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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. Tracking the Zigs and Zags of Issues
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Stuff Our Stockings!
2. Afghanistan: The Other Information War
3. Giving Up the Ghostwriters
4. PR and Lobbying a Shot in the Arm for BioPort
5. U.S. Army Recruits New Ad and PR Firms
6. The Information War
7. The Ethics Truce Lives On
8. Wal-Mart Finally Pays Off the Little Guy
9. Stauber & Rampton Think Outside the Big Box
10. Baghdad Press Club Membership Has Its Privileges
11. Dueling Immigration Coalitions
12. The Olsen Twins They Ain’t
13. U.S. Front Groups Take a European Vacation
14. The PR Submarine
15. Battle of the Childhood Bulge
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. TRACKING THE ZIGS AND ZAGS OF ISSUES
by Bob Burton
By anybody’s standards, the last few weeks have been unusual. The Mirror, a British tabloid, reported receiving a leaked government memo which purportedly shows that George W. Bush wanted to silence Al Jazeera’s journalistic coverage of Iraq with a bombing strike on its Doha, Qatar headqaurters. When a memo of the April 16, 2004 meeting between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair was leaked, Blair wanted the British media gagged to stop the public from finding out other details of his chat with Bush. While he doesn’t want discussion of his meeting with Bush, Blair does want to foster public debate over his plan to expand nuclear power as a ‘solution’ to climate change.
Then there has have been the revelations that the Lincoln Group, hired by the Pentagon to run a propaganda campaign in Iraq, were planting stories in Iraq’s media. There has also been the fall from grace of media tycoon and corporate highflyer Conrad Black, who has been charged by U.S. federal prosecutors with eight counts of mail and wire fraud. Added to that has been the ongoing controversy over U.S. lobbyist Jack Abramoff (and his PR buddy, Michael Scanlon) and the criminal conspiracy and money laundering charges against the former majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom DeLay.
In fact, there have been so many scandals and controversies that it has been hard to keep on top of the latest developments. That’s where you come in.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4226
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. STUFF OUR STOCKINGS!
https://www.groundspring.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0
Make your list, and check it twice — to make sure the Center for Media and Democracy is there! Because there are a lot of naughty “news” makers out there, and we are nice enough to track and report on their deceptions. Don’t forget to send an end of year donation to your favorite propaganda busters, the Center for Media and Democracy! We need your support to continue watchdogging the PR industry and promoting media literacy and citizen journalism through projects including the Weekly Spin, the PR Watch quarterly, and our on-line encyclopedia, SourceWatch. Please go to: www.groundspring.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0 to make a secure, on-line gift today. Or send a check made out to “CMD” to CMD, 520 University Ave, Suite 227, Madison, WI 53703. Thank you!
SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy, December 14, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4288
2. AFGHANISTAN: THE OTHER INFORMATION WAR
www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512130124dec13,1,3302014.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Seven months after the “Rendon Group was hired to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai with media relations in early 2004,” both Karzai and then-U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad were “ready to get rid of Rendon.” They complained that the secretive PR firm was being paid too much – $1.4 million – for “not enough work.” Yet Rendon won a second U.S.-funded contract worth $3.9 million, to “create a media team for Afghan anti-drug programs.” The goal was “to train five Afghan press officers … but it trained only three, and one has left her job.” U.S. Embassy officials estimated that the work done “could have been performed for about $200,000.” That contract expired in October, but Rendon is reportedly under consideration for a new multimillion-dollar, “three-year deal to work on counternarcotics public relations” in Afghanistan. Rendon’s supporters say the firm “did an excellent job in a tough circumstance.”
