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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS
==
== SPIN OF
THE DAY ==
1. Potemkin Town Hall Meetings
2. SOA Watch Watchers
3. Rise of the Media Machine
4. Leading with Bleeding (Don’t Mind the Elections)
5. Not What Democracy Looks Like
6. PR, as in Profit and Propaganda
7. Playing Spin the Atom, Once Again
8. Shill to the Beat of the Drum
9. U.S. Scientists Say They Are Told To Alter Findings
10. Wal-Mart: The Race to the Bottom Line
11. Holding the Hand that Feeds You
12. Lobbying, German-Style
13. Buzz Kill
14. Gannon Quits After Blogger Inquiry
----------------------------------------------------------------------
== BLOG POSTINGS
==
== SPIN OF
THE DAY ==
1. POTEMKIN
TOWN HALL MEETINGS
www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/news/nation/stories/0213_BUSH_COMMUNICATIONS.html
George W. Bush has been traveling throughout the United States to promote
his plan to privative Social Security. Recent “Team Bush” events
have been called “conversations,” “forums” and “town
hall meetings.” But these gatherings are hardly public and far from spontanious.
Cox News Service’s Ken Herman writes, “Regardless of the name,
such events are always the same: Bush as congenial host with hand-picked on-stage
guests with stories to prove the president’s point.”
SOURCE: Cox News Service, February 14, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3280
2. SOA WATCH
WATCHERS
ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2005a/021805/021805t.htm
At the trespassing trial of activists protesting the School of the Americas
combat training base, “new information surfaced about a comprehensive
plan devised by the U.S. Army to deflect criticism of the school, now known
as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.” Defendant
Aaron Shuman introduced as evidence WHINSEC’s “Strategic Communications
Campaign Plan,” which he obtained from an Army public affairs officer.
The $246,000 plan includes media monitoring, letters to the editor to counter
negative coverage, and tracking Father Roy Bourgeois, the founder of the anti-WHINSEC
group SOA Watch. For Bourgeois speaking events, the plan suggests “efforts
to get an Army representative on the bill with the priest or in the same venue
at a later date to present an opposing point of view.”
SOURCE: National Catholic Reporter, February 18, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3279
3. RISE OF
THE MEDIA MACHINE
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/15/BAGU1BB0JA1.DTL
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “current California media tour to promote
his plans for reforming state government looks like a resounding success – if
only because the California media, rather than turning up the heat, often ends
up in marshmallow mode with the state’s famous governor.” While
some ask about his “proposed merit pay for teachers, the state’s
budget deficit, nursing reform and pension overhaul,” recent interview
questions include, “Do you miss the movies?” and “You won
what, five Mr. Universe titles?” Political science professor Barbara
O’Connor says the “few reporters who cover state government on
a regular basis” and Schwarzenegger’s “celebrity status” help
him “set the media agenda in a way we haven’t seen in a long time.”
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, February 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3278
4. LEADING
WITH BLEEDING (DON’T MIND THE ELECTIONS)
www.nytimes.com/2005/02/14/business/media/14broadcast.html?
A study analyzing 4,000 local newscasts in 11 major markets found that, “in
the month leading up to last year’s presidential election, local television
stations in big cities devoted eight times as much air time to car crashes
and other accidents than to campaigns for the House of Representatives, state
senate, city hall and other local offices.” Eight percent of news shows
reported on local races, while more than half reported on the presidential
race. Such local / national disparities are fueling “the debate over
how many television stations a company may own.” One type of airtime
did focus on local races: “Advertising by House candidates eclipsed actual
coverage of those races by a ratio of 5 to 1.”
SOURCE: New York Times, February 14, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3277
5. NOT WHAT
DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cameroon14feb14,0,2420523.story?coll=la-home-headlines
When Paul Biya, “the strongman who has ruled the West African country
of Cameroon for more than 20 years swept to another election victory last fall,
a number of observers quickly questioned the process.” But not the U.S.
Association of Former Members of Congress, who said, “This is what democracy
is about.” Their delegation was organized by “a lobbyist for Biya’s
government,” who “served as the mission’s chief staffer and
billed Cameroon for his work. Biya’s government also picked up the $80,000
tab for the Americans’ visit. And a month after the group left, one of
the six observers signed his own lobbying contract with Cameroon.”
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, February 14, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3276
6. PR, AS
IN PROFIT AND PROPAGANDA
www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/business/yourmoney/13flak.html
“The Armstrong Williams scandal is an example of the close coordination
between the advertiser and the commentator … that violates disclosure and
conflicts-of-interest principles,” the Center for Media and Democracy’s
Sheldon Rampton told the New York Times’ Timothy O’Brien. O’Brien’s
article gives a historical overview of the PR industry, including many firms’ consolidation
into marketing and communications companies. “Critics say firms like Ketchum
that operate inside conglomerates are pushing harder to fatten the bottom line – which
may lead them to cross ethical boundaries.” PR firms’ work on political
issues also raises questions, since “one man’s propaganda is another
man’s truth,” said the chief executive of Manning, Selvage & Lee.
SOURCE: New York Times, February 13, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3275
7. PLAYING
SPIN THE ATOM, ONCE AGAIN
www.tompaine.com/articles/no_nukes.php
“The new year saw the launch of a well-orchestrated, multi-pronged campaign
calling for America to end its dependence on oil through massive federal investments
in nuclear energy,” warns Patrick Doherty. The campaign includes articles
by American Enterprise Institute and Global Business Network staff, a book titled “A
Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy” by Senate
Energy Committee Chair Pete Domenici, and President Bush’s State of the
Union address. But what the nuclear industry is pushing “will cost the
taxpayer $8 billion” and won’t decrease U.S. oil consumption for
decades, writes Doherty. Instead, he suggests “small natural gas turbines
combined with better grid design.”
