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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. USAID in Indonesia: Expecting Waves of Gratitude
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Try On Our Falsies, Today!
2. Mexico to U.S.: Tear Down This Wall!
3. You Don’t Deserve Labor Rights Today
4. Clear Channel Declares Moral Bankruptcy in Wisconsin
5. The Not-So-Sunshine State
6. Just Because You’re Paranoid, Don’t Mean They’re Not After You
7. Cutouts Speak Out
8. Fake Op/Eds: Think Tanks and Piggy Banks
9. As the Smoke Clears, Philip Morris Ruling Questioned
10. I Wouldn’t Kick Him Out of Embed
11. Where’s the Fire?
12. PR Problem for Big Business
13. Spinning Russia
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. USAID IN INDONESIA: EXPECTING WAVES OF GRATITUDE
by Diane Farsetta
In September 2005, long-time Bush confidante Karen Hughes started her new job as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Her first official week of work was admittedly ambitious — a “listening tour” of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
At each stop, carefully selected audiences comprised of students on U.S.-funded scholarships, women professionals, and others deemed “safe” nonetheless deviated from the intended script, asking Hughes challenging questions and openly criticizing her answers. Commentators panned Hughes’ performance as “blundering,” and a “preachy and culturally insensitive … superficial PR blitz.” The one high-profile opinion piece praising Hughes, published by USA Today, was written “at the State Department’s invitation” and followed Hughes’ special briefing of the author, Geoffrey Cowan, the dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.
On her next major trip, to Indonesia in late October, Hughes didn’t fare much better. The students invited to talk with her at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta called the United States “two-faced” and “unfair.” Referring to the U.S. war on Iraq, one student asked Hughes, “Who’s the terrorists?” Another challenged, “Why does America always act as if they are the policeman of the world?” Again, Hughes’ responses were deemed inadequate by both audience members and outside observers.
Hughes’ credibility was further undermined when she told the Indonesian students (and, hours later, repeated to a group of journalists) that Saddam Hussein had gassed hundreds of thousands of people. State Department officials later clarified that Hughes had confused the estimated total number of Iraqi deaths during Hussein’s 24-year rule — 300,000 — with the 5,000 civilians killed in the 1988 attack on the city of Halabja.
Given her record so far, it may be comforting to note that Karen Hughes’ overseas junkets are just one facet of the U.S. government’s non-military attempts to combat terrorism and bolster its image worldwide. But are other approaches — primarily through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), but also including the Peace Corps, foreign embassies and other State Department programs — any more effective? A review of U.S. outreach to Indonesia, the Southeast Asian island nation with the world’s largest Muslim population, suggests mixed results at best.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4304
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. TRY ON OUR FALSIES, TODAY!
www.prwatch.org/survey/public/survey.php?name=falsies2005_copy
Have you taken the Center for Media and Democracy’s 2005 “Falsies Survey” yet? If not, please take a minute to do so today – the survey closes this Friday! We’re relying on you to help us identify the people and players most responsible for polluting our information environment over the last year. Does Karen Hughes deserve a gold Falsies Award? What about Wal-Mart? Or video news releases? And if we’ve missed one of the worst spinners of 2005, you can also nominate people, industry groups, think tanks, PR firms, or other propagandists. We want to know what you think, so please vote today! We’ll announce the winners of the 2005 Falsies Awards on January 2.
SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy, December 21, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4315
2. MEXICO TO U.S.: TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!
www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3328406
Following the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of an immigration bill that would, among other things, extend walls along the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexico is fighting back. “Mexico is not going to bear, it is not going to permit and it will not allow a stupid thing like this wall,” said Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretary. The Mexican government hired the Texas-based PR firm Allyn & Company and is encouraging “U.S. church, community and business groups to oppose the proposal.” O’Dwyer’s PR Daily reports that the head of the firm, Rob Allyn, “developed advertising for Bush’s campaigns for governor and the presidency,” and was “a top advisor for Mexican President Vicente Fox’s successful campaign” in 2001. The firm has also worked for Wal-Mart and XM Satellite Radio. The Mexican government hopes Allyn & Company will “improve its image and stem the immigration backlash.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, December 21, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4314
3. YOU DON’T DESERVE LABOR RIGHTS TODAY
alternet.org/story/29832/
After its protests “forced Taco Bell to pay tomato pickers a penny more per pound,” the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) started “pressuring McDonald’s for a similar agreement.” Instead, McDonald’s joined the “Socially Accountable Farm Employer (SAFE) voluntary certification program.” Launched in November 2005, SAFE is run by board members of the industry group Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association and an association grantee, the Redlands Christian Migrant Association. SAFE is represented by CBR Public Relations, one of McDonald’s PR firms, which specializes in “activist response management.” Intertek, a firm that “already performs safety audits for McDonald’s,” will evaluate SAFE members’ compliance. SAFE “does not include any input from workers,” “does little to address low wages,” and “does not guarantee workers overtime pay or the right to organize.” A CIW organizer said McDonald’s joined SAFE “to protect their public image in place of making a change in our lives.”
