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further information about media, political spin and propaganda.
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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. Jim Crow Propaganda
2. Never Whoosh A Spook!
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Spotlight on Philippine Government PR Contracts
2. Psy-ops For Sale
3. K Street’s Expanding Project
4. Like-Minded Groups Across a Rising Pond
5. Fun with Propaganda
6. Propaganda, Iraq Style
7. Katrina’s Environmental Secrets
8. Wal-Mart’s Good Deeds
9. Spinning Roulette Wheels
10. Blogging for Business
11. Playing the Blame Game
12. California’s Indecent Propositions
13. Philippine President’s Lobbying Contract Revealed
14. Australia Deports U.S. Peace Activist For Encouraging “Spirited” Protest
15. Pay-for-Plate
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. JIM CROW PROPAGANDA
by Sheldon Rampton Last week I was invited to give a talk about free speech at Ferris State University in Michigan. Much to my pleasure, I discovered that one of the professors at Ferris is an old colleague, Dennis Ruzicka, who was a fellow reporter 20 years ago when we both worked for a small-town, daily newspaper in Wisconsin.
After the talk, Dennis showed me around the campus. One of our most fascinating stops was the “Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia” that has been assembled by sociology professor David Pilgrim. The Jim Crow Museum contains more than 2,000 racist artifacts, dating from pre-Civil War days to the present: cartoons, Sambo masks, Coon toys, Picaninny ashtrays, Ku Klux Klan literature, postcards with Black children portrayed as “alligator bait.”
“All racial groups have been caricatured in this country, but none have been caricatured as often or in as many ways as have black Americans,” Pilgrim writes. “Blacks have been portrayed in popular culture as pitiable exotics, cannibalistic savages, hypersexual deviants, childlike buffoons, obedient servants, self-loathing victims, and menaces to society. These anti-black depictions were routinely manifested in or on material objects: ashtrays, drinking glasses, banks, games, fishing lures, detergent boxes, and other everyday items. These objects, with racist representations, both reflected and shaped attitudes towards African Americans. Robbin Henderson, director of the Berkeley Art Center, said, ‘derogatory imagery enables people to absorb stereotypes; which in turn allows them to ignore and condone injustice, discrimination, segregation, and racism.’ She was right. Racist imagery is propaganda and that propaganda was used to support Jim Crow laws and customs.”
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4005
2. NEVER WHOOSH A SPOOK!
by Bob Burton Non-violence training workshops I attended in the 1980s often featured, as a tension-breaker or wind-down game, a little exercise known as the whoosh.
For the uninitiated, a whoosh consists of one person standing in the centre of a circle of people holding hands. Starting from a low crouch, the circle slowly moves in with the pronunciation of whooooooosh building to a crescendo as the group converges, culminating with an enthusiastic jump. The person in the centre is then considered to have been whooshed.
If such exercises are still in non-violence training workshop manuals, maybe it’s time a warning label was added: Never whoosh a spook!
Why? This week the Australian government deported Houston-based peace and environmental activist Scott Parkin, after revoking his six-month visitor visa. No reason was given; for all we know, Scott whooshed some hapless, wet-behind-the-ears Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) spook sent to spy on one of the non-violence training sessions he was attending.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3992
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. SPOTLIGHT ON PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT PR CONTRACTS
www.pcij.org/stories/2005/lobbygate.html
In the wake of the Philippine government’s cancellation of the $75,000 per month contract with the Washington D.C. law firm and lobbyshop Venable, Malou Mangahas from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism has shifted the spotlight onto other contracts. “Since 2001, the Arroyo administration has spent at least $3.7 million … on eight multiple, loosely monitored, and largely secret consultancy contracts for eight US-based lobby and law firms,” he writes. Mangahas reveals that the Arroyo administration also has a $1-million per year deal with Burson-Marsteller, a $216,000 a year contract for lobbying with Bannerman & Associates and legal advice from White & Case LLP. There have also been four other agreements, including one with Patton Boggs.
