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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Eat, Drink and Merrily Support CMD on Nov. 16!
2. They’re Krafty
3. Why Wal-Mart Spins
4. Share Price Blowback from Loggers SLAPP Suit
5. Evangelical PR
6. Those Pills’ll Kill You
7. Handbook for Cyber-Dissidents
8. Rove Corrals Corallo for PR Help
9. Another Round, Mates
10. Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Blog?
11. New Lobby Chief Says PR Ethics Codes Inadequate
12. Corporate Blogging in the Slow Lane
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== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. EAT, DRINK AND MERRILY SUPPORT CMD ON NOV. 16!
www.prwatch.org/node/4132
If you like media, democracy and food, you won’t want to miss our reception and talk with Frances Moore Lappe, on Wednesday November 16 at the Pres House in Madison, Wis. Lappe is the author or co-author of 15 books, including the groundbreaking Diet for a Small Planet, the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award and the co-founder of the Small Planet Institute and Food First! The reception runs from 5:00 to 6:30 pm and will feature Lappe, CMD founder John Stauber and Family Farm Defenders president John Kinsman. (A sliding scale donation of $25 to $100 is requested; please RSVP by Nov. 9 by calling 608-260-9713 or emailing diane@prwatch.org.) The talk, “Democracy’s Edge: From the Dinner Table to the Front Page,” begins at 7:30 pm. (No RSVP is required; a donation of $5 is requested at the door.) In keeping with Lappe’s life-long focus on food and democracy, these events benefit CMD and Family Farm Defenders.
SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy, November 2, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4140
2. THEY’RE KRAFTY
online.wsj.com/article/SB113072235663483869.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
After “a major government-commissioned study found advertising contributes to childhood obesity” and two bills before Congress “proposed regulation of children’s advertising,” Kraft, “the nation’s biggest food company,” knew it “risked being depicted as a corporate villain.” So, in January, the company “announced it would quit advertising certain products to kids under 12.” While some criticized Kraft’s continued use of cartoons and questioned whether the company should be able to decide “what’s healthy and what isn’t,” policymakers praised Kraft. Kraft’s strategy was inspired by “its sister company, Philip Morris.” By “taking control of the discussion about marketing to children,” Kraft hopes to “avoid Philip Morris’s initial mistakes.” Kraft’s Michael Mudd explained, “If the tobacco industry could go back 20 or 30 years, reform their marketing, disarm their critics, and sacrifice a couple of hundred million in profits, knowing what they know today, don’t you think they’d take that deal in a heartbeat?”
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub. req’d.), October 31, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4139
3. WHY WAL-MART SPINS
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102802079.html
In August 2004, the consulting firm McKinsey & Company told Wal-Mart, “The public believes [Wal-Mart] treats its employees poorly and is a negative force in communities.” The report suggests steps for “managing change,” including to “spread messages that it cares for employees, build local relationships, increase local philanthropy.” McKinsey also helped prepare a memo, leaked to the New York Times last week, that proposed “numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits,” in part by “discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.” With the new Robert Greenwald documentary “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” about to be released, Wal-Mart’s PR firm, Edelman, “sent reporters a press kit last week attacking claims made in the film’s trailer, along with negative reviews of Greenwald’s previous work. Wal-Mart is also promoting a competing documentary about the company, directed by Ron Galloway, titled ‘Why Wal-Mart Works & Why That Drives Some People Crazy.’”
SOURCE: Washington Post, October 29, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4137
4. SHARE PRICE BLOWBACK FROM LOGGERS SLAPP SUIT
www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17056001%5E3462,00.html
John Gay, the Managing Director of the Australian logging company Gunns, told shareholders that the A$6.3 million SLAPP suit it launched against 20 environmentalists “was taken following careful consideration.” At the meeting, Leonie Pullinger, the wife of one of the defendants, told of the stress on her family as a result of the lawsuit. “I’m very sorry that she is in there, but they should have thought about what they did before they did it,” Gay said. Since last November, Gunns’ share price has slumped from A$4.80 to A$2.71. Stephen Mayne, an activist shareholder and journalist with Crikey.com.au, said the publicity from the SLAPP suit and doubts about the company’s ability to build a pulp mill proposed for northern Tasmania have hit the share price. “He [Gay] said that adverse publicity is driving down the share price and a lot of that has come from the frivolous and unnecessary lawsuit,” Mayne said.
SOURCE: The Mercury, October 28, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4136
5. EVANGELICAL PR
www.mediatransparency.com/story.php?storyID=90
Mike Paul, the president of the New York-based MGP & Associates PR, counts amongst his clients the conservative Black evangelical Bishop Harry Jackson’s High-Impact Leadership Coalition. Paul’s company states on its website that its “philosophy is grounded in both business and biblical principles” and boasts that “our ethical and moral standards are the highest in the industry.” Bill Berkowitz called Paul and, after introducing himself as working as a journalist for WorkingForChange.com, asked about his work for the coalition. After stating “national public relations,” Paul asked Berkowitz to restate who he was working for. After Berkowitz told him once more, Paul said, “Look, I’m in a car trying to help out a liberal rag. I deal with big media outlets, and your rag is probably seen by only a handful of people. This phone call is done. I gave you my answer. Have a good day.”
