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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG
POSTINGS ==
1. John Stauber Interviewed by Now Age Press
== SPIN
OF THE DAY ==
1. Rocket Fuel Is Good for You!
2. The White House’s “Good Cop”
3. Oh, Canada!
4. Just Another Shill in the Marketplace of Ideas
5. Email Bombs and Blowbacks
6. Trying to Manage a Real Crisis
7. National Association of Manufacturing Consent
8. Karen Ryan, Meet Mike Morris
9. The Best Coverage Money Could Buy
10. The Money Behind Social Security Privatization
11. Tin Soldier
12. Petition from Fired Fox Journalists
----------------------------------------------------------------------
== BLOG
POSTINGS ==
1. JOHN
STAUBER INTERVIEWED BY NOW AGE PRESS by John Stauber Craig Gordon of
the website Now Age Press recently interviewed me. He was interested
in the current situation with mad cow disease in the US, a subject
Sheldon Rampton and I addressed in our prescient 1997 book Mad Cow
USA. Craig also was curious about the origins of the Center for Media
and Democracy and how issues as seemingly disparate as Bovine Growth
Hormone (BGH), Mad Cow Disease and Bush’s war on Iraq all fall
under our investigative lens. One common denominator of course is that
all three issues have been carefully managed by professional spin doctors
to keep Americans confused about the reality of each. “Perception
management” is the PR term for this. Craig’s interview
with me is below, and you can also find it at the Now Age website.
For the rest of this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3167
== SPIN
OF THE DAY ==
1. ROCKET
FUEL IS GOOD FOR YOU! msnbc.msn.com/id/6809982/
A National Academy of Sciences report says up to 20 parts per billion (ppb)
of the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate in drinking water could be considered “safe.” Perchlorate
affects thyroid function, with children believed to be especially vulnerable.
The Environmental Protection Agency previously set 1 ppb as the “safe” perchlorate
level; the Defense Department suggested 200 ppb. The Natural Resources Defense
Council says the NAS report was compromised by “a brazen campaign” by
White House and Defense Department officials and defense contractors “to
downplay the hazards” of perchlorate. Through the Freedom of Information
Act, NRDC obtained documents suggesting politically-driven pressures on the
scope of the NAS investigation, the composition of the NAS panel, and the report.
SOURCE: Reuters, January 10, 2005 For more information or to comment on this
story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3179
2. THE WHITE
HOUSE’S “GOOD COP”
www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/politics/10letter.html
Nicolle Devenish, the new White House communications director, was “once
fired for being too nice to reporters,” writes the New York Times’ Elisabeth
Bumiller. Devenish’s goal is “to improve the contentious relationship
between a secretive White House and the press.” She was previously the
Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign communications director, the White House regional
press head, and Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s press secretary. “Now
her job is to free up [presidential counselor Dan] Bartlett to do more long-term
planning and, of course, spin reporters.” CJR Daily critiques Bumiller’s
profile of Devenish, writing, “Bumiller’s fawning wouldn’t
seem so objectionable if her subject wasn’t someone who she has a clear
interest in cultivating as a source.” SOURCE: New York Times, January
10, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3178
3. OH, CANADA!
www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2005-01-11-madcow-canada_x.htm
Canada confirmed its third case of mad cow disease, just two weeks after its
last case and after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced plans to normalize
cattle and beef trade with Canada. Now, the USDA “is looking to withdraw
a plan to allow imports of young live cattle from Canada,” reports Reuters.
