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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Porter Novelli’s Pyramid Schemes
2. Lobbyists Double Spending in Six Years
3. Wal-Mart’s PR Sprawl
4. Warm Feelings for Dirty Energy
5. Boston Columnist Beaned
6. Medicare Refuses to Cap VNR Use
7. Blog Rolling
8. T-Bones of Contention
9. Pundit’s Boston Bread Buttered on Both Sides
10. Ketchum’s Kotcher Trips Up Blaming Williams
11. How Far To Fall?
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== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. PORTER NOVELLI’S PYRAMID SCHEMES
www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/politics/10pyramid.html “Missions that might be considered conflicting are not new for Porter Novelli,” a PR firm that “has worked for both the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and for Guinness stout and Johnnie Walker Scotch.” But Porter Novelli’s $2.5 million contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to update the food guide pyramid concerns some. “You have a company on one hand pushing McDonald’s or almonds or whatever, and on the other providing objective advice on government nutrition programs,” said the director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The New York Times reported that “several former or current Porter Novelli clients,” including Campbell Soup and Dole, “offered formal comment on the guidelines and the new icon.” Co-founder William Novelli said the firm’s combination of private and government accounts “benefits both clients. Consumers are not purists.”
SOURCE: New York Times, April 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3591
2. LOBBYISTS DOUBLE SPENDING IN SIX YEARS
www.publicintegrity.org/lobby/default.aspx?act=summary Lobbying in Washington has quietly grown over the past years into a multi-billion dollar industry, according to a new report by the Center for Public Integrity. Since 1998, lobbyists have spent nearly $13 billion to influence members of Congress and federal officials on legislation and regulations. According to federal records, lobbying expenditures are expected to be at least $3 billion for 2004, doubling 1998 expenditures. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce tops the list of big spenders, paying out over $193 million to 24 firms since 1998. The Altria Group (formerly known as Philip Morris) spent over $125 million since 1998. CPI’s extensive database includes information on all registered lobbyists, top clients, issues lobbied, and tracks the revolving door between lobby firms and government posts.
SOURCE: Center for Public Integrity, April 7, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3589
3. WAL-MART’S PR SPRAWL
prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=237191&site=3 “Roughly a year ago,” the retail giant Wal-Mart began moving “corporate communications people” to “key cities and areas of the country,” according to vice-president of communications Mona Williams. The company’s former public relations director, Gus Whitcomb, is leaving the Arkansas home office to become the Dallas regional corporate affairs director. Wal-Mart’s other regional PR heads are in San Francisco, Phoenix and Washington DC. In New York, the company hired a local PR firm, the Marino Organization. O’Dwyer’s reports, “Marino has been touting a Wal-Mart-sponsored survey in New York,” in which 62 percent of respondents said they would “welcome the retailer,” 69 percent said “Wal-Mart stores create jobs,” and 75 percent said Wal-Mart’s “stated wage of $10.38 an hour in metropolitan areas is ‘fair and decent.’” In February, Wal-Mart “was dropped from a development push in Queens.”
SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req’d.), April 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3588
4. WARM FEELINGS FOR DIRTY ENERGY
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12778014%255E30417,00.html At the Australian coal industry’s annual conference, Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane chastised attendees “for allowing the debate over the nation’s future energy supply to be hijacked by a ‘green media machine.’” Macfarlane suggested the industry “start telling consumers about the work being done on low-emissions technology” and warning about renewable energy costs. In other news, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote, “Nuclear energy is green,” producing “no greenhouse gases,” although “radioactive wastes are a challenge.” But environmentalist Dr. Helen Caldicott stated, “According to data from the U.S. Energy Department, the production of nuclear power significantly contributes both to global warming and ozone depletion.” While “uranium enrichment is a particularly energy intensive process,” uranium mining and milling, nuclear reactor construction and decommissioning, and nuclear waste transport and storage all require ozone-depleting chemicals or fossil fuel use.
SOURCE: The Australian, April 7, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3587
5. BOSTON COLUMNIST BEANED
www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/04/09/herald_severs_ties_with_op_ed_columnist/ Following revelations that columnist Charles Chieppo had a second contract with the Massachusetts state government, in addition to the $60-per-hour environmental affairs position, the Boston Herald “decided to sever” their relationship. Chieppo disclosed the environmental contract to the Herald’s editorial page editor, but not his $100-per-hour position with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Chieppo said “it did not occur to him” to alert the paper to his convention center work. The director of Northeastern University’s School of Journalism said Chieppo “couldn’t go near two big subject areas” – the environment and tourism – “without creating a conflict.” Chieppo previously “earned a six-figure salary as a top fiscal aide” for Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and worked at the conservative think tank the Pioneer Institute.
