[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, May 28, 2003

>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, May 28, 2003
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>sponsored by PR WATCH (www.prwatch.org)
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. PR Trade Group Calls To Postpone FCC Ownership Vote
>2. Mad Cow Disease Hits North America
>3. Stossel's Political Promotion
>4. APCO Paving Way For Contracts To Rebuild Iraq
>5. Well Connected
>6. The Secret Plot Against Santa Claus
>7. Totally Terrorized Information Awareness
>8. Thought Crime in New Mexico
>9. Defense Contractor 'Re-establishes' Iraq's Media
>10. Who Is the US Trying to Fool?
>11. It's the Water, Stupid
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>
>1. PR TRADE GROUP CALLS TO POSTPONE FCC OWNERSHIP VOTE
>http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.052703/231475137&directory=/google&header_file=header.htm&footer_file=
>   The leading PR trade association, the Public Relations Society of
>   America, is calling on its 20,000 members to organize a "broad
>   grassroots initiative to persuade the Federal Communications
>   Commission to postpone its scheduled June 2 vote on the biennial
>   review of regulations for broadcast ownership." The group, which
>   represents government, corporate, institutional and individual
>   public relations practitioners, says it advocates postponement of
>   the FCC vote "until the Commission proactively encourages full
>   public participation in an open, robust debate and discussion of
>   this critically important issue." "This is a matter of
>   transparency," said PRSA president and CEO Reed Bolton Byrum. "We
>   encourage free and open debate of salient issues in our society -
>   whether in government or institutional America."
>SOURCE: News Release, May 27, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1054008000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1054008000
>
>2. MAD COW DISEASE HITS NORTH AMERICA
>http://www.prwatch.org/books/madcow.html
>   In 1997 Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber wrote Mad Cow USA: Could
>   the Nightmare Happen Here. To further public education the book is
>   now available free on our website as a PDF download. It predicted
>   that Mad Cow Disease and similar ailments were likely to emerge in
>   North America since the US (and Canada following its lead) refused
>   to ban all feeding of slaughterhouse waste to livestock. For
>   instance, US and Canadian dairy calves are fed milk formula
>   containing cattle blood plasma, even though blood can transmit mad
>   cow and similar diseases. Mad Cow Disease has now been found in
>   Canada and contaminated feed is a likely source according to the
>   Canadian government. To keep abreast of this issue bookmark the
>   website of the Organic Consumers Association
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053921600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053921600
>
>3. STOSSEL'S POLITICAL PROMOTION
>http://www.fair.org/activism/stossel-anchor.html
>   John Stossel has been promoted to co-anchor of ABC's 20/20 TV
>   program. According to a source within the network, "These are
>   conservative times... the network wants somebody to match the
>   times." Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) points to
>   Stossel's history of "bungled facts and twisted logic" and asks if
>   "a record of credible and accurate reporting" shouldn't be more
>   important than "matching the perceived political climate."
>SOURCE: FAIR/Extra!, May 23, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053662401
>
>4. APCO PAVING WAY FOR CONTRACTS TO REBUILD IRAQ
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0523apco.htm
>   "APCO Worldwide, a Grey Global Group unit, has set up an Iraq
>   reconstruction task force with a personnel roster of ex-government
>   heavyweights to guide clients through the process of pursuing
>   contracts," trade publication O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "Marc
>   Ginsberg, former special coordinator for Middle East and
>   Mediterranean trade and economic policy and ambassador to Morocco
>   who is a senior VP at APCO, is heading the team. The rebuilding
>   advisement team includes Former Sen. Don Riegle, ex-chairman of the
>   Senate Banking Committee; five-year Federal Aviation Administration
>   head Jane Garvey; ex-Rep. Steve Solarz, a Middle East expert
>   formerly on the House International Affairs Committee, and Richard
>   Allen, who was President Reagan's national security advisor."
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, May 23, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053662400
>
>5. WELL CONNECTED
>http://www.openairwaves.org/telecom/
>   A new project by the Center for Public Integrity takes a close look
>   at the telecommunications industry and its regulatory body, the
>   Federal Communications Commission. Visitors to OpenAirWaves.org
>   will find the CPI's "first-of-its-kind, 65,000 record, searchable
>   database containing ownership information on virtually every radio
>   station, television station, cable television system and telephone
>   company in America." CPI also looked at FCC travel records. They
>   report that the FCC commissioners "have been showered with nearly
>   $2.8 million in travel and entertainment over the past eight years,
>   most of it from the telecommunications and broadcast industries the
>   agency regulates."
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053643384
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053643384
>
>6. THE SECRET PLOT AGAINST SANTA CLAUS
>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB90/press.htm
>   The Central Intelligence Agency classified and withheld from public
>   release a 25-year-old joke item in a weekly terrorism report about
>   the terrorist threat to Santa Claus, notes a new report on
>   government secrecy. "The CIA's secret Santa" leads what the report
>   calls a "lengthy compilation of declassified documents that
>   illustrate the arbitrary and capricious decision making that all
>   too often characterizes the U.S. government's national security
>   secrecy system." The government has also classified classified
>   information to maintain a number of other, more serious "dubious
>   secrets", such as intelligence budgets dating back to 1947 and
>   death squad activities in El Salvador that would have undermined
>   Congressional approval for military aid.
