THE WEEKLY SPIN, March 19, 2008 Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:53:52 -0500 (CDT) THE WEEKLY SPIN, MARCH 19, 2008 == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. New Participatory Project: Help Us Tidy Up the TobaccoWiki "People" Database == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. How to Swift Boat Barack Obama? 2. Big Pharma's Health Care Reform Playbook 3. Great Wall of Silence About Tibetan Protests 4. Teaching College Kids to Lie 5. Global Warming Hurts Our Feelings 6. Adios, Online Privacy 7. Despite Congressional Direction and Funding, EPA Libraries Remain Closed 8. Weekly Radio Spin: The Plane Truth, Governor 9. Anti-Abortionists Hijack "Horton" 10. No-Bid PR Contract Bugs California Officials 11. Mainstream Media, MoveOn, Ignored Iraq Veterans' 'Winter Soldier' Investigation 12. BGR to Lobby Both Sides of the Aisle 13. Too Much Freedom of Expression for the UN 14. Israeli Officials Giving Al Jazeera the Cold Shoulder 15. A Star Is Born: Spitzer's Downfall Gives Rise to Ashley Alexandra DuprC) 16. The PR Surge Is Working for McCain - More Americans See "Success" in Iraq 17. Teacher Warns Students About War Propagandist John Rendon -------------------------------------------------------------------- == BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST == 1. NEW PARTICIPATORY PROJECT: HELP US TIDY UP THE TOBACCOWIKI "PEOPLE" DATABASE http://www.prwatch.org/node/7109 We can use your help cleaning up Tobaccowiki's database of people involved with the tobacco industry. Many of the descriptions in the database are currently in fragmented sentences. For example, the entry for Mike Malik says, "(Manager, Direct Communications, Philip Morris c. 1992-95): Worked with web pages, Internet presence" We would rather it say "Mike Malik was Manager of Direct Communications at Philip Morris circa 1992-1995, and worked with Web pages and Internet presence." You don't need to add any information to the descriptions in the database; we just want to make sure the descriptions that already exist are in whole sentences, and correct any punctuation or spelling errors. You can work on any part of the list, and do as much or as little as you want. To get started, go to the Tobacco documents biographies page, click on any letter of the alphabet and start editing any of the entries in the list that need cleanup. If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can register here, and learn more about adding information to the site here, here and here. Have fun, and thanks for your help! SOURCE: Tobaccowiki.org, March 19, 2008 == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. HOW TO SWIFT BOAT BARACK OBAMA? http://www.prwatch.org/node/7114 Republican strategists are salivating over the "inflammatory sermons by Obama's pastor," Jeremiah Wright. They believe that Wright's sermons "offer the party a pathway to victory if Obama emerges as the Democratic nominee. Not only will the video clips enable some elements of the party to define him as unpatriotic, they will also serve as a powerful motivating force for the conservative base." Notwithstanding Obama's highly praised speech on race yesterday, the videos of Wright's sermons have "convinced some that, after months of praying for Hillary Clinton and the automatic enmity which she arouses, that they may actually have easier prey." According to Micah Sifry, "Obama's speech is a great test of the following question: Are we still living in the age of sound-bite politics, where the sharp attack line, even taken out of context, can become the 'truth' of an event or a person thanks to the amplifying and distorting effects of broadcast media? Or are we entering the age of sound-blast politics, where a 37-minute speech can actually be watched, read, and digested by millions of people (a million views already on YouTube!) using the abundant spaces of the internet -- and the themes and meanings they encounter and absorb will be not about the 'politics' of a speech, but its actual content? In other words, are we entering an age when politicians can be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character?" SOURCE: Politico.com, March 19, 2008 2. BIG PHARMA'S HEALTH CARE REFORM PLAYBOOK http://www.prwatch.org/node/7113 "Congress' ability to curb the explosive rise in drug costs is a bellwether of the political prospects for health care reform," writes Merrill Goozner. "Along with eliminating unnecessary payments to insurance firms (like the 12 percent bump they get for selling Medicare Advantage plans), curbing Big Pharma's voracious appetite for selling overpriced and often unnecessary drugs is the low-hanging fruit of cost control." In order to prevent this from happening, therefore, drug companies are wooing Democrats, ramping up campaign contributions to Democratic politicians and hiring lobbyists who formerly worked as aides to Democratic politicians including Nancy Pelosi, Max Baucus, Charles Rangel and Ted Kennedy. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry's main lobbying group, is "leaving nothing to chance," Goozner writes, forming coalitions with other groups including the American Association of Retired Persons, the American Lung Association and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America "in the hope that it will curb their new allies' appetites for going after Big Pharma." SOURCE: Gooz News, March 13, 2008 3. GREAT WALL OF SILENCE ABOUT TIBETAN PROTESTS http://www.prwatch.org/node/7111 "China has begun to fight back against criticism of its handling of the Tibetan protests," during which protesters have been killed, with a "sustained publicity offensive as well as blocking foreign broadcasters and websites and denying journalists access to areas of unrest," reports The Guardian. "After days of ignoring and then playing down protests," Chinese television stations "aired hours of Friday's anti-Chinese riots in Lhasa." China's English-language TV service was told "to keep broadcasting footage of burned-out shops and Chinese wounded in attacks. No peaceful demonstrators were shown." An international reporter remarked that while the images of injured Chinese are "genuine," they're "not put in context." The Chinese government has also blacked out international TV broadcasts, blocked online videos and censored Internet searches about the protests, reports BBC News. In response, the U.S. government is increasing its international radio broadcasts into Tibet. "Our audience clearly will benefit from these trustworthy sources of news and information, which differ sharply from Chinese government sanctioned broadcasts," said U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors chair James Glassman. SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), March 18, 2008 4. TEACHING COLLEGE KIDS TO LIE http://www.prwatch.org/node/7104 Additional details have surfaced about the story we mentioned last month regarding a corporate-sponsored hoax at Hunter College. The college receives donations from the Coach Corporation, a manufacturer of handbags, shoes and other women's accessories. In particular, Coach funded a "guerrilla marketing" class that "educated" students about the dangers of knockoff products by creating a fictional student named "Heidi Cee" who claimed that she had been conned by a counterfeit Coach handbag. "The professor who taught it says that he was pressured to do so even though he has no expertise in advertising or public relations (he teaches computer graphics) and had ethical qualms about the course," reports Scott Jaschik. "Further, the professor -- and other professors who have investigated the circumstances of the course -- maintain that the professor was required to teach only one side of the issue, had to accept industry officials watching him teach, and had little clout to fight back since he didn't (and still doesn't) have tenure." According to Hunter professor Stuart Ewen, the lessons in deception were designed by Paul Werth Associates, an Ohio-based PR firm working for the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, a Coach-funded organization. SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed, March 3, 2008 5. GLOBAL WARMING HURTS OUR FEELINGS http://www.prwatch.org/node/7103 "A pair of agriculture groups has temporarily suspended about $1.5 million in grants to the University of Minnesota to protest a controversial study by U scientists earlier this month about biofuels and global warming," reports Tom Meersman. The Minnesota Soybean Growers Association and the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council, which funds university research into soybean use, cut off the funds after university scientist David Tilman published a study that found that dedicating huge amounts of land to grow corn, soybeans, sugarcane and other food crops for fuel could drastically change the landscape and worsen global warming. "The university hurt the farmers' feelings, OK? That's probably the best way to say it," said Jim Palmer, executive director of the two soybean groups. SOURCE: Minnesota Star Tribune, February 25, 2008 6. ADIOS, ONLINE PRIVACY http://www.prwatch.org/node/7102 The National Security Agency, once known for its skill in eavesdropping on the world's telephone calls, is adapting to the times by "focusing on widespread monitoring of e-mail messages and text messages, recording of Web browsing, and other forms of electronic data-mining, all done without court supervision," reports Declan McCullagh. "Taken together, those activities raise unique privacy and oversight concerns greater than those posed by large-scale monitoring of voice communications. ... If the reports are correct, what this transactional-data-dragnet amounts to is a rebuilding of the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness program, which promised to do extensive warrantless data-mining to identify 'information signatures' that could identify criminals." SOURCE: The Iconoclast, March 11, 2008 7. DESPITE CONGRESSIONAL DIRECTION AND FUNDING, EPA LIBRARIES REMAIN CLOSED http://www.prwatch.org/node/7101 The Environmental Protection Agency began closing several of its libraries in 2006 due to a shrinking budget. But the agency did not take into account how access to important environmental data would be blocked for legislators, researchers and citizens. Out of its 26 repositories, the EPA "closed physical access to three regional office libraries in Chicago, Kansas City and Dallas, and to the headquarters library and the Chemical Library in Washington. Operating hours were reduced at libraries in Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Boston." In early 2007, further closures were halted due to Congressional concerns, and in December, Congress allocated $1 million to re-open the facilities and directed the EPA to do so. To date, none have been re-opened. The EPA says that they plan to digitize their collections to provide access online, but due to copyright and other concerns, only about 10 percent of the collection would be eligible for digital transfer. Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee said, "The agency's modernization effort is characterized by poor planning, failure to communicate with its employees, the public or Congress and failure to protect unique government assets. As a result, EPA library services are impaired, employees will have a harder time doing their jobs and the public has lost access to government information." SOURCE: Washington Post, March 14, 2008 8. WEEKLY RADIO SPIN: THE PLANE TRUTH, GOVERNOR http://www.prwatch.org/node/7099 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 look at Arnold Schwarzenegger's commute, bottled water for Africa and when lobbyists say no. