THE WEEKLY SPIN, December 12, 2007 Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:32:47 -0600 (CST) THE WEEKLY SPIN, DECEMBER 12, 2007 == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. The Fakest Time of the Year: The 2007 Falsies Awards == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. Featured Participatory Project: Add to the Congresspedia Voting Record Resource Center == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. "Journo-Lobbyist" to Be Next U.S. PR Czar 2. FEMA and PRSA: The Blind Leading the Blind 3. Stop Me if You've Heard This One Before 4. 'Tis the Season for Push Polling 5. The Weekly Radio Spin: Intravenous Government Propaganda 6. Mon Dieu! GMOs Make Inroads in France 7. Greenwash Hoaxes 8. The White House Appreciates Bloggers Who Regurgitate 9. Columbus Discovers Local Fake News 10. Green but Not Proud of It 11. Wolfowitz Rides Again with Bush/Cheney -------------------------------------------------------------------- == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. THE FAKEST TIME OF THE YEAR: THE 2007 FALSIES AWARDS by Diane Farsetta Ladies and gentlemen, this is the year that the Falsies Awards have truly arrived! Here at the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), we've dearly treasured our Falsies since we gave the first awards out in 2004. After 12 months of reporting on the cynical, manipulative and just plain anti-democratic pollution of our information environment, we love adding an extra dash of humor to our work. But this year's Falsies Awards are extra super special. Why, you ask? Well, more people responded to our Falsies Awards survey than ever before. Thanks to the more than 1,400 people who took part! Our Falsies are your Falsies, too. In addition, this year marks the first time there was an organized campaign in favor of one of our Falsies Awards nominees. To find out who was stuffing our Falsies survey, read on. As always, Falsies Awards winners must stop by CMD's office in Madison, Wisconsin, to collect their prizes. This year's winners will receive a pair of Groucho Marx glasses, to obscure your real identity; the Online Deception Kit, comprised of a sock, buttons and thread, to make your own puppet; and a five-gallon bucket of Mr. Flack's Special Greenwash Paint (warning: may not look green upon closer examination)! With so many stellar nominees and few clear trends in the survey results, deciding on this year's winners was no easy task. Our panel of judges awarded the coveted Gold Falsie to two belligerent groups. The Silver and Bronze Falsies recognize spinners of environmental and health issues, respectively. Dishonorable mentions go to drug pushers, troop users and reporter wanna-be's. And thanks to the survey participants for nominating many worthy recipients for our Readers' Choice and Win Against Spin Awards! To read the rest of this item, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6775 == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. FEATURED PARTICIPATORY PROJECT: ADD TO THE CONGRESSPEDIA VOTING RECORD RESOURCE CENTER http://www.prwatch.org/node/6795 Wading through the thousands of votes that Congress performs each year can be an arduous task, but the CMD staff has created the Congresspedia Voting Record Resource Center to help YOU get to the bottom of what your senators and representative have been doing in Washington. There you'll find step-by-step instructions on how to add information on how they voted on topics like immigration, torture and children's healthcare to their "permanent record" - their Congresspedia profile. By participating, you ensure that the thousands of your fellow citizens who read these profiles will be that much more educated about our government. Head on over to the Voting Record Resource Center to get started at http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Help:Congresspedia_Voting_Record_Resource_Center. Have fun, and on behalf of your fellow citizens, thanks! SOURCE: Congresspedia Voting Record Resource Center == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. "JOURNO-LOBBYIST" TO BE NEXT U.S. PR CZAR http://www.prwatch.org/node/6794 James K. Glassman will soon be nominated as the next U.S. Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, reports Associated Press. Glassman would replace PR czar Karen Hughes, who plans to leave her State Department post by the end of 2007. Glassman currently chairs the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. government-funded international broadcasts like the Voice of America. He is also a fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, a columnist and the author of the book "Dow 36000." In 2000, Glassman founded Tech Central Station (TCS), a "journo-lobbying" website then published by the Republican lobbying firm DCI Group. TCS runs articles and opinions friendly to its corporate sponsors. "Glassman was chosen in part because he has already won Senate confirmation," explains AP, "and the administration was looking for someone who could avoid a bruising confirmation fight in an election year." Glassman served on the "Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World," whose 2003 report (PDF) faulted the "absurd and dangerous underfunding of public diplomacy in a time of peril." SOURCE: Associated Press, December 10, 2007 2. FEMA AND PRSA: THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND http://www.prwatch.org/node/6793 On December 6, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) "conducted a communications workshop for external affairs and management staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency at FEMA's offices in Washington, D.C." PRSA offered the workshop after FEMA's controversial fake news conference in October, where FEMA staffers played reporter, asking their boss softball questions. PRSA's press release said the workshop was the first time "that a federal government agency formally engaged and consulted the Society ... involving staff on the topics of