[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, December 17, 2003

>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, December 17, 2003
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. We're Putting  "Weapons" in America's Schools
>2. Bush Action Figure
>3. Torie's Latest Gig:  PR and Lobbying for Comcast
>4. Tyson Opens 'Animal Well-Being' Office
>5. Not-So-Public Relations
>6. Dissent in the Bunker
>7. The Saudi Connection
>8. Media Silent on Prosecution of Whistleblower Katharine Gun
>9. Drug Companies Fund Patient Advocacy Groups
>10. Uninvited Fighters
>11. Cluster Buster
>12. Rendon Makes Iraq Media Bid
>13. Radio Fraudcasting
>14. Industry Hopes to Censor Ads on Hazards of Infant Formula
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. WE'RE PUTTING  "WEAPONS" IN AMERICA'S SCHOOLS
>   The Center for Media and Democracy is offering teachers and
>   students free classroom copies of our acclaimed best-selling book,
>   Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on
>   Iraq. This book is perfect for journalism, current events,
>   political science and communications classes. We're able to make
>   this free offer thanks to the generosity and commitment of an
>   anonymous donor who feels it imperative that this book reach
>   America's young people. If you are a high school or college
>   instructor who would like free classroom copies to use with your
>   students, please email us the following information: Your name,
>   title, and daytime phone number; your school's name and class
>   title; the number of books you need, where to ship them, and the
>   date you need them. These books are available on a first come,
>   first serve basis, so contact us now.
>SOURCE: Center for Media & Democracy, December 17, 2003
>Web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/December_2003.html#1071637200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071637200
>
>2. BUSH ACTION FIGURE
>http://www2.warnerbros.com/madmagazine/files/onthestands/ots_437/6.html
>   Mad Magazine features a satirical "George W. Bush G.I. Joke Action
>   Figure" in its list of the "dumbest people, events and things of
>   2003." The product package says that G.I. Joke "come with an extra
>   pair of blood-stained hands" and is "fully posableomove and
>   manipulate him just like big oil and the extreme right wing do."
>SOURCE: Mad Magazine, December 16, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071550800
>
>3. TORIE'S LATEST GIG:  PR AND LOBBYING FOR COMCAST
>http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/12-15-2003/0002075518&EDATE=MON+Dec+15+2003,+09:33+AM
>   "Comcast Corporation, the largest cable TV company in the U.S.,
>   announced that Victoria (Torie) Clarke will join the company as
>   Senior Advisor for Communications and Government Affairs. She
>   served most recently as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public
>   Affairs. Clarke previously served as Press Secretary for former
>   President Bush's 1992 re-election campaign, as a close advisor to
>   Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and as Assistant U.S. Trade
>   Representative during former President Bush's administration.
>   Clarke has also advised many of the nation's best-known executives,
>   has served as President of Bozell Eskew advertising and served as
>   Vice President of the National Cable & Telecommunications
>   Association."
>SOURCE: Comcast News Release, December 15, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/December_2003.html#1071464404
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071464404
>
>4. TYSON OPENS 'ANIMAL WELL-BEING' OFFICE
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=197966&site=3
>   "Tyson Foods has opened an office of Animal Well-Being, seeking to
>   assure retail and food-service customers as well as consumers that
>   it takes humane animal handling seriously," PR Week reports.
>   "Animal-rights groups fault large American meat and poultry
>   processors for what they see as inhumane handling of animals. These
>   groups have protested in public for years about the plight of
>   animals raised by companies like Tyson. ... The new office will
>   oversee audits of animal-handling practices and make them available
>   to customers on request, but likely wouldn't publicly disclose
>   audit results. The office will also oversee training and records
>   keeping regarding handling techniques at the company. Veterinarian
>   Dr. Kellye Pfalzgraf, who oversaw a similar office for IBP, a major
>   meat processor Tyson bought in 2001, will head the new office."
>SOURCE: PR Week, December 15, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071464403
>
>5. NOT-SO-PUBLIC RELATIONS
>http://slate.msn.com/id/2092442/
>   The standard treatment for sepsis, an infection of the blood, costs
>   $50 per day, but Eli Lilly has a new drug out called Xigris, which
>   may not be any better than older treatments but costs $6,800 per
>   treatment. That's not exactly an easy sell, but Lilly has hired a
>   PR firm to launch a campaign called "The Ethics, the Urgency and
>   the Potential," whose premise is that it is "unethical not to use
>   the drug." "To reinforce the point," writes Carl Elliott, "Lilly
>   has funded a $1.8 million project called the 'Values, Ethics &
>   Rationing in Critical Care Task Force,' in which bioethicists and
>   physicians from various American medical schools will examine the
>   ethics of rationing certain drugs and services. It is a brilliant
>   strategy. There is no better way to enlist bioethicists in the
>   cause of consumer capitalism than to convince them they are working
>   for social justice. ... It's no mystery, then, why pharmaceutical
>   companies want to brand themselves with bioethics. But do
>   bioethicists really want to brand themselves with Pharma? To take
>   only one example: The pharmaceutical sponsors of the University of
>   Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics and its faculty's projects are
>   now facing multimillion dollar fraud sanctions (AstraZeneca), a
>   Nigerian lawsuit for research abuse (Pfizer), massive class-action
>   payouts (Wyeth-Ayerst), a criminal probe into obstruction of
>   justice (Schering Plough), an ongoing fraud lawsuit (Merck and
>   Medco), and allegations of suppressing research data on suicide in
>   children (GlaxoSmithKline)."