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," just how many tragedies has Monsanto helped create? 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, March 14, 2008 9. ANTI-ABORTIONISTS HIJACK "HORTON" http://www.prwatch.org/node/7097 When some people in the audience at the premiere of the new Dr. Suess movie "Horton Hears a Who" started yelling "A person's a person no matter how small," others thought they were just over-enthusiastic Dr. Suess fans. Instead, it turned out that a pack of anti-abortion activists had hijacked the elephant star's famous line to promote their view that abortion should be banned. After their shouting stint, they handed out fliers designed to look like movie tickets. Audrey Geisel, widow of Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and her attorney, Karl ZoBell, who has long represented the legal interests of Dr. Seuss, were also attending the premiere. ZoBell, who has never hesitated to send cease-and-desist letters to people expropriating Dr. Suess's material for their own use, said he wished the protesters would use original material. The Geisels have long opposed any political use of Dr. Suess's intellectual property. But the anti-abortionists are persisting. A Colorado group gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would legally define fertilized human embryos as people plans to show up at Denver theaters when the movie opens and use the event to collect signatures for their measure. SOURCE: Slate.com, March 14, 2008 10. NO-BID PR CONTRACT BUGS CALIFORNIA OFFICIALS http://www.prwatch.org/node/7096 "State officials struggling to convince critics about the safety of aerial spraying to control an invasive moth awarded a $500,000 no-bid contract to a prominent public relations firm with ties to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger," reports Associated Press. The contract, with the Porter Novelli firm, was suspended after AP began investigating it. California's agriculture department "invoked emergency powers to award the contract without competition." Upon review, a state lawyer questioned why the department "could not get bids or go through [a national competitive bidding] process." The Porter Novelli deal included subcontracting work for Jeff Randle, "a frequent campaign and political adviser to Schwarzenegger." California began the spraying last year, to fight a moth species unintentionally imported from Australia. After spraying two counties, "more than 600 people complained of health problems." A University of California report suggests the moths "can be kept in check by natural predators" instead. The Porter Novelli contract involved holding focus groups and designing advertisements "to counter the concerns raised by local environmentalists and residents." SOURCE: Associated Press, March 13, 2008 11. MAINSTREAM MEDIA, MOVEON, IGNORED IRAQ VETERANS' 'WINTER SOLDIER' INVESTIGATION http://www.prwatch.org/node/7094 Kelly Dougherty, the former sergeant who is the executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), announced on March 13th the start of the group's three-day Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan investigation into the United States' conduct of its wars, featuring testimony of scores of anti-war veterans. Dougherty promised that "No longer will public debate on the Global War on Terror be framed solely by politicians and pundits. IVAW will use the ongoing Winter Soldier project to ... broaden and strengthen our strategy to end the Iraq occupation." The Winter Soldiers at IVAW held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington to kickoff their hearings, and luckily were not relying on the mainstream media who attended the news conference but then almost entirely ignored the three days of testimony. "Every minute of testimony will be broadcast live and will be available to watch in an online on-demand library." The pro-war lobby, including Eagles Up, the Gathering of Eagles, Move America Forward, Free Republic and commentator Michelle Malkin condemned and protested the event. With the exception of Dennis Kucinich, politicians did not attend, and the major Democratic Party-aligned peace groups with multi-million dollar budgets, such as MoveOn and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq also completely ignored the riveting Winter Soldier testimony and failed to publicize it to the millions of people on their email lists. SOURCE: Irag Veterans Against the War, March 13, 2008 12. BGR TO LOBBY BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE http://www.prwatch.org/node/7093 "The 16-year old lobbying firm that used to be called Barbour Griffith and Rogers -- that's Barbour as in Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) -- has hired its first Democrat," reports Al Kamen. The lucky Democrat is Michael Meehan, former chief of staff to Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and communications adviser to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). Meehan "will be president of the firm's new public relations division, BGR Public Relations, and vice president of the overall firm BGR Holding LLC." Meehan has been tasked with building out "both the public relations firm and the Democratic component of BGR," said the firm's chair, Ed Rogers. The firm had been planning to hire Democrats since "Election Day 2006, when Democrats won control of Congress." SOURCE: Washington Post, March 12, 2008 13. TOO MUCH FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FOR THE UN http://www.prwatch.org/node/7092 The watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is criticizing