crisis communications, ethics and reputation management." PRSA hopes the workshop "will be the beginning of an ongoing interaction with FEMA -- as well as an open door to relationships with other government agencies," according to its press release. PRSA has also worked with the U.S. State Department "on public diplomacy for Congressional members and their staff," reports O'Dwyer's. In 2000, PRSA revamped its ethics code, getting rid of all internal enforcement mechanisms. SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), December 7, 2007 3. STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE http://www.prwatch.org/node/6790 "It's an oddly familiar pattern of deception," writes Dan Froomkin. While President Bush continues to make ominous statements about Iran, since early August 2007 he has not made "explicit assertions of an Iranian nuclear weapons program." Instead, Bush has been "vaguely accusing [Iran] of seeking the knowledge necessary to make such a weapon." For instance, on March 31, Bush said, "Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon, and a major threat to world peace is if the Iranians had a nuclear weapon." On August 28, Bush criticized "Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons." Froomkin writes that Bush's goal may have been to avoid "demonstrably false" statements while leaving "listeners with what he likely knew was a fundamentally false impression." A recent intelligence report concluded that Iran's nuclear weapons program ended in 2003. That news caused CNN to pull "We Were Warned -- Iran Goes Nuclear," a program scheduled to air on December 12. It featured "former high-ranking officials," including Christine Todd Whitman, playing out "a scenario set a few years in the future in which they responded to news of an Iranian nuclear weapons program," reports Philadelphia Daily News. Asked about the tenor of the show at a time when many are concerned about U.S. posturing towards Iran, CNN's Mark Nelson said, "We weren't fueling the fire." SOURCE: Washington Post, December 5, 2007 4. 'TIS THE SEASON FOR PUSH POLLING http://www.prwatch.org/node/6789 The Delaware-based group Common Sense Issues is using automated phone calls to Iowa voters to talk up Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and spread negative information about his rivals. Mitt Romney's campaign has asked the Iowa attorney general to investigate the push poll calls. Common Sense Issues, which hired the ccAdvertising firm for the calls, also set up a website and "hopes to run TV ads and launch get-out-the-vote efforts on Huckabee's behalf." Huckabee has asked the group to stop the calls. Other possibly illegal push poll calls "made in New Hampshire last month ... conveyed negative remarks about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and flattering remarks about John McCain," reports the New Hampshire Union Leader. The calls "were placed by Western Wats of Orem, Utah," though it's not clear who hired them. Western Wats has "conducted polling for the Tarrance Group, which works for candidate Rudy Giuliani," though "several employees of Western Wats have made donations to the Romney campaign." SOURCE: The Boston Globe, December 5, 2007 5. THE WEEKLY RADIO SPIN: INTRAVENOUS GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA http://www.prwatch.org/node/6788 Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we cover "green" marketing, the cynical uses of corporate social responsibility, and what the White House really thinks of bloggers and reporters. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how many steps it takes to get from baby bottles to the pro-war lobby group Freedom's Watch. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks! SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy, December 7, 2007 6. MON DIEU! GMOS MAKE INROADS IN FRANCE http://www.prwatch.org/node/6785 The government of President Nicolas Sarkozy wants the French people to be able to opt for genetically modified organisms (GMOs), not just to opt against them. A proposed law governing GMOs and defining several broad principles has been forwarded to the Conseil d'Etat (the French equivalent to the U.S. Supreme Court) and the executive branch hopes that it will be passed by Parliament by February 2008. Some passages appear positive, like "GMOs cannot be commercialized, cultivated or used except in a manner that is respectful to the environment and public health, and with complete transparency." But these are followed by obvious nods to GMO producers, such as a revision from the right to choose freely to produce and consume "without GMOs" to "the liberty to consume and produce with or without" GMOs. Arnaud Apoteker of Greenpeace said that he is disappointed. "The project doesn't give priority to non-GMO cultivation. It gives the impression that coexistence is possible, whereas the dissemination of GMOs is inevitable." GMO proponents don't see the proposed legislation as completely positive either. A spokesman for seed producers said that the articles that assign responsibility to the GMO users and the seed distributor for any damages caused to neighboring fields due to seed drift, and the need to register usage of GMO seed stock at a more local level than expected "are problematic." SOURCE: Le Monde (France), December 4, 2007 7. GREENWASH HOAXES http://www.prwatch.org/node/6783 In January 2008, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will "examine carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates that claim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in one place to offset emissions elsewhere." It's part one of the agency's review of "green" marketing guidelines. The review was initially slated for 2009, but is being moved up due to the rapid increase in marketing things like carbon offset programs, a "$55 million market that is largely unregulated." A legal staffer for the U.S. House select committee on global warming explains, "The market is really exploding ... so