THE WEEKLY SPIN, November 7, 2007 Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 10:21:36 -0600 (CST) THE WEEKLY SPIN, NOVEMBER 7, 2007 == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. Broadcasters' Coalition of the Shilling Objects to Fake News Fines == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. New Participatory Project: Help Expand our List of Tobacco Company Projects and Operations == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. A Step Forward for Open Access 2. Orwell Revisited 3. Wired's Game of Whack-a-Flack 4. Water Exhibit and Oil Money May Not Mix 5. Ethanol Industry Fuels New Ad Campaign 6. Pill Pushers Push the Envelope in Developing Countries 7. Product Safety Officials Get the Lead Out 8. Industry Funding Makes for Weird Science 9. The Weekly Radio Spin: FEMA's Fake News Furor 10. Coalition of the Killing 11. The Abramoff Files 12. A Cancer on the Presidency 13. Karen Hughes Bids Adieu No. Deux 14. Blackwater's Repositioning, Real and Imagined 15. Stupidity Spreading Like Wildfire 16. NATO Considers Joining the Media War -------------------------------------------------------------------- == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. BROADCASTERS' COALITION OF THE SHILLING OBJECTS TO FAKE NEWS FINES by Diane Farsetta Do you remember when the Surgeon General's warning appeared on cigarette packs, and everyone stopped smoking? Or when nutritional information was added to food packaging, and everyone stopped eating sugary snacks? Neither do I. Yet lawyers and lobbyists for the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) insist that mounting pressure to disclose fake news "already has begun to drastically chill speech in newsrooms across the country, inhibiting broadcasters and cablecasters from fully serving their viewers." That claim is made in RTNDA's new filing (PDF) with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The broadcasters' group is urging the FCC to stop considering fines for undisclosed video news releases (VNRs). The FCC has proposed fines totaling $20,000 against Comcast, for its cable channel CN8 having aired five VNRs -- public relations videos designed to look like news reports -- without disclosure. The FCC fines are an important first step in ensuring news viewers' right to know. But rather than roll up its metaphoric sleeves and address the impact of VNRs on television news, RTNDA is lobbying against any FCC action. To read the rest of this item, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6647 == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. NEW PARTICIPATORY PROJECT: HELP EXPAND OUR LIST OF TOBACCO COMPANY PROJECTS AND OPERATIONS http://www.prwatch.org/node/6679 We need help finding out the names of more internal tobacco company projects and operations. To help with this, go to the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library and perform searches using phrases like "confidential project" and "confidential operation." "Operation Berkshire" and "Project Brass" are examples of the type of names you are looking for. Add the names of any new or missing projects or operations to our list in the TobaccoWiki Projects and Operations page. Items are listed in alphabetical order. If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can find more information at www.SourceWatch.org. Have fun, and thanks for your help! SOURCE: TobaccoWiki.org == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. A STEP FORWARD FOR OPEN ACCESS http://www.prwatch.org/node/6684 The U.S. Congress has approved legislation that would provide free public access to all published research funded by the National Institutes of Health, despite a lobbying campaign by the Association of American Publishers (AAP), which includes leading scientific publishers like Elsevier, Wiley, and the American Chemical Society. Earlier this year, AAP hired the PR firm of Dezenhall Resources to campaign against open access. In August, it launched Partnership for Research Integrity in Science and Medicine (PRISM), to promote its claim that open access would undermine peer review. SOURCE: Center for Science in the Public Interest, October 29, 2007 2. ORWELL REVISITED http://www.prwatch.org/node/6683 In his classic essay "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell described political speech as consisting "largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness." Six decades later, several journalism schools are co-sponsoring a conference titled "There You Go Again: Orwell Comes to America," to examine "the tactics of disinformation and manipulation diagnosed by Orwell ... along with new propaganda techniques made possible by advances in scientific knowledge and modern technology." A book by the same title has also been released, discussing topics from "the use of deceptively murky jargon, to the emotional pull of phrases like "The War on Terror," to the rise of infotainment and pseudo-science, to the disinclination of big media to provide real news." SOURCE: www.ThereYouGoAgain.org 3. WIRED'S GAME OF WHACK-A-FLACK http://www.prwatch.org/node/6682 Some public relations people are in an uproar after Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson published online the email