SOURCE: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, September 20, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4015
2. PSY-OPS FOR SALE
slate.msn.com/id/2126479/
“Strategic Communication Laboratories, a small U.K. firm specializing in ‘influence operations’ made a very public debut this week with a glitzy exhibit occupying prime real estate at Defense Systems & Equipment International, or DSEI, the United Kingdom’s largest showcase for military technology. The main attraction was a full-scale mock-up of its ops center, running simulations ranging from natural disasters to political coups,” Sharon Weinberger writes for Slate. The elaborate booth included actors, flashing computer screens and a “a dark-suited man with a wireless microphone [pacing] like a carnival barker, narrating the scenarios.” One of which features a “sophisticated campaign of mass deception” that uses a fictitious chemical plant accident as a ploy to minimize the spread of smallpox.”If your definition of propaganda is framing communications to do something that’s going to save lives, that’s fine,” says Mark Broughton, SCL’s public affairs director. “That’s not a word I would use for that.”
SOURCE: Slate, September 19, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4013
3. K STREET’S EXPANDING PROJECT
thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/092005.html
“K Street,” the Washington DC street famous for its lobbying firms, “has tinkered with its traditional business model in recent years,” reports The Hill. “Lobbying firms are branching out to related but different business areas as a way to attract more clients and revenue.” For example, Patton Boggs recently launched a “risk-management practice to help corporate clients understand the potential pitfalls in Washington that may await a planned merger or acquisition.” Quinn Gillespie & Associates’ new division, QGA Communications, is a PR practice offering “spokesperson training” and “forming alliances with other groups with similar interests,” according to QGA’s Terry Holt. Jefferson Consulting Group is a lobbying firm focused on federal marketing, or matching “client products with federal-agency needs.” JCG founder Julie Susman said business is booming. It may grow even more, due to Hurricane Katrina. “FEMA called us the day of the disaster,” said Susman.
SOURCE: The Hill, September 20, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4007
4. LIKE-MINDED GROUPS ACROSS A RISING POND
news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/article313730.ece
“For decades, corporations have known that, if they lobby for their own interests, public opinion won’t take them seriously,” begins the Independent’s article on the “most influential” third party groups that have aligned with businesses to oppose action on climate change. They include the Congress of Racial Equality, once “the ‘shock troops’ of the civil rights movement” but, after accepting funding from ExxonMobil “to assist with ‘global climate outreach’,” now notorious for shouting down “environmentalists picketing an Exxon Mobil shareholders meeting.” Other U.S. groups are the conservative think tanks the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation, the American Petroleum Institute, and Dick Cheney’s National Energy Policy Development Group, which, “despite the energy sector’s record profits,” successfully pushed “a $20bn handout to oil, coal and nuclear industries.” British groups on the list include the Scientific Alliance, Supporters of Nuclear Energy, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Confederation of British Industry.
SOURCE: The Independent (UK), September 20, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4006
5. FUN WITH PROPAGANDA
www.worth1000.com/cache/contest/contestcache.asp?contest_id=7285&display=photoshop#entries
The Worth1000 website recently sponsored a “fun with propaganda” contest, inviting people to contribute their own Photoshop-remixed versions of propaganda posters from various countries and wars. Submissions include Joseph Stalin as a pitchman for FedEx, as well as the example here, in which a Chinese communist poster was turned into a call to “gouge imperialist gas guzzlers.”
