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[eccr] fwd:The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Thu Aug 28 17:28:36 GMT 2003


THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, August 27, 2003
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS

1. Movie Industry Courts Congressmen
2. White House Defends Iraq Plan
3. EPA Failed New Yorkers On Post-9/11 Air Quality
4. Fox's Suit Sells More Books
5. Consumers Trust Media Reports Over Advertising
6. Fox's Lying Liars Lose in Court
7. Patriot Act Campaign May Violate Anti-Lobbying Act
8. Lumber Company Launches Greenwashing Campaign
9. When Propagandists Believe Their Own Propaganda
10. The Washington 'PR'ess Corps
11. State Department Eyes Internet Ads
12. One Hundred Days of Ineptitude
13. Ashcroft's Charm Offensive
14. It's Still A Cow-Eat-Cow World in North America
15. Hot Flush for Big Pharma
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1. MOVIE INDUSTRY COURTS CONGRESSMEN
  The Motion Picture Association of America is courting two
  Congressmen involved with deregulating the movie industry's
  corporate parents. Up for grabs is MPAA's $1.15 million lobbying
  job. Top candidates for the post are Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), who
  oversees the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the House
  and champions an FCC ruling loosening station ownership limits, and
  Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), who is on the record opposing efforts to
  roll back that FCC ruling in the Senate. "It's obscene for Tauzin
  and Breaux to be in the running for the MPAA, the fattest media
  lobbying job in Washington, while advocating in Congress on behalf
  of companies that control the MPAA," said Robert McChesney,
  Professor of Communications at the University of Illinois at
  Urbana-Champaign. "It tends to confirm what the vast majority of
  Americans have suspected - relaxed media ownership rules are an
  X-rated exercise in power and influence." Also of concern is that
  the top MPAA contenders have taken at least $217,500 in tobacco
  money. Tobocco control activists say, "Big Tobacco depends on
  smoking scenes in youth-rated movies to recruit more than half of
  all new young smokers." 
SOURCE: UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education Press Release, August 26, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061870402

2. WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS IRAQ PLAN
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44757-2003Aug25.html
  As the American death count continues to rise in Iraq, the White
  House has launched a campaign to defend its handling of the Iraq
  occupation, addressing a number of different veterans groups. The
  number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the May 1 "end of
  major combat operations" has surpassed the number of troop deaths
  during "Operation Iraqi Freedom," begun March 19. National security
  adviser Condoleezza Rice told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention
  in Texas that the public needs to be patient, the Washington Post
  reports. "Transformation in the Middle East will require a
  commitment of many years," Rice said. "The transformation of the
  Middle East is the only guarantee that it will no longer produce
  ideologies of hatred that lead men to fly airplanes into buildings
  in New York or Washington." Addressing the American Legion
  convention in St. Louis,  George W. Bush pledged to continue
  fighting the "war on terrorism." "No nation can be neutral in the
  struggle between civilization and chaos," Bush said. 
SOURCE: Washington Post, August 26, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
   http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1061870401
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061870401

3. EPA FAILED NEW YORKERS ON POST-9/11 AIR QUALITY
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/112247p-101268c.html
  Nearly two years after the collapse of the World Trade Center, the
  Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general reports that
  the failure of EPA officials to properly inform New Yorkers of the
  dangers of the fallout can be traced to inside the White House.
  "The news that White House staff ordered the EPA to minimize
  potential health dangers near Ground Zero was bad enough," NY Daily
  News' Juan Gonzalez writes. "But the details in the 165-page report
  about how the EPA lied to the public - and even subverted its own
  safety standards in the process - are chilling. The original draft
  of a Sept. 13, 2001, EPA press release, for example, stated, 'Even
  at low levels, EPA considers asbestos hazardous in this situation
  ...' Staff members at the White House Council on Environmental
  Quality turned those words upside down. 'Short-term, low-level
  exposure [to asbestos] of the type that might have been produced by
  the collapse of theWorld Trade Center buildings is unlikely to
  cause significant health effects,' the revised report stated."
  Gonzalez told Democracy Now! that the man in charge of the Council
  on Environmental Quality, James Connaughton, prior to his June 2001
  White House appointment earned his living as a lawyer defending
  asbestos polluting companies and other industrial polluters. 
SOURCE: New York Daily News, August 26, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
   http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1061870400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061870400