addresses of 329 PR people who have sent him unsolicited email messages. "I've had it," he wrote on his blog. "I get more than 300 e-mails a day and my problem isn't spam. ... it's P.R. people." Angry flacks responded that Anderson's behavior was "childish" and "mean-spirited." Anderson says he was "particularly amused when PR people attempted to organize a class-action lawsuit against me--in my own comments! That's in addition to publishing my home address and hacking my Wikipedia entry." Even the New York Times covered the brouhaha and interviewed CMD's own Sheldon Rampton, who pointed out that the conflict reflects a "love-hate relationship" between journalists and PR people. "We are a watchdog organization whose sole purpose is to critique objectionable P.R. practices, and even we get spammed by P.R. people," Rampton added. SOURCE: The Long Tail, October 29, 2007 4. WATER EXHIBIT AND OIL MONEY MAY NOT MIX http://www.prwatch.org/node/6670 "The Smithsonian Institution has taken the rare step of putting on hold a $5 million donation from the American Petroleum Institute after two members of the museum complex's Board of Regents ... balked at accepting oil-industry money for a major initiative on the world's oceans." One of the two, former energy industry executive Roger Sant, explained, "I want to be sure that the sponsor's behavior is consistent with the message we're trying to deliver. It is a question mark given the record of oil spills in the past two decades." The Smithsonian's "Ocean Initiative" will include a major exhibit hall and website. American Petroleum Institute's (API's) Karen Matusic said the donation was "offered in the spirit of encouraging education." API "is eager to improve the industry's image in an era where it is often painted as a villain in the global-warming debate. In past years, the API has given about $200,000 to various parts of the Smithsonian." If accepted, API's $5 million would go towards the "Ocean Portal" website. The donation will be discussed at the Smithsonian board's November 19 meeting. SOURCE: Washington Post, November 3, 2007 5. ETHANOL INDUSTRY FUELS NEW AD CAMPAIGN http://www.prwatch.org/node/6667 "Renewable Fuels Now," a new ethanol industry group, "plans a splashy ad campaign next week that will appear in popular Capitol Hill publications, including The Hill and Roll Call," reports Lauren Etter. The group, which counts the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association among its members, has hired the PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee. Its ad campaign comes as Congress debates "whether to increase the so-called Renewable Fuels Standard," which currently "requires oil companies to blend 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels into the nation's fuel supply by 2012. Since the number is expected to be reached by next year, the ethanol industry" wants it increased. Ethanol "has come under fire from food companies and livestock groups accusing it of driving up the price of corn. ... Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, said that using food crops for biofuels amounts to a 'crime against humanity.'" Oxfam recently "released a study titled 'Bio-fuelling Poverty' that criticized the European Union for mandating that members' transportation fuels be blended with 10% biofuels." SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), November 3, 2007 6. PILL PUSHERS PUSH THE ENVELOPE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES http://www.prwatch.org/node/6664 Pharmaceutical companies "are turning to the developing world as profits stagnate in the West. But regulation in these countries is weak," writes Jeremy Laurance. A new report by Consumers International titled "Drugs, Doctors and Dinners" (PDF) describes how companies push their drugs in poorer countries. "In Pakistan, doctors who wrote 200 prescriptions for one high-price drug were offered the down payment on a new car. ... India was one of the fastest-growing markets last year, with sales increasing 17.5 per cent to $7.3 bn. But the health commission, in 2005, labelled 10 out of the 25 top-selling medicines as being 'irrational or non-essential or hazardous.'" Consumers International states that "doctors are offered everything from mousepads to motorbikes" by drug marketers. "Pervasive marketing contributes to 50% of medicines in the developing world being wrongly prescribed." SOURCE: The Independent (UK), October 31, 2007 7. PRODUCT SAFETY OFFICIALS GET THE LEAD OUT http://www.prwatch.org/node/6663 After "several highly publicized recalls of Chinese-made toys that contained hazardous levels of lead," the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has come under increased scrutiny. "Critics have long charged that the agency has become too close to regulated industries, opting for 'voluntary' standards and repeatedly choosing not to take legal action against businesses that refuse to recall dangerous products." Perhaps it's because CPSC officials were traveling on industry's dime. Records obtained by the Washington Post "document nearly 30 trips since 2002 by the agency's acting chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, that were paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers. ... Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards." CPSC said their ethics officers had OK'd the trips, after conducting "a full conflict-of-interest analysis." But several other agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and Food and Drug Administration, ban travel paid for by regulated companies. SOURCE: Washington Post, November 2, 2007 8. INDUSTRY FUNDING MAKES FOR WEIRD SCIENCE http://www.prwatch.org/node/6658 A study in the September 2007 issue of the journal Ecological Complexity claims that concerns of global warming's impact on polar bears are "highly premature." But the study wasn't peer reviewed, and it was funded by ExxonMobil. "If the polar bear is listed under the Endangered Species Act, steps to protect its habitat could directly hurt ExxonMobil's economic interests," notes New Scientist. Alaska used the study to argue against protections for the polar bear. In other science news, the Environmental Protection Agency has "awarded two grants to develop tests to measure toxic chemical exposure risk to non-profit research institutes indirectly supported by companies that make the chemicals." One grant went to the Hamner Institutes, which is "almost entirely funded by chemical and pharmaceutical companies" and counts the American Chemistry Council among its major supporters. The other EPA grant went to the Chemical Industry Institute of Technology, which is part of Hamner, along with the LifeLine Group, which has ties to Monsanto. SOURCE: Center for Science in the Public Interest, November 5, 2007 9. THE WEEKLY RADIO SPIN: FEMA'S FAKE NEWS FUROR http://www.prwatch.org/node/6649 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 Karen Hughes's public diplomacy legacy, NATO's plans to get into movies, and what happens when government employees play reporter. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how many steps it takes to get from defenders of killer smokes to defenders of privatized troops. 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, November 2, 2007 10. COALITION OF THE KILLING http://www.prwatch.org/node/6646 Its reputation in tatters, the Blackwater private military firm has hired "a bipartisan stable of big-name Washington lawyers, lobbyists and press advisers," report John Broder and James Risen. In addition to the Burson-Marsteller PR firm, the hired guns who have worked for Blackwater include Kenneth D. Starr (previously famous for his Whitewater prosecution of Bill Clinton); White House counsel Fred F. Fielding; PR specialist Mark Corallo; and lobbyist Paul Behrends, who previously worked at the Alexander Strategy Group, a Republican firm with close ties to the jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "Blackwater is pursuing a bold legal strategy," report Broder and Risen, "going so far in a North Carolina case as to seek a gag order on the lawyers for the families of four Blackwater employees killed in an ambush in Falluja in 2004. The company argues that the dead men had signed contracts that prohibited them from talking to the press about Blackwater and that this restriction extended to their lawyers and their estates even after death." SOURCE: New York Times, November 1, 2007 11. THE ABRAMOFF FILES http://www.prwatch.org/node/6645 When lobbyist Jack Abramoff pled guilty last year to multiple counts of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy, White House officials and George W. Bush were quick to insist that they barely knew the guy. Since then, congressional investigations led by Rep. Henry A. Waxman have found that senior officials including former White House political affairs director Matt Schlapp "had monthly contact with Jack Abramoff on subjects that often involved official government business," and that his company was "viewed by many as a very respected lobbying team." Waxman is asking the White House to turn over 600 pages of documents that it is withholding, which document the details of its relationship with Abramoff. SOURCE: Washington Post, November 1, 2007 12. A CANCER ON THE PRESIDENCY http://www.prwatch.org/node/6644 The fact-checkers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania have taken the trouble to check out radio ads by Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, in which he falsely claims that only 44 percent of men with prostate cancer survive under England's "socialized medicine" system. In reality, they report, this statistic is merely "the result of bad math by a Giuliani campaign adviser, who admits to us that his figure isn't 'technically' a survival rate at all. Furthermore, the co-author of the study on which Giuliani's man based his calculations tells us his work is being misused, and that the 44 percent figure is both wrong and 'misleading.' ... Actually, men with prostate cancer are more likely to die sooner if they don't have health insurance, according to a recent study published in one of the American Medical Association's journals. Giuliani doesn't mention that." SOURCE: FactCheck.org, October 30, 2007 13. KAREN HUGHES BIDS ADIEU NO. DEUX http://www.prwatch.org/node/6643 U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes is leaving the Bush administration. Hughes, a long-time confidant