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THIS WEEK’S NEWS

== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. The Other Armstrong Williams Scandal
2. Calling John Rendon

== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Perception Is King
2. More Regime Change?
3. An Insurgency by Any Other Name
4. Inaugural Product Placement
5. Heaping Piles of Food PR
6. Greener on the Other Side
7. Too Much (or Not Enough?) Money Behind the News
8. Beans Means Cash
9. Never Mind the Social Security Numbers
10. Extreme UN Makeover
11. International Image Assistance
12. Feeding Social Insecurities
13. Some of the Facts About Wal-Mart
14. Pennies for Lay’s Thoughts
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==

1. THE OTHER ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS SCANDAL by Bob Burton Conservative pundit Armstrong Williams has been under fire recently following revelations that he was paid $240,000 to promote the Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” law. However, it isn’t the first time that his media interests have been used as a mouthpiece for hidden interests.

Internal tobacco industry documents reveal that in 1996 Williams allowed his nationally syndicated radio program, The Right Side, to be guest hosted by Malcolm Wallop, the chairman of Frontiers of Freedom (FoF), a front group partly funded by tobacco companies. For the rest of this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3185

2. CALLING JOHN RENDON by Sheldon Rampton John Rendon is CEO of the Rendon Group, a secretive public relations firm that often provides behind-the-scenes advice to the U.S. military. Over the years, we’ve received dozens of phone calls from journalists who have sought interviews with Rendon about his work on behalf of the Iraqi National Congress, but no one has been able to get him to say more than “no comment.”

We were a little surprised, therefore, when a telephone message was left for Rendon in our office by someone identifying himself as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. A transcript of that message is as follows: For the rest of this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3180

== SPIN OF THE DAY ==

1. PERCEPTION IS KING
news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=601497

Sir David King, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, has been “aggressively targeted by American lobbyists trying to discredit his view that man-made pollution is behind global warming.” King said, “You have a group of lobbyists, some of whom are chasing me around the planet. … And these lobbyists stand up after I’ve given an hour’s talk and say, ‘There are scientists who disagree with you.’ I always say, ‘Which bit of science that I’ve just presented to you are you challenging?’ I don’t get an answer.” Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Cooler Heads Coalition, called King an “alarmist with ridiculous views who knows nothing about climate change.”
SOURCE: The Independent, January 17, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3198

2. MORE REGIME CHANGE?
news.ft.com/cms/s/90ab5f5a-68e4-11d9-9183-00000e2511c8.html
With “regime change” in Iran receiving renewed attention in Congress, “new exiled Iranian opposition groups backed by some of Washington’s neoconservatives are springing up in the hope of seeing large doses of U.S. funding,” reports the Financial Times. One such group, the Alliance for Democracy in Iran, is “strategically located in the heart of the capital’s think-tank quarter,” admires the American Enterprise Institute, is partners with the Hudson Institute, and enjoys support from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s Jerome Corsi. (In the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh writes that it’s possible U.S. belligerence might be “part of a propaganda campaign aimed at pressuring Iran to give up its weapons planning.”)
SOURCE: Financial Times, January 18, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3197

3. AN INSURGENCY BY ANY OTHER NAME
www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-keane18jan18,1,3924376.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
“Our military commanders and political leaders must be careful that in using language to deceive the enemy, to propagandize or to persuade, they do not obscure their own thinking,” warns Michael Keane. “Before the coalition’s recent attack on enemy forces in Fallouja, the American commander there changed the rules of engagement from ‘capture or kill’ to ‘kill or capture.’ … And there are the changing names for the enemy in Iraq. U.S. military spokesmen first referred to them as ‘dead-enders’ or ‘Baathist holdouts.’ When the insurgency turned out to be undeniably widespread and well organized, its members were ‘former regime loyalists.’ Then, when it was pointed out that ‘loyalty’ generally has a positive connotation, the term mutated to ‘former regime elements.’”
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3196

