THE WEEKLY SPIN, July 25, 2007 Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:09:05 -0500 (CDT) THE WEEKLY SPIN, JULY 25, 2007 == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. CMD's "Breakfast with the Troops" at Yearly Kos Features Iraq Veterans Against the War 2. Pro-War PR Front, Move America Forward, Caravanning to DC == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. New Participatory Project: Following Rupert Murdoch's Money Trail == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. Logging Lobbyist Joins Politicians Pulp Mills Tour 2. Terrorism Hype Backfires 3. Bush's Concern for the Poor Shines Through on Cigarette Tax 4. Al Qaeda's Propaganda Machine 5. The UK's Spin Army 6. Blocking the Sunshine 7. Rebranding the Pentagon 8. Stranger Than Fiction: Major Health Groups Support Philip Morris? -------------------------------------------------------------------- == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. CMD'S "BREAKFAST WITH THE TROOPS" AT YEARLY KOS FEATURES IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR by John Stauber The Center for Media and Democracy is sponsoring a "Breakfast with the Troops" in Chicago on Sunday, August 5, 9 a.m. at the Yearly Kos extravaganza in the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. Join Sheldon Rampton and me for coffee, pastries and a moderated discussion of how online activists can better support our troops in their own resistance to the war in Iraq. We'll be discussing the war with Garett Reppenhagen, Aaron Hughes and other soldiers who are the backbone of Iraq Veterans Against the War, IVAW. To read the rest of this item, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6282 2. PRO-WAR PR FRONT, MOVE AMERICA FORWARD, CARAVANNING TO DC by John Stauber The pro-war front group Move America Forward has announced that it will caravan across the United States September 3 - 17 on a trip to DC to lobby for the war in Iraq. Move America Forward (MAF) was formed in 2004 by Howard Kaloogian and Melanie Morgan, a talk show host at KSFO 560 AM in San Francisco. MAF is organized through the public relations firm Russo Marsh & Rogers, which has strong ties to the Republican Party. To read the rest of this item, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6270 == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. NEW PARTICIPATORY PROJECT: FOLLOWING RUPERT MURDOCH'S MONEY TRAIL http://www.prwatch.org/node/6289 Some of the major shareholders of the Dow Jones company, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, are agonizing over whether to accept a takeover bid from Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate, News Corporation. With steady traffic to the Murdoch-related articles in SourceWatch, it would be good to include details of the donations he and his companies have made to U.S. politicians. To do this you can go to the Opensecrets.org website and search on Rupert Murdoch, check the box "search all cycles" and add the data in date order here. The results of searches on News Corporation, News America Publishing and the Fox Broadcasting Company can be added here. If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can go to www.SourceWatch.org for more information. SOURCE: Sourcewatch article on Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. LOGGING LOBBYIST JOINS POLITICIANS PULP MILLS TOUR http://www.prwatch.org/node/6288 Tasmanian logging: Source: The Wilderness SocietyA lobbyist for the Australian forestry company Gunns will travel with a delegation of Tasmanian politicians visiting pulp mills in Brazil, Chile and Finland. Gunns is seeking to overcome strong community opposition to its proposed $A1.7 billion pulp mill and win legislative support from the members of Tasmania's upper house. Tony Fletcher, a lobbyist for Gunns and a former member of the upper house, will accompany the delegation of seven politicians on their two-week long trip. One of the members of the delegation, Paul Harriss, told Mercury reporter Sue Neales that he "made contact with Tony Fletcher and asked him if Gunns could do the groundwork and provide entry to the pulp mills for us ... When our preliminary inquiries at the three (pulp mills) we had chosen uncovered that you couldn't just rock up and have a look around, we asked Gunns to help." SOURCE: The Mercury (Australia), July 25, 2007 2. TERRORISM HYPE BACKFIRES http://www.prwatch.org/node/6287 The detention and subsequent charging of an Indian-born doctor, Mohamed Haneef, under draconian anti-terrorism laws has turned into a PR nightmare for the Australian government. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged Haneef with providing support to a terrorist organization, claiming that he had provided a mobile phone SIM card to a relative who had it with him when he recently crashed his car into Glasgow airport terminal. The AFP subsequently conceded that the SIM card was with another relative hundreds of kilometers away at the time of the airport attack. Subsequently, Rupert Murdoch-owned News Limited publications claimed, based on anonymous government and police sources, that the AFP were investigating the possibility that Haneef's holiday photos of a beachside apartment tower were gathered as part of a "conspiracy to launch a terror attack in Australia". AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty subsequently issued a statement that "there has been significant misreporting on many aspects of this case." SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, July 23, 2007 3. BUSH'S CONCERN FOR THE POOR SHINES THROUGH ON CIGARETTE TAX http://www.prwatch.org/node/6284 The Senate Committee on Finance by a vote of 17-4 last Friday approved a hike in the federal cigarette tax to expand health insurance coverage for children from low-income families, but President Bush has vowed to veto the measure. Defending Bush's position, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a July 17 letter to Committee members that "the proposed legislation would increase taxes on low-income taxpayers as a way to fund health coverage for low-income individuals." The argument that a cigarette tax is a disproportionate tax on the poor literally comes out of Philip Morris' playbook. The argument appears on Page 14 of PM's 1992 "Great American Smoker's Manual", a publication PM created to arm pro-tobacco forces with