[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, November 19, 2003

>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, November 19, 2003
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. Bush + Blair = Weapons of Mass Deception
>2. Eskew Exits White House
>3. Propaganda 101:  Falsely Linking Iraq to 9/11
>4. McDonald's Scores PR Week's 'PR Play of the Week'
>5. Tutwiler Confirmed As Public Diplomacy Head
>6. Brits Won't Let Bush Shoot Them
>7. Rumsfeld's Propaganda Ministry
>8. The Memory Hole
>9. Invited Trespassers
>10. Jumpy G.I.s Start Jumping Journalists
>11. Crisis PR for Chi-Chi's
>12. Republican PR Man Promotes Iraqi Lawyer's Book
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. BUSH + BLAIR = WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
>http://www.stopwar.org.uk/press.asp
>   President Bush is in London where he will face days of public
>   protests by many tens of thousands of Brits outraged over US
>   policies on Iraq. Our book Weapons of Mass Deception spent eight
>   weeks on the New York Times extended best seller list despite
>   little attention in the mainstream US media, but relative to
>   population size its sales have been even stronger in the UK.
>   According to the Times of London it is one of the best selling
>   books on the war. The Stop the War Coalition is featuring it as a
>   resource for peace noting that "Rampton and Stauber reveal in
>   chilling detail how public relations experts in the Bush
>   Administration acted deliberately to distort the news, to suppress
>   the facts and to push an America still shocked by the attacks of
>   9/11 into war in Iraq. They build a damning case against the
>   mainstream media, and its failure to challenge the White House over
>   its most blatant lies and evasions."
>SOURCE: Stop the War Coalition website, November 18, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1069131602
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1069131602
>
>2. ESKEW EXITS WHITE HOUSE
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1118tucker.htm
>   Tucker Eskew, director of the White House Office of Global
>   Communications, is leaving his job to set up a Washington,
>   D.C.-based consulting firm, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. Eskew was a
>   key player in the Bush administration's campaign to sell the Iraq
>   invasion. O'Dwyer's writes, "He told USA Today in December 2001
>   that his job was to 'stop big lies and to promote great truths.'"
>   According to the Associated Press, Eskew plans to advise and serve
>   as foreign policy surrogate for Bush's reelection campaign. Before
>   leading the OGC, Eskew served as director of the White House Office
>   of Media Affairs in 2000 and was a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney
>   campaign.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, November 18, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1069131601
>
>3. PROPAGANDA 101:  FALSELY LINKING IRAQ TO 9/11
>http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/03/11/ana03305.html
>   A Buzzflash editorial rips and deconstructs the latest propaganda
>   effort to link Saddam to 9/11, noting: "the charge that Saddam
>   Hussein was connected to Osama bin Laden, which was recently denied
>   by Bush himself, was resurrected last week in the Weekly Standard.
>   The Standard , owned by Rupert Murdoch, is the 'intellectual'
>   Neo-con bed of radical ideas, subversive to American Democracy. It
>   is kind of like a Pravda for Neo-cons with advanced degrees. FOX
>   News, also owned by Murdoch, of course, received this baton of
>   mistruth and prevarication about the Saddam/Al-Qaeda/9-11
>   connection (because that is the goal of this lie) and aired it
>   across the nation and world. Meanwhile right wing NewsMax also
>   picked it up. You can rest assured that other Bush Cartel media
>   outlets provided an echo chamber for the lie perpetrated in the
>   Weekly Standard article. Rush Limbaugh was still being 'rehabbed,'
>   otherwise he would have force read it to the Ditto Heads."
>SOURCE: Buzzflash.com, November 18, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1069131600
>
>4. MCDONALD'S SCORES PR WEEK'S 'PR PLAY OF THE WEEK'
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=195695&site=3
>   "McDonald's chairman and CEO Jim Cantalupo sent an open letter to
>   the press last week complaining about the inclusion of the
>   pseudo-word 'McJobs' in the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster
>   Collegiate Dictionary," PR Week writes in its PR Play of the Week
>   feature. "Seems flipping burgers for Ronald has become a synonym
>   for 'a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides
>   little opportunity for advancement.' Cantalupo defended McD's
>   workers by declaring that the definition 'is not only an inaccurate
>   description of restaurant employment, it's also a slap in the face
>   to the 12 million men and women who work hard every day in
>   America's 900,000 restaurants.' Since McDonald's has so few chances
>   to tout the wondrous career options available in our fast-food
>   nation, we applaud it for cleverly maximizing even the slimmest
>   opportunity. But those stubborn Merriam-Webster folks, always happy
>   for a little press themselves, weren't buying it. They issued a
>   statement of their own, declaring, '[F]or more than 17 years,
>   'McJob' has been used as we are defining it in a broad range of
>   publications.'"
>SOURCE: PR Week, November 17, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1069045201
>
>5. TUTWILER CONFIRMED AS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY HEAD
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=195479&site=3
>   "The Senate confirmed longtime Republican spokeswoman Margaret
>   Tutwiler as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public
>   affairs," PR Week reports. Tutwiler steps in to fill an eight-month
>   vacancy left when ad queen Charlotte Beers resigned the post for
>   health reasons. Tutwiler reportedly left her post as ambassador to
>   Morocco only after "much cajoling by the Bush administration."
