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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. How Green is Camouflage?
2. Bush Wins Earth Day Greenwashing Award (If There Were One)
3. A Bumper Crop of Government-Produced “News”: The USDA’s Broadcast Media and Technology Center
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Rules Enforced; Marketers Unhappy
2. Firm Opens New Blogistan Embassy
3. Living Off the Fat of the Land
4. Knowing Who Butters Their Bread
5. Defensive Reporting or Offensively Fake News?
6. Britain’s Nuclear Option
7. Terrorism’s Up, But Who’s Counting?
8. Pentagon Seeks New Information Warriors
9. Before Sunset
10. How to Fake Your Own Town Hall
11. Pouring Gas Money on Fire
12. They Want You for the New Recruit
13. Fleishman-Hillard’s Glass Half Empty
14. Scoundrels Denying Refuge
----------------------------------------------------------------------
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. HOW GREEN IS CAMOUFLAGE?
by Laura Miller The U.S. Army celebrated Earth Day this year with a special campaign called “Sustaining the Environment for a Secure Future.” The effort’s website features links to an Army Earth Day message, an Army Earth Day video promo, computer screen wallpaper, and a commemorative poster.
“We are a nation at war. The need to protect our homeland has never been clearer,” the Army’s message states. “The Army‚Äôs Strategy for the Environment establishes a long-range vision that focuses efforts that sustain our mission. For success in the global war on terrorism we must carry out our responsibilities for the long-term. The land, air, and water resources we work and train on are vital to both our present and future missions. We must use those resources wisely in a manner that reflects our devotion to duty and respect for the needs of tomorrow‚Äôs Soldiers.”
The Army’s message may be in response to last October’s budget cuts from environmental projects on military bases, a consequence of Iraq war funding priorities.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3620
2. BUSH WINS EARTH DAY GREENWASHING AWARD (IF THERE WERE ONE)
by John Stauber The greens are getting pounded politically, losing almost every national battle they fight, including the new energy bill. Today, on the 35th anniversary of Earth Day, they can’t even beat George Bush at the PR game.
Thirty-five years ago 20 million Americans demonstrated, rallied, teach-in’d, lobbied, danced and partied for a healthy, ecologically sound planet on the very first Earth Day. This unprecedented and massive grassroots mobilization was followed by a flurry of green political reforms (supported by many Republicans), from the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency to the first Environmental Impact Statements and the first national clean air and clean water laws. Now, even though surveys show enviromentalism is more widespread and popular than ever, with citizens donating hundreds of millions of dollars each year to Washington DC’s big green groups, the movement is a political basket case.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3616
3. A BUMPER CROP OF GOVERNMENT-PRODUCED “NEWS”: THE USDA’S BROADCAST MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER
by Diane Farsetta “Beef trade with Japan and Canada was on the minds of producers at the annual National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention in San Antonio, Texas,” a man’s voice intones, as the television news segment opens with a shot of a slowly rotating sign reading “U.S. Premium Beef.” The voice continues, “Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns addressed the gathering and afterward took questions from the media.” The two-minute news piece examines trade issues surrounding bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as BSE or mad cow disease. Since the December 2003 discovery of a BSE-infected cow in Washington state, Japan has banned U.S. beef. In the February 10, 2005 TV segment, recently-appointed Secretary Johanns says he is “anxious to continue the effort [to lobby Japan] and reopen the border.”
Beef trade between the United States and Canada has also been restricted – by the United States, this time – since the first BSE-infected Canadian cow was discovered in May 2003. The TV segment shows Johanns warning, with regard to U.S.-Canadian negotiations, “If we just tangle trade up in any way that isn’t based upon risk analysis and science and all of the things I’ve talked about, then where’s our protection with another country? Devastating trade is devastating to agriculture.”
