THE WEEKLY SPIN, April 25, 2007 Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:55:42 -0500 (CDT) THE WEEKLY SPIN, APRIL 25, 2007 == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. New Participatory Project: Help Track PR Firms on SourceWatch == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. Welcome to the new HTML version of the Weekly Spin! 2. Nigerian Power Politics in Washington DC 3. The Long War Is Over 4. Nuclear Industry Pins Hopes on Subsidies 5. Iraqi Kurds Seek U.S. Influence, Get Pro-War Help 6. A True History of Fake News 7. Jim Sims Flacks for "Clean Coal" 8. Investigating the First Casualty of War, in Afghanistan and Iraq 9. Spin Doctor Claims Greenwashing Is Dying 10. Blair Staff to Exit via Revolving Door 11. Just What Iraq Needs: More U.S. Propaganda -------------------------------------------------------------------- == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. NEW PARTICIPATORY PROJECT: HELP TRACK PR FIRMS ON SOURCEWATCH http://www.prwatch.org/node/5987 Exposing the activities and ethical shortcomings of public relations firms has been a focus of the Center for Media and Democracy's work since its founding in 1993. Now you can help, via our online collaborative encyclopedia, SourceWatch! The SourceWatch article on public relations firms links to entries on more than 200 PR firms. The trade publication O'Dwyer's maintains a list of the top-grossing U.S. independent PR firms, at www.odwyerpr.com/pr_firm_rankings/independents.htm. Can you help us track these PR firms, by adding the 2006 income and employee figures from O'Dwyer's to the SourceWatch entry on that firm? And, if O'Dwyer's lists a firm that's not already in SourceWatch, could you create a short "stub" article on it (with the PR firm's name, O'Dwyer's info, the firm's website URL or other contact information)? Thanks for joining the CMD truth squad! SOURCE: Public relations firms on SourceWatch == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. WELCOME TO THE NEW HTML VERSION OF THE WEEKLY SPIN! http://www.prwatch.org/node/5988 We hope you find it easy to read and even more informative thanks to live links within the spin items. (If you are not receiving this as an html message, your personal mail program may be set to only receive text messages.) You'll notice a few changes. To go to the original item on www.PRWatch.org, click the hyperlinked headline. You can also scan down the list of items on the right side and get to the full text quickly and easily by clicking on the title. If you have any questions or comments about the new format, please email CMD at editorATprwatch.org (replace "AT" with @) You'll also notice the debut of the new CMD logo! We thank Designer Jeanne Gomoll and CMD's own IT Director, Patricia Barden, for their work on it. SOURCE: 2. NIGERIAN POWER POLITICS IN WASHINGTON DC http://www.prwatch.org/node/5986 Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar may have lost his bid to become president (though Nigeria's recent elections were "marred by violence and alleged fraud, and results are not yet final"), but it's not for lack of trying. To increase his influence, Abubakar maintains a Washington DC lobbying presence "separate from the embassy, costing him roughly $200,000 over several years," reports The Hill. Abubakar retains Edward Weidenfeld for legal counsel and "support for free and fair elections in Nigeria," according to lobbying registration forms. Weidenfeld, in turn, hired the PR firm Hill & Knowlton "to work on Abubakar's behalf. The firm has taken in more than $22,000 to work on 'U.S. media relations.'" Abubakar previously retained former Rep. J.C. Watts' lobbying firm, and briefly had a contract with Alexander Strategy Group. In addition to fighting for power in Nigeria, Abubakar is fighting allegations that he received "a $90,000 bribe from Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), who is under investigation by the FBI. ... Abubakar and Jefferson were allegedly working on establishing telecom contracts in Nigeria." SOURCE: The Hill, April 24, 2007 3. THE LONG WAR IS OVER http://www.prwatch.org/node/5985 The term "Long War" has been used by the Bush administration to steel the U.S. public for a protracted War on Terror. The war might be around for a while, but the phrase won't, at least not at U.S. Central Command. Originally used by Gen. John P. Abizaid, his successor, Adm. William J. Fallon "quietly retired the phrase," according to journalist Michael R. Gordon. The change "is a product of our ongoing effort to use language that describes the conflict for our Western audience while understanding the cultural implications of how that language is construed in the Middle East," Lt. Col. Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for the command, said in an e-mail message. "The idea that we are going to be involved in a 'Long War,' at the current level of operations, is not likely and unhelpful." Whether the White House will follow the lead of Central Command is not sure. Gordon writes that a White House official, who declined to be identified, said, "This is a generational war, and we are going to be in it a long time. Nobody I have heard around here is talking about dropping it." SOURCE: New York Times, April 24, 2007 4. NUCLEAR INDUSTRY PINS HOPES ON SUBSIDIES http://www.prwatch.org/node/5983 Around the world there are consultants, PR advisers and industry associations hyping nuclear power as a "solution" to global warming. However, they rarely mention the hidden costs. In a recent briefing for Wall Street analysts, the major U.S. trade association, the Nuclear Energy Institute, pointed to the need for government financial support such as loan guarantees to sustain the sector (PDF file). There are other subsidies, too. Paul Anthony, the CEO of the Australian electricity and gas retailer AGL Energy, pointed to two reasons why he thinks he'll never see nuclear power stations in his home country. "Nuclear power stations are uninsurable," he told Alan Kohler, the host of Inside Business, "so the insurer of last resort in all countries has to be the government." Nor, he said, has any country "effectively sorted out the long-term tail-end costs of holding redundant nuclear stations for the next 300 years." SOURCE: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, April 22, 2007 5. IRAQI KURDS SEEK U.S. INFLUENCE, GET PRO-WAR HELP http://www.prwatch.org/node/5982 "In the past year, the [Iraqi] Kurds have spent more than $3 million to retain lobbyists and set up a diplomatic office in Washington," writes Rajiv Chandrasekaran. "They are cultivating grass-roots supporters of President Bush's war policy," including through the PR firm Russo Marsh & Rogers and its pro-war project, Move America Forward, as was reported previously by the Center for Media and Democracy. "And they are seeking to build an emotional bond with ordinary Americans ... by running commercials on national cable news outlets." In Washington, the Kurdish Regional Government is represented by Qubad Talabani, the son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Qubad "has more clout than any other Iraqi in Washington because of his ability to call his father," and because Iraqi Kurds hold "enough seats in Iraq's parliament to wield effective veto power over ... legislation sought by the United States." The Kurds retain Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, and credit the lobbying firm with winning $1.4 billion in "oil-for-food money" for the Kurdish Regional Government. Future plans include running "The Other Iraq" TV commercials "on prime-time network television." SOURCE: Washington Post, April 23, 2007 6. A TRUE HISTORY OF FAKE NEWS http://www.prwatch.org/node/5981 Jon Stewart's parody news show may make him "the most trusted name in fake news," but these days it "comes at us from every quarter of the media," writes journalism professor Robert Love -- "not just as satire but disguised as the real thing, secretly paid for by folks who want to remain in the shadows. And though much of it is clever, it's not all funny." Love recounts some of the memorable frauds that have filled newspaper pages in the past: the New York Sun's Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Mark Twain's "petrified man," and H.L. Mencken's fabricated 75th anniversary of the bathtub. More recently, he notes, video news releases and pundits-for-hire like Armstrong Williams have ushered in an era where new technologies make it "easier to deliver the news and also easier to fake it," while "falling circulation, diminishing news budgets, and dismantled staffs" have given "third-party players -- government, industry, politicians, you name 'em -- sleeker weapons and greater power to turn the authority of the press to their own ends: to disseminate propaganda, disinformation, advertising, politically strategic misinformation -- to in effect use the media to distort reality." SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2007 7. JIM SIMS FLACKS FOR "CLEAN COAL" http://www.prwatch.org/node/5979 At the "Utah Energy Summit," Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer called for more federal money to develop "clean coal" as an alternative to petroleum and a solution to global warming. As David Roberts notes, the summit organizer is Jim Sims of Policy Communications, "a long-time lobbyist for extractive industries" and the head of front groups such as Partnership for the West and the Save Our Species Alliance, "an astroturf organization created for the purpose of convincing the public to accept the gutting of the Endangered Species Act. ... Remember: despite the new moniker, clean coal is coal, a fossil fuel backed by a fossil fuel industry. It's the same Big Coal with deep ties in state and federal government and a long history of corruption. It's an industry that's spent practically a century entrenching itself and fighting off competitors. It founded the 20-year campaign of obfuscation and denial on global warming. Now it's selling 'alternative energy.'" SOURCE: Grist, April 17, 2007 8. INVESTIGATING THE FIRST CASUALTY OF