>   During her confirmation hearing she told the Senate Foreign
>   Relations Committee that America needs to do a better job of
>   listening to foreign audiences. "She declined to comment on any
>   specific methods she may favor for achieving her goal of improving
>   America's image, but State Department officials have privately
>   indicated that the $15 million ad campaign launched by Beers, known
>   as 'Shared Values,' will not be continued," PR Week reports.
>   Tutwiler served as State Department spokeswoman during George H.W.
>   Bush's presidency.
>SOURCE: PR Week, November 17, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1069045200
>
>6. BRITS WON'T LET BUSH SHOOT THEM
>http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1086397,00.html
>   The British government has refused a diplomatic request from the
>   United States for "shoot-to-kill" immunity for armed American
>   special agents and snipers who will be travelling to Britain as
>   part of President Bush's entourage this week, which means that if
>   they accidentally kill a protester, they'll have to stand trial for
>   it. The Brits are also balking at the Bush team's demand that they
>   shut down parts of London's Tube (subway) system and that they
>   create a "sterile zone" around the President to keep the public at
>   bay. The U.S. has also been denied permission to use its
>   "mini-gun," a piece of military hardware that is fired from a tank
>   and can kill dozens of people. (We're not making this up, honest!)
>SOURCE: Observer (UK), November 16, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068958800
>
>7. RUMSFELD'S PROPAGANDA MINISTRY
>http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0347/mondo6.php
>   Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "has transformed himself from
>   corporate henchman to a crusty old guy who can say anything any
>   time with few repercussions," writes James Ridgeway. "Last year he
>   wanted to set up a special propaganda bureau called the Office of
>   Strategic Influence, but he had to close it down amid reports it
>   was putting out false information in an effort to sway public
>   opinion. In late October he told The Washington Times he wants a
>   '21st-century information agency in the government' to help fight a
>   'war of ideas.'"
>SOURCE: Village Voice, November 14, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068786000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068786000
>
>8. THE MEMORY HOLE
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/13/technology/circuits/13kick.html
>   The New York Times has profiled Russ Kick's "memory hole" web site,
>   which saves official documents from oblivion and posts them online.
>   "I'm certainly not a journalist in the normal sense of the word,"
>   Kick says. "I'm more of an information archaeologist. I'm trying to
>   get the stuff that's either been purposely buried or just covered
>   over by time."
>SOURCE: New York Times, November 13, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068699602
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068699602
>
>9. INVITED TRESPASSERS
>http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/7248865.htm
>   Georgia Military College officials sent out a news release earlier
>   this week inviting reporters to hear a speech by a helicopter pilot
>   involved in Jessica Lynch's rescue. When they came, however, the
>   college informed them that the pilot, Marine Maj. Craig Kopel,
>   didn't want the news media around. When reporters stayed, hoping to
>   interview and photograph Kopel, the college said they were
>   trespassing and called the police on them.
>SOURCE: Macon Telegraph, November 13, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068699601
>
>10. JUMPY G.I.S START JUMPING JOURNALISTS
>http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2026386
>   "With casualties mounting in Iraq, jumpy U.S. soldiers are becoming
>   more aggressive in their treatment of journalists covering the
>   conflict," reports Slobodan Lekic. "Media people have been
>   detained, news equipment has been confiscated, and some journalists
>   have suffered verbal and physical abuse while trying to report on
>   events. Although the number of incidents involving soldiers and
>   journalists is difficult to gauge, anecdotal evidence suggests it
>   has risen sharply the past two months. ... A number of journalists,
>   particularly Iraqis and other Arabs working for foreign media
>   organizations, say they are now routinely threatened at gunpoint if
>   they try to film the aftermath of guerrilla attacks."
>SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, November 13, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068699600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068699600
>
>11. CRISIS PR FOR CHI-CHI'S
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1112chichis.htm
>   Mexican restaurant chain Chi-Chi's has brought in CCG Strategic
>   Communications to deal with PR crisis due to an outbreak of
>   Hepatitis A linked to the restaurant, which has sickened 500 people
>   and killed three in Pennsylvania.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, November 12, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068613205
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068613205
>
>12. REPUBLICAN PR MAN PROMOTES IRAQI LAWYER'S BOOK
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1106sb.htm
>   "Shirley and Banister Public Affairs has been selected to promote
>   Harper Collins' Because Each Life is Precious, the account by Iraqi
>   lawyer Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief of Pfc. Jessica Lynch's capture and
>   rescue during the Iraq invasion," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. Craig
>   Shirley, president and CEO of Shirley & Banister is a long-time
>   Republican PR man. PR Week writes, "As a communications consultant
>   for the Republican National Committee in 1980, Shirley was sent
>   around the country to media-train press secretaries in House and
>   Senate races. Two of his trainees were now-departed Bush
>   spokespeople Torie Clarke and Ari Fleischer." In PR Watch 2nd
>   Quarter 2001, we reported on Shirley's front group Disabled
>   Americans for Death Tax Repeal, which ran full-page advertisements
>   in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times, urging Congress to
>   abolish the federal estate tax. According to their website, Shirley
>   & Banister's clients include the Heritage Foundation, McDonnell
>   Douglas, the Manhattan Institute, National Rifle Association, the
>   National Taxpayers Union, Nuclear Energy Institute, Washington
>   Times Foundation among others.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, November 7, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068181202
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068181202
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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