4. FOX'S SUIT SELLS MORE BOOKS
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=188420&site=3
  "I'd love to make the case that Fox News will suffer irreparable
  damage to its reputation as a result of its frivolous lawsuit
  against satirist and author Al Franken, but I can't," writes Paul
  Holmes for PR Week. "Because the kind of people who take Fox News
  seriously won't care, and the kind of people who care are already
  incapable of taking Fox News seriously. ... The suit is rich in
  irony, from the fact that Fox News can trademark a phrase so
  unrelated to its true agenda (it's as if Larry Flynt had
  trademarked the phrase 'tasteful and modest') to the fact that
  O'Reilly can accuse anyone of launching 'gratuitous personal
  attacks' to the fact that right-wing Fox, which is opposed to
  frivolous lawsuits, would itself launch one of the most frivolous
  in living memory. (Even The Wall Street Journal editorial page
  found the suit ridiculous.) ... In fact, the only impact of the
  suit will be that Franken's book sells many more copies than it
  could without the publicity - it's already shot to number five on
  Amazon's bestseller list."
SOURCE: PR Week, August 25, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
   http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1061784001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061784001

5. CONSUMERS TRUST MEDIA REPORTS OVER ADVERTISING
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=188359&site=3
  "A clear majority of American consumers are more likely to trust
  media reports than advertising, according to a nationwide poll
  conducted by consumer research company RoperASW last month," PR
  Week writes. "The study ... showed that 68% of participants place
  more weight on news coverage than advertising when determining
  their trust of individual companies. While just 23% of respondents
  said they consider the two to be of equal value, a mere 9% called
  advertising more important." While this may come as no surprise,
  it's a boon for PR firms, often vying with advertisers for
  corporate dollars. "We wanted to demonstrate the best way for a
  company to rebuild the consumer trust that's been taken away by the
  recent corporate scandals," explained Ron Hanser, president of
  Hanser & Associates, which sponsored the survey. Among other
  results, the survey found that trust in the media also appeared to
  rise with education and income level. 
SOURCE: PR Week, August 25, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061784000

6. FOX'S LYING LIARS LOSE IN COURT
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/08/23/fox.franken/
  A federal judge has ruled against Fox News in its lawsuit
  attempting to suppress publication of liberal satirist Al Franken's
  book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced
  Look at the Right. Franken's book rose to the top of Amazon.com's
  bestseller list after Fox filed the suit, in which it claims that
  the title of the book infringes upon its trademarked slogan, "fair
  and balanced." According to Peter Ames Carlin, Fox commentator Bill
  O'Reilly is still lying about one of the lies that Franken exposes
  in his book, in which O'Reilly falsely claimed to have received a
  prestigious Peabody Award for journalism. "O'Reilly had nothing to
  do with the award," Carlin writes. "He should take responsibility
  for claiming otherwise. Instead, he's attacking Al Franken and
  trying to bully me into changing the record for him."
SOURCE: CNN, August 23, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
   http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1061611200
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061611200

7. PATRIOT ACT CAMPAIGN MAY VIOLATE ANTI-LOBBYING ACT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28849-2003Aug21.html
  "The Justice Department has urged U.S. attorneys to contact
  congressional representatives who voted against a key
  anti-terrorism provision of the USA Patriot Act," the Washington
  Post's Dan Eggen reports. "An Aug. 14 memorandum from Guy A. Lewis,
  director of the executive office for United States Attorneys,
  encourages federal prosecutors 'to call personally or meet with ...
  congressional representatives' to discuss 'the potentially
  deleterious effects' of an amendment approved in the House last
  month that would cut off funding for 'sneak and peek' warrants in
  terrorism cases. Attached to the memo is a list of names and
  telephone numbers of House members, with an asterisk next to the
  names of those who voted in favor of the amendment .... Justice
  officials said they believe the effort does not violate the
  Anti-Lobbying Act, which generally prohibits government employees
  from lobbying for or against legislation. But Rep. John Conyers Jr.
  (Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee,
  wrote a letter to Attorney General John D. Ashcroft yesterday
  questioning whether a current speaking tour by Ashcroft and
  contacts between U.S. attorneys and members of Congress amount to a
  violation of the law." 
SOURCE: August 22, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061524803

