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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. It’s Clobberin’ Time
2. Scandals, Scandals, Scandals.
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Shredding Policy Haunts British American Tobacco
2. Donations Tie Drug Firms and Nonprofits
3. Questioning the NY Times’ Nuclear Option
4. Iraq the Most Deadly War for Reporters
5. Pentagon Primes Propaganda Plan
6. Publicis PR Affiliate Seeking to Mute Bad PR?
7. “Fake TV News” Report Now in PDF Form
8. CMD Report “Fake TV News” Triggers FCC Investigation
9. Lincoln Logs More Propaganda Work in Iraq
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME
by Sheldon Rampton
Our senior researcher, Diane Farsetta, is one “bad mamma jamma” according to Ed Husar of “The Quincy Dump,” who interviewed her for his blog about the Fake TV News report that she co-wrote and researched with Dan Price.
“The Quincy Dump” is focused on the problem of media consolidation in Quincy, Illinois, which Husar says is “one of nine communities in the country where one company is allowed to own television, radio and the only newspaper in the same market. It is because of this cross ownership that so much Quincy media news goes unreported and Quincy media ethics go unchecked.” Quincy Newspapers Incorporated owns WSJV-TV, a Fox Network affiliate in South Bend, Indiana that broadcast one of the video news releases featured in Diane and Dan’s report.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4834
2. SCANDALS, SCANDALS, SCANDALS.
by Conor Kenny
The biggest news in the Capitol this week was undoubtedly the May 20 raid of the congressional offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) by FBI agents. The agents were part of a “public corruption and government fraud squad” and stayed for 17 hours, searching and cataloguing evidence in the bribery investigation surrounding Jefferson, in which two of his associates have already pleaded guilty. The FBI filed an affidavit to support their application for a search warrant that spelled out their evidence against Jefferson. We’ve gone through it line by line and entered all the details into Jefferson’s Congresspedia profile. You’ve really got to read it to believe it.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4828
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. SHREDDING POLICY HAUNTS BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO
www.smh.com.au/news/national/judge-tells-tobacco-giant-to-hand-over-documents/2006/05/30/1148956346933.html
British American Tobacco (BAT) has suffered a major legal setback after a Sydney judge found that the company’s “document retention policy,” under which sensitive documents were shredded, had been developed “in furtherance of the commission of a fraud.” In a case before the New South Wales Dust Diseases Tribunal, Justice Jim Curtis heard uncontested evidence from former BAT solicitor Fred Gulson that the policy was designed so that the company could shred potentially damaging documents. Curtis said that the policy created “the pretence of a rational non-selective housekeeping policy.” The case before the tribunal will hear argument on whether BAT should bear part of the compensation costs of a lung cancer victim who was a smoker and was exposed to asbestos. BAT has been directed to produce relevant documents within two weeks for a trial that commences on June 26.
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, May 30, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4840
2. DONATIONS TIE DRUG FIRMS AND NONPROFITS
www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/14687073.htm
“The American Diabetes Association, a leading patient health group, privately enlisted an Eli Lilly & Co. executive to chart its growth strategy and write its slogan. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, an outspoken patient advocate, lobbies for treatment programs that also benefit its drug-company donors. … Although patients seldom know it, many patient groups and drug companies maintain close, multimillion-dollar relationships while disclosing limited or no details about the ties,” reports Thomas Ginsberg. In some cases, companies have “loaned” the services of their executives to advise or even lead patient groups. Ginsberg’s investigation found that “the groups rarely disclose such ties when commenting or lobbying about donors’ drugs. They also tend to be slower to publicize treatment problems than breakthroughs. And few openly questioned drug prices.”
SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4839
3. QUESTIONING THE NY TIMES’ NUCLEAR OPTION
counterpunch.org/montague05272006.html
Peter Montague, of the environmental publication Rachel’s News, responds to the New York Times’ pro-nuclear power editorial from May 13, 2006. The newspaper claimed that “nuclear power is looking better,” due to high energy prices and global warming. Montague writes, “Even after taking into consideration the large quantities of fossil fuels required for mining, processing, and enriching fuel, and in plant construction, operation, waste disposal and plant decommissioning, nuclear power could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some amount while generating electricity. The question is, are there better ways to achieve the same result?” The Times suggested that nuclear waste be stored at surface sites “for the next 50 to 100 years,” as longer-term storage is developed. Montague argues, “Fifty years of study and experiment have yielded no useful solutions.” He also warns, “The connection between nuclear power and nuclear bombs simply cannot be broken.” With regard to federal subsidies, Montague asks, “Why aren’t we willing to spend $77 billion to subsidize energy-saving measures, and the development of existing minimally-polluting technologies?” The business publication Forbes agrees, stating, “Nuclear is not profitable without a raft of government subsidies.”
