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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. When Real News Dents The Fake News Business
2. SourceWatch Updates
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. You Can’t Be Neutral on a Freedom Walk, Media Told
2. Judge Awards Costs Over Logger’s SLAPP
3. Voice-Over America
4. Propaganda, Treason and Plot
5. Under the Care of the Great Brilliant Commander
6. Ethical Bump or Just a Pothole?
7. Sheehan’s Story
8. Making Ads to Promote Drug Companies that Make Ads
9. The State of State Lobbying
10. Russo Marsh and Rogers’ Kurdish Delight
11. Spinning Atoms Into Gold
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. WHEN REAL NEWS DENTS THE FAKE NEWS BUSINESS
by Bob Burton There’s good news for citizens and bad news for investors in the latest quarterly financial report of Medialink Worldwide, the biggest player in the fake news business.
In the three months to the end of June Medialink the company lost $923,000. This was on top of the $1.13 million loss for the January to March quarter. The losses, the company’s latest quarterly financial report states, are just over double the amount lost in the first half of 2004.
A few days after the latest quarterly results were released in late July, Medialink’s founder, President, Chief Executive and Chairman of the Board, Larry Moskowitz was on a conference call putting a brave face on the latest results.
Moskowitz, who was paid $334,000 in 2004, explained to investors that one of the reasons for the latest losses was that real news, especially in April, had reduced the amount of available airtime for the company’s bread and butter services such as video news releases (VNRs) and audio news releases (ANRs).
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3899
2. SOURCEWATCH UPDATES
by Bob Burton Volunteer contributors continue to be the mainstay of SourceWatch, our open-source encylopedia of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. SourceWatch (formerly the “Disinfopedia”) is a “wiki,” which means that anyone (including you) can edit existing articles or create new ones about the topics of your choice. Since its launch in 2003, it has become the 14th-largest wiki on the Internet, and usage continues to grow. It now includes more than 7,400 articles. In July approximately 1.86 million pages from SourceWatch were served to web users.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3900
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A FREEDOM WALK, MEDIA TOLD
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/16/AR2005081600670.html
The Washington Post “is withdrawing its offer of free advertising for an organized event by the Defense Department,” after its sponsorship drew criticism from peace groups and the Newspaper Guild, which represents 1,400 Post employees. The Pentagon’s America Supports You “Freedom Walk” will take place on September 11 and include a concert by Clint Black, a country musician who the Guild noted is best known for his “war-glorifying song ‘Iraq and I Roll.’” Instead, the Post “will make a donation directly to the Pentagon Memorial Fund,” for “a two-acre contemplation park in honor of the 184 people who died” at the Pentagon in 2001. Other media organizations, including WTOP Radio Network, ABC/WJLA-TV Channel 7 and News Channel 8, are continuing their Freedom Walk sponsorship. “If we were to find out that it was meant to be a political event, we couldn’t support it,” said Stan Melton of WJLA and News Channel 8.
SOURCE: Washington Post, August 16, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3913
2. JUDGE AWARDS COSTS OVER LOGGER’S SLAPP
www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1439466.htm
The Australian forestry company Gunns has suffered another setback in its lawsuit seeking A$6.8 million in damages against 20 environmentalists and environmental groups. In the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bernard Bongiono directed the company pay most of the defendants costs incurred to date. In a refiled claim Gunns alleges that campaigning by the Gunns 20 constituted a “conspiracy” to damage its business. Former journalist turned Gunns “brand manager”, Sarah Dent, declined to comment “because it’s before the courts.” One of the defendants, Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown, told ABC Radio’s AM program that the third version of the writ included “a claim there that I and others were conspiring against Gunns at a meeting in Cygnet. In fact it was an evening’s entertainment with Dolly Putin and the Kazakhstan Kowgirls. It was a cabaret that was on that night. There was absolutely nothing other than a fundraiser occurring.”
SOURCE: ABC News, August 17, 2005.