8. LUMBER COMPANY LAUNCHES GREENWASHING CAMPAIGN
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/6592059.htm
  "Pacific Lumber, the Northern California redwood logging giant
  whose clear-cuts have made it among the most vilified companies in
  the West by environmental groups over the past 15 years, is getting
  a makeover," the San Jose Mercury News writes. "Famous for enduring
  tree-sitting protesters, threatening to chop down the ancient
  Headwaters Forest, and facing constant lawsuits, Pacific Lumber has
  unveiled a new 'rebranding' campaign to repaint its image green."
  The company, now known as "Palco", has a new green logo, revamped
  website and newspaper ads featuring loggers replanting trees. But
  critics still laugh at Palco being environmentally friendly. "If
  Palco's green, I'm Princess Diana," Kathy Bailey, a Sierra Club
  logging activist in Mendocino County, told the Mercury News. "These
  kind of campaigns usually succeed in making employees feel better,"
  Eric Dezenhall, president of the crisis communications firm
  Nichols-Dezenhall, told the Mercury News. "But the public knows oil
  companies drill for oil and timber companies chop wood. I haven't
  in 20 years found campaigns to appease one's attackers to be that
  effective."
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, August 22, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
   http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1061524802
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061524802

9. WHEN PROPAGANDISTS BELIEVE THEIR OWN PROPAGANDA
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29303-2003Aug21.html
  "Perhaps even more disturbing than the administration's
  indifference to the truth or falsity of the various claims it made
  before the war is the fact that it seemed to believe its own
  propaganda," the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne, Jr. writes.
  "President Bush and Vice President Cheney really thought that if
  they wished it, it would come -- 'it' in this case being not only a
  quick victory in the war but also a rapid rallying of Iraqis to the
  American standard afterward. Last March on 'Meet the Press,'
  moderator Tim Russert asked Cheney: 'If your analysis is not
  correct and we're not treated as liberators but as conquerors, and
  the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think
  the American people are prepared for a long, costly, bloody battle
  with significant American casualties?' Cheney replied: 'Well, I
  don't think it's likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really
  do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.'" 
SOURCE: Washington Post, August 22, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061524801

10. THE WASHINGTON 'PR'ESS CORPS
http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/printStoryId.aspx?StoryId=3384
  "The U.S. media model works beautifully: For the governing, that is
  -- not the governed," writes Stephan Richter for the Globalist.
  "What is truly shocking about the state of the U.S. media today is
  that, to an amazing extent, the belief to restrict themselves to
  the facts -- as they are provided by the government -- is willingly
  accepted by the mainstream U.S. media. ... In most countries around
  the world, journalists choose their profession with a proud claim
  that they are part of a permanent opposition. They act as a
  checks-and-balances mechanism for those in power -- and ask vital
  questions concerning the nation's future. It is high time for many
  in the U.S. media establishment to reconsider their
  establishment-enhancing ways. The media must once again learn to be
  critical." 
SOURCE: The Globalist, August 22, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061524800

11. STATE DEPARTMENT EYES INTERNET ADS
http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0821state_ads.htm
  The State Department has issued a request for proposals for "an
  advertising campaign targeting Arab-language media on the web with
  the goal of explaining U.S. policy in the Middle East," O'Dwyer's
  PR Daily reports. "As part of that work, State also wants to pitch
  its 'Rebuilding Afghanistan' Arabic site to show that 'the U.S.
  follows through with its obligations and promises,' according to a
  copy of the proposal. The two-month campaign would target seven to
  ten key Arabic portals, identified by the government to possibly
  include Al-Jazeera (Qatar), MSN Arabia, CNN's Arabic site, Asharq
  Al-Awsat (London), Al Bahhar (United Arab Emirates), and other
  sites based in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Ads, which are to
  include banners, skyscrapers and pop-ups, are required to show the
  U.S. flag and the URL for the State Dept. website being pitched."
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, August 21, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061438400