SOURCE: CounterPunch, May 27-29, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4838
4. IRAQ THE MOST DEADLY WAR FOR REPORTERS
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002577061
The Iraq war “is now the deadliest war for reporters in the past century,” reports Editor and Publisher. Seventy-one journalists and 26 media support staff have been killed in Iraq since 2003. That compares to 69 journalists killed in World War II, 63 in Vietnam and 17 in Korea. In addition, at least 42 journalists have been kidnapped in Iraq, according to Reporters Without Borders. As the New York Times notes, “it is Iraqi journalists who have been most at risk. Just this month, three Iraqi reporters were killed in a two-week period.” The news comes as CBS reports that two of its crew members were killed in Iraq. Cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan are believed to be “the first embedded journalists to die since 2003.”
SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, May 29, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4837
5. PENTAGON PRIMES PROPAGANDA PLAN
www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060529/29propaganda.htm
The Pentagon’s new “strategic communications roadmap” will soon be approved, according to U.S. News and World Report. The plan seeks to “create a culture” that sees strategic communications as “not just public affairs, information operations or psychological operations, legislative affairs or public diplomacy, but … the totality of that that you have to work to be effective,” explained Lt. Gen. Gene Renuart of the Joint Staff. The Pentagon has already established a Strategic Communications secretariat, to “research important or contentious issues, such as the recent Dubai ports debate”; a Strategic Communications Integration Group “will decide how to handle those issues.” In 2004, the U.S. Strategic Command established a Joint Information Operations Center in San Antonio, Texas, to send support teams “to the various combatant commands in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Latin America.” And the Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida, sends psychological operations units around the world.
SOURCE: U.S. News and World Report, May 29, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4835
6. PUBLICIS PR AFFILIATE SEEKING TO MUTE BAD PR?
www.thailabour.org/wnews/051103a.html
Last July, labor activist Junya Lek Yimprasert took up the cause of five women workers dismissed by the Thai subsidiary of the global PR firm Publicis Groupe. She described alleged sexual discrimination and intimidation at the firm’s Bankok office to reporter Stephen Frost of CSR Asia (PDF). Two months later, Publicis filed a complaint of “defamation by propagation” in Bankok against Yimprasert, ostensibly for posting the CSR Asia article on her Thai Labour Campaign’s (TLC) website. In Thailand, such a complaint is investigated and potentially prosecuted in criminal court, according to our own conversation with Publicis legal counsel Russell Kelley. The Southern Bankok Criminal Court prosecutor summoned Yimprasert and brought charges. The court set a concilation date for May 31, 2006, with trial dates in November 2006. “I think the prosecution is pursuing the case because it feels there are grounds to do so,” Kelley told PR Watch. Meanwhile, a global appeal has been launched on behalf of Yimprasert, accusing Publicis of attempting to intimidate TLC into silence.
SOURCE: Thai Labour Campaign, October 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4836
7. “FAKE TV NEWS” REPORT NOW IN PDF FORM
www.prwatch.org/pdfs/NFNPDFExt6.pdf
With the U.S. Federal Communications Commission investigating the television stations that CMD documented airing corporate video news releases, you might want to read through the report that started it all. Luckily, “Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed” is now available in PDF format! Download it from our website, print it out and take it along on your summer holiday. It’s 114 pages long — chock full of important information, harrowing tales of media deception, and some great puns. The URL to download the report is: www.prwatch.org/pdfs/NFNPDFExt6.pdf
SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy, May 26, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4829
8. CMD REPORT “FAKE TV NEWS” TRIGGERS FCC INVESTIGATION
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aIeR2Prf88nE&refer=us
Bloomberg reports that, in direct response to CMD’s groundbreaking exposé ‘Fake TV News,’ the “Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin ordered a probe of dozens of television stations. … The April report by the non-profit Center for Media and Democracy found at least 77 stations, including 23 affiliates of Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network and seven Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. stations, ignored an FCC warning to disclose sponsors. The maximum fine for each violation is $32,500, rising to $325,000 for multiple infractions, said FCC spokesman Clyde Ensslin. ‘If the investigation leads to significant fines, the FCC could cause stations to put disclosures in place that make clearer the corporate role in local news,’ said analyst Blair Levin of Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Washington. ‘It depends how hard Martin wants to push it.’”
SOURCE: Bloomberg, May 25, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4826
9. LINCOLN LOGS MORE PROPAGANDA WORK IN IRAQ
www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/world/middleeast/24propaganda.html
It was reported previously that Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk’s review of U.S. propaganda efforts in Iraq found that no regulations were violated by the “multipronged campaign.” According to the New York Times, the three-page summary of the Pentagon review calls the military’s covert authorship of Iraqi newspaper articles “appropriate,” but suggests new guidelines to “determine when attribution may be appropriate.” Without mentioning the Lincoln Group, the PR firm that planted the pro-U.S. stories, the review emphasizes the importance of “proper oversight” of contractors on propaganda programs. The review is critical of the U.S.-created Baghdad Press Club, saying the military’s “direct oversight of an apparently independent news organization and remuneration for articles that are published will undoubtedly raise questions focused on ‘truth and credibility,’ that will be difficult to deflect.” The New York Times reports, “Several Pentagon officials said the Lincoln Group and other contractors were still involved in placing propaganda messages in Iraqi publications and on television.”
SOURCE: New York Times, May 24, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4824
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