arguments to fight public health policies it doesn't like, like cigarette taxes, clean indoor air laws and advertising restrictions. The Bush Administration's extensive ties to the tobacco industry make suspect the Administration's sudden apparent concern for the poor. Also unmentioned is the fact that paying a cigarette tax is completely optional, unlike taxes on gasoline, clothing or property. SOURCE: Houston Chronicle/AP, July 17, 2007 4. AL QAEDA'S PROPAGANDA MACHINE http://www.prwatch.org/node/6279 ONE OF DOZENS OF AS SAHAB VIDEOS AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE. "Al Qaeda propaganda outlets have been working at a high rate over the past year, with frequent and timely broadcasts from the group's No. 2, the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri," report Dan Murphy and Jill Carroll. Evan Kohlmann, an author who tracks the propaganda efforts of Al Qaeda and other jihadi groups, says the increased media output reflects better technology, a more secure position, and competition from other jihadi groups. "When the Al Qaeda media wing, known as As Sahab, became active at the end of 2005, it might have been worried that producing too many videos would lead to capture," write Murphy and Carroll. When that didn't happen, "they were encouraged to produce more of them, in addition to outsourcing the distribution and improving their technological savvy. Sahab has released at least 63 audio and video messages so far this year, compared with 58 in 2006, according to the Associated Press. In many of those, Mr. Zawahiri has been able to respond to the news events within days, getting his group's perspective on radical Islamic websites." SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, July 16, 2007 5. THE UK'S SPIN ARMY http://www.prwatch.org/node/6278 A "Defense Communications Strategy" developed for the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) notes that the UK is spending millions of pounds on more than 1,000 spin doctors to improve the public image of the armed forces. However, the report states that it cannot "measure the impact of our communications effort both internally and externally" and admits, "Operations in Iraq are not supported by the majority of the public and operations in Afghanistan are supported by only a narrow majority." To improve the military's image, the report recommends "creating a steady stream of positive stories which directly promote the MoD and forces' reputation, but also helps to offset the inevitable bad stories." SOURCE: Telegraph (UK), July 23, 2007 6. BLOCKING THE SUNSHINE http://www.prwatch.org/node/6277 A recent study by the National Security Archive of George Washington University finds that U.S. government agencies are stalling on public requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act. Five U.S. agencies -- the State Department, the C.I.A., the criminal division of the Justice Department, the Air Force and the F.B.I. -- are still sitting on unanswered information requests from more than 15 years ago. "It can get pretty silly," observes the New York Times: "In 2002, the National Zoo in Washington denied a request for the medical records of Ryma the giraffe because, it said, the release would violate the animal's privacy rights." The U.S. Senate has been considering legislation that would make it harder for government agencies to dodge compliance, but the bill has been blocked from further consideration through a "secret hold" imposed by Senator Jon Kyl. SOURCE: National Security Archive 7. REBRANDING THE PENTAGON http://www.prwatch.org/node/6273 A recent marketing study commissioned by the U.S. military concludes that its "show of force" brand has limited appeal to Iraqi consumers. The 211-page, $400,000 study was written by psychologist Todd C. Helmus and is titled "Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation." Instead of the "force" brand, the study argues that a more effective brand might have been "We will help you." According to Duane Schattle, whose urban operations office at the Joint Forces Command ordered the study, the purpose was to find "something we can learn from Madison Avenue or from the marketers, the best in the world, that might help us when we're trying to deliver a message about what democracy is." SOURCE: Washington Post, July 21, 2007 8. STRANGER THAN FICTION: MAJOR HEALTH GROUPS SUPPORT PHILIP MORRIS? http://www.prwatch.org/node/6271 Mr. ButtsMichael Siegel, a public health physician at Boston University School of Public Health, has written a strong critique of several major health groups that normally claim to oppose Big Tobacco -- The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Lung Association, American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association. Siegel finds it strange that they have opposed amendments to proposed legislation giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory power over cigarettes. The amendments that the health groups oppose would allow the FDA to remove the nicotine from cigarettes, prohibit the use of menthol and clove as primary flavorings in cigarettes, and increase the size and strength of cigarette warning labels. Opposition by these health groups would greatly benefit Philip Morris, who recently introduced a clove-flavored version of Marlboro in Indonesia. The American Association of Public Health Physicians has taken a strong position against the overall FDA tobacco bill, saying that the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids secretly negotiated with Philip Morris behind the scenes to devise FDA regulations that would improve PM's image without actually diminishing sales. SOURCE: TobaccoAnalysis.blogspot.com, July 19, 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. Please send any questions or suggestions about our publications to editor@prwatch.org. To subscribe to the Weekly Spin, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/sub CMD also sponsors SourceWatch, a collaborative research project that invites anyone (including you) to contribute and edit articles. For more information, visit: http://www.sourcewatch.org Contributions to the Center for Media and Democracy are tax-deductible. To donate now online, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/donate Don't want to receive this email? 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