THE WEEKLY SPIN, March 26, 2008 Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:43:31 -0500 (CDT) THE WEEKLY SPIN, MARCH 26, 2008 == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. Introducing the coalSwarm == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. Pricing Doctors 2. Telling It Like It Is 3. Playing for the "Green" in Las Vegas 4. Think Tank Citations Sink 5. It's Not Your Grandfather's Oil Industry 6. Yes He Can... Create Front Groups 7. What About McCain's Pastor Problem? 8. Weekly Radio Spin: The "PhRMAtion" of Congressional Support 9. This Is Your Brain on Logos 10. MultiVu Goes MultiCultural 11. U.S. News Media in Quite a State 12. More Spin for the Span 13. Robin Raskin Puts Fake News in Perspective == UPCOMING EVENTS == 1. It's Our Birthday! Come Celebrate with Us! -------------------------------------------------------------------- == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. INTRODUCING THE COALSWARM by Judith Siers-Poisson In the spring of 2007, when author Ted Nace set out to profile the emerging No New Coal Plants movement for Orion magazine, he had no idea that the assignment would turn into more than just a single article. Nace had become interested in the anti-coal movement after reading an article in The Nation magazine, in which NASA's chief climate scientist James E. Hansen warned that another decade of continued growth in greenhouse gases would "guarantee" enough dramatic climate change to produce what Hansen called "a different planet." Hansen made it clear that the most important step that needed to be taken to avoid such a consequence was an immediate moratorium on new coal-fired power plants. THE POWER OF THE SWARM As Nace explored the anti-coal movement, he found that some of the most effective work was being done by small, rurally-based, grassroots groups linked together informally through computer networks. His Orion article, "Stopping Coal in Its Tracks," noted that in many cases this decentralized "swarm" had been more militant and more effective than the large groups known as Big Green. Nace set up the website Coal Moratorium Now! to organize the information he was gathering on coal, then recruited two researchers, Meilin Chin and Michelle Chandra, to help him track down the status of every proposed coal plant they could locate. As word of the coal plants database spread, several people proposed moving it onto a wiki so that it could be more easily accessed and edited by multiple researchers. To read the rest of this item, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/7127 == SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS == 1. PRICING DOCTORS http://www.prwatch.org/node/7134 A proposal before the Massachusetts state Senate to ban drug company gifts to doctors is generating controversy. "To imply that doctors who have invested years and tens of thousands of dollars in their profession can be bought with a dinner or a package of Post-its is beneath contempt," wrote the husband of one doctor. But Dr. Daniel J. Carlat, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, wrote that the proposed ban "may be one of the most important pieces of healthcare legislation in years." Carlat cited former drug sales representative Sharam Ahari, who explained that "It's my job to figure out what a physician's price is. For some it's dinner at the finest restaurants, for others it's enough convincing data to let them prescribe confidently and for others it's my attention and friendship." SOURCE: Boston Globe, March 19, 2008 2. TELLING IT LIKE IT IS http://www.prwatch.org/node/7133 The director of external relations for Procter & Gamble, Mark Chakravarty, recently told a UK healthcare PR conference that the drug industry is less than popular with the public. "There is a high suspicion of the pharma industry. Greed, dishonesty and fraud are some of its associations. The clinical trial press this week and an increased number of drug scandals add to this image," he said. David Lewis, the corporate affairs director of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, was less worried. "The industry is not as badly perceived as it thinks it is," he said. The same week, the CEO of the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, Professor Kent Woods, stated that GlaxoSmithKline "could and should have reported" information that patients under 18 had a higher risk of suicidal behavior if prescribed the antidepressant Seroxat compared to a placebo. SOURCE: PR Week (UK), March 13, 2008 3. PLAYING FOR THE "GREEN" IN LAS VEGAS http://www.prwatch.org/node/7132 MGM Mirage's new $8 billion CityCenter project is a massive 75 acre, 4,000-room hotel-casino complex with condos and retail space currently under construction in Las Vegas. Its builders are promoting the complex as a model of green construction, and are seeking LEED certification for the project from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Council awards varying levels of the coveted LEED (for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design") certification. Certification of CityCenter would make the complex eligible for millions of dollars in tax breaks. The only problem is that MGM plans to allow smoking in the casino, and LEED certification signifies that the building is a healthy place to live and work. During a presentation about the complex at a Hotel Developers Conference last week, Stephanie Steinberg of Smoke-free Gaming of Colorado pointed out the hypocrisy of CityCenter being held up as a paragon of green building when one of its buildings won't even qualify. MGM Mirage responded by saying the casino portion of the complex would be exempt from the certification. SOURCE: In Business Las Vegas, Tourism and Gaming, March 21-27, 2008 4. THINK TANK CITATIONS SINK http://www.prwatch.org/node/7130 "The 25 most media-prominent think tanks were cited 17 percent less in 2007 than they were the year before," according to an annual survey by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). "The overall ideological breakdown was the same ... 