THE WEEKLY SPIN, August 22, 2007 Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:37:47 -0500 (CDT) THE WEEKLY SPIN, August 22, 2007 == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. Hill & Knowlton's 50 Year Fudge 2. Iraq: The "Gift"? That Keeps On Bleeding 3. The Untold Story of How & Why Philip Morris is Pushing for FDA Regulation == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. GM Goodies Result in Radio Mentions, FCC Complaint 2. Big-Spending Drug Industry Defenders 3. When Drug Industry Flacks Attack 4. Edelman Reps Diebold's Not-So-Amicable Split 5. Spinning Wikipedia 6. Brother, Can You Spare $3 Million for "Strategic Communication"? 7. American Legion and VFW Launch Pro-War Lobby & PR Campaigns 8. Petraeus as Puppet 9. Journalism's New Economics -------------------------------------------------------------------- == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. HILL & KNOWLTON'S 50 YEAR FUDGE by Bob Burton Some PR executives take citizens for complete idiots. Almost three weeks ago a local branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME) called on the University of California to dump the giant PR firm Hill & Knowlton (H&K). In a letter to the university, AFSCME and other groups pointed to H&K's work for the tobacco industry, its attack on research pointing to the impact of exposure to lead on children, and its work for "some of the worst human rights abusing states in the world." In a statement emailed to the trade publication PR Week, H&K's Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Thorne claimed that the union's criticism "is directed to work done more than 50 years ago. While we disagree that H&K ever was engaged in any improper conduct, our current firm policy is that we will not provide services in any way related to tobacco, anywhere in the world." Sorry, Mark, but you can't get away with a fudge like that quite so easily. To read the rest of this item, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6356 2. IRAQ: THE "GIFT"? THAT KEEPS ON BLEEDING by John Stauber Shortly after the November 2006 election the Democracy Alliance, an exclusive group of about 100 Democratic Party millionaire activists, met in Miami, Florida. Members and their guests heard their keynote speaker and liberal legend Mario Cuomo analyze the Democratic Party in the wake of its stunning electoral victories that had given Democrats control of the US Congress. Cuomo criticized the Democratic Party for lacking vision, big ideas and a winning political argument. His recipe for future Democratic victories was simple: "You seize the biggest idea you can, the biggest idea you can understand. And this is what moves elections." Cuomo then dared to voice an inconvenient truth: "Now it's 2006 and we're all rejoicing. Why? Because of Iraq. A GIFT. A gift to the Democrats. A lot of whom voted for the war anyway." To read the rest of this item, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6368 3. THE UNTOLD STORY OF HOW & WHY PHILIP MORRIS IS PUSHING FOR FDA REGULATION by Anne Landman It may seem incongruous to the average person why Philip Morris (PM) would back legislation to restrict its business, yet that is what PM seems to be is doing by supporting S. 625, the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act," the bill that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over tobacco products. After all, PM has a corporate mandate to increase profits for its shareholders, so PM would not support this legislation if it wasn't going to benefit its bottom line, and it is practically an axiom in public health that whatever benefits PM's bottom line is going to be bad for public health. That's what makes this bill especially troubling to people who study tobacco industry documents; it is clear that PM had a hand in crafting it. That alone sounds like a lot, but PM's efforts to enact it are clearly delivering the company a hefty side-benefit of causing dissent within the tobacco control community over its passage. To read the rest of this item, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6351 == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. GM GOODIES RESULT IN RADIO MENTIONS, FCC COMPLAINT http://www.prwatch.org/node/6367 Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, objecting to General Motors giveaways to radio stations. Nader's filed his complaint after reading an Automotive News article that described how GM is giving "America's best known radio personalities ... new GM cars and trucks to drive for two weeks each month," and inviting them "to Detroit for private meetings with top executives and VIP tours of GM facilities," in addition to advertising on their shows. Bloomberg News notes that "FCC rules require broadcasters to say if content has been aired in exchange for money or other considerations." The Automotive News article reported that Rush Limbaugh, one of those being wooed by GM, said on air that "GM cars and trucks have never been better." A GM spokeswoman retorted, "We've been very transparent. ... We think this is a good way to build relationships ... and to get the word out about our great vehicles." Other radio hosts being courted by GM include Bill O'Reilly, Laura Schlessinger, Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Hannity, Ed Schultz, Bill Press and Ryan Seacrest. GM previously offered free trips to student journalists and funds many video news releases. SOURCE: Bloomberg News, August 18, 2007 2. BIG-SPENDING DRUG INDUSTRY DEFENDERS http://www.prwatch.org/node/6366 The lead U.S. drug industry lobby group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), spent $10.7 million in the first six months of 2007 lobbying the U.S. government. (In the preceding six-month period, PhRMA spent $8.8 million.) Associated Press reports that PhRMA'S latest lobbying report, required under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, states that the group lobbied Congress, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies on "issues related to Medicare, patent reform, international trade and drug fees, importation and safety." Billy Tauzin, a former Republican member of the House of Representatives from Louisiana turned PhRMA chief executive, is one of the group's registered lobbyists. SOURCE: Associated Press, August 17, 2007 3. WHEN DRUG INDUSTRY FLACKS ATTACK http://www.prwatch.org/node/6363 Following Dr. Steven Nissen's publication of a study warning that "GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia increased the risk of heart attacks by 43% and death from cardiovascular events by possibly 64%," he was publicly pilloried. "More than one story from ostensibly different sources" derisively referred to him as "St Steven," the "Patron Saint of Drug Safety," and "Saint Steven the Pure," reports Evelyn Pringle. Among the attackers was FDA spokesman Douglas Arbesfeld. Arbesfeld previously worked at the PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee (MS&L), helping Glaxo and other "healthcare clients maximize internet-relations." Former