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THE WEEKLY SPIN, December 7, 2005
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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. The Victory of Spin
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. The Center for Media and Democracy Is Hiring!
2. Reporters Without Respect for their Borders
3. Secretary of the Fourth Estate
4. Rumsfeld Targets Blame at Lincoln Group
5. Bush Administration Seeks to Cut Back Right-to-Know Laws
6. Holiday Cheerleading
7. State Department Uses Political ‘Litmus Test’
8. Hugo Chavez’s PR Coup
9. Disastrously Successful PR
10. Fake News = Weakened Democracy
11. Shocked (or Not?) at PR and PsyOps in Iraq
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. THE VICTORY OF SPIN
by Laura Miller
More examples of the Bush administration’s manipulation of news spilled out into U.S. newspapers last week. Raising further questions about how the White House continues to spin its “War on Terror,” the Los Angeles Times reported on November 30 the U.S. military “is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq. The articles, written by U.S. military ‘information operations’ troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers.” The stories promoted the efforts of U.S. and Iraqi troops and denounced terrorists.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4258
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. THE CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY IS HIRING!
www.prwatch.org/employment/OOM
The Center for Media and Democracy is currently accepting applications for an Office and Outreach Manager. This full-time position, based in Madison, Wisconsin, is perfect for a candidate with superior office and organizational skills who is committed to the Center’s mission. Applications will be accepted through December 16, 2005, and the position will begin in mid-January 2006. For a full position description, visit www.prwatch.org/employment/OOM
SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4268
2. REPORTERS WITHOUT RESPECT FOR THEIR BORDERS
europe.tiscali.co.uk/index.jsp?section=Current
%20Affairs&level=preview&content=419484
The head of Germany’s federal intelligence agency (Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND), August Hanning, “admitted that several journalists, scientists and public figures had been spied on by the German secret services between 1993 and 1998. … More recently, Cicero magazine and German daily Der Speigel have complained about surveillance and harassment,” following their exposes on terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi and plutonium trafficking, respectively. The BND’s Hanning said, “I take this very seriously and will follow up on it.” The spying was centered on investigative journalist Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, who authored a book on the BND. “Family, colleagues and other journlists who came to interview him about the book were followed by agents from the BND.” An anonymous BND source said, “The measures were first taken to discover which ‘traitors’ had supplied information on how our services operate.”
SOURCE: Tiscali (Europe), November 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4267
3. SECRETARY OF THE FOURTH ESTATE
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/politics/05rice.html
“Despite the time-worn diplomatic formula of quiet airport greetings by often-dour foreign ministers,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been welcomed by a falconer (with bird) in Kyrgyzstan, a sumo wrestling champion in Japan, and athlete Nadia Comaneci in Romania. Rice’s “rock star status … has been one result of a deliberate strategy,” writes the New York Times. Jim Wilkinson, one of Rice’s senior aides, organizes her “image-making events,” “serves as a gatekeeper” for people “who want to see her,” and “is constantly looking out for image-making opportunities.” The resulting buzz has fueled speculation that Rice will run for president in 2008, though she denies any “interest in running.” One result of this focus on image is that Rice’s appearances have been “skewed towards broadcast media. In October and November she gave 22 interviews to television and radio stations and only 3 to newspapers and magazines.”
SOURCE: New York Times, December 5, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4266
4. RUMSFELD TARGETS BLAME AT LINCOLN GROUP
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/international/middleeast/
06rumsfeld.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1133932585-y7sFvl+PwkoO1SvXvt6ggg
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told international studies students he thought the media focused too much on the bad news in Iraq. “His criticism of the press, a theme to which Mr. Rumsfeld returns frequently in public and private statements, came only a few days after the Pentagon acknowledged that it had paid Iraqi newspapers to publish news articles that presented a positive view of developments in Iraq. That disclosure ‘has been pounded in the media, Mr. Rumsfeld said. ‘We don’t know what the facts are yet,’” The New York Times reports. “[Rumsfeld] said blame for the propaganda program might rest with the Lincoln Group, the Washington-based public relations company that worked on the program under contract.” He said that the question is whether the contractor was “implementing the policy properly.”
SOURCE: New York Times, December 6, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4262
5. BUSH ADMINISTRATION SEEKS TO CUT BACK RIGHT-TO-KNOW LAWS
www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3169/1/1?TopicID=1
Due to a proposed rewriting of the nation’s environmental right-to-know law, thousands of communities stand to lose access to information on toxic chemicals that are released into their neighborhoods. The Bush administration wants to gut the national Toxics Release Inventory, which for the past two decades has reported “which industrial plants emit the most toxic substances, whether their emissions are increasing and what compounds may be contaminating their air and water,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The public interest group OMB Watch has a Resource Center for concerned groups and individuals to learn more about the program.