47 percent of citations went to centrist think tanks, 37 percent to conservative or right-leaning think tanks, and 16 percent to progressive or left-leaning think tanks." The downward trend "is not necessarily a bad thing. ... Given that FAIR's surveys have consistently found that these supposedly detached experts actually tilt toward the center-right, fewer of them spinning and shaping news coverage may be a net plus for media transparency, if not diversity." The current issue of FAIR's magazine "Extra!" also contains the group's annual "Fear & Favor" report. Among the news outlets mentioned is Portland's KOIN-TV, which CMD documented airing a video news release. KOIN merited mention for its "weekly medical report," which is sponsored by Providence Health Systems and consistently features Providence experts and information. SOURCE: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, March / April 2008 5. IT'S NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER'S OIL INDUSTRY http://www.prwatch.org/node/7129 The oil industry's "nationwide publicity drive to clear up what it calls 'common and surprising misperceptions'" about its record-breaking profits continues. The American Petroleum Institute's (API's) senior economic analyst, Rayola Dougher, was in Denver recently. Her message: "It's not your grandfather's oil and gas industry anymore." She added that API is "trying to reach out to legislators and consumers in 40 locations." API received some unwanted attention on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. On March 19, the group "No War, No Warming" held a protest outside API's Washington DC headquarters. The protesters claimed that the industry group was changing its name to the "Alternative Power Institute" and notifying the U.S. Congress that, "in light of API's just announced transition to promotion of renewable energy technologies, there is no further requirement to fund the occupation of Iraq," writes David Swanson. SOURCE: Rocky Mountain News (Colorado), March 22, 2008 6. YES HE CAN... CREATE FRONT GROUPS http://www.prwatch.org/node/7128 Senator Barack Obama's chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod, "moonlights" from his political PR firm AKP&D Message & Media. Working from the same office, "Axelrod operates a second business, ASK Public Strategies, that discreetly plots strategy and advertising campaigns for corporate clients," reports Howard Wolinsky. Axelrod's ASK partners are John Kupper and Eric Sedler, previously of AT&T and Edelman. Chicago Alder Brendan Reilly called ASK "the gold standard in Astroturf organizing." In 2005, as ComEd was "preparing to ask [Illinois] state regulators for higher electricity prices," ASK advised the company to form "Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity." The front group, which described itself as "a coalition of individuals, businesses and organizations," funded ads that warned of blackouts unless rates were raised. Around the same time, ASK helped Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden, oppose the New York Jets's plans to build a new stadium in Manhattan. Cablevision formed the "New York Association for Better Choices," and ran anti-stadium ads in its name. ASK's other work includes helping AT&T defend municipal broadband referenda. SOURCE: BusinessWeek, March 14, 2008 7. WHAT ABOUT MCCAIN'S PASTOR PROBLEM? http://www.prwatch.org/node/7124 While news media have focused on Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, little attention has been paid to the endorsement of Republican presidential candidate John McCain by controversial Texas televangelist John Hagee. Hagee has voiced extreme anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual views. In a September 2006 interview on National Public Radio, Hagee reaffirmed his view that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment against New Orleans for hosting a homosexual parade. Hagee has also said that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by "turning away from the true God." He referred to Catholicism as a "false cult," and said the religion contributed to Hitler's anti-semitic views. When Hagee endorsed him, McCain said he was "proud" to have the pastor's support. More recently, McCain has been working to distance himself from Hagee's inflammatory comments. SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, March 20, 2008 8. WEEKLY RADIO SPIN: THE "PHRMATION" OF CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT http://www.prwatch.org/node/7123 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 China's information blackout on Tibet, how PR builds, and sells, bridges, and who cheerfully refers to her job as "whore TV." In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we take a closer look at the drug industry's lobby group, PhRMA. 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 21, 2008 9. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON LOGOS http://www.prwatch.org/node/7119 Subliminal advertising may be "more effective than regular advertising, because people don't have time to raise their anti-ad defenses," according to a new study. Duke University and University of Waterloo researchers "tested 341 students, who were told they were taking a 'visual acuity test.'" During the test, the students were secretly shown a corporate logo for 30 milliseconds. Afterwards, "students were given a second task to think of all the possible ways they could use a brick." Students shown the Apple logo "came up with more ways of using the brick, and were judged to have come up with the more creative uses," compared to those shown the IBM logo. Students shown the Disney logo "subsequently behaved much more honestly than those who saw the E! Channel logos." In a statement, one researcher suggested that "companies with established brand associations ... may want to give serious consideration to shifting marketing resources to product placement opportunities and other forms of outreach that emphasize brief brand exposures." SOURCE: CNET News, March 19, 2008 10. MULTIVU GOES MULTICULTURAL http://www.prwatch.org/node/7118 The PR firm MultiVu has a new "social media news release targeting the U.S. Hispanic audience," reports PR Week. Its "Interactivo Multimedia News Release" (IMNR) distributes fake news "broadcast content, photos, and text to Hispanic social networks and news sites. Video content will also be distributed to video-sharing sites such as MiGente and HispaVista. And IMNR content will appear in Spanish on the Reuters billboard in Manhattan's Times Square." MultiVu parent company PR Newswire purchased Hispanic PR Wire in January. MultiVu's new division, "MultiVu Latino," is headed by Hispanic PR Wire co-founder Manny Ruiz. SOURCE: PR Week, March 19, 2008 11. U.S. NEWS MEDIA IN QUITE A STATE http://www.prwatch.org/node/7117 "The state of the American news media in 2008 is more troubled than a year ago," opens the latest "State of the News Media" report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Among the major findings is that the Internet is not yet the democratizing media force many hoped for. "Even with so many new sources, more people now consume what old media newsrooms produce, particularly from print, than before," the report states. A detailed analysis of the news stories covered in 2007 found that "the media and the public often disagreed about which stories were important," and that U.S. media mostly ignored the rest of the world. Even though 2007 "was the deadliest for American forces in Afghanistan since that war began," less than one percent of international news dealt with that country. And journalists are more pessimistic, especially about "cutbacks in the newsroom" and the "broken economic model" for many news operations. SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, March 16, 2008 12. MORE SPIN FOR THE SPAN http://www.prwatch.org/node/7116 After the tragic collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis last August, the state wants to "restore the image of the beleaguered Minnesota Department of Transportation." So Minnesota is paying the public relations firm Himle Horner at least $550,000. The firm's work includes a "proactive, on-the-ground" initiative with "information kiosks, attempts to shape media coverage and weekly 'sidewalk superintendent tours' of the construction work." It also plans "to use a webcam to beam a half-hour live educational show from the bridge site to all Minnesota school-age children." The PR campaign was a major part of the bridge reconstruction contract. The U.S. Department of Transportation said the contract "emphasized public relations and aesthetics more heavily" than similar projects in the state. Some are questioning the need for the PR. "Who's against building a new 35W bridge?" asked the legislative director of the advocacy group Minnesota Transportation Alliance. "It ain't the spin, it's the span," quipped one columnist. SOURCE: Star Tribune (Minneapolis - St. Paul, Minnesota), March 16, 2008 13. ROBIN RASKIN PUTS FAKE NEWS IN PERSPECTIVE http://www.prwatch.org/node/7115 In his new book True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, Farhad Manjoo covers video news releases (VNRs) by looking at "VNR Queen" Robin Raskin. Manjoo describes a high-tech holiday gifts segment by Raskin, in which she warned that Apple's iPod makes kids vulnerable to "iPorn." While the Radio-Television News Directors Association -- which opposes any action to ensure VNR disclosure -- refused to talk with Manjoo, Raskin did. "I actually joked with my own colleagues that, 'Hey, I'm off to go do Whore TV'," she told him. "I was fully aware that that's what it was. And yet it's such a commonplace thing. I mean, there are people hawking drugs, guns, war. The worst that could happen to someone watching my segment is that you might buy a game you don't like." SOURCE: Salon.com, March 19, 2008 == UPCOMING EVENTS == 1. IT'S OUR BIRTHDAY! COME CELEBRATE WITH US! Please join hosts Mike and Saori Kappus, and CMD staffers Sheldon Rampton, Judith Siers-Poisson and John Stauber at the Rosebud Agency in San Francisco's Haight neighborhood for wonderful music by Rick Didia and Aireene Espiritu, a tempting silent auction and delicious food. There will be lots of fun, fellowship, story sharing and excitement. We're asking for a donation of $50 per person. Please email us at event@PRWatch.org by April 4th to RSVP. To read the rest of this item, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/7121 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 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