Last week, the Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously approved USDA Secretary
nominee Mike Johanns. “Committee members spent little time discussing
Johanns’ qualifications … and instead spent the majority of the
hearing airing renewed concerns about the impact of mad cow disease on the
U.S. beef industry,” writes J.R. Pegg. But Burson-Marsteller and the
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association are finalists for PR Week’s
2005 awards, for “Protecting Consumer Confidence in U.S. Beef: An issues
management success.” SOURCE: Reuters, January 11, 2005 For more information
or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3177
4. JUST
ANOTHER SHILL IN THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS
alternet.org/mediaculture/20946/
“
There is certainly no shortage of story angles to choose from,” writes
Laurie Spivak, about the revelation that Armstrong Williams was paid to promote
the Bush administration’s education policies. “This isn’t
just a story about a self-serving pundit ‘entrepreneur,’ or the
erosion of public trust in the media, or hypocrisy, or using covert propaganda
to sell controversial Bush programs. … Armstrong Williams, Karen Ryan
and Ketchum PR are all bit players in what is a big budget, major studio production. … The
real story here is about the conservative movement and the ways that that movement – primarily
through the marketing of conservative ideas – has molded and continues
to mold public opinion in America.” SOURCE: AlterNet, January 11, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3176
5. EMAIL
BOMBS AND BLOWBACKS
blogs.csmonitor.com/readers_email/2005/01/index.html#a0003163264
Christian Science Monitor reporter Tom Regan writes, “The Internet is
increasingly being used by special interest groups to try and influence media
to change the way they cover a subject, or in some cases not to cover it at
all.” Regan focuses on the Monitor’s on-line polls, which, although
not scientific, “encourage deeper involvement in a story and issue.” A
poll accompanying a story on the U.S. Presbyterian Church’s vote to boycott
companies doing business with Israel resulted in a “coordinated e-mail
bomb campaign.” Regan summarizes, “The great concern of those who
e-mailed and those who organized the e-mailing: public perception.” But “e-mail
bomb campaigns are easy to spot, and often easy to ignore. … Just one
thoughtful, well-written e-mail or letter can often have far more impact than
the hundreds of cut-and-paste e-mails sent during these attacks.” SOURCE:
Christian Science Monitor, January 6, 2005 For more information or to comment
on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3175
6. TRYING
TO MANAGE A REAL CRISIS
www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/04/news/aid.html
Colin Powell said U.S. aid to tsunami-stricken countries “does give the
Muslim world and the rest of the world an opportunity to see American generosity,
American values in action. … I hope that, as a result of our efforts,
as a result of our helicopter pilots’ being seen by the citizens of Indonesia
helping them, that value system of ours will be reinforced.” The editor
of Beirut’s The Star disagreed: “To think that aid would make people
overlook all the other reasons to criticize the U.S. – it’s naive,
it’s racist, it’s almost insulting.” In the Indonesian province
of Aceh, “Australian journalists who witnessed a confrontation between
Indonesian soldiers and alleged separatists … were ordered to leave the
area and warned not to report on the incident.” One commander told the
journalists, “Your duties here are to observe the disaster, not the conflict.” SOURCE:
International Herald Tribune, January 5, 2005 For more information or to comment
on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3174
7. NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURING CONSENT
prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=231878&site=3
The National Association of Manufacturers, whose political action committee
BIPAC mounted a massive get-out-the-business-vote drive last year, is forming
two new groups to support the Bush administration. NAM’s Alliance for
Worker Retirement Security is “leading the charge for business interests,” calling
for Social Security privatization. NAM’s American Justice Partnership
will launch “a multimillion-dollar campaign to aid the White House in
its quest to win approval for conservative judges,” reported the Los
Angeles Times. NAM head John Engler said, “There has been too much of
a tendency … to cast these judgeship battles as a social debate about
abortion or gay rights. In fact, there are very few of those cases in contrast
to those dealing with the tort system and the rights of individuals and companies.” SOURCE:
PR Week (reg. req’d.), January 10, 2005 For more information or to comment
on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3173
8. KAREN
RYAN, MEET MIKE MORRIS
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54651-2005Jan6.html
For the second time, the Government Accountability Office “scolded the
Bush administration for distributing phony prepackaged news reports,” or
video news releases. The VNRs were produced by the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, featured former reporter Mike Morris, and were aired, at least
in part, on 300 news shows. The GAO’s Susan Poling said, “What
is objectionable … is the fact the viewer has no idea their tax dollars
are being used to write and produce this video.” A spokesperson for the
Drug Control office, which paid $155,000 for the VNRs, said, “Our lawyers
disagree with the GAO,” but the office would avoid the “appearance
of a problem” by ending the practice. The GAO earlier faulted the administration
for VNRs promoting the new Medicare law. SOURCE: Washington Post, January 7,