4. INAUGURAL PRODUCT PLACEMENT
www.forbes.com/vehicles/2005/01/18/cx_dl_0118vow.html
“Talk about free advertising,” exclaimed Forbes. “Cadillac’s first ‘customer’ for its redesigned, 2006 DTS will be President George W. Bush, who will ride in a black limousine version of the new car during his inaugural parade on January 20.” Deville marketing manager Keith Spondike said that Bush’s use of the DTS will reinforce Cadillac’s image of “appealing to and transporting high-profile people.”
SOURCE: Forbes, January 18, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3195

5. HEAPING PILES OF FOOD PR
prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=232438&site=3
“Last week’s release of the much-anticipated new federal dietary guidelines,” developed with assistance from the Porter Novelli firm, “is just the beginning of some major PR work from both the government and the food industry,” reports PR Week. McDonald’s, which is increasing its 2005 PR budget by 20 to 25 percent, will promote the guidelines on its tray liners. McDonald’s is continuing its Go Active! campaign, with celebrity trainer Bob Greene; Dean Ornish will promote a “balanced-lifestyle message” for the fast-food giant. The Sugar Association is working with Marriner Marketing Communications to downplay the new guidelines’ recommendation to limit added sugars, and with Qorvis Communications to challenge ads for Splenda that say the sweetener is “made from sugar.”
SOURCE: PR Week (reg. req’d.), January 17, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3192

6. GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE
www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=GREENVSGREEN-01-17-05&cat=AN
Project Evergreen, a “trade association formed by pesticide makers, applicators, garden centers and mower manufacturers,” will launch a “national public-relations campaign this spring touting the health and lifestyle benefits of thick, green lawns.” The campaign is partly in response to pesticide restrictions passed by 70 cities and one province in Canada. One Project Evergreen ad reads, “Legislation and regulations have been throwing the green industry some rough punches. … We’re about to start fighting back.” The president of Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment, a pesticide-industry lobbying group, said, “Local communities generally do not have the expertise on issues about pesticides to make responsible decisions.” The environmental group Beyond Pesticides plans a counter-campaign.
SOURCE: Scripps Howard News Service, January 17, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3191

7. TOO MUCH (OR NOT ENOUGH?) MONEY BEHIND THE NEWS prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=232417&site=3 Revelations about U.S. government attempts to shape the news by paying pundits and producing video news releases have fueled a debate “about whether news reports and opinion pieces provided to media outlets” that “were developed and paid for by government agencies” should be disclosed as such, reports Newsday. More money might enter the system in 2005, according to PR Week. “Factors such as a shrinking news hole and increased competition have prompted companies to explore other ways to get VNRs aired. … Most broadcast PR companies are now encountering requests to ensure placement in a non-traditional way for the PR industry – by paying for it.” Popular VNR topics include healthcare, technology, “fluff” pieces and behind-the-scenes stories.
SOURCE: PR Week (reg. req’d.), January 17, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3190

8. BEANS MEANS CASH news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=600673 British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has admitted accepting ¬£15,000 ($US28,000) from Heinz as part of a product placement deal in which he agreed to include an up-market version of baked beans on toast on the menu at his restaurant. “I should have been brighter,” Oliver told The Independent. The success of Oliver‚Äôs television cooking program, The Naked Chef, has led to three books and a follow up television series. Oliver also featured in a pre-Christmas advertising campaign for retail chain Sainsbury’s defending the consumption of farmed salmon as “healthy because the loch is so cold.” Environmentalists and chefs have criticised Scottish farmed salmon because of its impact on wild salmon and contaminants in the fish. Celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson Wright described Oliver as a “whore” for appearing in the advertisements.
SOURCE: The Independent (UK) January 14, 2005. For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3189

9. NEVER MIND THE SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7797-2005Jan13.html
“White House allies are launching a market-research project to figure out how to sell” privatizing Social Security, while “Republican marketing and public-relations gurus are building teams of consultants,” reports the Washington Post. The effort, led by Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, “will use Bush’s campaign-honed techniques of mass repetition, never deviating from the script and using the politics of fear to build support.” Groups including Progress for America, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Republican Jewish Coalition are also advocating for privatization. Progress for America’s TV ads, which include images of Franklin D. Roosevelt, have been protested by FDR’s family. His grandson wrote, “My grandfather would surely oppose the ideas now being promoted by this administration and your organization.”
SOURCE: Washington Post, January 14, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3188