there's the potential for scam artists to move in and take advantage of people." In a different kind of scam, a group calling themselves "Greenwash Guerillas" put out a press release claiming that U.S. Climate Action Partnership (CAP) members would make "a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emission by 2050," and urge "mandatory reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors of the economy," as well as "an immediate moratorium on the construction of new coal-fired power plants." Several media outlets reported the fake news, which was designed to criticize CAP "for attempting to seem green without making radical changes," reports CNET News. CAP members include BP, General Electric and DuPont. SOURCE: Washington Post, November 27, 2007 8. THE WHITE HOUSE APPRECIATES BLOGGERS WHO REGURGITATE http://www.prwatch.org/node/6782 In an interview with Texas Monthly, former White House counselor Dan Bartlett complains that many reporters are overly critical of President Bush. "White House correspondents have been tagged, unfairly, with not being tough enough on the administration and President Bush in the run-up to the [Iraq] war. ... The problem is, they're acting now like they have to be five times more critical, and I think they've gone overboard." He adds, "There's a lot of perfect hindsight now about things we would have done differently. ... There are comments the president made that he would love to take back. 'Bring 'em on' is one he regrets. ... He does and I do. Me personally, [I regret] the 'Mission Accomplished' banner." Thank goodness for "influential" conservative blogs, which Bartlett calls "a direct IV into the vein of your support. It's a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we've cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on." SOURCE: Texas Monthly, January 2008 9. COLUMBUS DISCOVERS LOCAL FAKE NEWS http://www.prwatch.org/node/6781 Emmy award-winning television reporter Andrea Cambern "might be the most trusted news anchor in Columbus," Ohio, writes Steph Greegor. "So she's believable when she appears in reports reinforcing the notion that the Ohio State University Medical Center is a fine facility. What those clips don't mention is that Ohio State paid Channel 10 for them. ... Cambern appears in Channel 10's Breakthroughs in Medicine, for which Ohio State pays the station almost $100,000 annually. [Local NBC anchor Amy] Basista hosts Channel 4's Med Breaks, for which the station rakes in almost $150,000 a year." Another Channel 10 reporter produces "HealthSource features" sponsored by Nationwide Children's Hospital, McDonald's and Nationwide Insurance, while Mount Carmel Health sponsors "Strides in Medicine" segments on two local stations. Only NBC4 "labels its paid health spot as advertising on its website. None of the stations labels the spots as paid advertisements in the on-air versions, though they do introduce the spots referencing the OSU Medical Center." Health journalist and professor Trudy Lieberman calls for "honest, forthright disclosure" of the sponsored segments. She says, "It's really disguised public relations coming in the guise of a newscast." SOURCE: The Other Paper (Columbus, Ohio), November 29, 2007 10. GREEN BUT NOT PROUD OF IT http://www.prwatch.org/node/6780 It doesn't pay to be green if you're a retailer, at least according to the Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at research firm NPD Group. Cohen said that "the consumer is consumed with other things, and very rarely have they ever endorsed and embraced the green endeavors." The Daily Dog elaborates: "As fears over global warming have dominated headlines this year, numerous retailers have announced new and expanded plans to cut down on waste and run stores more efficiently. But this holiday season, there is a divide between the environmental tactics retailers are implementing behind the scenes -- like building stores with recycled materials or using hybrid vehicles -- and the shopping experience they provide." Despite survey proof that significant numbers of shoppers would patronize ecologically responsible stores and would even pay a premium for eco-friendly gifts, NPD's Cohen said the green trend was already over. "It's basically a card that a lot of people played while it was hot and trendy," he said. "And it got overplayed." SOURCE: Bulldog Reporter's Daily Dog, November 30, 2007 11. WOLFOWITZ RIDES AGAIN WITH BUSH/CHENEY http://www.prwatch.org/node/6778 Bill Berkowitz reports that Paul Wolfowitz "has been offered a position as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board -- formerly known as the Arms Control and Nonproliferation Advisory Board -- a prestigious State Department panel. The 18-member panel, which has access to highly classified intelligence, advises Condoleezza Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMD issues and other matters. Wolfowitz will replace former senator Fred Thompson, who quit over the summer to run for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. ... 'Wolfowitz will get some image redemption being back in the White House and involved with foreign policy, with a title to his name and access to and the blessings of Bush, Cheney and presumably Rice,' John Stauber ... told Media Transparency via an e-mail exchange. Stauber pointed out that since this 'is a lame duck Administration responsible for the biggest foreign policy disaster in US history,' it is probably having 'a difficult time filling positions because no one wants to book a ride on a doomed vessel.' ... One of the other big issues remaining for the Bush presidency is whether or not it will 'attack Iran or Syria and expand the war in the Middle East,' said John Stauber. ... 'Whatever the Administration decides to do, Wolfowitz is a team player with Bush and Cheney and he can perform any role they designate.' " SOURCE: Media Transparency, December 6, 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? Unsubscribe at http://www.prwatch.org/unsub