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3610
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. RULES ENFORCED; MARKETERS UNHAPPY
Perhaps due to the Vioxx and teen antidepressant scandals, “the Food and Drug Administration is pelting drugmakers with letters warning that they have run afoul of promotional regulations.” Advertising Age writes that the FDA’s actions are “threatening to tip the $4 billion direct-to-consumer industry into a full-blown crisis.” The FDA has warned nine companies so far in 2005, compared to 12 in 2004 and five in 2003. “DTC ads account for nearly a third of the advertising on the major broadcast network’s nightly news programs,” notes AdAge. “This is not a crackdown, it’s enforcement,” said Thomas Abrams, the head of FDA’s Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communication. “We’re prepared to take whatever action necessary to stop misleading promotion.”
SOURCE: Advertising Age, April 25, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3628
2. FIRM OPENS NEW BLOGISTAN EMBASSY
www.idi.net/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=20872&PROACTIVE_ID=cecfcfc6cecccdcfc9c5cecfcfcfc5cecec8c8c9cdc9c8c8c9c5cf
Following similar interest from media moguls and PR firms, the consulting firm Issue Dynamics, Inc. “has launched a formal Blogger Relations Practice and a companion website, www.bloggerrelations.com.” According to its press release, IDI has already provided “blogger relations” services to “Fortune 50 corporations, national trade associations, advocacy groups and political party committees.” Journalist and blogger Dan Gillmor noted that, “as eWeek reported in February, a subsidiary of the firm issued a report denouncing municipal wireless installations without making clear that big telecom firms, which vehemently oppose municipal wireless systems, are among the firm’s chief funders. … Readers need to know who’s behind the opinions, so they can make better judgments about what – and whom – they can trust.”
SOURCE: Issue Dynamics, Inc. press release, April 26, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3627
3. LIVING OFF THE FAT OF THE LAND
msnbc.msn.com/id/7633701/
The Center for Consumer Freedom, an industry-funded front group, launched a $600,000 ad campaign decrying the “hype” around obesity. CCF’s Mike Burita, who admitted that restaurant chains “are predominant sources of funding for us,” said the group hopes the ads will put “pressure on the leadership of the CDC.” A recent Centers for Disease Control study estimated 25,814 annual obesity-related deaths in the United States, down from earlier estimates of 365,000. “The science around computing mortality associated with obesity is still evolving,” said a CDC spokesperson, adding that the two estimates “really can’t” be compared. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that food industry lobbyists are “putting a full-court press on state legislatures and Congress to stop lawsuits that claim plaintiffs’ weight problems are linked to the food they ate at a particular restaurant.” These so-called “cheeseburger bills” have been enacted in 16 states, with 26 more considering similar measures.
SOURCE: Reuters, April 26, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3626
4. KNOWING WHO BUTTERS THEIR BREAD
www.prweek.com/news/news_worldwire.cfm?ID=237507&site=3
The Federal Communications Commission’s warning that broadcasters should disclose the origin of some video news releases (VNRs) has the fake news business in a lather. Kevin Foley, the president of KEF Media, told PR Week that “the government has no business sticking its nose into news or communications as we practice it here … The FCC has no jurisdiction over news and news content.” Richard Edelman, the president and CEO of the PR company Edelman, conceded that disclosing government VNRs “in some way” was reasonable. However, Edelman draws the line at labeling corporate VNRs, the bulk of those produced. “I do not believe in the need for government to put a black box on any VNR that’s produced for a company,” he said.
SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req’d.) April 25, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3625
5. DEFENSIVE REPORTING OR OFFENSIVELY FAKE NEWS?
www.csmonitor.com/2005/0425/p11s01-usmi.html
“When the government creates a cable channel that reminds viewers of a news network, down to the live Pentagon briefings and interviews with Washington big shots, is it a form of propaganda or just a savvy way to communicate with the troops?” the Christian Science Monitor asks, about the Pentagon Channel. Launched last May with $6 million in taxpayer funds, the Pentagon Channel is broadcast on military bases, public cable and the Internet. While “military-sponsored news reports are hardly anything new,” the Pentagon Channel is widely available, “ostensibly so reservists and military families can watch it.” Senior producer Scott Howe says, “We are an advocate of the Department of Defense and its voice. We obviously don’t air speculation out in the civilian media that questions what the department is doing or its motives.” To communications professor Ralph Begleiter, “They’re not journalists. They’re salesmen.”
SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, April 25, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3624
6. BRITAIN’S NUCLEAR OPTION
news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=632254
The British government “is drawing up secret plans to create a new generation of nuclear power stations.” However, “Tony Blair wants to avoid discussing the issue until after the election,” scheduled for May 5. A “senior insider” said of a committee studying the potential role of nuclear energy in addressing global warming, “They are carefully framing the questions to get the answer they want.” The Observer reports, “Two of Britain’s most senior scientific experts yesterday denounced government ministers for favouring PR spin over serious scientific advice when dealing with nuclear waste disposal.” Professor David Ball and Keith Baverstock say the government’s Committee on Radioactive Waste Management “wasted 17 months pretending to consult the public” on such improbable scenarios as burying nuclear waste under ice or launching it into space. “It is barking mad to consider nuclear power as part of a sustainable energy policy,” said a Green Party spokesperson.
SOURCE: The Independent, April 23, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3623
7. TERRORISM’S UP, BUT WHO’S COUNTING?
www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11407689.htm
For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. government will not be publishing Patterns of Global Terrorism, a Congressionally-mandated report from the U.S. Department of State intended to provide a full and complete record of countries and groups involved in international terrorism. Last year, the Bush administration was embarrassed when the report tallied 175 significant terrorist attacks – the highest number in two decades, contradicting the administration’s claim that it is winning the war on terrorism. According to U.S. intelligence officials, this year’s numbers are far worse – 625 attacks, or nearly four times the amount of last year’s embarrassment. In a State Department briefing, spokesman Richard Boucher said the department plans to issue a different report, with the statistics omitted. The numbers would be released someday, Boucher said, but “I don’t know when.”
SOURCE: Knight Ridder, April 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3621
8. PENTAGON SEEKS NEW INFORMATION WARRIORS
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0422stratcom.htm
U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) is “fostering competition” for a “lucrative contract to analyze foreign media coverage and handle strategic communications for its operations and the so-called global war on terrorism,” reports O’Dwyer’s. The work involves tracking “media in broadcast, print and online in Arabic, Urdu Pashtu” and other languages, as well as “building databases of key communicators and media outlets, analyzing the perception of U.S. actions and communication, and identifying vulnerabilities.” The contract requires the PR firm to provide staff “on a 24/7 schedule during critical periods.” The secretive Rendon Group, “the Pentagon’s go-to firm for military PR,” currently holds the $8.2 million contract, which 56 of its employees work on. STRATCOM hopes to award the new contract this summer.
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (sub. req’d.), April 22, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3618
9. BEFORE SUNSET
www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7265052?
A little-noticed proposal in the 2,000 page federal budget “would give the president the power to appoint an eight-member panel called the ‘Sunset Commission.’” The commission would “review federal programs every ten years and decide whether they should be eliminated. Any programs that are not ‘producing results,’ in the eyes of the commission, would ‘automatically terminate unless the Congress took action.’” Even the Environmental Protection Agency or Food and Drug Administration could be axed, on a “simple vote of five commissioners” – not a high bar, since many commissioners would likely be “lobbyists and executives from major corporations.” The Sunset Commission is the brainchild of Clay Johnson, who’s already “helped place industry champions … throughout the government.” It was first mentioned publicly by the ExxonMobil-funded think tank, the Mercatus Center.