SOURCE: Boston Globe, April 9, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3586
6. MEDICARE REFUSES TO CAP VNR USE
www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/health/11319805.htm In testimony before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Medicare administrator Mark McClellan “would not rule out using government-produced news releases to inform seniors about the new Medicare prescription drug benefit,” although they would not be a “main part” of a senior outreach program. In May 2004, the Government Accountability Office ruled that video news releases “touting the Medicare drug benefit” were covert propaganda, due to “the videos’ failure to name Medicare as their source.” McClellan dismissed the GAO findings, saying “the binding interpretation for him was a determination by Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel that video news releases were legal so long as the information was accurate.”
SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3568
7. BLOG ROLLING
prweek.com/thisweek/index.cfm?ID=237153&site=3 “Fortunately for PR professionals,” writes PR Week, technologies including blog search engines and tagging “allow companies and agencies alike to monitor the dialogue regarding their organizations.” One product “allows companies to compare evocations of its name versus the names of competitors.” A “marketing intelligence” executive said savvy companies see “blogs as a way to create stakeholder goodwill.” The PR firm Edelman recently “released a directory of the most influential bloggers.” The directory (only available to clients) also “gives advice on blogger behavior and jargon.” Edelman’s Rick Murray warned that companies face risks when “attempting to communicate with the blogosphere — you will do yourself harm.”
SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req’d.), April 7, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3559
8. T-BONES OF CONTENTION
thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/TheExecutive/040705.html The Meat Promotion Coalition, a group of meat packers and agribusiness companies seeking “to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture from requiring meat to be packaged with a country-of-origin label,” is circulating a position paper among Washington DC policymakers. The paper “notes that USDA estimates now place regulatory and implementation costs at between $583 million and $3.9 billion during the first year.” However, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has questioned the USDA figures (which include “the cost of labeling fish and fresh fruits and vegetables, in addition to meat”), calling them “not well supported.” The Coalition also claimed that meat packers would “have to invest $25 million per plant to comply with the new rule.” The labeling issue has received greater attention after mad cow disease was discovered in one U.S. and three Canadian cattle.
SOURCE: The Hill, April 7, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3555
9. PUNDIT’S BOSTON BREAD BUTTERED ON BOTH SIDES
www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/04/08/state_employs_a_herald_columnist/ Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Environmental Affairs “awarded a $10,000 contract to a Boston Herald op-ed columnist to promote the governor’s environmental policies.” The contract involves writing op-ed pieces and internal documents “to promote education, awareness, and acceptance of major policy initiatives.” Three days after the columnist, Charles Chieppo, applied for the position, he filed a column praising Governor Mitt Romney’s mass-transit plan, which was designed by “the person who oversees the Environmental Affairs office that now employs Chieppo.” A Boston Herald spokesperson said their editorial page editor “decided to allow [Cieppo] to continue writing his weekly column as long as he refrains from writing about ‘those topics he’s consulting on.’”
SOURCE: Boston Globe, April 8, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3554
10. KETCHUM’S KOTCHER TRIPS UP BLAMING WILLIAMS
www.odwyerspr.com/members/0406kotcher.htm A week ago Ray Kotcher, the CEO of the PR firm Ketchum, responded in writing to a series of questions from PR Week about the controversy over Armstrong Williams promoting the U.S. No Child Left Behind law. Kotcher wrote that, “in addition to speaking on his own show, Williams discussed NCLB on the record with other media outlets on his own initiative before and during the contract.” This week O’Dwyer’s PR Daily, which Kotcher has yet to communicate with, points out that Ketchum’s contract with Williams stipulates, “Mr. Williams shall utilize his long term working relationship with America’s Black Forum, where he appears as a guest commentator, to encourage the producers to periodically address the NCLB Act (67 million viewers; reach 87% of urban market).”
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (sub. req’d.), April 6, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3553
11. HOW FAR TO FALL?
www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/columnists/11319431.htm At last weekend’s Midwest Journalism Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota, Dave Beal reports that Lynn Casey, the CEO of the PR firm Padilla Speer Beardsley, referred to the controversy over video news releases as a “wake-up call” for the PR industry. Casey, who is a director of the Council of Public Relations Firms, told the audience that a task force has been created to review the voluntary guidelines on VNRs. “Sometimes you need to hit bottom before a true cleansing can begin,” she said.
SOURCE: TwinCities.com Pioneer Press (reg. req’d.), April 6, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3552
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