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[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, August 6, 2003
Wed Aug 06 07:22:08 GMT 2003
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, August 6, 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
>further information about current public relations campaigns.
>It is emailed free each Wednesday to subscribers.
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. Rampton & Stauber In New York City
>2. Pentagon Moves To Contain US Troop Complaints
>3. State Department Fills PR Czar Position
>4. Weapons Inspector To US: 'Don't Be Surprised By Surprises'
>5. "Media Plan" Nearly Incinerated
>6. Branding America, Part II
>7. Latest WMD Spin: From the 'Big Lie' to the 'Big Impact'
>8. 28 Pages
>9. America, Eat Your Fries!
>10. Photos of Hussein Sons 'PR Disaster'
>11. Anti-Propaganda in the U.S.
>12. Payback
>13. All Roads Lead To PhRMA
>14. Death of a PR Man
>15. Former Government Flacks Find Corporate PR Path
>16. Spinning to Win
>17. Wired Public Diplomacy
>18. Killing the Messenger in Guatemala
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. RAMPTON & STAUBER IN NEW YORK CITY
>http://www.prwatch.org/books/wmd.html
> PR Watch's Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber will talk about their
> new book Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in
> Bush's War on Iraq 7 p.m., Friday, August 8 at the Barnes & Noble
> on 82nd & Broadway in Manhatten.
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1060142400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1060142400
>
>2. PENTAGON MOVES TO CONTAIN US TROOP COMPLAINTS
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=186846&site=3
> "After several troops made some highly publicized negative comments
> to the media about the war effort in Iraq, the Pentagon has taken
> steps to keep the frustrations of both soldiers and their families
> out of reports," PR Week reports. "According to a story in the July
> 25 edition of Stars and Stripes, the military appears to be
> curtailing its much-touted embedded-journalist program, which has
> allowed reporters almost unfettered access to military units
> throughout the war and occupation. The 3rd Infantry Division, from
> where many complaints have arisen, has expelled many of its
> embedded reporters, and its troops are no longer allowed to talk to
> the media outside of pre-approved news features. ... Soldiers'
> families are also being advised not to complain to the media,
> according to news reports," PR Week writes.
>SOURCE: PR Week, August 4, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059969601
>
>3. STATE DEPARTMENT FILLS PR CZAR POSITION
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16863-2003Aug3.html
> After much speculation, Ambassador to Morocco Margaret Tutwiler is
> finally returning to Washington to take Charlotte Beers' old post
> as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. Ad queen Beers
> stepped down among much criticisms in March. The Washington Post's
> Al Kamen writes that Tutwiler, who served as assistant secretary of
> state for public affairs for the elder Bush, "was most happy with
> her Morocco assignment -- apparently even with an occasional
> terrorist bomb going off -- and was said to be ambivalent about
> coming back. But duty calls, and Tutwiler, who did a stretch in
> Baghdad, working to put together a media operation there, should be
> in town by the end of the month." Kamen also writes that the search
> for Torie Clarke's replace as Pentagon public affairs chief goes
> on. Strong candiates are There are strong candidates, including,
> Diane Leneghan Tomb, now assistant secretary for public affairs at
> the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "Tomb is a veteran
> in the trade, having worked for then-Vice President George Bush in
> the White House press office and later at Burson-Marsteller," Kamen
> reports. Also talked about is Kevin Kellems, "a former reporter and
> longtime aide to Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) who is now special
> adviser to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, is a strong
> contender," Kamen writes.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, August 4, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059969600
>
>4. WEAPONS INSPECTOR TO US: 'DON'T BE SURPRISED BY SURPRISES'
>http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0803-02.htm
> The Bush and Blair governments, straining to answer critics of the
> Iraq invasion, are pushing a new campaign. "The 'big impact' plan
> is designed to overwhelm and silence critics who have sought to put
> pressure on Tony Blair and George Bush," the Independent's Andrew
> Buncombe writes. "At the same time both men are working to lower
> the burden of proof - from finding weapons to finding evidence that
> there were programs to develop them, even if they lay dormant since
> the 1980s." Key to this new effort is former U.N. weapons inspector
> David Kay, who was appointed in June by CIA chief George Tenet to
> head the Iraq Survey Group, now leading the hunt for WMDs in Iraq.