SOURCE: Rolling Stone, May 5, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3617
10. HOW TO FAKE YOUR OWN TOWN HALL
www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.jhtml?reposid=/multimedia/tds/bee/bee_10052.html
Once again, a parody news segment on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” is offering better journalism than much of what you’ll find coming from “real” newsrooms. CC’s Samantha Bee interviews Republican media strategist Frank Luntz for advice on how to create her own fake town hall meetings, like the ones that President Bush has been using to promote his Social security privatization scheme. “A real town hall can be very dangerous if it gets out of control,” Luntz explains. “A town hall where the speaker cannot command the respect and the control of the audience can look very bad on television. … To me the most important component of a successful town hall is the visual, is the backdrop.” And the audience itself is part of the backdrop, Luntz explains as he reviews footage from an actual Bush town hall video: “There he’s got an African-American, he’s got an Asian, there’s your female he’s got. It’s one of everybody. It’s almost like the rainbow wedding line.”
SOURCE: Comedy Central, April 19, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3614
11. POURING GAS MONEY ON FIRE
www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html
“No company appears to be working harder to support those who debunk global warming” than ExxonMobil, writes Chris Mooney. “Some 40 ExxonMobil-funded organizations … have sought to undermine mainstream scientific findings on global climate change or have maintained affiliations with a small group of ‘skeptic’ scientists who continue to do so.” From 2000 to 2003, ExxonMobil gave $8.7 million to such SourceWatch favorites as the American Council on Science and Health, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Capital Research Center, Heartland Institute, International Policy Network, Mercatus Center, National Center for Public Policy Research, Tech Central Station, and groups associated with Steve Milloy (the full list is here). As an American Petroleum Institute memo stated, “Victory will be achieved when … recognition of uncertainty [about global warming] becomes part of the ‘conventional wisdom.’”
SOURCE: Mother Jones, May / June 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3609
12. THEY WANT YOU FOR THE NEW RECRUIT
prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=237469&site=3
In an “uncharacteristically aggressive recruitment effort,” the U.S. Army National Guard is launching a new campaign, called “The American Soldier.” The campaign includes “sending eight mobile information and recruitment centers (with another 12 in production) to sporting events and shopping malls across the country, increasing direct mailings to three times annually, and signing a sponsorship deal with NASCAR driver Greg Biffle,” reports PR Week. “The days when someone would see an ad and then go to a recruitment office may be gone,” said Lt. Col. Mike Jones. The Guard is also widening its target audience beyond high school students, to “college, junior college and vocational-technical school students.” The Guard’s 2005 marketing budget is $38 million, though “an additional $26 million will be asked for through supplemental requests,” according to Jones.
SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req’d.), April 20, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3608
13. FLEISHMAN-HILLARD’S GLASS HALF EMPTY
news.findlaw.com/ap/f/66/04-20-2005/06b500092ae20d07.html
Fleishman-Hillard “agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle a lawsuit” brought against it by the city of Los Angeles, which claimed the firm “defrauded city departments by inflating monthly bills.” The firm will pay $5.5 million to the Department of Water and Power, the main contract in question, with the remainder going to city agencies “that oversee the airports, harbor and visitors bureau.” Fleishman-Hillard wanted to avoid “damage to its reputation and business in the event of a trial.” An internal memo obtained by PR Week stated, “This is a significant payment, substantially more than the amount of questioned billing, but our firm’s reputation for honesty and integrity is a vital business asset.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, April 20, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3607
14. SCOUNDRELS DENYING REFUGE
news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=631196
“Despite conducting a high-profile campaign calling for tough controls on immigration,” the British Conservative Party is “using a company employing low-paid foreigners to distribute campaign literature,” reports The Independent. Across the pond, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested at the Newspaper Association of America’s annual meeting, “Close the borders in California and all across Mexico and in the United States.” A spokesperson later said the governor supports “greater security,” not border closure. On April 23, right-wing talk radio hosts, including Blanquita Cullum, Roger Hedgecock and Melanie Morgan, also of Move America Forward, will travel to Washington, DC. The event, called “Hold Their Feet to the Fire,” will support “legislation that would strengthen our borders and keep illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses.”
SOURCE: The Independent, April 20, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3606
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