SHARE US WITH A FRIEND (OR FIFTY FRIENDS)
Who do you know who might want to receive Spin of the Week?
Help us grow our subscriber list! Just forward this message to
people you know, encouraging them to sign up at this link:

www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS WEEK'S NEWS

1. Tobacco on Trial
2. Is There an Echo in Here?
3. Ballot Boxing in Iraq and Afghanistan
4. Pentagon: Anti-Flak Flacks Wanted
5. Taking the Bull By the Horns – and Stonewalling
6. US Panel Critical of Public Diplomacy Efforts
7. Telling the Media to MoveOn
8. Angry Seniors, Paid Doctors and the Lobbyists Who Love Them
9. What Are the Think Tanks Thinking?
10. Sugar Gets Sweet Spin
11. EPA Gags Staff
12. EPA: What's a Little Toxic Emission Among Friends?
13. Business Roundtable Pushes Kyoto Roundabout
14. Tobacco Industry Smoke and Mirrors On Trial
----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. TOBACCO ON TRIAL
www.tobacco-on-trial.com The news media have devoted scant coverage to the $280 billion federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against tobacco companies, but anti-tobacco activists are filling the gap with a weblog that offers blow-by-blow analysis of the trial and courtroom testimony.
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1096350133
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1096350133

2. IS THERE AN ECHO IN HERE?
thehill.com/news/09282004/debate.aspx “The Kerry campaign has enlisted congressional Democrats to play down expectations of the challenger's performance in the first presidential debate this Thursday, and then flood the airwaves with jubilant analysis that he has won it.” Kerry campaign officials asked press secretaries of Democratic members of Congress “to schedule their bosses on television and radio so that Democrats could create an 'echo chamber' where the sounding of pro-Kerry spin would create its own reality.” Aides were told that “the perception of a Kerry victory would be easier to achieve if post-debate analysis” focused on substance, not questions of style like “Bush's syntax or Kerry's demeanor.”
SOURCE: The Hill, September 28, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1096344000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1096344000

3. BALLOT BOXING IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101041004-702122,00.html U.S. lawmakers blocked a proposed “covert CIA operation to aid [Iraqi] candidates favored by Washington” – suggested because their opponents might have “covert backing from other countries, like Iran.” Leading up to Afghanistan's October 9 elections, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Zhalilzad stands accused of “pushing behind the scenes to ensure a convincing victory by the pro-American incumbent, President Hamid Zarzai.” Author Rahul Mahajan recaps the “well-documented history of 'managed' elections” in Afghanistan and Iraq. “Apparently, the Bush administration is happy with elections in places it controls … as long as there are no choices (when there are, as in Florida, strange things can happen).”
SOURCE: Time, September 27, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1096257602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1096257602

4. PENTAGON: ANTI-FLAK FLACKS WANTED
prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=222984&site=3 In addition to a “comprehensive PR and advertising push in Iraq,” the Pentagon is “requesting media support for its public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East.” The recipient of the new U.S. contract “will provide weekly reports on what is happening in the Arab media and what is said at Friday sermons delivered in Mosques throughout Iraq,” and “will be expected to 'research current adversaries,' consult on outreach strategy, and provide a two-person liaison team to foster communication between the State Department and the Pentagon.” Bids for the one-year contract were due September 13.
SOURCE: PR Week (reg. req'd.), September 27, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1096257601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1096257601

5. TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS – AND STONEWALLING
nytimes.com/2004/09/27/business/27regs.html?hp “After a case of mad cow disease surfaced in Washington State late last year, federal regulators vowed to move swiftly to adopt rules to reduce the risks of further problems. … But a few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration, after heavy lobbying from the beef and feed industries, took steps to delay – and … possibly kill” new animal feed regulations. Shortly after the FDA announcement, “the National Cattlemen's Beef Association broke its nonpartisan tradition and endorsed President Bush.” Regulatory delays are common before elections, but some say “the tightness in the polls and the strong industry ties to the White House” have worsened the trend this year.
SOURCE: New York Times, September 27, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1096257600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1096257600