SOURCE: Worth1000
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4004
6. PROPAGANDA, IRAQ STYLE
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001138707 Iraqis “find themselves under a propaganda bombardment from all sides,” reports the Associated Press. One recent anonymous advertisement, “aimed at Arab sensitivities to family and tribe,” denounced al-Qaida in Iraq as “followers of the devil.” AP couldn’t find out who paid for the ad, though a senior editor at the paper that published it said “it was placed by an advertising agency.” The Iraqi government “routinely televises interrogations in which alleged insurgents confess their brutal crimes while encouraging citizens to call anonymous tip lines to report insurgent activities.” U.S. officials flood reporters “with good news of schools opened after U.S. military refurbishment, water systems repaired and al-Qaida leaders captured.” And insurgents “have used the Internet to show brutal hostage beheadings and to declare war on Iraq’s Shiite majority, U.S. forces and the American-backed government.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, September 17, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4003
7. KATRINA’S ENVIRONMENTAL SECRETS
www.sej.org/foia/fallout.htm#091505
The Society of Environmental Journalists has criticized the government’s “tight-lipped approach” in responding to requests for information about the toxic gumbo left by Hurricane Katrina. SEJ President Perry Beeman says the government is “denying the public crucial information collected with taxpayers’ money on behalf of taxpayers in the first place. … What we need to know is what exactly is in the water. Which bacteria and how much? Which gasoline and oil constituents and how much? Which carcinogens? Which pathogens? Americans need to know what specific threats exist and what the government is doing about them. They are paying for the raw data, and they deserve to see it.” SEJ has prepared a timeline showing how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has responded to reporters’ requests, as well as a new report on environmental reporters’ experiences with the Freedom of Information Act.
SOURCE: Society of Environmental Journalists
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4000
8. WAL-MART’S GOOD DEEDS
www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/19/wal_mart_rides_good_pr_plans_secret_spin_strategy/
Wal-Mart Stores “is enjoying its best publicity in years as even its harshest critics laud the retailer’s Hurricane Katrina relief efforts,” reports Emily Kaiser. And the company is planning a “secret spin strategy to counter a union-backed, anti-Wal-Mart media blitz” that accuses the company of paying poverty-level wages and driving competitors out of business. PR executive Eric Dezenhall, who specializes in corporate responses to activist campaigns, called ongoing criticism of Wal-Mart by organizations like Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart “tone-deaf.” He said, “It strikes me as a rather graceless time to launch an attack because it’s just a matter of time before this halo burns off. If I were Wal-Mart, I would be glad that my adversaries were attacking in this cycle.”
SOURCE: Reuters, September 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3997
9. SPINNING ROULETTE WHEELS
www.casinocitytimes.com/news/article.cfm?contentID=153481
The American Gaming Association (AGA), a lobbying group for U.S. gambling casinos, is working on a PR campaign to improve its image. According to AGA chief executive Frank Fahrenkopf, the group wants to persuade state officials that current casino taxes are too high in the states where its members operate.
SOURCE: Casino City Times, September 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3996
10. BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS
itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/article.php/3547411
“In today’s economy, you can have incredible marketing for your company for free rather than spending an enormous marketing budget,” writes Steven Warren for IT Managment. “How is this possible? Corporate blogging.” Warren encourages corporate bloggers to “be honest and forthright. Don’t just blog about your products with a PR spin. … Use the blog to capture your audience with your personality and your passion for what you do. … A passionate blog will reach more people than any high-dollar ad campaign.” It’s not just corporations that are blogging, but trade associations too. The National Association of Manufacturers’ blog recently commemorated the attacks of September 11 with a post to “remember the innocent who died and those that are protecting our country, including the manufacturers who are developing innovative products for our troops to fight the War on Terror, to building democracy and keeping us safe.”
SOURCE: IT Management, September 9, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4014
11. PLAYING THE BLAME GAME
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001138264
Jackson, Mississippi’s Clarion-Ledger newspaper concluded, after obtaining an email the Justice Department sent to various U.S. attorneys’ offices, that “federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups.” The email read, in part, “Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans?” A Justice Department spokesperson refused to comment, “because it’s an internal e-mail.” In related news, Senator James Inhofe introduced a bill that would allow Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen L. Johnson to “suspend any law governing air, water or land in responding to Hurricane Katrina.” Environmental groups are concerned the measure could be applied broadly and inappropriately; “Mr. Bush has declared 41 states disaster areas as a result of the storm.”
SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, September 16, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3994
12. CALIFORNIA’S INDECENT PROPOSITIONS
California’s November 8 elections on “several controversial propositions” dealing with state redistricting, the school system, budget and drug prices “could be one of the biggest political scrapes of the year, involving $125 million in ad spending,” reports Advertising Age. Supporters of Proposition 79, which would require pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug costs for lower-income patients, have hired former Howard Dean adviser Joe Trippi “to launch a grassroots, viral Internet campaign.” Pharmaceutical companies are countering with Proposition 78, which would establish a “voluntary system of drug discounts.” Their $75 million campaign for Prop. 78 includes television ads claiming that Prop. 79 would create “a costly new bureaucracy.” Union groups have raised nearly $50 million to fight two other measures, Prop. 74 and Prop. 75, which would make it easier to fire new teachers and would restrict union spending on politics, respectively.
SOURCE: Advertising Age, September 12, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3993
13. PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT’S LOBBYING CONTRACT REVEALED
www.pcij.org/stories/2005/chacha.html
In a report for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Malou Mangahas reveals that in late July 2005, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo entered into a $75,000 per month contract for lobbying services with Venable, a Washington D.C. law firm. The contract specifies that Venable’s work will include “securing grants and congressional earmarks for Charter change.” Mangahas notes that Venable will also lobby for “Philippines re-inclusion in the credit facilities of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, secure a Philippine credit ratings upgrade in the US Eximbank, ‘create a capability enhancement program for the Armed Forces’ and acquire up to $800 million in credit under the U.S. Defense Loan Guarantee program, and ‘achieve a similar upgrade program’ for the Philippine National Police.” The chairman of the Philippine Senate committee on ways and means, Senator Ralph Recto, defended the contract. “Lobbying is a necessity, not a luxury,” he told the Manila Standard Today.
SOURCE: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, September 13, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3990
14. AUSTRALIA DEPORTS U.S. PEACE ACTIVIST FOR ENCOURAGING “SPIRITED” PROTEST
www.smh.com.au/news/national/parkin-deported-to-us-fbi-says-hes-welcome/2005/09/15/1126377402578.html
While the Australian government has successfully deported U.S. peace activist Scott Parkin, the public backlash grows. A friend of Parkin’s, Iain Murray, told journalists, “There’s about as much evidence of Scott representing a threat as there’s been evidence found of weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq].” After citing “national security” grounds for the decision, a spokesman for Attorney General Phillip Ruddock told a journalist that while Parkin had peacefully protested the U.S. military contracting company Halliburton, he encouraged “spirited” protest action. The Age cited sources who said Parkin was being deported because he taught “techniques for preventing police from taking protesters away for arrest.” Former Australian Office of National Assessments analyst Andrew Wilkie said “if he was genuinely any sort of security threat, well they wouldn’t just send him out of the country, … he’d be charged.”
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, September 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3989
15. PAY-FOR-PLATE
www.gradethenews.org/2005/payola.htm The San Francisco Examiner and Independent “agreed Friday to label as advertising a regular restaurant news column the newspapers had used to reward advertisers and solicit ads from eating establishments.” Previously, ad salesperson George Habit had written food columns identified only as “special to the Examiner” or “Independent Newspapers.” Habit admitted, “I use the column as an initiative to get advertisers to run an ad. … We do favor the accounts that are advertisers. Even if the food is not good, the atmosphere is good. You can always find nice things to say about a restaurant.” That’s been true even for restaurants receiving multiple health-code violations, according to Grade the News. Habit said past editors had tried to end his column due to ethical concerns, but publishers “ruled in my favor” because “I’m responsible for over a half million dollars a year in advertising.”
SOURCE: Grade the News, September 13, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3988
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