12. ONE HUNDRED DAYS OF INEPTITUDE
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/20/opinion/20DOWD.html
  The vacationing George W. Bush recently said from his Crawford,
  Texas ranch, "We've made a lot of progress" in Iraq. The
  pronouncement was timed with the White House release of a 24-page
  report called "Results in Iraq: 100 Days Toward Security and
  Freedom". Detailing "highlights of the successes" in Iraq, the
  report -- prepared by the White House Office of Global
  Communications and the staff of L. Paul Bremer, the U.S.
  administrator in Iraq -- makes claims that "differ significantly
  from the dozens of daily reports filed by journalists on the
  ground," WorkingforChange.com's Bill Berkowitz writes. "One of the
  things the terrorists in Baghdad and Jerusalem blew up yesterday
  was the credibility of the Panglossian Bush version of what's
  happening in the Middle East," the New York Times' Maureen Dowd
  writes. "In yet another spun-up government document on Iraq, the
  White House listed 100 ways that things were going great in the 100
  days we've been on the scene. The report burbled with gimcrackery
  about the '10 signs of better infrastructure' -- days before an oil
  pipeline and then a water pipeline were blown up -- and about
  soccer balls and science textbooks."
SOURCE: New York Times, August 20, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
   http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1061352001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061352001

13. ASHCROFT'S CHARM OFFENSIVE
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0308200339aug20,1,7484795.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
  U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recently launched a national
  campaign to dismiss growing criticism of the controversial USA
  Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law passed after the September 11
  attacks. Speaking at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute,
  Ashcroft said, "To abandon this tool would disconnect the dots,
  risk American lives and liberty, and reject Sept. 11th's lessons."
  The Department of Justice Patriot Act website is
  LifeandLiberty.gov. Ashcroft will take the life and liberty message
  to police and prosecutors in a dozen cities in the next few weeks.
  The Chicago Tribune reports the ACLU's Laura Murphy said that
  Ashcroft's effort was merely a "charm offensive" to "favorably spin
  policies violative of civil liberties." "Although the Department of
  Justice is understandably reluctant to admit it, the real
  significance of this road show is that it shows the Patriot Act is
  becoming a kitchen table issue," Murphy said. 
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, August 20, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
   http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1061352000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061352000

14. IT'S STILL A COW-EAT-COW WORLD IN NORTH AMERICA
http://www.maddeer.org/coweatcowworld.html
  "Why isn't the F.D.A. adopting the same rules as the European Union
  to protect Americans from Mad Cow Disease? Since 1996, Chicago Life
  readers have been learning about a very serious human and animal
  health issue, Mad Cow disease spurned by most media. The facts
  surrounding this issue are being heavily spun by government
  agencies and?representatives of the multi-billion dollar livestock
  industry. Most Americans probably think that the United States has
  been doing everything it can to prevent?Mad Cow disease from
  emerging here, but that is not the case, according to?John
  Stauber, co-author of Mad Cow U.S.A."
SOURCE: Chicago Life Magazine, August 17, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
   http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2003.html#1061092800
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061092800

15. HOT FLUSH FOR BIG PHARMA
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7411/400?eaf
  The sale of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to women is a
  multi-billion dollar cash cow for the pharmaceutical industry. What
  will its PR machine do in the face of evidence that long-term HRT
  use increases women's risk of blood clots, strokes, heart attacks,
  breast cancer, and dementia, and has no quality of life benefits?
  Jocalyn Clark recounts the history of the industry's campaign to
  "medicalize menopause," beginning in the 1960s when Wyeth, which
  accounts for more than 70% of the global HRT market, subsidized the
  publication of a book titled Forever Feminine, which touted hormone
  replacements as a virtual fountain of youth for the "dull and
  unattractive" aging woman. More recently, PR firms such as RED
  Consultancy, the Social Issues Research Centre, and Haas & Health
  Partner have orchestrated testimonials from celebrities and
  industry-funded nonprofit organizations to downplay evidence of
  HRT's health risks and convince women that it will give them better
  careers, relationships, health and sex lives.
SOURCE: British Medical Journal, August 16, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
   http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1061006400


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