[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, October 1, 2003

>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, October 1, 2003
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. More Alarm at Plummeting U.S. Image
>2. What Is The Matrix?
>3. McDonald's Promotes Its "Healthy" Food
>4. PR Guru Says Iraq Occupation Needs a Marketing  Makeover
>5. What the Iraqis Want
>6. PR Plan For National Zoo
>7. The Other Lies of George Bush
>8. Global Warming Called 'Hoax' By Senator
>9. Iraq's Governing Council Bans Arab News Networks
>10. Clarke Embedded at CNN
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. MORE ALARM AT PLUMMETING U.S. IMAGE
>http://nytimes.com/2003/10/01/politics/01DIPL.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
>   The United States must drastically increase and overhaul its public
>   relations efforts to salvage its plummeting image among Muslims and
>   Arabs abroad, says a panel chosen by the Bush administration.
>   "Hostility toward America has reached shocking levels," states a
>   new report by the United States Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy
>   for the Arab and Muslim World.
>SOURCE: New York Times, October 1, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064980800
>
>2. WHAT IS THE MATRIX?
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0929matrix.htm
>   "Qorvis Communications is representing Seisint Inc., the Boca
>   Raton-based database company, that is home to the Matrix --
>   Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange -- which has privacy
>   advocates on edge," O'Dwyer's PR Reports. According to an
>   Associated Press story, the Matrix is similar to Admiral
>   Poindexter's ill-fated Terrorism Information Awareness program.
>   Receiving $12 million in federal funds, the Matrix pools government
>   records from 13 states and cross references them with private data.
>   Matrix boosters say it's a tool for state and local police. AP
>   report, however, that access may be given to the Central
>   Intelligence Agency, violating a 1970s law placed on the agency.
>   "Amber Zentis, of Qorvis, handles the Seisint account. She has more
>   than 25 years of experience in the private and public sectors, and
>   counseled Lockheed Martin on its 'smart card' initiative in
>   southern California," O'Dwyer's reports. Qorvis has received
>   frequent media attention for representing Saudi Arabia.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, September 29, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2003.html#1064808001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064808001
>
>3. MCDONALD'S PROMOTES ITS "HEALTHY" FOOD
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=191070&site=3
>   "Trying to capture the high ground in the nation's ongoing debate
>   over obesity and nutrition, McDonald's has teamed up with Oprah
>   Winfrey's personal trainer to demonstrate its commitment to healthy
>   foods and physical fitness," PR Week reports. McDonald's new "Go
>   Active" meal includes a salad, water or soda, a pedometer and an
>   information booklet by Winfrey's trainer Bob Greene. According to
>   PR Week, the affiliation with Greene and the new meal are part of
>   an "effort to exert leadership in another area of social
>   responsibility. We feel it's our obligation to go out there and
>   help change the discussion," said Mike Donahue, VP, US
>   communications and customer satisfaction at McDonald's. Greene is
>   doing media interviews on behalf of McDonald's and is scheduled to
>   speak to members of the American Dietetic Association. "McDonald's
>   says its new salad line has been a hit with mothers of young
>   children and feels that Greene's association with Oprah should help
>   it continue to be a draw for that group," PR Week reports.
>SOURCE: PR Week, September 29, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064808000
>
>4. PR GURU SAYS IRAQ OCCUPATION NEEDS A MARKETING  MAKEOVER
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/weekinreview/28BUMI.html?ex=1065856007&ei=1&en=6c5d8b15d9bffcf8
>   What should President Bush do now that the propaganda that deceived
>   a nation into war is being exposed? G. Clotaire Rapaille, a
>   marketing expert whose work we describe in our book Weapons of Mass
>   Deception, told the New York Times that "The important thing is to
>   tell a story. 'I would have an Iraqi child, and I would make a hero
>   of this child. And then we have him on television telling, `Today I
>   went to school, I talked to my grandmother, and this is what my
>   future is going to be now. I want to study, I want to become an
>   engineer.' Then we can have e-mails sent to this child, we create
>   connections. So that's for one day.' The next day, Mr. Rapaille
>   said, the president's advisers should find a young Iraqi woman who
>   wants to be married and have children, and they should put her on
>   television with the message, 'now there is peace, she can do just
>   that.' The next week, Mr. Rapaille said, 'we have a guy who wants
>   to start a shop to repair cars.' Or as Mr. Rapaille concluded, in
>   the words of a true salesman, 'Right now it's not that the
>   president is not good, it's that the story is bad.' "
>SOURCE: New York Times, September 29, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2003.html#1064721601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064721601
>
>5. WHAT THE IRAQIS WANT
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14545-2003Sep28.html
>   Top Bush administration officials have been citing a pair of public
>   opinion polls conducted in Iraq to demonstrate that Iraqis have a
>   positive view of the U.S. occupation, but Walter Pincus points out
>   that the polls actually show Iraqis have a less enthusiastic view
>   than the administration has portrayed. According to one poll, "only
>   33 percent thought they were better off than they were before the
>   invasion and 47 percent said they were worse off," Pincus writes.