6. US PANEL CRITICAL OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY EFFORTS
www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/09/25/us_panel_faults_outreach_to_muslims/ “US efforts to win over the world's Muslims via news broadcasts, cultural exchanges, and other initiatives to explain American policies to skeptical audiences abroad are uncoordinated and underfunded, and risk sending contradictory messages about US intentions, according to a report by a bipartisan review panel appointed by President Bush,” the Boston Globe writes. The 2004 Report of the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy writes that “public diplomacy should be a national security priority,” calling for increased funding and an “aggressive strategy” to counter the effects of international public opinion on the “success of American foreign policy objectives.”
SOURCE: September 25, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1096084800
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1096084800

7. TELLING THE MEDIA TO MOVEON
alternet.org/mediaculture/19980/ U.S. media “gives inordinate attention to fly-by-night groups with little evidence of real support. Why? Because these groups' sensational claims make for entertaining and easily produced news stories. The result is that a Swift Boats Veterans for Truth has greater impact on the national debate than long-established activist organizations,” writes the Center for Media and Democracy's Diane Farsetta. The “easy formula to influence a national election – scrounge together enough money to air a sensational ad a few times” relies on journalists' tendency to “marginalize real grassroots efforts … [and] focus on groups whose sole purpose is to introduce contrived controversies into political discourse.”
SOURCE: AlterNet, September 24, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095998401
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095998401

8. ANGRY SENIORS, PAID DOCTORS AND THE LOBBYISTS WHO LOVE THEM
online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109597844241026556,00.html?mod=health%5Fhs%5Fhealth%5Fproviders%5Finsurance “Seniors' anger and confusion as the Bush administration phases in the ambitious Medicare overhaul” may help Democratic candidates in November – unless an astroturf PR campaign succeeds. Noting that “a healthcare professional's opinion goes a long way in making a story seem more credible,” the Republican lobbying firm the DCI Group “is offering healthcare consultants $3750 plus expenses over six weeks to generate positive news stories about the drug card and offer support to Congress for voting for the Medicare law.” The DCI campaign is for RetireSafe, a project of the Council for Government Reform.
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095998400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095998400

9. WHAT ARE THE THINK TANKS THINKING?
releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=36804 Conservative think tanks, including the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, the Center for Security Policy, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Institute, are trying “to promote a shift away from oil, as the best guarantor of global security, prosperity and freedom.” “Set America Free,” the coalition's energy security plan, “calls for the U.S. to immediately introduce next-generation fuels and vehicles that use existing technologies,” “recommends popularizing existing hybrid electric vehicles,” and “suggests increasing use of fuel additives, electricity, alcohol fuels like ethanol and non-oil based diesel,” according to Oil Daily.
SOURCE: U.S. Newswire, September 23, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095912000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095912000

10. SUGAR GETS SWEET SPIN
www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=222977&site=3 “The Oldways Preservation Trust, which earlier this year held a conference in Italy to promote pasta, is organizing another journalists' confab, this time to discuss the virtues of sugar,” PR Week reports. “The trust … has secured the Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness, a Coca-Cola affiliated organization, as a sponsor for its Conference on Sweetness and Health in Mexico City. … Journalists are being offered free travel and accommodations, if their organizations permit, to attend the meeting. The conference will feature roughly 20 scientists plus chefs talking about the place of sweetness and sugar in proper diets. … The conference aims to diffuse concerns that sugary foods are a culprit in America's obesity epidemic.”
SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), September 22, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095825605
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095825605

11. EPA GAGS STAFF
www.peer.org/press/508.html The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has directed staff to “refrain from answeringî media calls in order to “prevent EPA management from being surprised by news coverage,î according to an agency memo obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The Mid-western region acting administrator Bharat Mathur told staff that in the interest of “open communication” and “shaping consistent messages” they were not to work with or talk to the press. “If you receive any request for information or an interview from a member of the media, you should refer the caller to [EPA's Office of Public Affairs],” Mathur wrote. “Please refrain from answering such inquires directly. OPA will determine the appropriate response – and who should respond – after consultation with program staff, and if necessary, after elevating issues for senior-level attention.” Inside EPA reports similar instructions being given to staff in the Mountain and Plains region. “EPA is instructing its employees not to discuss political issues with reporters, citing fears that such interactions could inappropriately characterize Bush administration policies just weeks before the November elections,” Inside EPA reports.
SOURCE: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, September 22, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095825604
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095825604

