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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Coke’s PR Connects Canada and Colombia
2. ‘Hearts and Minds’: U.S. Wins Some, Loses Some
3. A Cancer Risk Conveniently Lost in Translation
4. Iraq Information Operations Increase
5. Chalabi Unites Iraq
6. The Unseen Hand of the Marketplace of Ideas
7. Rent-a-Researcher
8. From Geeky Kid to Iraq’s Rich Fake News Flack
9. U.S. Launches Sell Job for Mad Cow-Suspect Beef in Japan
10. ‘Bye to Hi,’ U.S Middle East Propaganda Failure
11. Americans Oppose Fake News in Iraq
12. Pat Boone and Wal-Mart: Ain’t That a Shame
13. It’s Easy Being Green (washed)
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== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. COKE’S PR CONNECTS CANADA AND COLOMBIA
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051227.wcoca1227/BNStory/National/
After students at two Canadian universities, McMaster and the University of Guelph, voted down campus exclusivity deals with Coca-Cola, “the world’s largest soft-drink company has launched a counter-offensive in hopes of heading off further boycotts.” In December, Coke reps visited McMaster and the University of British Columbia. One Coke PR coordinator stressed that “these boycotts are actually affecting workers in the local area” and said allegations that the company is complicit in human rights violations in Colombia are false. Coke’s PR manager in Colombia, Pablo Largacha Escallon, also took part in the Canadian tour. “There is a humanitarian crisis in Colombia, but [student activists] have made it a Coca-Cola-centric thing when it’s a Colombia-centric thing,” he said. Coke has also “recently hired a labour-relations director and plans to issue a human-rights policy next year.” Twenty North American campuses are now “Coke free,” but “hundreds more could follow suit soon in England.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, December 27, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4331
2. ‘HEARTS AND MINDS’: U.S. WINS SOME, LOSES SOME
news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051217/pl_afp/asiaquake1yearus_051217040539
Wall Street Journal editorial board member Bret Stephens writes that U.S. assistance to Pakistan following the devastating October 8 earthquake is “one of America’s most significant hearts-and-minds successes so far in the Muslim world. … The Chinook has become America’s new emblem in Pakistan, a byword for salvation in an area where until recently the U.S. was widely and fanatically detested.” But the secretary general of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, “the highest Islamic authority in the world’s most populous Muslim nation,” said U.S. aid following last year’s tsunami has not improved America’s standing there. “The Muslim perception is very much dependent on American foreign policy in the Muslim world, not only in Aceh but also in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan,” he told AFP. The director of a Sri Lankan think tank agreed, but faulted Washington. “There was no visible campaign to carry [initial praise from aid efforts] forward,” he said.
SOURCE: Agence France-Presse, December 17, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4330
3. A CANCER RISK CONVENIENTLY LOST IN TRANSLATION
online.wsj.com/article/SB113530126572230084.html
A groundbreaking public health study by Chinese doctor Zhang JianDong in 1987 was used by U.S. regulatory agencies “as evidence that a form of” the chemical chromium “might cause cancer.” Ten years later, “a ‘clarification and further analysis’ published under his name in a U.S. medical journal said there was no cancer link to chromium.” But “Dr. Zhang didn’t write the clarification” – it was “conceived, drafted, edited and submitted to medical journals by” ChemRisk, a firm hired by PG&E, “a utility company being sued for alleged chromium pollution” by California residents. ChemRisk was previously paid $7 million to help “save industry hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs for chromium pollution in New Jersey.” ChemRisk claims Dr. Zhang signed off on the “clarification,” but records show the final version was not translated into Chinese for his review. Dr. Zhang died in 1999, but his son said, “It’s impossible that he would have overthrown” his earlier work linking chromium and cancer.