>   "And 94 percent said that Baghdad was a more dangerous place for
>   them to live, a finding the administration officials did not
>   discuss. The poll also found that 29 percent of Baghdad residents
>   had a favorable view of the United States, while 44 percent had a
>   negative view. By comparison, 55 percent had a favorable view of
>   France."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, September 28, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064721600
>
>6. PR PLAN FOR NATIONAL ZOO
>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/eveningnews/main575409.shtml
>   "While officials at Washington D.C.'s National Zoo are trying to
>   keep the public's focus on the positive, behind the scenes they've
>   begun a massive public relations campaign to manage the fallout
>   from the rash of unusual, and unnatural animal deaths," CBS News'
>   Sharyl Attkisson reports. The zoo has hired PR giant Hill &
>   Knowlton to help shape its response to Washington Post stories
>   scrutinizing it. CBS reports, the PR plan sseks to protect zoo
>   director Lucy Spelman and prevent "worst-case scenarios," including
>   more media stories and animal rights groups getting involved. It
>   also suggests recruiting third parties to "independently call the
>   media" and pen letters to the editor. According to an internal memo
>   obtained by CBS News, Spelman instructed employees to gather
>   personal background information on reporters covering the zoo. Hill
>   & Knowlton's bill of $50,000 was paid for by Friends of the
>   National Zoo.
>SOURCE: CBS News, September 26, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2003.html#1064548800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064548800
>
>7. THE OTHER LIES OF GEORGE BUSH
>http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031013&s=corn
>   "George W. Bush is a liar. He has lied large and small, directly
>   and by omission," David Corn writes in the Nation. "Bush's
>   truth-defying crusade for war did not mark a shift for him.
>   Throughout his campaign for the presidency and his years in the
>   White House, Bush has mugged the truth in many other areas to
>   advance his agenda. Lying has been one of the essential tools of
>   his presidency. To call the forty-third President of the United
>   States a prevaricator is not an exercise of opinion, not an
>   inflammatory talk-radio device. Rather, it is backed up by an
>   all-too-extensive record of self-serving falsifications." Corn list
>   of Bush's lies covers tax cuts, the environment and 9/11, but Corn
>   says the list could be much, much longer. "Bush campaigned for the
>   presidency as the fellow who would bring honesty back to the White
>   House. ... Bush's promise was a lie. The future of the United
>   States remains in the hands of a dishonest man," Corn writes.
>SOURCE: The Nation, September 25, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064462400
>
>8. GLOBAL WARMING CALLED 'HOAX' BY SENATOR
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/politics/24LEAV.html
>   George W. Bush's White House has been charged repeatedly with using
>   its influence to undermine environmental protection. The Senate
>   confirmation hearing on Bush's nomination of Utah Governor Michael
>   Leavitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency provided
>   another forum for scrutinizing Bush's environmental record,
>   according to the New York Times. Senate Environment and Public
>   Works Committee chair James Inhofe (R-OK) firmly denied
>   environmentalists' claims as baseless, at one point saying the
>   concept of global warming "could be the greatest hoax ever
>   perpetrated on the American people," the Times reports. The same
>   day the Times reported on the disintegration of an ancient Arctic
>   ice shelf. "[Researchers] said it was not yet possible to say
>   whether the melting was related to rising atmospheric
>   concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases from human
>   activities. But they added that the breakup was just one of many
>   signs of enormous climate shifts in the Arctic that merited careful
>   monitoring," the Times reports.
>SOURCE: New York Times, September 24, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2003.html#1064376001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064376001
>
>9. IRAQ'S GOVERNING COUNCIL BANS ARAB NEWS NETWORKS
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55271-2003Sep23.html
>   "Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council today temporarily banned
>   two popular Arab satellite television stations from covering the
>   council's news conferences and entering government ministries
>   because of what it called 'irresponsible activities' that threaten
>   the country's 'democracy and stability' and encourage terrorism,"
>   the Washington Post reports. Al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya were slapped
>   with a two-week "penalty" for allegedly violating "media-conduct
>   rules," which were outlined for the first time in today's edict.
>   "Those rules include a ban on statements promoting the return of
>   the Baath Party or provoking sectarian strife," the Post writes.
>   "The U.S. civil administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, has issued
>   an order banning any incitement to violence, including through
>   media outlets, but the reporting of such statements by journalists
>   has so far not been deemed to violate that rule. The council's
>   decision, however, does not include any exemption for simply
>   reporting the statements of resistance groups." This action
>   contrasts a now common administration retort to anti-war hecklers
>   -- used recently by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the
>   National Press Club and yesterday by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
>   Wolfowitz at a talk at New York's New School University -- that
>   Iraqis are now also enjoying the right of free speech and a free
>   press.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, September 24, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2003.html#1064376000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064376000
>
>10. CLARKE EMBEDDED AT CNN
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49051-2003Sep22.html
>   Victoria Clarke, the former Pentagon spokesperson credited with
>   developing its journalist "embedding" strategy during the war in
>   Iraq, has gone to work as a commentator for CNN. Clarke says that
>   the Pentagon ought to reactivate the embedding program to counter
>   negative media reports on the war. What she isn't saying is that
>   the Pentagon cut back the embedding program after troops in the
>   field began talking freely to reporters about morale problems and
>   mismanagement of the war.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, September 22, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2003.html#1064203202
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1064203202
>
>
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