SOURCE: AlterNet / The NewStandard, December 20, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4309
4. CLEAR CHANNEL DECLARES MORAL BANKRUPTCY IN WISCONSIN
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121402225.html
“Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio stations in Madison, Wis., and Milwaukee” are naming their newsrooms after corporate sponsors. “Starting in January, the news on WIBA-AM in Madison will deliver its report from the Amcore Bank News Center. … About two years ago, WISN-AM in Milwaukee introduced listeners to its newscast from the PyraMax Bank News Center.” The sponsorships are not exclusive and “will not impose strictures on the broadcasts.” But a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute said such arrangements create “the perception that the newsroom is for sale to the highest bidder.” The Social of Professional Journalists’ president asked, “How can you not wonder if a story about Amcore is told as tenaciously as a story about another bank might be?” The banks’ news sponsorships come a year after revelations that 280 financial institutions used subsidiaries in other states to avoid paying Wisconsin state taxes.
SOURCE: Washington Post, December 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4308
5. THE NOT-SO-SUNSHINE STATE
www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/state/epaper/2005/12/19/c1a_whistle_1219.html
“The monitoring of pesticide use in Florida has become make-believe. It is Disney-esque,” said Alex Simons, a former environmental specialist for Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Simons said decisions were “politicized” and decided by officials “in close contact with [pesticide] companies.” Tom Greenhalgh, a former water contamination investigator for Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), blamed state officials “who basically worked for DuPont and the other chemical companies.” Greenhalgh added, “There is a lot of ground water in Florida contaminated by pesticides,” but “studies never get published.” Another former DEP employee, Theodore McDowell, testified under oath that there were “100 or so” times he was asked to “make statements that [he] believed to be false,” in order to downplay “environmental damage … caused by chemicals.” When a meeting was held to address growing concerns in late 1995 or early 1996, a deputy sheriff told the specialists their meeting was illegal, ending it.
SOURCE: Palm Beach Post (Florida), December 19, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4307
6. JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE PARANOID, DON’T MEAN THEY’RE NOT AFTER YOU
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/politics/20fbi.html
“This administration has engaged every possible agency, from the Pentagon to the (National Security Agency) to the F.B.I., to engage in spying on Americans,” said an American Civil Liberties Union legal director. The ACLU released more than 2,300 pages of heavily censored FBI documents, on agency “surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief.” The documents mention surveillance of an Indianapolis “Vegan Community Project,” describe Catholic Workers as having a “semi-communistic ideology,” and seek information on llama fur protests by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. An FBI spokesperson said the agency “does not target individuals or organizations … based on their political beliefs.” Earl Ofari Hutchinson wonders “why anyone is shocked that President Bush eavesdropped on Americans.” Since its founding, the NSA has monitored “Muslim extremists, Communists, peace activists, black radicals, civil rights leaders, and drug peddlers,” he writes.
SOURCE: New York Times, December 20, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4306
7. CUTOUTS SPEAK OUT
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-infowar18dec18,0,1826110.story
“U.S. military officials in Iraq were fully aware that a Pentagon contractor regularly paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive stories about the war, and made it clear that none of the stories should be traced to the United States, according to several current and former employees of Lincoln Group,” report Mark Mazzetti and Kevin Sack. Military officials have claimed that they didn’t know what the Lincoln Group was up to, but leaked documents and company employees say otherwise. “In clandestine parlance, Lincoln Group was a ‘cutout’ – a third party – that would provide the military with plausible deniability,” said a former Lincoln Group employee. “To attribute products to [the military] would defeat the entire purpose. Hence, no product by Lincoln Group ever said ‘Made in the U.S.A.’” Another employee said that Lincoln’s $20 million, two-month contract in Iraq had them doing work that was largely ineffective. “It’s a total waste of money,” said another former Lincoln employee. “Every Iraqi can read right through it.”