SOURCE: OMB Watch Press Release, November 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4264
6. HOLIDAY CHEERLEADING
www.boingboing.net/fakenews.html
How’s holiday shopping? Dale Dougherty analyzes “how news is made” by examining a press release from the National Retail Federation and showing how “sloppiness and lazy thinking coupled with a herd mentality, most especially in business journalism” turned it into “a headline, a sound-bite, and eventually a story.” The NRF’s claim that shoppers spent $28 billion during Thanksgiving weekend was treated as factual by reporters, even though it was “based on a fairly small sample of people and questionable methodology.” Dougherty found hundreds of news stories that used the NRF’s numbers. “It really is as though reporters attended the same lecture and took down the same notes,” he observes. “The funny thing is that this same news is made every year in the same way as reliably as the turkey at Thanksgiving. The Internet allows us to see how news is made, as though we were walking through a factory tour, and we can compare the very similar results of a mass production system. Turns out the news can be as fake as a department store Santa.”
SOURCE: BoingBoing, December 2, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4254
7. STATE DEPARTMENT USES POLITICAL ‘LITMUS TEST’
www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/13318931.htm
“The State Department has been using political litmus tests to screen private American citizens before they can be sent overseas to represent the United States, weeding out critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, according to department officials and internal e-mails,” Knight-Ridder reports. “The practices appear to be the latest examples of the Bush administration’s efforts to tightly control information, maintain ‘message discipline’ and promote news about the United States and its policies.” President Bush’s confidante Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes oversees the effort, which is part of a larger campaign to boost international opinion of the United States.
SOURCE: Duluth News Tribune, December 3, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4252
8. HUGO CHAVEZ’S PR COUP
www.odwyerpr.com/members/1201fenton.htm
“Fenton Communications is promoting Venezuela’s discounted oil program for disadvantaged families in Massachusetts, New York and maybe Maine,” reports O’Dwyer’s. The left-leaning PR firm “promoted the Nov. 22 press event held in the home of a low-income North Quincy, Mass., couple that featured [Democratic Congressman William] Delahunt and Venezuela’s Ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez.” Venezuela says the offer is a “simple act of generosity to help people in Massachusetts weather the combined economic storms of Katrina, Rita and the global oil shortage.” The Wall Street Journal decried the arrangement as “lobbying” for “Venezuelan tyrant” Hugo Chavez. On December 1, full-page ads promoting the arrangement appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post and Houston Chronicle. In Venezuela, the main opposition parties say they will boycott the December 4 legislative elections.
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (sub req’d), December 1, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4242
9. DISASTROUSLY SUCCESSFUL PR
www.prweek.com/us/home/article/531018/
hurricane-aid-pays-off-image-surveys/
“Involvement in relief efforts for recent disasters has helped the reputation of corporations and nonprofits,” writes PR Week. Wal-Mart was the big winner, earning the top spot in Delahaye’s Media Index of Corporate Reputation. Following Hurricane Katrina, “for every negative story about FEMA, there was positive information about how Wal-Mart was able to take care of its staffers and communities,” Delahaye’s Mark Weiner pointed out. According to a Harris Interactive poll, disasters also “have a way of bolstering the images of the well-established charities and nonprofits,” as Harris’ David Krane put it. Nonprofits responding to Katrina that saw subsequent high approval ratings include Habitat for Humanity, the Humane Society, the Salvation Army and the ASPCA.
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req’d), December 1, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4241
10. FAKE NEWS = WEAKENED DEMOCRACY
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/02/NEWS.TMP
“The public’s ability to participate in the rule-making process was undermined” when the administration of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger produced video news releases (VNRs) promoting controversial proposals, ruled Sacramento Superior Court judge Lloyd Connelly. “By including comments from the public that are solely supporting” of the proposed regulations, the fake TV news reports created “the misleading impression that the regulations are unopposed by any segments of the public and are not subject to criticism, thereby discouraging any further questioning or investigation of the matter by the public,” Connelly wrote in his decision. Three labor unions had brought a lawsuit against the Schwarzenegger VNRs, which touted since-rejected proposals to remove workers’ lunch break guarantees and to delay mandated nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. “The court has once again stopped the governor’s extremely abusive practice of using public funds to promote the economic gains of his corporate donors,” said a California Nurses Association spokesperson.
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, December 2, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4240
11. SHOCKED (OR NOT?) AT PR AND PSYOPS IN IRAQ
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/
article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001612485
After the Los Angeles Times reported that the Pentagon, through the Lincoln Group, was planting “favorable stories about the war and the rebuilding effort” in Iraqi newspapers, military spokespeople “offered a mixed message” about the program. It’s “an important part of countering misinformation … by insurgents,” Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said, from Iraq. Gen. Peter Pace, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed concern that it could “be detrimental to the proper growth of democracy” in Iraq. Media organizations weren’t so conflicted. The International Center for Journalists’ vice-president called the program “indefensible” and the World Press Freedom Committee’s director called it “unacceptable.” But, as the Washington Post wrote, “such information warfare is not new to Iraq.” In fact, the Lincoln Group’s “payments to sympathetic ‘temporary spokespersons’ who would not necessarily be identified as working for the coalition” is a standard PR technique.
SOURCE: Associated Press, November 30, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4237
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