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4329
4. IRAQ INFORMATION OPERATIONS INCREASE
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/25/AR2005122500659_pf.html
“The military has paid money to try to place favorable coverage on television stations in three Iraqi cities.” The military gave one station “about $35,000 in equipment,” is “building a new facility for $300,000,” and pays $1000 to $2400 a month “for a weekly program that focuses positively on U.S. efforts.” An Army National Guard commander confirmed his officers “suggest” stories for the weekly program and review it, before it is aired. The payments are not disclosed to viewers. At least two bloggers have been embedded with U.S. military units; Michael Yon with the Army in Mosul and Bill Roggio (who was credentialed by the American Enterprise Institute) with the Marines in Anbar province. Insurgent propaganda has included “rifle-toting guerrillas” in Ramadi telling reporters “to publish accounts claiming the city had been taken over,” and “erroneous tips from insurgents to reporters,” including video purporting to be of a December 3 attack in Fallujah.
SOURCE: Washington Post, December 26, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4328
5. CHALABI UNITES IRAQ
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10575121
Iraqi voters may not agree on much, but 99.5 percent of them agreed not to vote for Ahmed Chalabi in the country’s December 15 election. Once hailed by U.S. neoconservatives as the “George Washington of Iraq,” Chalabi’s humiliating defeat at the polls makes him something of an embarrasment now. “The election results in Iraq may present Chalabi’s ardent U.S. supporters with a quandary: Chalabi, as well as other losing candidates, is alleging fraud in the election, even though the Bush administration hailed the vote as a historic step for democracy in Iraq,” reports Aram Roston.
SOURCE: MSNBC, December 22, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4327
6. THE UNSEEN HAND OF THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/23/politics/23lobby.html
“Susan Finston of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a conservative research group based in Texas, is just the sort of opinion maker coveted by the drug industry,” writes Philip Shenon. “In an opinion article in The Financial Times on Oct. 25, she called for patent protection in poor countries for drugs and biotechnology products. In an article last month in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal, she called for efforts to block developing nations from violating patents on AIDS medicines and other drugs. Both articles identified her as a ‘research associate’ at the institute. Neither mentioned that, as recently as August, Ms. Finston was registered as a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry’s trade group. Nor was there mention of her work this fall in creating the American Bioindustry Alliance, a group underwritten largely by drug companies.”
SOURCE: New York Times, December 23, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4326
7. RENT-A-RESEARCHER
www.slate.com/id/2133061/fr/rss/
“Earlier this month,” writes Jennifer Washburn, “Sheffield University in Britain offered $252,000 to one of its senior medical professors, Aubrey Blumsohn. According to a copy of a proposed settlement released by Blumsohn, the university promised to pay him if he would agree to leave his post and not make ‘any detrimental or derogatory statements’ about Sheffield or its employees. For several years, Blumsohn had been complaining of scientific misconduct. His concerns primarily revolved around a $250,000 research contract between Sheffield and the Ohio-based Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. Blumsohn claimed that the company had denied him access to key data and then tried to ghostwrite his analysis of it.” Worse still, the university acted as an enforcer for the company in its efforts to conceal data and manipulate research conclusions.
SOURCE: Slate, December 22, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4325
8. FROM GEEKY KID TO IRAQ’S RICH FAKE NEWS FLACK
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1958479,00.html
The Times Online reports, “The transformation of the geeky but ambitious Christian Martin Jozefowicz, who just a few years ago was growing up in a modest terraced house in Godalming, Surrey, to the charming, baby-faced multimillionaire Christian Bailey now rubbing shoulders with some of the most powerful figures in Washington – and who next year will probably face questions on Capitol Hill about his company – is one of the more extraordinary stories to have emerged from the Iraq war. This month it was revealed that Mr Bailey’s US company, the Lincoln Group, was the recipient of a Pentagon contract to help to fight the information war in Iraq. It then emerged that the company was paying Iraqi journalists to plant optimistic news ‘stories’ in Iraqi papers that had been written by the US military.”
SOURCE: Times Online, December 24, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4324
9. U.S. LAUNCHES SELL JOB FOR MAD COW-SUSPECT BEEF IN JAPAN
www.usmef.org/TradeLibrary/News05_1222a.asp
Japan recently lifted the ban it placed on U.S. beef after the 2003 discovery of mad cow disease in America. This prion disease has killed more than 150 people worldwide and is spread among cattle by feeding them slaughterhouse waste byproducts. Yet the U.S. livestock industry continues this lucrative practice, and the U.S. government refuses to institute food safety testing of beef. The New York Times quotes CMD’s John Stauber, co-author of Mad Cow USA, saying, “From the standpoint of human and animal safety this is a disastrous decision by the Japanese. They have taken a huge step backward.” The U.S. Meat Export Federation has launched a PR campaign to win back Japanese consumers, who surveys show do not trust U.S. beef. The campaign includes “advertisements, trade shows, town hall educational meetings and endorsements from Japanese who eat U.S. beef.” For example, White Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi “credits power to launch his 1,000 career hits and score 14 home runs in his rookie season to U.S. beef.”
