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THIS WEEK’S NEWS
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Moonie Walk
2. Think Tank’s Water Bank Rankles
3. TV Watch Takes On Conservative TV Watchers
4. Porter Novelli Touts Trade Group’s Soda Vending Policy
5. Immigrating Opinion for the White House
6. Compassionate Conservatives Conserve Cooperatively
7. Conflict of Special Interests
8. Spinning the Money Markets
9. Solid SLAPP Misses Target
10. Clarke Under Pressure to Quit British American Tobacco
11. Diebolder, California Style
12. Transparency Haunts PR Firms Selling Corporate Social Responsibility
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== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. MOONIE WALK
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050465
“Two weeks after The Washington Post pulled its co-sponsorship of a controversial Pentagon-organized march to commemorate Sept. 11, The Washington Times has offered to take its place,” reports Editor & Publisher. The Washington Times’ offer of free advertising is “a very reasonable thing to do in terms of public service,” said general manager and vice-president Dick Amberg. Defense Department officials “have not responded to the offer, and it is unclear if it will be accepted.” In explaining its decision to pull out of the America Supports You “Freedom Walk,” which includes a concert by Clint Black, the country musician who wrote the pro-war song “Iraq and I Roll,” The Washington Post said its policy is to “avoid activities that might lead readers to question the objectivity of The Post’s news coverage.”
SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, August 29, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3955
2. THINK TANK’S WATER BANK RANKLES
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4197854.stm
“UK ministers have been accused of spending British aid money on a public relations campaign to promote water privatisation in Sierra Leone,” reports BBC News. Vicky Cann, of the organization World Development Movement, criticized the British Department for International Development (DfID), saying, “In the poorest country of the world, which is still recovering from a decade long bitter civil war, DfID is not only going to pay international consultants to advise on how to privatise water … but they will also pay for a propaganda campaign to run alongside it to counter public resistance.” The eight firms under consideration for the contract include Adam Smith International, “a consultancy arm of the free-market thinktank,” and PricewaterhouseCoopers, reports the Guardian. In May, a similar water privatization scheme in Tanzania that DfID paid Adam Smith International £273,000 to promote collapsed “after the contractor, Biwater, was asked to leave by the government.”
SOURCE: BBC News, August 30, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3954
3. TV WATCH TAKES ON CONSERVATIVE TV WATCHERS
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/082105dnnattvcouncil.2d65397.html
Tired of being picked on by religious media watchdog groups, big media is fighting back with its own advocacy group. NBC Universal, Viacom and News Corp. have launched the group TV Watch to “advocate parental controls and oppose government intervention” into TV programming, the Dallas Morning News reports. TV Watch, “an unusual mix of corporations, creative types and conservative, free-market proponents,” will go head-to-head with Brent Bozell’s conservative Parents Television Council. Several media companies, Americans for Tax Reform and the Creative Coalition have provided seed money for TV Watch, whose executive director, Jim Dyke, is a former communications director for the Republican National Committee.
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News, August 21, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3951
4. PORTER NOVELLI TOUTS TRADE GROUP’S SODA VENDING POLICY
www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240429&site=3
“Soda industry touts school ban to quiet obesity critics,” reads the PR Week headline on a story outlining the soft-drink industry’s latest defensive move in response to national concerns about childhood obesity. PR giant Porter Novelli is working with the American Beverage Association to promote the trade group’s recently announced school vending policy. The voluntary code recommends some limits on the sale of sugary carbonated beverages in schools, but still allows for sales of juices and sports drinks. According to PR Week, Porter Novelli “will assist [ABA] in talking about the new policy with educators, parents, legislators, regulators, and other groups interested in school nutrition issues.” The group has already run full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today publicizing its new policy. Porter Novelli also worked on developing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Guide Pyramid.
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req’d), August 29, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3950
5. IMMIGRATING OPINION FOR THE WHITE HOUSE
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aPRFG5iI3gmk&refer=latin_america
“Republican lobbyists including Ed Gillespie, the party’s former national chairman, and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, are seeking to raise money for a public relations-campaign of as much as $3 million” to support President Bush’s immigration plan. The firm Quinn Gillespie Associates “is working with the White House” to build a coalition of business and Congressional leaders, called “Americans for Border and Economic Security.” The coalition will use “earned and paid media as well as grassroots communications” to emphasize the economic benefits of immigrant workers, reported PR Week. But “some of America’s biggest companies” aren’t supporting the campaign, because the details of Bush’s plan are unknown. A Wal-Mart lobbyist said, “We are still uncertain what the policy is that the group will advocate for. Will it be only whatever the White House wants, or will it be independent policy goals formed by the members of the group?”
SOURCE: Bloomberg, August 29, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3949
6. COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVES CONSERVE COOPERATIVELY
www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/29/agencies_seek_conservation_partners/
At “the first presidential conference on the environment in 40 years,” opening on August 29 in St. Louis, Bush administration officials will promote “cooperative conservation.” Jim Connaughton of the White House Council on Environmental Quality says “cooperative conservation” supports local, private conservation while reducing “some of the expansive machinery of government that can sometimes get in the way.” Examples include a partnership between the Nature Conservancy and the Pentagon. Nature Conservancy president Steven McCormick calls it “a tremendous opportunity,” since “there are more endangered species on military facilities than on any other federal lands.” This year, for the first time ever, Congress appropriated $12.5 million for similar environmental-military partnerships. Environmental Defense lawyer Michael Bean warns the initiative will “de-emphasize the regulations.” The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Wesley Warren dismisses “cooperative conservation” as “just another name for voluntary partnership. … It’s not enough.”
