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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Bid to Sink NZ Nuclear Warship Ban Backfires
2. More Politics at the CIA
3. British American Tobacco’s social reporting “gobbledegook”
4. Return of the Payola Pundit
5. Confronting the Culture
6. Lawmakers Get To K Street Via Capitol Hill
7. Wal-Mart Works On Image In Big Apple
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== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. BID TO SINK NZ NUCLEAR WARSHIP BAN BACKFIRES
www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10338891
The prospects of the conservative New Zealand National Party opposition in the September 17 election may be doomed after revelations that it floated the idea of a U.S. think tank helping undermine support for the country’s 1985 ban on nuclear armed and powered warships. In January 2004 the Leader of the New Zealand National Party, Don Brash, and its spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Trade, Lockwood Smith, met with the then Republican Senator for Oklahoma, Don Nickles. Brash allegedly told U.S. officials that the ban would be “gone by lunchtime” the day after he was elected. A record of the meeting with Nickles states “Dr Smith asked whether it would be worthwhile for a US think-tank to assist with the public campaign in New Zealand, following the National Party study/review?” Nickles deflected the request stating that it “should be left up to a New Zealand think-tank.”
SOURCE: New Zealand Herald August 3, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3882
2. MORE POLITICS AT THE CIA
www.nytimes.com/2005/08/01/politics/01weapons.html
A former Central Intelligence Agency officer has filed a lawsuit charging that he was fired for questioning the agency’s now-disproven conclusion that Saddam Hussein was actively working to develop nuclear weapons. The former officer’s attorney, Roy W. Krieger, compared his client’s situation to that of Valerie Plame, the clandestine CIA officer whose role was leaked to the press after her husband, Joseph Wilson, publicly challenged Bush administration conclusions about Iraq’s nuclear ambitions. “In both cases, officials brought unwelcome information on W.M.D. in the period prior to the Iraq invasion, and retribution followed,” Krieger said.
SOURCE: New York Times, August 1, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3881
3. BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO’S SOCIAL REPORTING “GOBBLEDEGOOK”
www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/07/28/ccom28.xml
Writing in the UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph, Neil Collins takes British American Tobacco to task for its latest corporate social responsibility report. BAT, he wrote “has done its best to reconcile the fact that its products ruin the health of its customers with the need to follow the rules and look ‘responsible’.” In its latest social report BAT wrote that “we are finding that although our products can be seen as controversial, our work in social reporting and embedding our Business Principles are being accepted as meaningful. Stakeholders say we have made a good start and we hope that, over time, our commitment and sincerity will increasingly be recognised.” Collins describes BAT’s prose as “a magnificent piece of gobbledegook, combining as it does a mixture of the self-righteous and the self-satisfied.”
SOURCE: Daily Telegraph (UK), 28 July 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3880
4. RETURN OF THE PAYOLA PUNDIT
www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/072905/williams.html
Armstrong Williams, the conservative black pundit who entered into a $240,000 contract with the Bush administration to promote the No Child Left Behind Act, says he has (1) recognized the errors of his ways, and (2) resents the way he was criticized. He’s managed to resurrect his career, hosting a radio show in New York and writing a new book to come out this fall, titled The New Racists: How Liberal Democrats Have Betrayed Minority Americans. He also says he’s bitter about how he was was treated by fellow conservatives during his payola-pundit scandal. “I had put everything on the line, defending the right, supporting the right. ‚Ķ None of the conservative [groups] came to my rescue. I was alone.” Ironically, he notes that he received his most sympathetic treatment from the New York Times, a newspaper reviled by the conservative movement for its alleged liberal bias. “If it weren‚Äôt for The New York Times,” Williams said, “it probably would have been over for me.”
SOURCE: The Hill, July 28, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3879
5. CONFRONTING THE CULTURE
www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3933
“The culprit behind the recurring clusters of plagiarism and fabrication scandals isn‚Äôt just irresponsible youth or a few bad apples or the temptations of the Internet,” writes Lori Robertson, managing editor of the American Journalism Review. “It may be the newsroom culture itself. … Many news organizations are demanding more bang for fewer bucks, as budgets are trimmed, training and mentoring are nixed, time for long, heady talks on attribution is nonexistent.” And journalism has become “a profession that is viewed more and more like a business and not—as it so lovingly was post-Watergate—as a vital part of a functioning democracy.”
SOURCE: American Journalism Review, August/September 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3878
6. LAWMAKERS GET TO K STREET VIA CAPITOL HILL
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072601562.html
“Election to Congress used to be an end in itself. Now, for nearly half of federal lawmakers, it is a steppingstone to a second career: lobbying,” the Washington Post reports. According to a new study by LobbyingInfo.org, a project of the liberal group Public Citizen, 43 percent of Congressional members who have left office since 1998 have registered to lobby. ‚ÄúThe revolving door is spinning faster than ever,‚Äù said Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen‚Äôs Congress Watch division. ‚ÄúWhen nearly half the lawmakers in Congress use their position to move into a job that pays so handsomely, it‚Äôs time to change the system.‚Äù
SOURCE: Washington Post, July 27, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3877
7. WAL-MART WORKS ON IMAGE IN BIG APPLE
www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=239889&site=3
“Wal-Mart has begun a media relations and community outreach effort to improve its image [in New York City] as it seeks future sites for local stores,” PR Week writes. “The retailing giant has begun advertising in community papers across the city and plans to expand those ads to the ethnic press, radio, and television.” Working with the New York-based PR firm The Marino Organization, Wal-Mart has spoken with journalists from several NYC papers and “is seeking meetings with the presidents of New York’s five boroughs and with other community leaders,” PR Week reports. The company has hoped to open new stores in Staten Island and Queens, but so far as encountered community resistance.
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req’d), July 27, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3875
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