2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3172
9. THE BEST
COVERAGE MONEY COULD BUY
www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-06-williams-whitehouse_x.htm
The Bush administration paid $240,000 to prominent African-American pundit
Armstrong Williams, to “build support among black families for its education
reform law,” No Child Left Behind, reports USA Today, citing documents
obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The contract required
Williams “to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts,” and
to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige. The Ketchum PR firm, on behalf
of the Education Department, also “arranged with Williams to use contacts
with America’s Black Forum, a group of black broadcast journalists, ‘to
encourage the producers to periodically address’ NCLB.” The arrangement
was part of a $1 million contract with Ketchum, which also produced video news
releases touting NCLB. Williams, who also runs the Graham Williams Group PR
firm, said he agreed to the contract because NCLB is “something I believe
in.” The Public Relations Society of America said Williams’ failure
to disclose the payment “does not describe the true practice of ‘public
relations.’” SOURCE: USA Today, January 7, 2005 For more information
or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3171
10. THE
MONEY BEHIND SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZATION
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39791-2004Dec31.html
“
President Bush’s political allies are raising millions of dollars for
an election-style campaign to promote private Social Security accounts, as
Democrats and Republicans prepare for what they predict will be the most expensive
and extensive public policy debate since the 1993 fight over the Clinton administration’s
failed health care plan,” reports Jim VandeHei. According to Stephen
Moore, head of the conservative Club for Growth, “It could easily be
a $50 million to $100 million cost to convince people this is legislation that
needs to be enacted. It’s going to be expensive” because “it’s
the most important public policy fight in 25 years.” Blogger-journalist
Joshua Micah Marshall has been dissecting a leaked memo detailing the White
House strategy for selling the plan, which the memo describes as a way to “transform
the political and philosophical landscape of the country.” And the Columbia
Journalism Review’s CampaignDesk has been fact-checking ways that journalists
have been screwing up the Social Security story. SOURCE: Washington Post, January
1, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3170
11. TIN
SOLDIER
www.cjr.org/issues/2005/1/blake-soldier.asp
“
In April 2004,” writes Mariah Blake, “a former U.S. Special Forces
soldier named Jonathan Keith Idema started shopping a sizzling story to the
media. He claimed terrorists in Afghanistan planned to use bomb-laden taxicabs
to kill key U.S. and Afghan officials, and that he himself intended to thwart
the attack. … By late June, he claimed to have captured the plotters,
and started trying to clinch a deal with television networks by offering them ‘direct
access’ to one of the terrorists who, he said, had agreed to tell all.” His
story unraveled after the Afghan police “raided his headquarters and
discovered eight prisoners, some of them tethered to chairs in a back room,
which was littered with bloody cloth. The men later told reporters that they
had been starved, beaten, doused with scalding water, and forced to languish
for days in their own feces. Afghan authorities determined that none of the
detainees had links to terrorism and set them free.” It turns out that
this isn’t the first time that Idema has sold colorful and deceptive
stories about terrorism to the mass media. In January 2002, CBS broadcast sensational
footage, quite likely staged by Idema, which purported to show an Al Qaeda
training camp in action. “Idema also served as an expert military commentator
on Fox News … And he fielded hundreds of interviews with major newspapers,
television networks, and radio stations. … He claimed to have uncovered
a plot to assassinate Bill Clinton; that bin Laden was dead, and that the Taliban
was poisoning the food that the United States was air-dropping to feed hungry
Afghans. … Idema‚Äôs career as a media personality reached its
peak during the final breathless weeks of the run-up to the war in Iraq. Much
of the information he provided during that period echoed the Bush administration’s
hotly contested rationale for war. … Few in the media questioned Idema‚Äôs
claims, much to the alarm of some who knew him.” SOURCE: Columbia Journalism
Review, January/February 2005 For more information or to comment on this story,
visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3169
12. PETITION
FROM FIRED FOX JOURNALISTS
tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2005/01/03/daily9.html?page=1
PR Watch has reported in the past on the story of Jane Akre and Steve Wilson,
two former investigative reporters at Fox TV’s affiliate station in Tampa
Bay, Florida who say the network ordered them to broadcast false and distorted
news reports regarding the Monsanto company’s genetically-engineered
bovine growth hormone. Now Akre and Wilson are petitioning the Federal Communications
Commision to reject the station’s request for license renewal on grounds
that it is not operating in the public interest. SOURCE: Tampa Bay Business
Journal, January 3, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story,
visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3168
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Weekly
Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at the Center for Media and
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