12. EPA: WHAT'S A LITTLE TOXIC EMISSION AMONG FRIENDS?
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39749-2004Sep21.html “For the third time, environmental advocates have discovered passages in the Bush administration's proposal for regulating mercury pollution from power plants that mirror almost word for word portions of memos written by a law firm representing coal-fired power plants.” The passages, in language from the Latham & Watkins firm, say the EPA will not regulate other toxins emitted by power plants (including lead, chromium and arsenic). According to Public Citizen and the Environmental Integrity Project, three former Latham & Watkins employees now work at the EPA, including the person “in charge of all air pollution policy” and “a leading architect of new air pollution regulations.”
SOURCE: Washington Post, September 22, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095825603
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095825603

13. BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE PUSHES KYOTO ROUNDABOUT
www.odwyerpr.com/members/0922globalwarming.htm The PR firm Porter Novelli is helping the Business Roundtable, an organization of U.S. corporate CEOs, promote its “Climate RESOLVE” program, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. Climate RESOLVE was created to encourage companies to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, responding to George W. Bush's call for a voluntary 18 percent reduction of emissions by 2012 and attempting to undermine an international treaty on GHG. The Climate RESOLVE campaign kicks off on Sept. 23 with ads in the Washington Post and Roll Call to be followed by “one-pagers” for “Congressional aides, environmental officials and reporters to keep them abreast of efforts to control greenhouse gas.” Climate RESOLVE is also hosting a two-day “GHG Management Workshop,” featuring a talk by White House Council on Environmental Quality chair James Connaughton. The Business Roundtable says 70 percent of its members have signed up for Climate RESOLVE. “They are eager to avoid the mandated cuts that are going into effect in much of the world under the Kyoto Protocol, the pending international treaty of global warming,” O'Dwyer's writes.
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, September 22, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095825602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095825602

14. TOBACCO INDUSTRY SMOKE AND MIRRORS ON TRIAL
www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38583-2004Sep21?language=printer “The most important type of story is that which casts doubt on the cause and effect theory of smoking and cancer,” read one internal Council for Tobaccco Research memo presented by the U.S. Justice Department on the first day of the largest civil racketeering trial brought by the government. “Public relations is key,” the memo continued, “to getting us out of this hole.” The tobacco industry is accused of conspiring to “deceive the public about the proven dangers of smoking to protect billions of dollars in profits the industry earned from cigarette sales.” Defendants in the suit are Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent, Altria Group Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., British American Tobacco Ltd., Lorillard Tobacco Co. and Liggett Group Inc. Two now-defunct tobacco industry organizations, the Council for Tobacco Research and the Tobacco Institute, are also being sued. The government claims the conspiracy began in the 1950s, when the industry began meeting to devise a strategy to undermine reports linking smoking and lung cancer. They ended up creating what Justice Department attorney Frank Marine called “one of the most elaborate public relations schemes in history.”
SOURCE: Washington Post, September 22, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at: www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1095825601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit: www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1095825601

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at the
Center for Media and Democracy. To subscribe or unsubcribe, visit:
www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html

Daily updates and news from past weeks can be found at the
Spin of the Day” section of the Center website:
www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html

Archives of our quarterly publication, PR Watch, are at:
www.prwatch.org/prwissues

PR Watch, Spin of the Day and the Weekly Spin are projects
of the Center for Media & Democracy, a nonprofit organization
that offers investigative reporting on the public relations
industry. We help the public recognize manipulative and
misleading PR practices by exposing the activities of
secretive, little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that
work to control political debates and public opinion.
Please send any questions or suggestions about our
publications to:
editor@prwatch.org

Contributions to the Center for Media and Democracy
are tax-deductible. Send checks to: CMD 520 University Ave. #227 Madison, WI 53703

To donate now online, visit:
https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0
_______________________________________________
Weekly-Spin mailing list
Weekly-Spin@prwatch.org
two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/weekly-spin