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, December 13, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4287
3. GIVING UP THE GHOSTWRITERS
online.wsj.com/article/SB113443606745420770.html
“Many of the articles that appear in scientific journals under the byline of prominent academics are actually written by ghostwriters in the pay of drug companies.” Used by doctors “to guide their care of patients,” these “seemingly objective articles … are often part of a marketing campaign.” The New England Journal of Medicine recently revealed that a 2000 article on Vioxx “omitted information about heart attacks among patients taking the drug. … The deletions were made by someone working from a Merck computer.” A 1999 “publications strategy” prepared for Pfizer by a WPP Group agency listed 81 proposed articles, promoting Zoloft for everything from “panic disorder to pedophilia.” One physiologist hired by Elsevier’s Excerpta Medica says she was asked to “slant” a 2002 paper in favor of a Johnson & Johnson drug. Many journals ask for disclosure, but say their ability to weed out ghostwriters is limited. “I don’t give lie-detector tests,” said the Journal of the American Medical Association’s chief editor.
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req’d), December 13, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4286
4. PR AND LOBBYING A SHOT IN THE ARM FOR BIOPORT
www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/13368277.htm
The only licensed U.S. anthrax vaccine maker, BioPort, turned government contracts into “a gold mine,” with help from the “right lobbyists and public relations professionals,” writes Bob Evans. In 2002, following questions about vaccine safety and its financial practices, BioPort nearly quadrupled spending on lobbyists (from $30,000 to $110,000) and hired Ruder Finn and Fleishman-Hillard, “high-powered public relations firms staffed by many former government officials.” The company began “sponsoring ‘public education seminars’ and studies.” In September 2002, a report released by “bioterrorism experts” encouraged the government “to purchase millions of doses of BioPort’s product.” Evans says the report was actually “written by either BioPort or its public relations agent.” BioPort also pays $40,000 a year to upkeep a website that “says it’s sponsored by the Partnership for Anthrax Vaccination Education” and touts BioPort’s product. This year, BioPort won “a $122.7 million contract” with the Department of Health and Human Services, with more funding under negotiation.
SOURCE: Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia), December 9, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4284
5. U.S. ARMY RECRUITS NEW AD AND PR FIRMS
www.prweek.com/us/home/article/532333/us-army-taps-mccann-135-billion-recruitment-push/
After a lengthy review, the U.S. Army awarded the contract for its five year, $1.35 billion recruitment campaign to the McCann Erickson advertising agency, with the Weber Shandwick firm leading “the PR piece.” Both are new to the account; the Army’s previous agencies were Leo Burnett and Manning Selvage & Lee. Weber Shandwick’s Jack Leslie said the Army acount “is one of the most important assignments we’ve ever had” and will involve their “offices across the country” in a “highly integrated” marketing effort. The Army contract includes “advertising, direct marketing, promotions, events, and internet efforts.” The Army’s current focus on “parents and other influencers” of potential recruits, appealing to their “patriotism and sense of duty,” will likely continue, as will use of the “Army of One” slogan developed by Leo Burnett.
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req’d), December 8, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4283
6. THE INFORMATION WAR
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/politics/11propaganda.html
“The media center in Fayetteville, N.C., would be the envy of any global communications company,” writes Jeff Gerth. “In state of the art studios, producers prepare the daily mix of music and news for the group’s radio stations or spots for friendly television outlets. Writers putting out newspapers and magazines in Baghdad and Kabul converse via teleconferences. Mobile trailers with high-tech gear are parked outside, ready for the next crisis. … The center is not part of a news organization, but a military operation, and those writers and producers are soldiers. The 1,200-strong psychological operations unit based at Fort Bragg turns out what its officers call ‘truthful messages’ to support the United States government’s objectives, though its commander acknowledges that those stories are one-sided and their American sponsorship is hidden.” Gerth discusses the relationships between the U.S. military and private companies like the Rendon Group and Lincoln Group. He also provides previously unreported details about Jeffrey B. Jones, “a former Army colonel who ran the Fort Bragg psychological operations group, to coordinate the new information war.”
SOURCE: New York Times, December 11, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4282
7. THE ETHICS TRUCE LIVES ON
www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_12_04.php#007213
Republican congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham recently resigned after pleading guilty to graft and tearfully admitting that he took $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors, prompting an interesting question from Joshua Micah Marshall: “How did Duke Cunningham manage to get so far entangled in an ethics mess that he had to plead guilty to federal charges of accepting bribes without anyone referring his case to the House ethics committee? Think about that for a second. With all that came out about Cunningham over the last six months and not one Democrat even filed a complaint against him, let alone any Republicans?” Melanie Sloan provides the answer: “Since 1998, there has been an ethics ‘truce’ in the House of Representatives, under the terms of which no member will file an ethics complaint against another member. Because outsiders are prohibited from filing complaints with the House ethics committee, this has effectively shut down the ethics process.”