of President Bush's, served as a counselor during Bush's first term, then officially left the White House in 2002, only to return as the nation's PR czar in 2005. Her last day will be in December. In announcing her resignation, Hughes stressed that improving the U.S.'s image around the world is a "long-term challenge." At the State Department, Hughes increased the number of "interviews with Arabic media," and "set up three rapid public relations response centers overseas to monitor and respond to the news. She nearly doubled the public diplomacy budget, to nearly $900m annually, and sent U.S. sports stars Michelle Kwan and Cal Ripken abroad as unofficial diplomats. But polls show no improvement in the world's view of the U.S. since she took over. A Pew Research survey earlier said the unpopular Iraq war is a persistent drag on the U.S. image and has helped push favorable opinion of America in Muslim Indonesia, for instance, from 75% in 2000 to 30% last year." Hughes' key deputy, Dina Habib Powell, left the State Department earlier this year, "to become director of global corporate engagement for Goldman Sachs Group," notes PR Week. SOURCE: Associated Press, October 31, 2007 14. BLACKWATER'S REPOSITIONING, REAL AND IMAGINED http://www.prwatch.org/node/6642 As investigations into its shootings of Iraqi civilians continue, the private military contractor Blackwater USA is softening its public image. "The company's roughneck logo -- a bear's paw print in a red crosshairs, under lettering that looks to have been ripped from a fifth of Jim Beam -- has undergone a publicity-conscious, corporate scrubbing," reports Paul Von Zielbauer. Blackwater says the redesign was planned before September 16, when its employees killed 17 Iraqis, but "the new logo did not appear" on the company's website until afterwards. Gone are "the rifle-scope crosshairs," and the paw print and logo lettering also look less menacing. One graphic designer commented, "The old logo suggests that they're targeting people. The new logo is a more ambiguous, safe corporate logo." The company is also changing its name to Blackwater Worldwide. But it's not forming a "Department of Corporate Integrity," as a spoof press release from the peace group Code Pink claimed. CBS, Politico and other news outlets were fooled by the satirical release, which also claimed that Blackwater was working to "put the mercy back in mercenary," reports Editor & Publisher. SOURCE: New York Times, October 22, 2007 15. STUPIDITY SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE http://www.prwatch.org/node/6640 The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) fake news conference -- where FEMA staffers played reporter, asking FEMA's deputy administrator softball questions -- has cost one person his job. Former FEMA Director of External Affairs John Philbin was slated to start a new job under the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell. However, following the FEMA debacle, McConnell issued a statement that "Mr. Philbin is not, nor is he scheduled to be, the director of public affairs." (FEMA has also removed Philbin's bio from its website.) Other questionable responses to the California wildfires include promoting former FEMA director Michael Brown to media outlets, "as an expert on disaster and recovery efforts." Brown is now the "corporate strategy director for Cotton Cos., a disaster recovery outfit that saw duty in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina." Cotton's PR firm, 5W Public Relations, is pitching "Brownie," reports O'Dwyer's. On Fox News, Brown did a "heckuva job," blaming the fires on environmentalists opposed to "controlled burns." Lastly, Allstate put out a wildfire-related video news release. The fake news piece features an Allstate employee (standing in front of an Allstate logo) telling viewers the insurance company is "doing everything we can ... to help our customers start the recovery process." SOURCE: New York Times, October 30, 2007 16. NATO CONSIDERS JOINING THE MEDIA WAR http://www.prwatch.org/node/6639 "At the end of a two-day informal meeting of defence ministers in the Netherlands, NATO's secretary general reiterated ... that the alliance needs to do a better job in public relations both in home countries and Afghanistan." To that end, Denmark pledged one million Euros for "video equipment that will ultimately be used to deliver documented Taliban outrages to a television near you -- or to the popular video website YouTube." NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer previously suggested declassifying "video surveillance shot by NATO forces throughout the Afghan conflict," in part to shore up public opinion in member countries for the Afghan mission. Hoop Scheffer rejected characterizations of the videos as propaganda, saying any declassified footage will be "unmanipulated." He described one still-classified video of "an insurgent who pulled a burka from a backpack and draped himself in the head-to-foot robe to take on the appearance of a woman," before opening "fire with an AK-47 on western troops." SOURCE: The Canadian Press, October 25, 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. 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