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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS
==
1. Exposing the Echo Chamber Behind Social Security Privatization
== SPIN OF
THE DAY ==
1. Back Scratching and Greenwashing
2. Crashing the Third Party
3. California Scheming
4. Adding a European Theater
5. Take with a Grain of… You Know
6. You Don’t Say
7. Trying to Spin Themselves Out of a Job?
8. Your Tax Dollars at Work
9. Promoting Instability?
10. Faux Reporting for the Homeland
11. Take the Drug Money and Run
----------------------------------------------------------------------
== BLOG POSTINGS
==
1. EXPOSING
THE ECHO CHAMBER BEHIND SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZATION
by Laura Miller The Bush administration ventriloquists are out in full
force these days, breathlessly hyping “Personal Retirement Accounts” as
a way to save Social Security by destroying it. For the average voter, getting
a handle on what the Bush administration is proposing to do to Social Security
is quite a challenge. The dozens of bobbing heads and clicking fingers, holding
forth on cable news programming and the Internet is enough to make anyone’s
head spin. Is that spokesman from the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security
speaking as an independent economics expert, a civic-minded individual or as
a paid shill from a corporate-funded front group?
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3310
== SPIN OF
THE DAY ==
1. BACK SCRATCHING
AND GREENWASHING
thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/030105/DOJ.html The
Council of Republicans for Environmental
Advocacy, a nonprofit organization founded
by Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Grover
Norquist, has been subpoenaed by “an
interagency criminal task force investigating
former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.” Abramoff
and associates are being investigated for “their
dealings with Indian tribes.” CREA
received significant contributions from
tribes represented by Abramoff, as a quid
pro quo for help with “the tribes’ lobbying
of the Interior Department,” according
to anonymous sources. CREA is a “staunch
supporter of the Bush administration’s
environmental policies,” and has
been called a “greenscam” by
Republicans for Environmental Protection,
for taking mining, logging, chemical and
coal industry money.
SOURCE: The Hill, March 1, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3318
2. CRASHING
THE THIRD PARTY
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0228cw.htm What
do the Council on Foreign Relations, American
Enterprise Institute, Center for Strategic
and International Studies, Brookings Institution,
and the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced
International Studies have in common? The
Clark & Weinstock PR firm, which boasts
of its “third party alliance development,” plans
to reach out to these institutions on behalf
of the United Arab Emirates. UAE is paying
Clark & Weinstock $65,000 per month “to
promote a free trade agreement for the
United Arab Emirates with the U.S.” The
firm is concerned that UAE “will
face tough Congressional scrutiny about
its human rights record, effort to block
terror group financing and sponsorship
of extreme elements,” if trade hearings
are held.
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (reg. req’d.), February 28, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3317
3. CALIFORNIA
SCHEMING
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/01/BAG0GBIHRU1.DTL California’s
Labor and Workforce Development Agency
produced and distributed a video news release,
narrated by a former reporter, that promotes
Governor Schwarzenegger’s “plan
to modify rules detailing when and how
employers are to provide meal and rest
breaks.” The Los Angeles Times noted, “Unlike
an actual news report,” the VNR “does
not provide views critical of the proposed
changes.” Some 18 stations played
portions of the VNR, which labor groups
and Democratic officials called “propaganda.” California’s
labor undersecretary said the VNR was “clearly
labeled as an administration production,” and
they will produce more, as VNRs are “an
effective way to reach residents.” A
Democratic Assemblyman said, “We
all know Gov. Schwarzenegger is good at
making movies. It appears that talent has
carried over to government work.”
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, March 1, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3316
4. ADDING
A EUROPEAN THEATER
www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/02/28/us_to_expand_arabic_broadcasts/ The
Bush administration will escalate “its
information war against Islamic extremism” by
beaming “Arab-language satellite-television
broadcasts to Europe.” Later this
year, the Virginia-based, “U.S.-backed
TV channel Alhurra expects to transmit
24-hour programming to European Muslim
communities.” The $3.5 million in
start-up funding will come from the $81
billion supplemental military budget request.
The chair of the Broadcasting Board of
Governors said, “The 9/11 hijackers
came largely from Europe. It’s a
significant gap that we were not broadcasting
in Arabic to Europe.” U.S.-funded
media is seen as a “so-called soft-power
tool for building good will” internationally.
SOURCE: Reuters, February 28, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3315
5. TAKE WITH
A GRAIN OF… YOU KNOW
online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110928928748463733,00.html?mod=djemTEW Due
to health concerns, European countries are adopting more stringent
salt regulations and U.S. consumer groups are calling for the
same. But last spring, the Salt Institute industry group “joined
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in suing the Department of Health
and Human Services in federal court,” alleging that “government
scientists were advising Americans to eat less salt without
enough evidence.” When the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory
Committee considered cutting the recommended daily intake of
salt from 2,400 to 1,500 milligrams, the Grocery Manufacturers
of America warned there was no acceptable substitute. The committee
decided on a slight decrease to 2,300 milligrams. “You
could almost hear the industry exhale,” said a former
Cargill executive.