WAR, IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ http://www.prwatch.org/node/5978 "Within hours of Pat Tillman's death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman's uniform," reports Scott Lindlaw. The revelations about "how the military sealed off information from all but a small ring of soldiers," following the death of former football star Tillman by "friendly fire," come from documents recently obtained by the Associated Press. Tillman's family was not told of the circumstances surrounding his death for five weeks. According to Army officers, "pulling the plug on base phones and e-mail" is routine after soldiers die, to ensure that families are notified "through official channels." However, the clampdown following Tillman's death was unusual. On April 24, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing on the Tillman incident and "misinformation surrounding the capture and rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch in Iraq." SOURCE: Associated Press, April 20, 2007 9. SPIN DOCTOR CLAIMS GREENWASHING IS DYING http://www.prwatch.org/node/5976 E. Bruce Harrison, who began his PR career by helping the pesticide industry attack Rachel Carson and her classic 1962 environmental book "Silent Spring," now proclaims that the era of corporate greenwashing is almost over. In an opinion column, he writes that greenwashing in the 1990's "meant the company was painting over bad stuff with good words. It meant corporate communicators were not to be trusted when they talked green." That doesn't happen today, Harrison claims, pointing to the willingness of groups like Environmental Defense to cut deals with corporations such as McDonald's, TXU and Wal-Mart Stores. He optimistically (or perhaps strategically) writes, "We've reached the place where 'greenwashing' charges no longer hold very much water." However, even Harrison was quick to attach a caveat to his sweeping proclamations. "BP has become the don't-let-it-happen-to-us exemplar, where years of progressive green messaging are hollowed by evidence and events to the contrary," he conceded. SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), April 19, 2007 10. BLAIR STAFF TO EXIT VIA REVOLVING DOOR http://www.prwatch.org/node/5974 With British Prime Minister Tony Blair expected to retire from politics in the next few weeks, some of his staff are already jumping ship. In August, Blair's former adviser on strategic communications, Julia Simpson, will begin work as head of corporate communications with British Airways. In doing so, Simpson is following a well-worn path, reports PR Week. "In 2001, Anji Hunter famously left Downing Street to take up BP's director of comms role. More recently, key Blairites to jump ship include Darren Murphy, now head of government B-relations and external affairs at AstraZeneca and Jim Godfrey, now head of corporate affairs at ITV." Fleishman-Hillard director Nick Brown believes that Blair's staff will be in great demand among PR circles. "Anyone who has senior B-experience of this type of problem solving in politics, in the media and in the spotlight will attract interest," he said. SOURCE: PR Week, April 18, 2007 11. JUST WHAT IRAQ NEEDS: MORE U.S. PROPAGANDA http://www.prwatch.org/node/5973 Gen. David Petraeus, "the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has asked for changes that would allow" the blending of public affairs -- the military's truth-telling function -- with "information operations," or propaganda. In response, Pentagon officials are reconsidering 2004 guidelines drafted by Gen. Richard Myers, which directed that the two be separate. (However, the Lincoln Group's covert planting of U.S. military-written articles in Iraqi newspapers occurred under the Myers guidelines.) "Many brigades in Iraq already have placed public affairs and information officers in adjoining offices," reports Julian Barnes. A "senior military official close to Petraeus" said the two "should work out of the same planning cell," to ensure that they do not "work at cross purposes." The official added that the military's credibility would not be undermined by such blurring, because "public affairs officers will not be involved in deception operations." Skeptics point to a 2004 incident where a Marine public affairs officer told CNN that a U.S. assault on Fallouja, Iraq, had started, three weeks prior to the actual operation, in order "to gauge the reaction of insurgents." O'Dwyer's reports that the U.S. Army command in Iraq is seeking a PR firm for a new $11 to 25 million contract, "to produce a marketing campaign for its electrical sector reconstruction unit, based in Baghdad." SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, April 18, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to further information about media, political spin and propaganda. It is emailed free each Wednesday to subscribers. PR Watch, Spin of the Day, the Weekly Spin and SourceWatch 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. 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