> Buncombe told Democracy Now's Amy Goodman that Kay had been doing
> private consulting for a company called SAIC, a CIA contractor.
> After giving evidence last week to closed-door sessions of the US
> Senate's armed services and intelligence committees, Kay said, "We
> do not intend to expose this evidence until we have full confidence
> that it is solid proof." He cryptically added, "The American people
> should not be surprised by surprises. We are determined to take
> this apart and every day we're surprised by new advances that we're
> making."
>SOURCE: Independent, August 3, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1059883200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059883200
>
>5. "MEDIA PLAN" NEARLY INCINERATED
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/02/nkell02.xml
> Officials with the British Ministry of Defence were preparing to
> destroy a "media plan" about Dr. David Kelly three days after his
> death, according to a the Telegraph. "It is not clear whether the
> papers were burned, but MoD officials admitted last night that
> ministry security guards called the police after finding the 'media
> plan' relating to the Kelly affair in a sack of classified waste
> being prepared for incineration," the paper reported. "Officially,
> the MoD continued to insist last night that it was an insignificant
> document that had no importance for the inquiry and that security
> guards had 'over-reacted' in calling the police."
>SOURCE: Telegraph (UK), August 2, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1059796800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059796800
>
>6. BRANDING AMERICA, PART II
>http://www.statesman.com/nationworld/content/news/080103/0801antius.html
> Just in from the been there, done that department: "With
> anti-American sentiment rising worldwide, Bush administration
> officials say they are stepping up efforts to market America
> throughout the world," reports Michelle Orris. "Polls indicate that
> international opinion of the United States has plummeted in the
> last year, and worldwide sympathy for the United States after Sept.
> 11, 2001, attacks has all but dissipated."
>SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman, August 1, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1059710404
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059710404
>
>7. LATEST WMD SPIN: FROM THE 'BIG LIE' TO THE 'BIG IMPACT'
>http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm
> Columnists for the Washington Times write that "the Pentagon
> adopted a new strategy in its search for Iraq's weapons of mass
> destruction. It is called the 'big impact' plan. The plan calls for
> gathering and holding on to all the information now being collected
> about the weapons. Rather than releasing its findings piecemeal,
> defense officials will release a comprehensive report on the arms,
> perhaps six months from now. The goal of the strategy will be to
> quiet critics of the Bush administration who said claims of Iraq's
> hidden weapons stockpiles were exaggerated in order to go to war."
>SOURCE: Washington Times, August 1, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1059710403
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059710403
>
>8. 28 PAGES
>http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=express&s=ackermanjudis080103
> The New Republic has interviewed an official who has read the 28
> pages that the Bush administration is withholding from the recent
> congressional report on September 11. According to the official,
> the still-classified section of the report documents connections
> between the 9-11 terrorist attack and "the very top levels of the
> Saudi royal family. ... This week, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al
> Faisal flew to Washington for a hastily convened meeting with
> President Bush. Faisal publicly demanded that the 28 pages be
> declassified, but he had to have known in advance, and welcomed the
> fact, that his request would be denied - ostensibly friendly
> nations don't normally send their foreign ministers to meetings
> halfway around the world to be surprised." The New Republic's
> informant said, "If the people in the administration trying to link
> Iraq to Al Qaeda had one-one-thousandth of the stuff that the 28
> pages has linking a foreign government to Al Qaeda, they would have
> been in good shape." He added: "If the 28 pages were to be made
> public, I have no question that the entire relationship with Saudi
> Arabia would change overnight."
>SOURCE: The New Republic, August 1, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059710402
>
>9. AMERICA, EAT YOUR FRIES!