FDA Deputy Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who ridiculed Nissen in a Wall Street Journal editorial, also consulted for pharmaceutical companies at MS&L. Two more FDA alums, Peter Pitts and Robert Goldberg, mocked Nissen in a Washington Times piece. Pitts is the senior vice-president for global health affairs at MS&L. Goldberg doesn't have ties to the PR firm, but serves with Pitts as an officer of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, which Pringle describes as a "nest of ex-moles who served the industry in one capacity or another in the Bush Administration's FDA." It's a project of the Pacific Research Institute, a corporate-funded think tank. SOURCE: CounterPunch, August 15, 2007 4. EDELMAN REPS DIEBOLD'S NOT-SO-AMICABLE SPLIT http://www.prwatch.org/node/6362 The PR firm Edelman "is handling the recasting of Diebold Election Systems to Premier Election Solutions," following the parent company's failure to sell its e-voting subsidiary. PES "will have its own management team and board of directors," and is based in Allen, Texas, while Diebold headquarters are in Ohio. Diebold blamed the lack of buyers on "rapidly evolving political uncertainties and controversies surrounding ... electronic voting systems." Diebold also lowered its e-voting revenue expectations by $120 million, according to Crain's Cleveland Business. A Diebold spokesman "acknowledged that the highly charged attention paid to the subsidiary ... has been a distraction to Diebold." The parent company now hopes to "concentrate on its core ATM and security segments." SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), August 17, 2007 5. SPINNING WIKIPEDIA http://www.prwatch.org/node/6360 "Editing your own entry on Wikipedia is usually the province of vain celebrities keen for some good PR," writes Bobbie Johnson. "But a new website has uncovered dozens of companies that have been editing the site in order to improve their public image. The Wikipedia Scanner, which trawls the backwaters of the popular online encyclopaedia, has unearthed a catalogue of organisations massaging entries, including the CIA and the Labour party. ... But the biggest culprit that the Scanner claims to have discovered is Diebold, a supplier of e-voting machines, which it says has made huge alterations to entries about its involvement in the controversial 'hanging chad' election in the US in 2000." SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), August 15, 2007 6. BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE $3 MILLION FOR "STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION"? http://www.prwatch.org/node/6359 The U.S. Defense Department's budget request for fiscal year 2008 includes $3 million for "strategic communication and integration," the Pentagon's attempts to "understand and engage" key audiences worldwide, through "coordinated information, themes, plans, programs and actions synchronized with other elements of national power." But, just before Congress' summer recess, the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee denied the funds. The House committee objected to what it called an "unsupported program initiation," while the Senate committee expressed concern that blending public diplomacy, public affairs and information operations "could compromise the integrity of each of these functions." Public affairs and public diplomacy communications are supposed to be truthful, while information operations includes psychological operations, or attempts to cause "dissidence and disaffection" within enemy ranks. Debate on the funding bill will continue after Labor Day. SOURCE: FCW.com, August 14, 2007 7. AMERICAN LEGION AND VFW LAUNCH PRO-WAR LOBBY & PR CAMPAIGNS http://www.prwatch.org/node/6358 The Boston Globe reports "the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the nation's oldest and most influential veterans' organizations, have broken their relative silence on the merits of the Iraq war, joining some of the staunchest war supporters to lobby Congress and the public... Both organizations, which the White House has aggressively courted" are "recruiting members to argue for the surge strategy at town hall meetings, and have made their leaders available to the national media to declare that victory is still within reach. ... 'They have been speaking out more strongly than in the past,' said Pete Hegseth, an Iraq veteran who heads Vets for Freedom, which supports the surge." Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank "that helps coordinate pro-war groups" told the Globe, 'we need to work very hard to educate both members of Congress and the general public.' " May is also active in Committee on the Present Danger, the Project for the New American Century, and was the Republican National Committee's Director of Communications. SourceWatch now contains a new article on the pro-war lobby. SOURCE: Boston Globe, August 16, 2007 8. PETRAEUS AS PUPPET http://www.prwatch.org/node/6355 In recent months, President Bush has deflected questions about progress in Iraq with statements like, "I'm going to wait for ... David Petraeus to come back and give us the report on what he sees." According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, however, "administration officials" said that the expected September report from General Petraeus "would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government." Blogger Markos Moulitsas comments, "Let me predict the future. The report: 'Success!' The interpetation: 'Smashing success!'" SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2007 9. JOURNALISM'S NEW ECONOMICS http://www.prwatch.org/node/6354 As newspapers continue shrinking, Julian Friedland worries about how journalism will handle the "conflict of interest between pleasing the bottom line" versus "upholding its mission to educate the public by publishing a steady stream of hard-hitting investigative reports." As investigative journalism has been "eviscerated" by declining budgets, the "very best news sources in the country" are either family-owned newspapers like the New York Times or Washington Post, or publicly-funded media, such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. "Media represent an essential service like education and infrastructure. As such, media need to be protected from the corrupting influence of private interest, which has finally grown so massive as to exert a crushing grip on journalistic independence," Friedland argues. "If we look to Europe we can see media independence there is protected by public funds. Take the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is mostly funded by taxes, permitting it to hold every corporation and government's feet to the fire. In France, two out of the three major networks receive no more than 40 percent of their operational funds from ads. ... It's high time we start putting a lot more money where our mouth is." SOURCE: Denver Post, August 15, 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. 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