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (reg. req’d.), February 25, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3314
6. YOU DON’T
SAY
www.commondreams.org/views05/0226-27.htm Communications
professor Nancy Snow deconstructs GOP pollster Frank Luntz’s
memo titled “The 14 Words Never to Use.” Luntz
writes, “Effectively communicating the New American Lexicon
requires you to STOP saying words and phrases that undermine
your ability to educate the American people.” Included
on the blacklist are “privatization” (”it
evokes images of fat cats on Wall Street picking our pockets,” explains
Snow), “global economy / globalization / capitalism” (these
words remind us “of a world of winners and losers,” writes
Snow), and “outsourcing.” Instead of discussing “outsourcing,” suggests
Luntz, “we should talk about the ‘root cause’ … ‘over-taxation,
over-regulation, too much litigation, and not enough innovation
or quality education.’ Because it rhymes, it will be
remembered.”
SOURCE: Common Dreams, February 26, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3313
7. TRYING
TO SPIN THEMSELVES OUT OF A JOB?
www.democrats.reform.house.gov/ More
than 4,000 pages of “documents relating
to the communications strategy of the Social
Security Administration,” reveal
that the SSA “has markedly changed
its communications to the public over the
last four years,” reports the Democratic
staff of the U.S. House Committee on Government
Reform. “While estimates of Social
Security’s long-term solvency have
improved over the last four years, the
[SSA’s] rhetoric has moved in the
opposite direction.” Previously described
as a program that keeps seniors “out
of poverty” and is in “no immediate
crisis,” Social Security is now portrayed
as an “unsustainable,” “underfinanced” program
that “must change.” The differences “reflect
a growing politicization of the [SSA]” and
raise “questions about [its] political
independence,” states the report.
SOURCE: U.S. House Committee on Government Reform Minority Office, February
28, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3312
8. YOUR TAX
DOLLARS AT WORK
www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uspr204156187feb24,0,5203878.story Along
with doubling spending on external PR contracts,
the Bush administration has increased PR
positions inside government agencies, called
public affairs. Public affairs staffs grew
by 9 percent since 2000, “even faster
than the federal work force,” for
a cost increase of more than $50 million.
The Pentagon “added the greatest
number of PR officials.” Other increases
occurred at the State, Agriculture and
Interior Departments and the Social Security
Administration. The Forest Service’s
Communications Director said “a growing
number of advisory panels required by Congress
and a controversial program that opens
some forests to logging” necessitated
the PR boost. He said media tracking had
intensified, adding that “after talking
to Newsday for this story, he would have
to call his boss to report the interview.”
SOURCE: Newsday, February 24, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3309
9. PROMOTING
INSTABILITY?
citizensforethics.org/activities/campaign.php?view=30 Noting
that the U.S. Social Security Administration “has
been promoting the idea that Social Security
is facing a crisis,” and SSA has
paid Fleishman-Hillard “nearly $1.8
million since September 2003,” the
watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington is wondering “what
role, if any” the PR firm “has
played in manufacturing that crisis.” CREW
filed a Freedom of Information Act request
with SSA asking for information on their
PR contracts. When SSA failed to respond
within 20 days, as required by law, CREW
filed a lawsuit. “This Administration
has a demonstrated pattern of misrepresenting
important information to the public,” said
CREW’s executive director.
SOURCE: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, February
23, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3308
10. FAUX
REPORTING FOR THE HOMELAND
thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/022305/homeland.html The
U.S. Department of Homeland Security is
seeking “reporters to participate
in TOPOFF 3, a biennial exercise directed
by Congress that simulates a terrorist
attack on the United States.” Ogilvy
PR is helping DHS recruit real journalists
not currently employed by a news outlet, “to
help department officials better understand
how the media would respond to a weapon-of-mass-destruction
attack.” The director of the Project
for Excellence in Journalism called the
arrangement tricky, “because it raises
potential future conflicts even if the
reporter doesn’t now cover the governmental
entity writing the check.” He added, “There
is a whole industry called public relations
staffed with people who used to be journalists” who
could participate instead.
SOURCE: The Hill, February 23, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3307
11. TAKE
THE DRUG MONEY AND RUN
online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110910990532561244,00.html?mod=us_business_whats_news Two
former Ogilvy & Mather marketing executives
were found guilty of conspiracy and false
claims, for inflating labor costs on a
government account with the U.S. Office
of National Drug Control Policy. The decision
is “certain to prompt more questions
among marketers about just how their ad
agencies come up with prices and fees,” wrote
the Wall Street Journal. In a statement,
the agency said, “The events described
during the trial are completely inconsistent
with Ogilvy’s core values.” Ogilvy
had “voluntarily reported discrepancies
on the account in 2000, and paid $1.8 million
to settle civil charges related to the
matter.”
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (reg. req’d.), February 23, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3306
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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