SOURCE: TomPaine.com, February 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3273
8. SHILL
TO THE BEAT OF THE DRUM
news.ft.com/cms/s/251c9cd6-7bae-11d9-9af4-00000e2511c8.html
McDonald’s and MTV Networks have partnered, in a bid by the fast-food
giant “to reach young people without running advertisements.” Instead
of ads, a new “30-minute monthly programme called MTV Advance Warning” will “feature
new musical talent combined with McDonald’s advertising imagery.” The
program will run in the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia. The move comes
as officials in the U.S. and European Union consider “restrictions on
food advertising” due to rising youth obesity rates. As part of its “I’m
lovin’ it” campaign, McDonald’s is also sponsoring a global
tour by the musical group Destiny’s Child, called “Destiny Fulfilled
and lovin’ it.” McDonald’s global chief of marketing said, “Music
is the one universal language.”
SOURCE: Financial Times, February 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3272
9. U.S. SCIENTISTS
SAY THEY ARE TOLD TO ALTER FINDINGS
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scientists10feb10,0,4954654.story?coll=la-home-nation
Scientists employed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they have
been told to change their research findings concerning the protection of plants
and animals. A survey of USFWS biologists, ecologists, botanists and other
science professionals sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility finds:
* “Nearly
half of all respondents whose work is related to endangered species
scientific findings (44 percent) reported that they ‘have been
directed, for non-scientific reasons, to refrain from making jeopardy
or other findings that are protective of species.’ ¬†One
in five agency scientists revealed they have been instructed to compromise
their scientific integrity‚Äîreporting that they have been ‘directed
to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from a USFWS
scientific document,’ such as a biological opinion;
* “More
than half of all respondents (56 percent) knew of cases where “commercial
interests have inappropriately induced the reversal or withdrawal of
scientific conclusions or decisions through political intervention.”
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, February 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3271
10. WAL-MART:
THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM LINE
www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/business/story.html?id=d2936f9b-234a-40b8-a137-43d6efd33cb4
Saying they had “bargain[ed] in good faith,” Wal-Mart announced
it was closing a store in Quebec whose employees were negotiating the first
union contract ever with the giant retailer. Wal-Mart said the move is not
a union bust, but due to “the fragile condition of the Jonquiere store.” A
union spokesperson said, “We’re going to carry on with our efforts
to organize Wal-Marts.” The Canadian firm National PR is helping Wal-Mart
with “French-language media outreach” following the announcement.
O’Dwyer’s notes that the closing “comes as Hill & Knowlton
is guiding a national campaign in the U.S. to help the company put out the ‘unfiltered
truth’ and correct ‘urban legends.’”
SOURCE: Ottawa Citizen, February 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3270
11. HOLDING
THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU
www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/politics/10bush.html
At a “conversation with experts and victims” organized by the White
House to push legislation limiting class-action lawsuits, President Bush sat
next to Clinton administration acting solicitor general Walter E. Dellinger
III. “He represents the spirit needed to have good legal reform and that
is the bipartisan spirit,” Bush said. It was not disclosed that Dellinger’s
law firm, O’Melveny & Myers, received “$780,000 since 1999 – including
$580,000 in the last two years – by two of the major lobbying groups
set up by companies to try to push the legislation through Congress,” including
the Institute for Legal Reform, set up by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
SOURCE: New York Times, February 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3269
12. LOBBYING,
GERMAN-STYLE
online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110798692853250483,00.html?mod=world%5Fnews%5Ffeatured%5Farticles
“In recent weeks, senior politicians from Germany’s two biggest parties
resigned following disclosures that they received tens of thousands of euros
from corporate benefactors,” even though “the payments were legal.” Throughout
Europe, companies are increasingly doing “aggressive lobbying in the absence
of rules to rein them in.” Public outrage has led watchdogs like the Corporate
Europe Observatory to push for disclosure laws, though “many companies
responded … by further obscuring their lobbying efforts.” Economic
and political changes have made Berlin, in particular, a hotspot for corporate
lobbying. “We’re extremely well networked here,” said Coca-Cola’s
head of public affairs in Berlin.
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (reg. req’d.), February 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3268
13. BUZZ
KILL
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0209womma.htm
To counter criticism of “buzz” or guerrilla marketing, the year-old
Word of Mouth Marketing Association developed a code of ethics. The Association
includes the Burson-Marsteller, Edelman and Rowland Communications PR firms,
along with marketing agencies and advertisers. The Association’s ethics
code calls for “honest disclosure of relationship, opinion and identity,” which
would end the practice of hiring actors to play satisfied consumers. “The
whole idea of marketing is to not make it look like marketing,” remarked
the co-founder of Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, an agency that once hired
actors to drink a brand of cognac “at trendy bars and chat with patrons
about the pricey product.”
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (reg. req’d.), February 9, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3267
14. GANNON
QUITS AFTER BLOGGER INQUIRY
mediacitizen.blogspot.com/2005/02/gannon-quits-after-blogger-inquiry.html
“The Talon News correspondent at the center of a scandal over his White
House press credentials quit last night amid a growing online investigation into
his history, including allegations of involvement with several websites appearing
to support gay pornography and promote male prostitution,” reports Timothy
Karr. “Jeff Gannon (a pseudonym) announced last night via his personal
website that he had found it ‘no longer possible to effectively be a reporter
for Talon News. In consideration of the welfare of me and my family I have decided
to return to private life.’”
SOURCE: MediaCitizen, February 9, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3266
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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