>SOURCE: National Security Archive, May 21, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053489601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053489601
>
>7. TOTALLY TERRORIZED INFORMATION AWARENESS
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19272-2003May21.html
>   An angry public response forced the Pentagon to publicly back away
>   from its Total Information Awareness surveillance program. Now it's
>   back, with one major revision: a name change. Instead of "Total
>   Information Awareness," they're calling it "Terrorism Information
>   Awareness." According to Washington Post correspondent Ariana
>   Eunjung Cha, the proposed system "would have the power to track
>   people as never before. It would identify people at great distances
>   by the irises of their eyes, the grooves in their face or even
>   their gait. It would look for suspicious patterns in video footage
>   of people's movements. And it would analyze airline ticket
>   purchases, visa applications, as well as financial, medical,
>   educational and biometric records to try to predict terrorists'
>   acts or catch them in the planning stage." Another TIA proposal,
>   the "Misinformation Detection" system, will analyze language and
>   other aspects of text for false or misleading information. (It
>   won't have far to look.)
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 21, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053489600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053489600
>
>8. THOUGHT CRIME IN NEW MEXICO
>http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/opinions03/052003_opinions_teachers.shtml
>   Several high school teachers in New Mexico have been suspended or
>   fired after refusing to enforce pro-war views in their classrooms.
>   Geoff Barrett, a teacher at Albuquerque's Highland High School, was
>   suspended after refusing to remove student-made artwork expressing
>   views on the recent U.S. war against Iraq. The artwork included
>   both pro- and antiwar views, but he was advised that the "pro-war"
>   posters were not "pro-war enough." Bill Nevins of Rio Rancho High
>   School lost his job and a poetry team that he advised has been
>   disbanded after one of his students read an anti-war poem over the
>   school's PA system. Several other teachers have been suspended
>   after refusing to remove anti-war posters from their classrooms.
>   "Meanwhile, pro-war, militaristic signs, posters and bumper
>   stickers abound at many Albuquerque and Rio Rancho schools," note
>   Eric Haas and Jama Fisk.
>SOURCE: Albuquerque Tribune, May 20, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053403202
>
>9. DEFENSE CONTRACTOR 'RE-ESTABLISHES' IRAQ'S MEDIA
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_worldwire.cfm?ID=180085&site=3
>   "US efforts to re-establish Iraq's media hit a milestone last week
>   as defense contractor Scientific Applications International (SAI)
>   rolled out the country's first post-Saddam newspaper and original
>   TV news program," PR Week reports. "The 30-minute nightly news
>   show, staffed by Iraqi journalists formerly in exile, reportedly
>   addresses concerns about electricity, water, and lawlessness in the
>   region. The twice-weekly newspaper, al Sabah ("the Dawn"), began
>   printing on Thursday with an initial run of 50,000 copies. The
>   short-term goal is to quell unrest among Iraqis by establishing
>   America's presence and control over basic issues. The San
>   Diego-based information-technology firm holds a Pentagon-issued
>   contract to set up a media operation in post-war Iraq in
>   coordination with Psychological Operations and the White House
>   communications staff. SAI referred all questions about the contract
>   to the Pentagon, which would not comment beyond confirming the
>   price of the contract, which is $45 million."
>SOURCE: PR Week, May 19, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053316801
>
>10. WHO IS THE US TRYING TO FOOL?
>http://www.iht.com/articles/96547.html
>   "The situation in Iraq, even by friendly accounts, seems to be
>   deteriorating," writes William Pfaff, "and unfriendly accounts in
>   both the British and the French press are scathing." According to
>   the international relief organization CARE, millions of people in
>   Iraq are at risk as water and sewage systems crumble. "Many people
>   do not have access to safe drinking water, and human waste is
>   backing up and out of the drains in many parts of Baghdad," said
>   CARE's Nick Southern. "The very hot season is coming, when
>   temperatures will climb to 110 degrees and higher. This is a recipe
>   for infectious diseases like cholera and typhoid."
>SOURCE: International Herald Tribune, May 17, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053144000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053144000
>
>11. IT'S THE WATER, STUPID
>http://www.counterpunch.org/wells05162003.html
>   "Conspicuously missing from the ubiquitous Iraq war critique was
>   the subtle agenda of water rights in the parched Middle East
>   region," writes Leah C. Wells. "The dialogue about access to clean
>   water is commonplace in peace talks throughout the Middle East, but
>   Western diplomats rarely broach the topic. An anonymous U.S. State
>   Department official quoted in National Geographic said, 'people
>   outside the region tend not to hear about the issue (of water). It
>   just doesn't make the news.' By design, not by accident, this issue
>   is obscured from Western eyes because the propaganda machinery from
>   Washington, DC has not allowed it."
>SOURCE: Counterpunch, May 16, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053057602
>
>
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>
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Carpentier Nico (Phd)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University Brussels
Studies on Media, Information & Telecommunication (SMIT)
Centre for Media Sociology (CeMeSO)
Office: C0.05
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
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