>SOURCE: Slate, December 15, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/December_2003.html#1071464402
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071464402
>
>6. DISSENT IN THE BUNKER
>http://www.msnbc.com/news/1002188.asp?0cv=CB20
>   Newt Gingrich, who has been advising the Bush Administration as a
>   member of the Defense Policy Board, has gone public with his
>   worries about the shortcomings of administration policy in Iraq,
>   arguing that the administration has been putting far too much
>   emphasis on a military solution and slighting the political
>   element. "The real key here is not how many enemy do I kill. The
>   real key is how many allies do I grow," he said. "And that is a
>   very important metric that they just don't get." As a result, U.S.
>   policy has gone "off a cliff" and is repeating the army's mistakes
>   in Vietnam. (Of course, some people in the military might bristle
>   at this kind of advice coming from Gingrich, who dodged military
>   service in Vietnam but was a vocal advocate for war in Iraq.)
>SOURCE: Newsweek, December 15, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/December_2003.html#1071464401
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071464401
>
>7. THE SAUDI CONNECTION
>http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/031215/usnews/15terror.htm
>   The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, America's longtime ally and the
>   world's largest oil producer, is "the epicenter" of terrorist
>   financing, according to a new report by David E. Kaplan. Prior to
>   9/11, moreover, "moves by counterterrorism officials to act against
>   the Saudis were repeatedly rebuffed by senior staff at the State
>   Department and elsewhere who felt that other foreign policy
>   interests outweighed fighting terrorism."
>SOURCE: U.S. News and World Report, December 15, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071464400
>
>8. MEDIA SILENT ON PROSECUTION OF WHISTLEBLOWER KATHARINE GUN
>http://www.accuracy.org/NS121403.htm
>   Norman Solomon writes that "few Americans have heard of Katharine
>   Gun, a former British intelligence employee facing charges that she
>   violated the Official Secrets Act. So far, the American press has
>   ignored her. But the case raises profound questions about democracy
>   and the public's right to know on both sides of the Atlantic. Ms.
>   Gun's legal peril began in Britain on March 2, when the Observer
>   newspaper exposed a highly secret memorandum by a top U.S. National
>   Security Agency official. ... The NSA memo said that the agency had
>   started a 'surge' of spying on diplomats at the United Nations in
>   New York. ... In this case, Ms. Gun's conscience fully intersected
>   with the needs of democracy and a free press. The British and
>   American people had every right to know that their governments were
>   involved in a high-stakes dirty tricks campaign at the United
>   Nations. For democratic societies, a timely flow of information is
>   the lifeblood of the body politic."
>SOURCE: Baltimore Sun, December 14, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071378000
>
>9. DRUG COMPANIES FUND PATIENT ADVOCACY GROUPS
>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/12/1071125652945.html
>   "Pharmaceutical companies are pouring millions of dollars into
>   patient advocacy groups and medical organisations to help expand
>   markets for their products. They are also using sponsorships and
>   educational grants to fund disease-awareness campaigns that urge
>   people to see their doctors. Many groups have become largely or
>   totally reliant on pharmaceutical industry money, prompting
>   concerns they are open to pressure from companies pushing their
>   products. An investigation by The Age newspaper has found: An
>   awareness campaign run by the National Asthma Council was
>   spearheaded by a cartoon dragon that was the registered trademark
>   of a drug company used to promote one individual asthma medication.
>   A drug company used a public relations firm to set up an expert
>   medical board to persuade people they needed hepatitis A and B
>   vaccinations. The company was not interested in raising awareness
>   about hepatitis C because it did not sell a vaccine for the
>   disease."
>SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, December 13, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071291600
>
>10. UNINVITED FIGHTERS
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57870-2003Dec11.html
>   Stars and Stripes, the Pentagon-authorized newspaper of the U.S.