SOURCE: Talking Points Memo, December 8, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4281
8. WAL-MART FINALLY PAYS OFF THE LITTLE GUY
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001657383
Between November 30 and December 6, “Wal-Mart Stores Inc. placed full-page advertisements in 336 Midwestern newspapers.” Wal-Mart’s move “comes as the retailer repositions itself on several fronts – particularly community relations.” Wal-Mart’s lack of local advertising means that “if one local grocery store goes out, a community newspaper loses at a minimum one or two full-page ads or inserts a week,” said the director of the National Newspaper Association (NNA). Mona Williams, Wal-Mart’s PR head, said the company “would consider incorporating the local papers into our overall ad strategy” if “there is a significant return” on their trial run. Williams said local ads may “generate good will.” In early 2005, Wal-Mart ran ads in major metropolitan papers while “a public relations firm approach[ed] local papers, hoping to place news stories on Wal-Mart’s views.” NNA protested, saying local papers “are all but invisible to Wal-Mart – unless the company is looking for some free PR.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, December 8, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4279
9. STAUBER & RAMPTON THINK OUTSIDE THE BIG BOX
Join the Center for Media and Democracy’s John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton in Madison, Wisc., on December 15 for a talk on corporate PR and its cost to democracy. Stauber and Rampton will speak following a preformance of Walmartopia, a new musical comedy by Catherine Capellaro and Andrew Rohn, the creators of Temp Slave, the musical. “Walmartopia—a future so horrible, it must be stopped! … When Vicki, a struggling Wal-Mart employee, speaks out about the company’s working conditions, she finds herself jettisoned into 2035, where she faces the ultimate nightmare: an America run entirely by the Wal-Mart empire.” For more information, visit the Walmartopia webpage.
SOURCE:
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4280
10. BAGHDAD PRESS CLUB MEMBERSHIP HAS ITS PRIVILEGES
www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-12-08-media-probe_x.htm
“A U.S. investigation into allegations that the American military is buying positive coverage in the Iraqi media has expanded to examine a press club founded and financed by the U.S. Army,” reports USA Today. The Baghdad Press Club was created in 2004, “to promote progress amid the violence and chaos of Iraq.” A military spokesperson said “members are not required nor asked to write favorably” about the United States. According to a reporter at the U.S.-funded television station Alhurra, “press club members were invited to cover U.S.-led reconstruction efforts, such as restored sewage plants and newly-opened schools.” Print reporters were paid $25 for each story, or $45 if the piece included photos, while television reporters were paid $50 per story. A Lincoln Group spokesperson said the firm “was not involved with the Baghdad Press Club.”
SOURCE: USA Today, December 9, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4277
11. DUELING IMMIGRATION COALITIONS
www.prweek.com/us/thisissue/article/530455/future-american-worker-coalition-campaign-urges-immigration-reform
Following President Bush’s announcement of his immigration reform plan (which includes more Border Patrol agents, added technology such as drone planes, more detention facilities, and a “temporary worker program”), the Coalition for the Future American Worker (CFAW) launched an ad campaign calling for a harsher approach. The CFAW ads “feature U.S. workers who attribute wage depression and job displacement in their communities to the influx of illegal immigrants,” challenging Bush’s “contention that foreign workers are only taking jobs Americans won’t do.” CFAW members include the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Information Technology Professionals Association of America, and American Engineering Association. On the other side, the PR firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates is working with the White House to build “a coalition among business leaders and lawmakers,” called Americans for Border and Economic Security, in support of the Bush proposal.