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0801us_potato_board.htm
> The U.S. Potato Board is facing a crisis stemming from the decline
> in french fries sales, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. So, they've
> enlisted the creative powers of the St. Louis-based firm Osborn &
> Barr, whose clients have included the Cattlemen's Beef Board,
> National Pork Board and United Soybean Board. The Potato Board is
> looking for "concepts aimed at opinion leaders and consumers" to be
> part of a $1 million campaign (run by food industry PR giant
> Fleishman-Hillard) to get Americans to eat more french fries.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, August 1, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059710401
>
>10. PHOTOS OF HUSSEIN SONS 'PR DISASTER'
>http://media.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,7550,1010043,00.html
> The photographs released by the Bush Administration of Uday and
> Qusay Hussein's dead bodies have provoked strong reactions
> throughout the world. The Guardian's Mark Borkowski writes in his
> column Stuntwatch: "What was the Bush administration's motivation
> in making the images public and how did the outcomes relate to the
> stated objectives? Since this is war, this is PR and the Uday and
> Qusay photograph incident, planned as a surgical media strike, has
> turned mucky (both in media and military terms) because no one had
> the sense to think through the PR implications properly. It's been
> a total PR disaster." The photos are part of a larger
> administration failure to convince the people of Iraq that war has
> been about their liberation. In addition, the grim pictures of
> reconstructed corpses have fueled wide ranging conspiracy theories
> in Iraq. "There's a strong likelihood these were Saddam's sons, I'm
> sure," Borkowski writes. "So why do so many people disbelieve it?
> Because the administration mismanaged the information and because -
> so bizarrely given the media history of this conflict - it was
> honest about the way in which it opted to manufacture an image to
> suit the needs of the media."
>SOURCE: Guardian, August 1, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059710400
>
>11. ANTI-PROPAGANDA IN THE U.S.
>http://www.publicdiplomacy.org/19.htm
> Americans' suspicion of official U.S. propaganda has a long
> history, observes John Brown, a former Foreign Service Officer.
> Brown traces this tradition to the public backlash against the
> campaign mounted by the Woodrow Wilson administration to promote
> support for U.S. entry into World War I. "Hitler admired Allied
> propaganda," he notes, but "the American public turned against it
> (and the administration that had created it) after the war." Brown
> suspects that this tradition may come back to haunt the Bush
> administration: "The euphoria over the 'victory' in Iraq is now
> replaced by increasing doubts about how the Bush administration
> justified and reported on the war. ... Letters to the editor in
> major newspapers complain that the Bush administration lied about
> the war. ... Americans' suspicions of propaganda by their own
> government have a long history. It would not be surprising if this
> anti-propaganda tradition were to resurface given the growing
> controversy over the reasons the Bush administration led the
> country into war."
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059670877
>
>12. PAYBACK
>http://www.hillnews.com/marshall/073003.aspx
> After retired diplomat Joe Wilson exposed the dishonesty of White
> House claims about Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Niger, senior
> administration officials retaliated by outing his wife, an
> undercover CIA agent. Senator Charles Schumer is calling for an
> investigation, pointing out that it is a felony to leak a CIA
> agent's identity. "By disclosing the identity of a reportedly
> senior undercover operative who is active in our nation's fight
> against the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD),
> Administration officials have possibly endangered Ms. Plame and her
> entire network of intelligence contacts in order to avoid political
> embarrassment," Schumer says.
>SOURCE: The Hill, July 30, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2003.html#1059537602
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059537602
>
>13. ALL ROADS LEAD TO PHRMA
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/30/politics/30DRUG.html?pagewanted=print&position=
> "When the House voted last week to let Americans import less
> expensive medicines from Canada and Europe, 53 senators signed a
> letter opposing the legislation, a letter that the industry trade
> group, which vigorously opposed the measure, hailed as proof of its
> argument that the bill would jeopardize patient safety," the New
> York Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports. "What the trade group, the
> Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, did not say,
> at the time, was that it helped coordinate the signature campaign.
> ... The trade group's involvement in gathering signatures, detailed
> in a document obtained by The Times, is not a surprise. It offers a
> glimpse into the aggressive efforts by the pharmaceutical
> manufacturers to defeat the import provision." PhRMA, one of
> Washington's most influential lobbying groups, has a record of
> hiding its lobbying activities, often by paying other organizations
> to promote its interests. With nearly 100 lobbyists registered to
> represent its interests last year, PhRMA is angering many
> lawmakers. "This is a multiarmed octopus we're dealing with," said
> Representative Gil Gutknecht, the Minnesota Republican who is the
> chief sponsor of the measure. Referring to the trade group, Mr.
> Gutknecht added, "All roads lead to Pharma."