SOURCE: Media Transparency, October 28, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4135
6. THOSE PILLS’LL KILL YOU
www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-golden27oct27,0,2009765.column?coll=la-home-business
Following up on a story that first surfaced in the New York Daily News” target=”_blank”>gossip pages of the New York Daily News, Michael Hiltzik examines the details of a bizarre scheme aimed at scaring U.S. citizens away from importing cheap drugs from Canada. Marketing executives at Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) agreed to pay a couple of writers to craft a fictional thriller in which a group of terrorists “uses Canadian Web sites to murder millions of unwitting Americans looking for cut-rate pharmaceuticals.” Kenin Spivak, one of the novelists, says a PhRMA marketing executive was “intimately involved” in shaping details of the story’s plot, characterization and tone. “They said they wanted it somewhat dumbed down for women, with a lot more fluff in it, and more about the wife of the head Croatian terrorist, who is a former Miss Mexico,” Spivak said.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4128
7. HANDBOOK FOR CYBER-DISSIDENTS
www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542
Reporters Without Borders has published a “Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents,” with technical instructions and advice for people who want to use the internet as a means of expression in repressive societies. “Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure,” they state. “Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.” The handbook provides tips on how to remain anonymous while blogging, explains how to publicize a weblog, and offers basic advice on ethical and journalistic principles.
SOURCE: Reporters Without Borders
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4127
8. ROVE CORRALS CORALLO FOR PR HELP
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102800398.html
As the Associated Press and other sources reported that “Karl Rove escaped indictment in the (Valerie Plame) CIA leak case Friday but remained under investigation,” Rove “began assembling a public relations team in the event he is eventually indicted.” That team includes Mark Corallo, a “former spokesman for the Justice Department” under then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. Corallo is “no stranger to high-profile defenses,” wrote the Washington Post, having been “spokesman for former representative Bob Livingston (R-La.), who was forced to step aside as the incoming speaker of the House in 1998 after admitting an extramarital affair.” O’Dwyer’s PR Daily added that Corallo, the head of the Virginia-based firm Corallo Media Strategies, “was communications director of the House Government Reform Committee from 1999 – 2002.” In February 2005, the Washington Post reported that Corallo’s new firm had “already bested some of the PR ‘big boys’ in securing some fine work on film and recording industry issues.”
SOURCE: Washington Post, October 28, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4124
9. ANOTHER ROUND, MATES
observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1598732,00.html
In Britain, where the pub industry has successfully lobbied for a relaxation of licensing laws, “The drinks industry is planning a ruthless campaign of economic incentives and psychological tricks to get customers to drink as much as possible when licensing laws are relaxed,” report Gaby Hinsliff and Anushka Asthana. “Managers of massive ‘vertical drinking’ pubs are being offered bonuses worth up to £20,000 a year if they beat targets as the industry moves to exploit Britain’s binge drinking culture.” Dave Daley, head of the National Association of Licensed House Managers, which represents Britain’s thousands of pub managers, has broken ranks with the industry by issuing a blunt criticism. “How we make our money is to make people binge drink: the more people drink, the more I get as a bonus,” he said.
SOURCE: The Observer (UK), October 23, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4125
10. WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD BLOG?
www.forbes.com/home/forbes/2005/1114/128.html?_requestid=3211
A Forbes magazine article by Daniel Lyons, titled “Attack of the Blogs,” characterizes weblogs as “the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. … Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns.” Lyons urges companies that come under blog criticism to fight back by hiring consultants to monitor the blogosphere, suing bloggers and their web hosts – and by building their own “blog swarm.” But PR industry blogger Steve Rubel says he is “very disappointed” in the Forbes piece. “With all respect to Lyons and the magazine’s editors, bloggers are not Corporate America’s Boogeyman. They can be a company’s greatest allies and evangelists if AND only IF we take the time to take them seriously and engage them in dialogue. Instead of telling us about both opportunities and threats, you paint the blogosphere as the Wicked Witch of the West.”
SOURCE: Forbes, November 14, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4123
11. NEW LOBBY CHIEF SAYS PR ETHICS CODES INADEQUATE
www.prweek.com/uk/news/article/524519/icco-president-saunders-calls-ethical-approach/
The recently appointed head of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), Fleishman-Hillard Executive Vice President John Saunders, believes the PR industry needs to toughen up its ethics rules. ICCO is a global umbrella group for PR consultancies and their trade associations. Following the recent ICCO summit in Prague, Saunders told PR Week, “We need to devote more energy to ethics. If we are to advise on reputation management, we must be above reproach.” Saunders believes that existing PR industry codes of ethics are inadequate. “We need to impose more rigorous standards on ourselves, before they are imposed on us by others,” he said.
SOURCE: PR Week, October 27, 2005 (sub. req’d.)
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4121
12. CORPORATE BLOGGING IN THE SLOW LANE
www.prweek.com/uk/news/article/523860/blogon-2005-roundup/
After the recent BlogOn 2005 conference in New York City, Burson-Marsteller’s Lisa Poulson bemoaned the suspicion that bloggers have for corporations. “My overall impression is that the gap between where the blogosphere veterans are and where corporations are not only vast but also actually harmful,” she told PR Week. “The blogosphere says it wants corporations to come to the party, but they have so little understanding of the responsibilities and legitimate concerns that corporations have that they wind up alienating them instead,” she complained. Poulson believes that bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast Fortune 500 companies can embrace the new medium. “I think bloggers are all yelling ‘to the barricades’ and looking for a glorious and dramatic revolution. It isn’t going to happen,” she said.
SOURCE: PR Week, October 21, 2005 (sub. req’d.)
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4120
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