10. EXTREME UN MAKEOVER
news.ft.com/cms/s/73f32454-65c1-11d9-8ff0-00000e2511c8.html
“The United Nations is looking for a well-connected Washington figure to head its information office,” reports the Financial Times, “as part of a wide-ranging image makeover to improve relations with Congress.” The “makeover” began earlier this month, when Kofi Annan named Mark Malloch Brown, former PR consultant to Corazon Aquino and the Government of Colombia at the Sawyer Miller Group, as his chief of staff. “The UN had previously resisted following the ‘revolving door’ model of Washington lobbying,” but now hopes to recruit “an influential advocate with Capitol Hill experience who ‘understands how Washington works, can make calls, and get those calls answered,’” to defuse strong congressional criticism. SOURCE: Financial Times, January 14, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3187

11. INTERNATIONAL IMAGE ASSISTANCE
www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4727197,00.html
“In a newspaper opinion piece signed by President Bush and offered to newspapers around the globe” by the State Department, “a White House eager to lessen anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world is trumpeting U.S. efforts to help tsunami victims,” reports Associated Press. The piece, which ran in Asian, European and Caribbean papers, stressed U.S. cooperation. “In consultation with key allies and with the United Nations, the United States launched one of the largest humanitarian relief operations,” Bush wrote. The U.S.-funded Arabic TV station Al Hurra interviewed former presidents Clinton and Bush on private fundraising efforts. Clinton said, “People ask all the time, ‘Will people like America better?’ and the answer is, we don’t know, but that’s not why we are doing it.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, January 12, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3186

12. FEEDING SOCIAL INSECURITIES
seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/207486_socsec12.html
The “start of a coordinated effort to build public support” to privatize Social Security “and pressure Congress to act” included a Washington DC town hall with the president and six “carefully selected participants.” One was a Seattle-area businessman who, after being contacted by the White House, got a call from the conservative lobbying group FreedomWorks, “offering to pay his expenses.” FreedomWorks flew in 80 people, allowing Congress to “hear from average Americans, who understand that Social Security is in trouble.” In New York, Treasury Secretary John Snow visited “Wall Street securities firms to rally support,” while the vice president, the Office of Management and Budget director and the White House Council of Economic Advisers chair are readying Social Security speeches. SOURCE: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 12, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3183

13. SOME OF THE FACTS ABOUT WAL-MART
www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2005-01-12-walmart-usat_x.htm
“For the first time in its 43 years, a Wal-Mart CEO is publicly responding to detractors.” The giant retailer launched a national PR blitz, including interviews with its CEO, an open-letter ad in more than 100 newspapers, and a new website, walmartfacts.com, that promises the “unfiltered truth.” CEO Lee Scott said that criticisms of Wal-Mart had grown to “urban legend” status, while critics’ “lifestyle doesn’t change when the price of fuel changes, or if they keep a Wal-Mart store out of their area.” When asked why walmartfacts.com doesn’t mention the ongoing class-action sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart, Scott replied, “There are so many things that we deal with and aspects of society that you couldn’t possibly put them all in.” O’Dwyer’s reports that Hill & Knowlton is working on Wal-Mart campaign, helping Scott and handling local media.
SOURCE: USA Today, January 13, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3182

14. PENNIES FOR LAY’S THOUGHTS
www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2982765
Despite the bankrupty of his company, former Enron CEO Ken Lay apparently still has some money to spend on spin. “The former chairman’s computer-literate litigation team is making use of ‘sponsored links,’ which appear prominently in searches for a word or name in an Internet search engine,” reports Mary Flood. “It’s one of the ways the search engines make money and one of the ways Web sites can be sure they’ll be noticed.” Searching the internet for terms such as “Enron scandal” or “Ken Lay” will produce a page with a sponsored link to www.kenlayinfo.com. Lay pays 5 to 12 cents each time someone clicks on the link. Click early and click often!
SOURCE: Houston Chronicle, January 10, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: www.prwatch.org/node/3181
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