given isn’t realistic. I feel like the main character in ‘Clockwork Orange’ with his eyelids held open while being brainwashed.”
SOURCE: Fun With Hand Grenades, March 20, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4614
7. SINCLAIR FURTHER DOWNSIZES LOCAL TV NEWS
www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002198225
“Sinclair Broadcast Group is scaling back its News Central operation … opting to seek out news share arrangements,” reports Katy Bachman. “Beginning March 31, Sinclair will no longer feed live, anchored prime-time newscasts to its stations,” though it will continue to provide some content and support “to the 20 of its 58 stations that produce local news.” A statement from Sinclair explained, “Because the costs to produce high quality local news are so significant, moving to a news sharing partnership with a strong network affiliated station can provide an effective means to bring additional news coverage to the market.” Bachman notes that under the new arrangement, “news operations are expected to close down at four of Sinclair’s WB stations in Buffalo, Milwaukee, Tampa and Raleigh.” Sinclair news director Joe DeFeo said, “Our local news staff at our WB stations should take pride in the solid and professional newscasts they produced.”
SOURCE: Mediaweek, March 16, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4605
8. PUBLIC RADIO’S ADVERTISING CREEP
online.wsj.com/article/SB114256601995200999.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
“As its federal funding came under threat,” U.S. National Public Radio increased its ad sales. “Public-radio stations now count 18% of their revenue from businesses, compared with 11% from the federal government.” Corporate “underwriters” include Clear Channel Communications, Starbucks and Wal-Mart Stores. “More on-air sponsorships are now weaved into programming breaks rather than lumped at the end of each show,” reports Sarah McBride. “And more minutes per hour are given over to these announcements, a sweetener for all concerned because such underwriting is tax-deductible.” The trend was informed by a 2004 report for 21 large public-radio stations, which found listeners disliked on-air pledge drives, but “weren’t bothered by” fundraising by direct mail or on-air underwriting. NPR ombudsman Jeffery Dvorkin admits that listener concerns “about corporate influence on programming as well as the number of messages” are increasing.
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req’d), March 17, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4604
9. MEXICO’S CORPORATE MEDIA: CONSOLIDATION KNOWS NO BORDERS
news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=c483a77823c0223f1a12e48b3161e9c5
“Money will define the right to communicate,” warned media analyst Néstor Cortés, regarding a bill before the Mexican Senate that would likely further media consolidation in the country. The bill, which has already passed the House of Representatives, “would allow stations that have already been assigned a frequency to branch out into digital services of all kinds simply by notifying the government, while potential new competitors” — including educational and community media — “would have to participate in a public bidding process.” Mexico’s biggest TV companies are Televisa and Azteca, and radio stations “are concentrated in the hands of 13 business groups.” While Senators have criticized the bill, the opposition has “been thoroughly ignored by the newscasts and talk show programs” on TV. Mexico’s media conglomerates are lobbying for the bill. One newspaper “published a transcript of a series of telephone conversations between a Televisa lawyer and legislators and businesspeople,” revealing the extent to which the company is pushing for the bill.
SOURCE: New America Media, March 15, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4549
10. ON TV NEWS, THE ADS NEVER END (PART TWO)
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060316/tv_nm/newscasts_dc_1
“With TV stations facing increased competition and pressure on advertising revenue … product placement, media and branded entertainment agencies say they are increasingly being pitched opportunities from local stations to integrate their clients’ products into news programing in exchange for buying commercial time or paying integration fees,” reports Gail Schiller. KRON-TV in San Francisco, KMEX-TV in Los Angeles, and KPTV-TV in Portland “confirmed that they have integrated advertisers into their newscasts.” KCAL-TV in Los Angeles and Gannett NBC affiliates in Denver, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Cleveland “are experimenting with integration into newsmagazine-type shows that they describe as entertainment rather than news.” Recently, ABC’s “Good Morning America” broadcast from a cruise ship. The cruise company “did not pay integration fees,” but “did foot the bill for airfare, room and board to send nearly 300 women,” who won an ABC contest, on the cruise. Radio-Television News Directors Association president Barbara Cochran warned, “If viewers start thinking your news is for sale, then the credibility of your news is lost and your audience is lost.”
SOURCE: Reuters, March 15, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4548
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