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3911
3. VOICE-OVER AMERICA
www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=10109
“The story of Kenneth Tomlinson’s efforts to impose his right-tilting version of ‘balance’ on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has incited national controversy. But while that tale is well-known, Tomlinson’s malign inÔ¨Çuence on another respected media institution, the Voice of America (VOA), has received far less attention,” Art Levine writes for The American Prospect. “What’s happened at the VOA — which the longtime Karl Rove ally Tomlinson oversees as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) — has done considerable damage to the value and credibility of international broadcasting. According to interviews with current and former VOA staffers and e-mails obtained by The American Prospect, under Tomlinson’s watch, VOA administrators have pressed the agency’s journalists to report pro-White House spin and too often directed them to downplay hard-hitting news in favor of puffery.”
SOURCE: The American Prospect Online, August 14, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3910
4. PROPAGANDA, TREASON AND PLOT
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4132578.stm
“After the London bombings,” reports Bob Chaundy, the British government “is looking at whether so-called ‘preachers of hate’ can be charged with treason. The last person to be executed for high treason, nearly 60 years ago, was the infamous Nazi propagandist Lord Haw-Haw.” Chaundy profiles Lord Haw-Haw (real name William Joyce), whose program, “Germany Calling,” was listened to by “an estimated third of the British nation during World War II. “Listeners would be treated to such absurd doses of Nazi propaganda that it became a huge joke and, therefore, compulsive listening.”
SOURCE: BBC, August 9, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3909
5. UNDER THE CARE OF THE GREAT BRILLIANT COMMANDER
today.reuters.co.uk/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-08-14T124507Z_01
Propaganda can be unintentionally funny, says Geoff Davis, who has put together a database of news stories from North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Launched in May, Davis’s database boasts of having nearly every KCNA article since December 1996 — “over 50 megabytes of hard-core Stalinist propaganda … each article written in the unique and indelible style of the KCNA.” The articles are laced with rhetoric calling the regime’s enemies “imperialist ogres,” “class enemies,” “human scum” and “political dwarves.” On the lighter side, a recent KCNA report celebrated a film festival featuring documentaries with titles such as “The Leader Is the Great Father of Our People,” and “The Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il Gives On-site Guidance to the Work of Different Fields.”
SOURCE: Reuters, August 14, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3908
6. ETHICAL BUMP OR JUST A POTHOLE?
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/07/MNG9TE4DOF1.DTL
“It was intended as a picturesque public relations triumph,” writes Carla Marinucci: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger backed by a blaring soundtrack of ‘Takin’ It to the Streets,’ striding alongside an army of neon-clad street workers to tackle a ‘critical’ transportation problem—a San Jose pothole. But the photo op took more than a little doing, government documents show—a flurry of anxious e-mails from city officials, dozens of hours of planning on city time and considerable angst over details like location, location, location. … Critics say the May 26 event, paid in part with money from a tax-exempt committee called the California Recovery Team, illustrates the increasingly blurred lines between Governor Schwarzenegger and Candidate Schwarzenegger.” Marinucci quotes our own Sheldon Rampton, who points out that “the bottom line is transparency. There’s an ethical problem any time people engage in politics … without the public knowing who’s funding the effort.”
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, August 7, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3907
7. SHEEHAN’S STORY
mediamatters.org/items/200508100009
Media Matters for America, the liberal watchdog group, says conservative media are spreading “a lie” about Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who has become a vocal anti-war protester. Beginning with the Drudge Report and continuing with pundits including Michelle Malkin and Bill O’Reilly, the right-wing echo chamber has been claiming that Sheehan “dramatically changed her account” of a meeting she had with Bush in June 2004. In fact, their claim is based on selective omissions and quotations out of context from the original report about their meeting that appeared in Sheehan’s hometown paper. Specifically, Drudge left out the parts from the original story in which the Sheehans criticized Bush and the war. “We don’t think there has been a dramatic turnaround,” states the hometown paper in its response to Drudge’s charges. “Clearly, Cindy Sheehan’s outrage was festering even then. … In ensuing months, she has grown more focused, more determined, more aggressive. … We invite readers to revisit the story – in context – on our Web site and decide for themselves.”
