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[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Wed Oct 29 10:56:20 GMT 2003
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, October 29, 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. This is Your Brain on Public Relations
>2. Right Wing Collegians
>3. Buying Your Way Into Airline "Radio News"
>4. Oh My! News!
>5. Hearts and Minds in Hostland
>6. Is Media Bias a Dumb Debate?
>7. Breast Cancer Action Vs. Corporate "Pinkwashing"
>8. BP & B-M in the UK: Greenwashers Under Fire
>9. From Election Flack to War Flack and Back Again
>10. Scientist Resigns Over EPA's 'Wetlands Pollute' Study
>11. Muppets for Peace
>12. Curtains for Coffins
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON PUBLIC RELATIONS
>http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17034
> The Environmental Working Group has obtained and analyzed documents
> from a briefing book assembled by Frank Luntz, a top public opinion
> researcher for corporate lobbyists. The briefing book offers a PR
> playbook on how to frame the current wholesale rollback of
> environmental and public health protections while avoiding a
> stinging public backlash. "It can be helpful to think of
> environmental and other issues in terms of 'story,'" Luntz advises.
> "A compelling story, even if factually inaccurate, can be more
> emotionally compelling than a dry recitation of the truth. ... The
> facts are beside the point. It's all in how you frame your
> argument."
>SOURCE: Alternet, October 28, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067317200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067317200
>
>2. RIGHT WING COLLEGIANS
>http://www.wiretapmag.org/story.html?StoryID=17041
> The student editor of the California Patriot, a right-wing student
> newspaper at the University of California-Berkeley, claims that
> conservatives are the true heirs to the university's free speech
> movement of the 1960s. "The conservatives on Berkeley's campus have
> employed various strategies in order to insert their views --
> whether they're wanted or not -- into campus debates," writes
> Michael Gaworecki. "They feel that linking themselves to the Free
> Speech Movement is key to their cause, and employ leftist rhetoric
> accordingly." But unlike the movement of the 1960s, which was
> homegrown, "here is a large network of well-entrenched,
> well-funded, national foundations and organizations sponsoring
> publications like the Patriot." Organizations like the
> Intercollegiate Studies Institute's Collegiate Network, the
> Leadership Institute, Young America's Foundation, and Young
> Americans for Freedom offer training, financial subsidies,
> assistance with public relations on campus, and even editing
> stories if they need it to neo-conservative campus journalists,
> along with a network for getting jobs after they graduate.
>SOURCE: Wiretap Magazine, October 27, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067230801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067230801
>
>3. BUYING YOUR WAY INTO AIRLINE "RADIO NEWS"
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/27/business/media/27radio.html?ei=1&en=b7f664f007a87eda&ex=1068312025&pagewanted=print&position=
> "The caller to Joanne Doroshow's office last month described
> himself as working for Sky Radio Network, a company that produces
> programming for Forbes Radio, one of the audio channels available
> to passengers on American Airlines. As the executive director of
> the Center for Justice and Democracy, a nonprofit organization that
> casts itself as a champion of consumer rights, Ms. Doroshow was
> asked if she would be interviewed for a talk show examining the
> issue of tort reform. When Ms. Doroshow agreed, she said, the
> caller informed her that it would cost her organization $5,900 to
> have its point of view heard. When Ms. Doroshow balked, she said,
> the caller offered to see if it could be reduced to $3,500. 'I was
> furious,' Ms. Doroshow said. 'I thought this was another way
> corporations are dominating what people hear, and are getting only
> their side presented because they're willing to pay for it.' "
>SOURCE: New York Times, October 27, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067230800
>
>4. OH MY! NEWS!