the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for dropping its sponsorship of RSF's Online Free Expression Day. As part of the event, RSF published a list of countries it dubbed "Internet Enemies," for imprisoning people for their writings online. The list includes Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe. RSF accused UNESCO of "groveling" to "authoritarian regimes." UNESCO responded that RSF's event "did not follow the arrangements agreed upon." UNESCO said the event included information "concerning a number of UNESCO's Member States, which UNESCO had not been informed of and could not endorse. Furthermore, UNESCO's logo was placed in such a way as to indicate the Organization's support of the information presented." SOURCE: Reuters, March 12, 2008 14. ISRAELI OFFICIALS GIVING AL JAZEERA THE COLD SHOULDER http://www.prwatch.org/node/7090 The Israeli government is boycotting the Arabic television network Al Jazeera, according to a statement by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Magali Whabe. "We have sent a letter to the Authorities in Qatar and also to Al Jazeera regarding this matter. We do not want to deal with a channel that is not realistic and does not give a real picture to its viewers. If there is no change in the way they deal with us there, will be a reaction for us and we can take action." The boycott stems from what Israel sees as biased coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict, most recently the blockade of and attacks on Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces. Al Jazeera counters that it is "being shunned for accurate reporting." The channels Palestine bureau chief Walid al-Umari said, "I dare any Israeli official to bring up what they call incitement or lies reported by Al Jazeera. What we reported were real facts on the ground." al-Umari is also reported as saying that this latest development is part of an ongoing attack on the channel by Israeli officials. "A state that respects the freedom of expression or claims that it is democratic should not limit the movement of press teams." SOURCE: Democracy Now!, March 13, 2008 15. A STAR IS BORN: SPITZER'S DOWNFALL GIVES RISE TO ASHLEY ALEXANDRA DUPRC? http://www.prwatch.org/node/7089 In the brave new world of seemingly everyone having a MySpace page, publicity over alleged prostitution gave rise to a new online star at MySpace. The overnight political implosion of New York Democratic governor Eliot Spitzer, aka Client 9, led to an explosion of attention for previously unknown singer Ashley Alexandra DuprC), the current name of the 22 year old identified as Kristen, The Emperors Club VIP call girl implicated in Spitzer's downfall. After the New York Times revealed its existence, Dupre's MySpace page drew what quickly became more than five million visitors who listened to her song, saw the pictures she posted, read her postings and in many cases posted comments and messages with links to their own sites. A dozen hours after the New York Times article, the original site on MySpace was intermittently accessible or sometimes seeeming to be 'hacked', other times replaced with a message that read "this user has either cancelled their membership or their account has been deleted." Prosecutors have given DuprC) immunity, while focusing attention on Spitzer's staff such as fundraiser Kristian Stiles. SOURCE: MySpace.com, March 13, 2008 16. THE PR SURGE IS WORKING FOR MCCAIN - MORE AMERICANS SEE "SUCCESS" IN IRAQ http://www.prwatch.org/node/7088 Politico notes that U.S. public support for the war in Iraq "has reached a high point unseen since the summer of 2006. ... According to late February polling conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 53 percent of Americans -- a slim majority -- now believe 'the U.S. will ultimately succeed in achieving its goals' in Iraq. That figure is up from 42 percent in September 2007. The percentage of those who believe the war in Iraq is going 'very well' or 'fairly well' is also up, from 30 percent in February 2007 to 48 percent today. ... Half of self-identified independents polled now believe the United States should 'keep troops in Iraq until the situation has stabilized.' ... The uptick in public support is a promising sign for Republican candidates who have been bludgeoned over the Bush administration's war policies. But no candidate stands to gain more than John McCain." SOURCE: Politico.com, March 12, 2008 17. TEACHER WARNS STUDENTS ABOUT WAR PROPAGANDIST JOHN RENDON http://www.prwatch.org/node/7087 Steve Runge, an instructor at Northeastern University in Boston, is raising a red flag about a controversial lecturer. "John Rendon of the Rendon Group will be addressing the College of Business Administration Thursday afternoon. I hope business students will take this opportunity before his address to learn a little about the Rendon Group's role in the Iraq War. Rendon, as documented in an award-winning article by James Bamford in Rolling Stone magazine, and Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's books Weapons of Mass Deception and The Best War Ever, helped promote Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress (INC) as spokesperson for the Iraqi people to the Bush administration. Chalabi and the INC were directly responsible for much of the misinformation about weapons of mass destruction spread before the war, and also for the administration's rosy visions of welcomed liberators. ... Business students, I urge you to learn about Rendon on your own and recommend you attend his talk (his public talks are rare). Decide for yourselves whether his career is one you would choose to emulate." SOURCE: The Northeastern News, March 13, 2008 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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