>   military, is blowing the whistle on Bush's Thanksgiving photo op in
>   Iraq. The soldiers who cheered Bush were pre-screened before his
>   arrival, and others showing up for turkey were turned away. In a
>   separate letter to Stars and Stripes, Sgt. Loren Russell sticks up
>   for his soldiers, who weren't on the invited list. "Imagine their
>   dismay when they walked 15 minutes to the Bob Hope Dining
>   Facility," Russell writes, "only to find that they were turned away
>   from their evening meal because they were in the wrong unit."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, December 12, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/December_2003.html#1071205200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071205200
>
>11. CLUSTER BUSTER
>http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-12-10-cluster-bomb-cover_x.htm
>   In Weapons of Mass Deception, we showed how the U.S. news media
>   virtually ignored the use in Iraq of cluster bombs --
>   anti-personnel devices like land mines that leave behind a deadly
>   litter of unexploded "bomblets." Now Paul Wiseman has written a
>   major report in which he concludes, "The Pentagon presented a
>   misleading picture during the war of the extent to which cluster
>   weapons were being used and of the civilian casualties they were
>   causing. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
>   told reporters on April 25, six days before President Bush declared
>   major combat operations over, that the United States had used 1,500
>   cluster weapons and caused one civilian casualty. ... In fact, the
>   United States used 10,782 cluster weapons, according to the
>   declassified executive summary of a report compiled by U.S. Central
>   Command."
>SOURCE: USA Today, December 11, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/December_2003.html#1071118801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071118801
>
>12. RENDON MAKES IRAQ MEDIA BID
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1211rendon.htm
>   "The Rendon Group is part of a nine-member consortium that has made
>   a $98 million bid to rebuild the Iraqi Media Network. WorldSpace
>   Corp., the Washington, D.C.-based satellite broadcaster, leads the
>   group," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "The Coalition Provisional
>   Authority is awarding the contract to repair the infrastructure,
>   provide programming and train workers for Iraq's national TV, radio
>   networks and Al-Sabbah newspaper. Al-Sabbah is Iraq's largest paper
>   with a daily circulation of more than 60,000. One of its two
>   printing presses was bombed during the Iraqi invasion. The contract
>   also calls for development of an 'exit strategy' to pave the way to
>   the privatization of IMN. The one-year pact, which is supposed to
>   go into effect on Jan. 1, has two six-month extension options.
>   WorldSpace's satellite radio service has been broadcasting into the
>   Middle East since 1999. It provides entertainment content to XM
>   Satellite Radio in the U.S."
>SOURCE: December 11, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/December_2003.html#1071118800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1071118800
>
>13. RADIO FRAUDCASTING
>http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1514
>   Radio listeners tuning into disk jockey Jeff Kovarsky on Dallas,
>   Texas radio station KKMR in late 2000 could hear him extolling a
>   magical weight-loss remedy. iIt helped me lose 36 pounds," Kovarsky
>   said. iI ate so much over Thanksgiving, I still have turkey burps.
>   But thanks to Body Solutions, I keep the weight off and now I'm
>   ready for Christmas. So, bring it on, Grandma. The honey-baked ham,
>   the apple pie, the Christmas cookies. I'm not afraid because I've
>   got Body Solutions Evening Weight Loss Formula." Kovarsky was one
>   of the radio personalities at 755 stations across the country who
>   received millions of dollars in undisclosed payments to hawk the
>   products of Mark Nutritionals, which was shut down finally for
>   fraud by the Federal Trade Commission in 2002. "Devoid of pictures
>   or fine print, radio was the ideal medium," observes Andrew Wheat.
>   "Millions of faithful listeners heard personal pitches from
>   familiar voices, yet they could not see if the announcer plugging
>   the product really had lost weight."
>SOURCE: Texas Observer, December 5, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1070600402
>
>14. INDUSTRY HOPES TO CENSOR ADS ON HAZARDS OF INFANT FORMULA
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/04/business/media/04adcol.html
>   "Federal officials have softened a national advertising campaign to
>   promote breastfeeding after complaints from two companies that make
>   infant formula, according to several doctors and nurses who are
>   helping the government with the effort. After the two companies
>   [Mead Johnson and Abbott] and the top officials of the American
>   Academy of Pediatrics complained to federal health officials, the
>   government decided to eliminate spots discussing the risk of
>   leukemia and diabetes in babies not breastfed, said Amy Spangler,
>   the chairwoman of the United States Breastfeeding Committee, a
>   group that promotes breastfeeding. According to the Ad Council
>   newsletter, those ads said that babies not breastfed had a 30
>   percent increased risk of developing leukemia and up to a 40
>   percent increased risk of developing diabetes. ... Marsha Walker,
>   who sits on the leadership team of the United States Breastfeeding
>   Committee with Ms. Spangler, said that the information on leukemia
>   and diabetes should be left in the ads. ... 'This is being shot
>   down by an industry that has no business interfering. Ultimately it
>   hurts the health of our babies and our moms.' "
>SOURCE: New York Times, December 4, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1070514002
>
>
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