>SOURCE: New York Times, July 30, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2003.html#1059537601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059537601
>
>14. DEATH OF A PR MAN
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/30/obituaries/30MCCR.html?pagewanted=print
> Tex McCrary, a legendary New York public relations man and
> political strategist who helped invent the talk-show format on
> radio and TV, has died at the age of 92. His obituary in the New
> York Times notes that McCrary helped elected President Eisenhower
> after serving as a public relations officer for the U.S. Army Air
> Corps during World War II. Richard Severo notes that McCrary also
> "became one of the first Americans to visit Hiroshima after the
> atomic bomb was dropped. He advised journalists not to write about
> what they had seen because he did not think Americans could stand
> to know 'what we've done here.' John Hersey later told the story
> for The New Yorker. 'I covered it up, and John Hersey uncovered
> it,' Mr. McCrary said years later. 'That's the difference between a
> PR man and a reporter.'"
>SOURCE: New York Times, July 30, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059537600
>
>15. FORMER GOVERNMENT FLACKS FIND CORPORATE PR PATH
>http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1058868228405
> Prime Minister Tony Blair's top spokesman Alastair Campbell's may
> be the next in a long line of government spinners to take a
> high-powered spot in corporate public relations. Rumors of
> Campbell's leaving No. 10 Downing Street, have him "being stalked
> by international agencies, keen to utilise his government and media
> contacts," the Financial Times reports. Campbell's potential career
> path is already well tread. Former White House press secretary Ari
> Fleischer will hang out his shingle as an advisor to top corporate
> executives. Clinton administration press secretary Mike McCurry now
> runs Grassroots Enterprise which offers "online technology and
> communications strategy to help clients achieve their public
> affairs objectives." "James Rubin, the former State Department
> spokesman, has become a partner at Brunswick, the UK's leading
> financial public relations company," the Times writes. "But such
> high-profile executives must be carefully managed to avoid becoming
> a liability rather than an asset. One colleague says: 'As a
> partner, Jamie's got to be able to bring in new business and
> sustain that business. But it's sensitive. You couldn't take him
> around the Middle East and expect to pick up Arab clients.'"
>SOURCE: Financial Times, July 29, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2003.html#1059451200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059451200
>
>16. SPINNING TO WIN
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/docu1.shtml
> BBC's World Service has begun airing the first of a three-part
> series titled "Spinning to Win," which looks at how governments
> have spun news and information to audiences at home and abroad in
> times of war. The series, which covers the period starting with
> World War II and ending with the recent war in Iraq, includes an
> interview with our very own PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton and is
> available for listening online. Of course, not everyone likes the
> show. Conservative columnist Barbara Amiel Black, whose husband
> Conrad owns the Hollinger International media conglomerate, thinks
> BBC should stifle itself.
>SOURCE: BBC World Service, July 28, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2003.html#1059364803
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059364803
>
>17. WIRED PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=186347&site=3
> "The US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (ACPD) unveiled a
> series of new proposals last week to increase America's presence
> overseas, while recognizing 21st century dangers and federal budget
> restraints," PR Week writes. "Center-stage was the 'virtual
> consulate,' a web-based service that facilitates interaction
> between citizens of remote foreign regions and the US government.
> Already functioning in a handful of Russian cities, virtual
> consulates require no physical US presence and perform
> approximately half the work of a full-service consulate. ... The
> recommendations come on the heels of a department-wide
> reconsideration of US public diplomacy, particularly in the Muslim
> world. A $15 million post-September 11 ad and outreach campaign
> spearheaded by ex-secretary for public diplomacy Charlotte Beers
> met with near-universal criticism and is currently under review by
> a congressionally mandated advisory group that will recommend
> changes in the fall. [Consul general Tom] Niblock cited the need to
> update US interaction with overseas audiences, saying traditional
> methods such as building embassies were 'big, heavy, and
> expensive.'"
>SOURCE: PR Week, July 28, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059364802
>
>18. KILLING THE MESSENGER IN GUATEMALA
>http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/6402220.htm
> Journalists in Guatemala have recently been attacked, one fatally,
> by mobs supporting former dictator Rios Montt who is campaigning to
> become the country's president. '"The press is the only functioning
> institution in this country. That is why they either have to
> control it or scare it,'" said Mario Antonio Sandoval, vice
> president of the daily Prensa Libre and president of the
> 6-month-old cable channel Guatevision.
>SOURCE: Miami Herald, July 27, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1059278400
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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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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