SOURCE: Media Matters for America, August 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3906
8. MAKING ADS TO PROMOTE DRUG COMPANIES THAT MAKE ADS
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct—pfizer-advertisin0812aug11,0,6201892.story?coll=ny-region-apconnect
Following the release of the industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s (PhRMA’s) suggested drug advertising guidelines, Pfizer pledged not to “directly promote any new product” for six months and “to target only adult audiences” with Viagra TV ads. Pfizer also said it would create more “disease-awareness ads,” which do not mention particular drugs. “By featuring educational rather than product messages,” disease-awareness ads “may ease the concerns of regulators and consumers” while boosting prescriptions, wrote the Wall Street Journal. Marketing executive Stuart Klein said Pfizer’s strategy is “improving the perception of direct-to-consumer advertising.” PR Week reported that Vioxx manufacturer Merck is launching its first “corporate image campaign,” using the PR firm Burson-Marsteller. The campaign will “promote the company’s heritage” and highlight its “drug-assistance programs.” Merck’s Len Tacconi said the campaign is “not self-serving in any way.” GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer and PhRMA have similar “image-enhancing initiatives.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, August 12, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3905
9. THE STATE OF STATE LOBBYING
www.publicintegrity.org/hiredguns/report.aspx?aid=728
“Vested interests are working harder than ever to achieve their goals in state capitols and state agencies across the country,” reports the Center for Public Integrity. The organization’s review of 2004 lobbying activities found that nearly $953 million was spent “attempting to influence state legislators and executive branch officials” in the 42 states that track such spending. Twenty-five states saw an increase in lobbying expenditures. State-level lobbying has grown to the point where there are now, on average, “five lobbyists and almost $130,000 in expenditures per state legislator.” Several states did boost their oversight of lobbying last year, by strengthening registration and disclosure requirements, establishing a “cooling-off period” for former lawmakers planning to become lobbyists, or restricting lobbyists’ gifts to public officials.
SOURCE: Center for Public Integrity, August 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3904
10. RUSSO MARSH AND ROGERS’ KURDISH DELIGHT
www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=19468
The Republican Party-associated PR firm Russo Marsh and Rogers (RM&R) has been busy in Iraq, promoting Move America Forward’s recent “Truth Tour” of right-wing radio hosts there and preparing a campaign for the Kurdish Regional Government. RM&R principal Joe Wierzbicki told journalist Bill Berkowitz that his firm’s Kurdish campaign “will thank the American people for supporting the war in Iraq, and encourage Americans to visit and invest in the Kurdish region.” Wierzbicki said RM&R is “not advocating an independent Kurdistan,” but “the Kurds would like the rest of the country to look at the Kurdish region and see it as a model” for Iraq. The Kurdish campaign will likely be a short-term effort, including television and print ads, that will start in late summer or early fall. “It’s important to recognize that the Kurds are not hostile to the West,” Wierzbicki added.
SOURCE: WorkingForChange, August 11, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3903
11. SPINNING ATOMS INTO GOLD
prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240184&site=3
Despite securing up to $13 billion in federal subsidies in the recently passed energy bill, according to estimates by Public Citizen, the nuclear industry continues its PR offensive. The major industry group Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is “soliciting help from PR agencies to assist in removing all major legislative and regulatory impediments to a nuclear renaissance,” reports PR Week. The major goal of the 14 month, $8 million campaign is “to bolster public support for the development of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain” in Nevada. The campaign will include outreach to “sympathetic groups, including selected members of the academic, public health, and environmental communities.” Some eight PR firms, including Ogilvy, Burson-Marsteller and Dittus Communications, are interested in working on the campaign. NEI will select a firm by August 15.
SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req’d.), August 1, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3902
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