>http://www.japanmediareview.com/japan/internet/1063672919.php
> Three years ago, a crew of four people quietly launched the South
> Korean "citizen journalism" Web site OhmyNews. Since then, its
> staff has grown to 53, and the number of "citizen reporters"
> writing for the site has grown from 700 to about 26,700, with about
> 1 million readers each day. Its experiment with grassroots-led
> journalism has transformed Korean politics. "OhmyNews is
> transforming the 20th century's journalism-as-lecture model --
> where organizations tell the audience what the news is and the
> audience either buys it or doesn't -- into something vastly more
> bottom-up, interactive and democratic," says San Jose Mercury News
> columnist Dan Gillmor. In an interview with the Japan Media Review,
> OhmyNews founder Oh Yeon-Ho explains how he got started. "I had
> confidence that citizen participation in journalism was something
> that citizens currently desired. But I could not imagine that the
> fire would spring into a blaze in such a short time," he says.
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067205719
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067205719
>
>5. HEARTS AND MINDS IN HOSTLAND
>http://archive.org/movies/movies-details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=20986a&from=mainPicks
> The Internet Archive has unearthed a U.S. military training film
> from 1968 showing psychological operations (psyops) in a mythical
> country called "Hostland," where U.S. advisors want help the host
> government gain the support of its population. "Psychologically,
> the military in every country in the world represents government
> authority," it explains as it shows images of a gray-haired
> diplomat meeting with generals. "As promised by the ambassador, a
> team of military advisors arrives in Hostland," the film continues.
> The psyops expert "reviews the psychological objectives the United
> States hopes to achieve," studies the population, identifies target
> audiences, and plans a combination of media, cultural, and economic
> development initiatives. "Prisoners are interrogated with special
> questionnaires that give clues toward their reaction to the
> psychological effort directed toward them," continues the second
> part of the film. "The psychological program must be constantly
> updated. As the people are affected by the program, so the program
> is affected by their changes in attitudes. A successful psyop
> program will make them perceive things from the desired viewpoint."
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067107225
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067107225
>
>6. IS MEDIA BIAS A DUMB DEBATE?
>http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2003/10/24/bias_questions.html
> "Denouncing bias in the media has become a dumb instrument. The
> cases keep coming. The charges keep flying. Often the subject -
> journalism - disappears," NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen. Rosen
> poses six questions about the bias question, and two answers.
> "Liberal spin. Corporate spin. Texas spin. Zionist spin. Republican
> spin. Hollywood spin. American spin. Anti-American spin. We want it
> out, out, out. Spin, that's bad," Rosen writes. " But critics smart
> enough to detect spin are smart enough to see--and in fact, they do
> see--that claiming, 'they're spinning!' has itself become a form of
> spin, a popular one, which would seem to throw spin detection,
> never a clear cut thing, into total incoherence. Does that bother
> you, or is it only my spin?"
>SOURCE: PressThink, October 24, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1066968001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1066968001
>
>7. BREAST CANCER ACTION VS. CORPORATE "PINKWASHING"
>http://www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org/
> "To draw attention to the troubling trend of corporate
> 'pinkwashing,' Breast Cancer Action, a national grassroots breast
> cancer advocacy organization, is running an ad in the national
> edition of the New York Times questioning some high-profile
> corporate marketing campaigns launched in connection with Breast
> Cancer Awareness Month. 'We're not opposed to companies raising
> money for the cause,' said Barbara Brenner, Breast Cancer Action's
> executive director. 'We're concerned about companies claiming to
> support the fight against breast cancer while manufacturing
> products that may be contributing to rising rates of the disease.
> They can't have it both ways.' Breast Cancer Action offers examples
> of corporate 'pinkwashers': Cosmetics companies such as Avon,
> Revlon, Estee Lauder, and Mary Kay all direct a percentage of their
> profits toward efforts against breast cancer. They also manufacture
> products containing phthalates and/or parabens, hormone-disrupting
> chemicals that may affect the development of cancer. 'As long as we
> believe we're doing something meaningful about breast cancer by
> buying into these corporate marketing schemes, the real work that
> needs to be done around treatment, access to care, and true
> prevention will continue to be under-funded and ignored,' said
> Brenner."