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4302
8. FAKE OP/EDS: THINK TANKS AND PIGGY BANKS
www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/dec2005/nf20051216_1037_db016.htm
Two opinion columnists and fellows at conservative think tanks have admitted to taking money from indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to write favorable columns about his clients. The Cato Institute’s Doug Bandow, who had a syndicated column with Copley News Service, “accepted money from Abramoff for writing between 12 and 24 articles over a period of years, beginning in the mid ‘90s.” Bandow resigned from Cato, and his column has been suspended. The Institute for Policy Innovation’s Peter Ferrara also wrote “pay for play” columns for Abramoff, but, unlike Bandow, he isn’t remorseful. “I’ve done it in the past, and I’ll do it in the future,” Ferrara said. Ferrara’s boss also says the arrangement isn’t “wrong or unethical.” None of the columns contained any disclosure. BusinessWeek noted that the columns “provided a seemingly independent validation of the arguments the Abramoff team were using to try to sway Congressional action.”
SOURCE: BusinessWeek, December 16, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4298
9. AS THE SMOKE CLEARS, PHILIP MORRIS RULING QUESTIONED
www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0512160121dec16,1,2628001.story?coll=chi-business-hed
On December 15, the Illinois Supreme Court threw out a $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris and its parent company, Altria Group, saying they did not mislead consumers when advertising “light” cigarettes. The Chicago Tribune reports that Philip Morris’ lawyers “contributed $16,800 to help elect a judge who cast a deciding vote” in the case. Judge Lloyd Karmeier “also received $1.2 million in campaign money from a group that filed an amicus brief supporting the cigarette-maker.” The Illinois Chamber of Commerce, “which also filed an amicus brief in support of Philip Morris, contributed $269,338" to Karmeier’s campaign. Yet Karmeier did not recuse himself. The court’s press secretary said Karmeier “has tried to insulate himself from knowing the identities of campaign contributors and would not allow campaign contributions to have any effect on his ruling in this or any other case.”
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, December 16, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4297
10. I WOULDN’T KICK HIM OUT OF EMBED
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001699490
The U.S. Coalition Forces Land Component Command in Kuwait pulled the credentials of two embedded journalists from the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Virginia, reportedly for publishing a picture of a bullet-ridden Humvee parked in a Kuwaiti camp. Military officials said the picture violated embed rules, although “the journalists had been escorted by military personnel to a compound where the vehicles were located.” The president of the organization Military Reporters and Editors protested the decision. “Our job is not to be stooges of the administration or the Pentagon and be complicit in their attempt to manage the news,” he said. “We are here to tell our readers about the war.” The group plans to urge the Pentagon to review its embed rules next year.
SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, December 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4296
11. WHERE’S THE FIRE?
www.newsobserver.com/102/story/378594.html
Durham, North Carolina’s local ABC television affiliate “has been staging fire, foul weather and other news events across Durham this week, shooting advertisements for its news operations that not only put its Eyewitness News team at contrived scenes but also have taxpayers footing the bill for on-duty firefighters and other emergency workers to give the ads a realistic flair.” The city fire chief said the ads weren’t “a waste of taxpayers’ money,” because the spots are “promoting what the Fire Department does,” using “air time the city doesn’t have to pay for.” He added, “If we needed them for a call, we could have called them and they would have been out of there fast.” A University of North Carolina journalism professor asked, “If the president can do it, why can’t the local news station?” He added, “From an advertising view, people stage all sorts of stuff.”
SOURCE: The News & Observer (North Carolina), December 16, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4295
12. PR PROBLEM FOR BIG BUSINESS
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/business/09backlash.html
“More than ever, Americans do not trust business or the people who run it,” reports Claudia H. Deutsch. “Pollsters, researchers, even many corporate chiefs themselves say that business is under attack by a majority of the public, which believes that executives are bent on destroying the environment, cooking the books and lining their own pockets.” Deutsch cites polls from Roper and Harris, in which 72 percent of respondents feel that wrongdoing is widespread in industry, only 2 percent regard the executives of large companies as “very trustworthy,” and 90 percent say big companies have too much influence on government.
SOURCE: New York Times, December 9, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4291
13. SPINNING RUSSIA
www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3311
“It’s no secret that Moscow has an image problem. When Russian President Vladimir Putin makes headlines, it’s usually for jailing a businessman or cracking down on dissent,” writes Julian Evans. Convinced that its image problem is due to anti-Russian “Western media bias,” the Kremlin is trying to curry favor with foreign correspondents and has built its own English-language TV channel, Russia Today. “With a staff of 300 journalists, including around 70 imported from abroad, the channel will offer ‘global news from a Russian perspective,’” Evans writes. “The Kremlin has spent $30 million setting it up and has attracted foreign journalists to Moscow with salaries starting at $60,000 a year. But the imported journalists are, in many cases, fresh out of journalism school, know not a word of Russian, and lack basic knowledge of Russian politics or history. For many of them, the experience is a bit of a laugh, a gap year at the Kremlin’s expense. There is already some tension between them and the Russian employees, who know 10 times as much about Russia, and are paid salaries half as big.”
SOURCE: Foreign Policy, December 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4290
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