SOURCE: U.S. Meat Export Federation news release, December 22, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4323
10. ‘BYE TO HI,’ U.S MIDDLE EAST PROPAGANDA FAILURE
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/
Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1135291812612&call_pageid=968
“The U.S. State Department announced yesterday it was suspending publication of Hi Magazine, its glossy, monthly attempt to win the hearts and minds of young Arabs, part of a communications troika it established following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. … The magazine had been derided by commentators in the Arab world as ‘schlock’’ or ‘brainwashing’’ and one had dubbed it the CIA’s official publication. The decision to suspend publication was made by Karen Hughes, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy … The U.S. government has been spending $4.5 million (U.S.) annually since July 2003, trying to bring its own particular take on American life to a target Arab demographic aged 18-35. Along with Al Hurra TV and Radio Sawa, Hi was a three-pronged $62 million (U.S.) annual effort to counter anti-Americanism in countries such as Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and others.”
SOURCE: Toronto Star, December 23, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4321
11. AMERICANS OPPOSE FAKE NEWS IN IRAQ
www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-22-poll-propaganda_x.htm
“Almost three-quarters of Americans think it was wrong for the Pentagon to pay Iraqi newspapers to publish news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows. USA TODAY reported earlier this month that the Pentagon plans to expand beyond Iraq an anti-terrorism public relations campaign that has included secret payments to Iraqi journalists and publications who printed stories favorable to the USA. … The global program will be part of a five-year public relations campaign costing up to $300 million. The poll shows that most Americans don’t approve of such programs. Of the 1,003 people surveyed Dec. 16-18, 72% said it would be inappropriate for the U.S. military to secretly pay Iraqi media to publish stories favorable to the USA. And almost two-thirds said such payments would bother them a ‘fair amount’ or a ‘great deal.’ “ The Pentagon has used the Lincoln Group to plant fake news in Iraq.
SOURCE: USA Today, December 22, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4320
12. PAT BOONE AND WAL-MART: AIN’T THAT A SHAME
www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/140371/
Working Families for Wal-Mart, a new nonprofit group “partly funded by the Bentonville-based retail giant,” has “a mission to support Wal-Mart Stores Inc.” and “famously wholesome singer Pat Boone” as a member. Working Families is getting media help from The Herald Group, a PR firm established by “three DC PR execs, including two Bush Administration officials,” according to O’Dwyer’s. The firm identified Bishop Ira Combs Jr. as Working Families’ leader. Bishop Combs said, “Some friends I worked with on the 2004 Bush campaign phoned me and asked me if I knew about any good things Wal-Mart was doing in my community. I said Wal-Mart is supplying jobs that may not pay a union wage but they pay twice the minimum wage. They asked me if I would be part of this group.” Another Working Families member, former Marine Captain Courtney Lynch, “estimated that her consulting firm got 7 percent of its revenue from Wal-Mart this year.”
SOURCE: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 22, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4319
13. IT’S EASY BEING GREEN (WASHED)
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/business/22adco.html
The New York Times notes that corporations including Ford, Exxon Mobil, BP, General Electric and Alcan “appear to be spending ever-bigger chunks of their advertising budgets to promote” what critics call greenwashing. New ad campaigns from WPP, Omnicom Group, and Interpublic Group tout corporate “environmental do-goodism.” “Oil companies, under attack for reaping windfall profits from soaring fuel prices, are trying to position themselves as part of the solution to energy problems rather than the cause. Manufacturers of fuel-efficient automobiles, jet engines or other green products are recognizing that they can burnish their image even as they promote their products. And companies in all industries are trying to make socially conscious investors and customers comfortable about buying their products and shares.”
SOURCE: New York Times, December 22, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/4317
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