SOURCE: Associated Press, August 29, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3948
7. CONFLICT OF SPECIAL INTERESTS
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/27/AR2005082701067.html
The scandal around indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and PR executive Michael Scanlon now includes former Deputy Interior Secretary-turned-consultant J. Steven Griles and his friend Italia Federici, who heads the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. Emails from late 2002 show Abramoff and Federici urged Griles to block a proposed casino that would compete with Abramoff’s client’s casino. Abramoff wrote Federici, “This is the casino we discussed with Steve and he said that it would not happen. … The way to stop it is for Interior to say they are not satisfied with the environmental impact report.” Months later, the project was stalled for just that reason. In 2003, Abramoff reportedly said “he was trying to arrange for his firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP, to hire” Griles. A federal task force is investigating potential violations, including that Griles might have been negotiating “for a job while being involved in decisions affecting the potential employer.”
SOURCE: Washington Post, August 28, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3947
8. SPINNING THE MONEY MARKETS
afr.com/premium/articles/2005/08/26/1124563023107.html
In a two-part series on Australian corporate PR, an investment banker explained that investor relations campaigns are carefully planned. “At morning conference calls, there’s always a lot of talk on which journalist is a softer touch and who will be more favourably disposed and who has particular relationships with the other side,” an investment banker said. The spokesman for one large corporation explained that they used external PR consultants for “media management of senior commentators. These guys talk to commentators about 10 projects a night and it is not necessarily evident who they are working for … The use of an independent third party allows you to manage that relationship better or get a discussion going to ease the tension. The consultants say it in their own language and it doesn’t sound like spin from the company,” he told Jennifer Hewett for the second article.
SOURCE: Australian Financial Review, August 26 & 27, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3946
9. SOLID SLAPP MISSES TARGET
www.forestandbird.org.nz/mediarelease/2005/0826_environmentcourtsecostsdismissal.asp
An application by a New Zealand government-owned coal mining company, Solid Energy, for $NZ379,342 in witness costs and legal expenses against two environmental groups has been dismissed. Forest and Bird and the Buller Conservation Group (BCG) had argued before the Environment Court against approval for a new open-cut coal mine. While the Court approved the project, it dismissed the company’s costs claim. Forest and Bird’s Regional Conservation Officer, Eugenie Sage, said the company “was trying to punish Forest and Bird and BCG for daring to oppose the mine. This was clearly a strategic law suit against public participation SLAPP.” Meanwhile, the conservative opposition National Party has promised to restart the logging of rainforests on public land if it wins office in the mid-September general election. A contributing factor to the National Party losing office in 1999 were revelations of a covert PR campaign by Shandwick for the government owned logging company, Timberlands.
SOURCE: Forest and Bird, August 26, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3945
10. CLARKE UNDER PRESSURE TO QUIT BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO
politics.guardian.co.uk/columnist/story/0,9321,1554571,00.html
Kenneth Clarke, a British Conservative Party leadership aspirant, is resisting calls to resign as non-executive deputy chairman of British American Tobacco (BAT) and chair of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee. Clarke’s supporters have suggested he would resign the roles only if elected leader. The Observer reports that a BAT document from 2000 states “the process [of CSR] will not only help BAT achieve a position of recognised responsibility, but also provide ‘air cover’ from criticism while improvements are being made.” Writing in the Guardian, George Monbiot argues that while not suggesting that Clarke had done anything illegal or in breach of the criminal code, he shouldn’t be able to duck responsibility for BAT activities. “It seems to me that in a fair world – a world in which human life was valued by our legislators – he would not now be contemplating the leadership of Her Majesty’s opposition. He would be behind bars,” Monbiot wrote.
SOURCE: The Guardian, August 23, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3944
11. DIEBOLDER, CALIFORNIA STYLE
prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240402&site=3
“Diebold Election Systems (DES) has hired Ogilvy PR to burnish the company’s image and the benefits of electronic voting in California,” reports PR Week. The state decertified one of DES’ e-voting machines last year, and now the company wants to ensure that their “story is told” and that voters “understand the technology,” said Ogilvy’s Michael Law, who heads DES’ California work. Ogilvy is researching public perceptions of DES and developing messages “about the ease of electronic voting, particularly for voters who do not speak English, as well as for handicapped voters.” O’Dwyer’s reports that DES’ California PR is part of a national campaign headed by former Democratic National Committee chair Joe Andrew. Andrew has been praised for his “grassroots organizing” and “golden rolodex” of CEOs and labor leaders. Other PR firms DES has employed include Public Strategies and Compliance Research Group.
SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req’d.), August 25, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3943
12. TRANSPARENCY HAUNTS PR FIRMS SELLING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=3852
In a review of the role of PR firms in corporate social responsibility programs, Lisa Roner writes that “many early efforts to communicate on corporate responsibility have been high on production value and low on substance.” Citing examples such as Hill & Knowlton’s role in the first Gulf War and the more recent overbilling controversy that engulfed Fleishman-Hillard over its contracts with a Los Angeles government agency, Roner argues that PR companies have image problems of their own. “It appears PR firms may have to clean up their own ethics, since many corporate buyers seem to believe that a messenger with internal issues of its own may not be best placed to deliver a credible message,” she concludes.
SOURCE: Ethical Corporation, August 24, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/3942
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