>SOURCE: BCA news release, October 24, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1066968000
>
>8. BP & B-M IN THE UK: GREENWASHERS UNDER FIRE
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,12188,1068777,00.html
> In Britain "Burson-Marsteller, the public relations agency used by
> the oil, GM, tobacco and chemical industries, is to represent the
> government's pollution watchdog, in a move that environmentalists
> yesterday described as 'barmy'." B-M's clients have included
> biotech behemoth Monsanto, and B-M's spying on food activists in
> the US in 1990 inspired the founding of PR Watch. Green activists
> in Britain are also blowing the whistle on the PR strategies of BP
> -- British Petroleum -- the oil giant that has marketed itself as
> "Beyond Petroleum." Activists in the group Rising Tide are
> demonstrating and leafleting, noting that "BP invests less than 1%
> of its annual budget on solar and other renewable energy sources, a
> great deal less than they spend on advertising and public
> relations." B-M, BP and other greenwashing corporations have long
> been pursuing a strategy of co-opting UK environmental activists,
> as Andy Rowell has reported in PR Watch. In 2002 Lord Peter
> Melchett, former head of Greenpeace UK, joined B-M.
>SOURCE: Guardian, October 23, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1066881600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1066881600
>
>9. FROM ELECTION FLACK TO WAR FLACK AND BACK AGAIN
>http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2003/10/22/wilkinson/
> White House advisor Karl Rove has selected Jim Wilkinson, the
> 33-year-old Texan who headed communications and press relations for
> the U.S. Central Command in Qatar during the Iraq invasion, as
> communications director for the 2004 Republican National Convention
> in New York. A profile of Wilkinson in the New York Observer notes
> that he previously worked for Republican Congressman Dick Armey
> under Ed Gillespie, now chairman of the Republican National
> Committee. During the last presidential election, Wilkinson helped
> package and promote the false notion that Al Gore claimed to have
> "invented the Internet," and later helped Republican protesters
> shut down the vote recount in Florida.
>SOURCE: Salon.com, October 22, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1066795201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1066795201
>
>10. SCIENTIST RESIGNS OVER EPA'S 'WETLANDS POLLUTE' STUDY
>http://www.peer.org/press/403.html
> "A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency biologist has resigned in
> protest of his agency's acceptance of a developer-financed study
> concluding that wetlands discharge more pollutants than they
> absorb, according to a statement released today by Public Employees
> for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). EPA's approval of the
> study gives developers credit for improving water quality by
> replacing natural wetlands with golf courses and other
> developments. ... Bruce Boler, a former state water quality
> specialist, resigned after three years with EPA. ... PEER is
> leading a coalition of environmental groups seeking to stop ten
> projects in the Western Everglades that would destroy more than
> 2,000 acres of wetlands. 'EPA's new position that wetlands pollute
> stands the Clean Water Act on its head and sends the all-clear
> signal to developers that no project is out of bounds.' "
>SOURCE: PEER News Release, October 22, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1066795200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1066795200
>
>11. MUPPETS FOR PEACE
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1067447,00.html
> "Sesame Street's Big Bird is hoping to triumph where George Bush,
> Tony Blair and numerous heads of state have failed, by bringing
> peace to the Middle East," reports Julia Day. The children's TV
> show is preparing a series of programs for broadcast in Israel,
> Jordan and the Palestinian territories, promoting cooperation,
> respect for others and self-esteem.
>SOURCE: Guardian (UK), October 21, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1066708801
>
>12. CURTAINS FOR COFFINS
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55816-2003Oct20?language=printer
> "Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that
> their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed
> the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped
> caskets," writes Dana Milbank. "To this problem, the Bush
> administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public
> dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and
> photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, October 21, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1066708800
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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Carpentier Nico (Phd)
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<http://www.kubrussel.ac.be/>Katholieke Universiteit Brussel - Catholic
University of Brussels
Vrijheidslaan 17 - B-1081 Brussel - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-412.42.78
Office: 4/0/18
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Media Sociology (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.30
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Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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