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req’d), November 30, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4275
12. THE OLSEN TWINS THEY AIN’T
www.blackcommentator.com/162/162_freedom_rider_evil_racist_children.html
“Nazi worship is very problematic but the public relations dilemma can be solved very simply,” Margaret Kimberley writes. “Leave out any mention of hate, racism, Hitler and holocaust denial.” Kimberley points to Prussian Blue, 13 year-old blonde twin sisters who sing songs celebrating Adolf Hitler and Rudolph Hess. Teen People magazine planned to do an article on them, agreeing “not to mention the words Hitler, hate or supremacist. … Teen People promised to speak of the family only as supporters of ‘white pride.’” Ultimately, the story was pulled and a “junior employee” blamed for poor judgment. Kimberley also faults ABC News for giving the twins “free publicity and compar[ing] them to the over exposed but harmless Olsen twins.” Instead, Kimberley suggests U.S. journalists should cover an almost totally ignored 2003 incident where “white supremacists near Tyler, Texas were discovered with 500,000 rounds of ammunition, bomb making equipment, canisters of cyanide and a KKK calling card.”
SOURCE: The Black Commentator, December 8, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4274
13. U.S. FRONT GROUPS TAKE A EUROPEAN VACATION
news.independent.co.uk/environment/article331768.ece
Britain’s Independent reports on a “detailed and disturbing strategy document” authored by a U.S.-based Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) official that seeks “to destroy Europe’s support for the Kyoto treaty on climate change.” CEI’s Chris Horner, also a senior figure in the “Cooler Heads Coalition,” is “a veteran campaigner against Kyoto.” CEI has received “almost $1.5m from ExxonMobil.” Horner’s plan “seeks to draw together major international companies, academics, think-tanks, commentators, journalists and lobbyists from across Europe,” under the name “European Sound Climate Policy Coalition.” The coalition, Horner suggested, would be based in Brussels and have “anti-Kyoto position papers, expert spokesmen, detailed advice and networking” devoted to undermining the accord. He pitched the plan to Ford Europe, Lufthansa and German utility company RWE; the document says that Lufthansa, Exxon and Ford “have already indicated their interest.” Asked by the Independent whether a U.S. lobbyist funded in part by oil companies should be targeting European companies, Horner replied, “Everybody else does.”
SOURCE: The Independent (UK), December 8, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4272
14. THE PR SUBMARINE
www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
“One of the most surprising things I discovered during my brief business career was the existence of the PR industry, lurking like a huge, quiet submarine beneath the news,” writes computer programmer and author Paul Graham. Graham discusses how to detect PR-generated “buzz.” For example, a spate of stories – in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and U.S. News & World Report, among others – declared that men’s business suits are making a fashion comeback. “If you search for the obvious phrases, you turn up several efforts over the years to place stories about the return of the suit,” Graham says. “Trend articles like this are almost always the work of PR firms. Once you know how to read them, it’s straightforward to figure out who the client is. With trend stories, PR firms usually line up one or more ‘experts’ to talk about the industry. … When you get to the end of the experts, look for the client. And bingo, there it is: The Men’s Wearhouse.”
SOURCE: PaulGraham.com, April 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4271
15. BATTLE OF THE CHILDHOOD BULGE
online.wsj.com/article/SB113387976454515095.html?mod=mm_hs_advertising
“We can’t any more argue whether food advertising is related to children’s diets. It is,” said Ellen Wartella, a co-author of the Institute of Medicine report reviewing “123 scientific research studies spanning 30 years on the effects of marketing food to children.” The report concluded that “strong evidence” links TV ads to childhood obesity, and recommended that well-known cartoon characters not be used to sell “low-nutrient and high-calorie” foods. Marketing to children is a $11 billion industry. The American Advertising Federation responded that companies are already “promoting healthier products and active lifestyles for children.” Commercial Alert called on Congress to “expel junk food from public schools, require disclosure of product placement … and eliminate the federal tax deduction for food advertising to children.” The New York Times reports that Center for Science in the Public Interest, with “veterans of successful tobacco litigation,” will file a lawsuit in Massachusetts to “ban sales of sugary beverages in schools.”
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req’d), December 7, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4270
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