(From 2002 until 2005, this mailing list was called the ECCR mailing list)
[Previous message][Next message][Back to index]
[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Wed Jan 22 08:13:36 GMT 2003
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, January 22, 2003
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>sponsored by PR WATCH (www.prwatch.org)
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>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.
>
>SHARE US WITH A FRIEND (OR FIFTY FRIENDS)
>Who do you know who might want to receive Spin of the Week?
>Help us grow our subscriber list! Just forward this message to
>people you know, encouraging them to sign up at this link:
>
>http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. Bush PR Barrage Formalizes Office of Global Communications
>2. Google Catches Bush Astroturf Campaign
>3. Some Folks Might Say That's an Insult
>4. Astroturf Ethics
>5. Spin Doctors Prescribe the Wrong Medicine
>6. PR Watch Banned From Corporate Grassroots Confab
>7. Muzzling the Media in Wartime
>8. Push Polling for Nuclear Power
>9. Charlotte's Web Unravels
>10. TV's Yellow Journalism: Hyping War to Boost Ratings
>11. The CIA and the New York Times
>12. Pentagon Manages Press With Reporter Trainings
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. BUSH PR BARRAGE FORMALIZES OFFICE OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS
>http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1042491018351&p=1012571727291
> War Is Sell and the techniques being used by the US are familiar
> marketing and PR strategies. The Financial Times notes today that
> the Bush Administration has "published a dossier depicting Saddam
> Hussein's government as an 'apparatus of lies', as President George
> W. Bush maintained a high-pitched note of impatience with the Iraqi
> leader. ... However, the White House's own version of agitprop also
> skates over some aspects of history. ... The Bush administration
> has become increasingly focused on the public relations battle, as
> the antiwar movement has gathered momentum in the US and Europe. Mr
> Bush yesterday signed an executive order formally creating the
> Office of Global Communications , which has been working informally
> for the last six months trying to spread the US message in
> sceptical parts of the world."
>SOURCE: Financial Times, January 22, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2003.html#1043211600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043211600
>
>2. GOOGLE CATCHES BUSH ASTROTURF CAMPAIGN
>http://www.politechbot.com/p-04332.html
> "It looks like the Bush Administration is astroturfing, trying to
> artificially create the appearance of a grassroots movement
> supporting their policies," writes Jules Agee. "A Google search on
> the phrase 'demonstrating genuine leadership' returns a number of
> nearly identical letters sent to the editors of various newspapers
> and publications this month, each one with the name of a different
> individual attached." Some alert bloggers traced the letters to a
> Republican party website that offers gifts such as coolers, tote
> bags and mouse pads in exchange for sending letters to the editor.
> When asked about the form letters, one newspaper editor commented,
> "The practice of mass submitting letters is old. We have been
> receiving these types of letters for some time. ... I'm just
> shocked that it has taken so long for others to expose it. This fad
> begun over three years ago." But some newspapers liked the letters
> so much that they published them more than once, over the
> signatures of different local residents.
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2003.html#1043187088
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043187088
>
>3. SOME FOLKS MIGHT SAY THAT'S AN INSULT
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15394-2003Jan19.html
> Howard Kurtz reports that the New York Times has spiked a "My Job"
> column by Jeff Barge, a Manhattan public relations executive who
> described planting stories in major newspapers and blasted the PR
> industry as "a deceptive business" in which newspapers are fed
> "quotes that are just plain fabricated by the PR people." According
> to Times editor Judith Dobrzynski, Barge's piece was "too
> self-promotional." (The mention of Barge appears in the bottom half
> of Kurtz's column, under the subhead, "Unfit to Print.")
>SOURCE: Washington Post, January 19, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042952400
>
>4. ASTROTURF ETHICS
>http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7381/120/a?etoc
> After a recent article in the British Medical Journal detailed drug
> company sponsorship of medical meetings on "female sexual
> dysfunction," a PR firm with clients in the pharmaceutical and
> biotechnology industry has launched a global campaign to "counter"
> the BMJ report. Michelle Lerner of the HCC De Facto PR firm said it
> would "violate ethical guidelines" to disclose the identity of her
> client.
>SOURCE: British Medical Journal, January 18, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2003.html#1042866001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042866001
>
>5. SPIN DOCTORS PRESCRIBE THE WRONG MEDICINE
>http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7381/170/DC1
> "It's no easy job to save market share for expensive
> antihypertensive drugs when headlines read 'When Cheaper Is Also
> Better,'" writes Jeanne Lenzer. A major new study shows that the
> expensive drugs used to treat hypertension "were no better than a
> diuretic. In some instances they were not quite as safe - even
> though they were substantially more expensive." To minimize the
> health community's awareness of this result, drug companies used
> sneaky tactics such as sending key doctors off on a sightseeing
> junket to keep them from hearing about the study at a conference of
> the American College of Cardiology. The same thing may be happening
> with other drugs, according to Marcia Angell, former editor of the
> New England Journal of Medicine. "A lot of newer drugs may not only
> not be better - they may be worse," she said. "Most drug companies
> don't want a head to head [study]. And the FDA [Food and Drug
> Administration] allows trials to run that are rigged where a drug
> is tested against placebo or a drug of the same class that is
> inadequately dosed, or they look at the wrong group of people or
> the wrong endpoints so their drug looks good." Adds Dr. Jerome
> Hoffman, professor of medicine and emergency medicine at the
> University of California at Los Angeles, "we abdicate our
> responsibility, as well as risk the public health, if we allow
> proprietary companies, whose primary interest has to be selling
> their wares, to guard the public hen house."
>SOURCE: British Medical Journal, January 18, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042866000
>
>6. PR WATCH BANNED FROM CORPORATE GRASSROOTS CONFAB
> Every February the powerful Public Affairs Council (PAC) holds its
> annual National Grassroots Conference for Corporations and
> Associations in some lovely southern location. PR Watch wanted to
> attend and report on this year's confab in Key West. We covered the
> 1997 conference and uncovered a goldmine of hidden information on
> how corporations wage powerful campaigns at the grassroots to
> promote their special interest agendas. So-called "corporate
> grassroots" is where PR, corporate power and lobbying all come
> together, and other than PR Watch almost no one reports on it.
> Unfortunately, Doug Pinkham the president of PAC has informed us
> that because "you are no doubt planning to run another special
> issue about grassroots programs ... you won't be permitted to
> attend." That's a shame, especially given the 80 degree temperature
> difference in February between our home in Wisconsin and the PAC
> conference in Key West. To get a flavor of the meeting we did
> cover, read our reporting in the first quarter 1997 issue of PR
> Watch, to which Doug Pinkham refers.
>Web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2003.html#1042837761
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042837761
>
>7. MUZZLING THE MEDIA IN WARTIME
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5682-2003Jan17.html
> "If you put the First Amendment up for a nationwide vote, we're not
> so sure it would pass," reports Howard Kurtz. "When war breaks out,
> many folks believe that the people with pens and microphones should
> just get out of the way and let the soldiers do their jobs."
> According to a recent opinion poll, two-thirds of the public
> believes the government should have the right to stop the media
> from disclosing military secrets, and 56% say news organizations
> are more obliged to support the government in wartime than to
> question the military's handling of the war.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, January 17, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042779601
>
>8. PUSH POLLING FOR NUCLEAR POWER
>http://www.reformer.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,102%257E8862%257E1117204,00.html
> Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY), which owns a nuclear power
> plant near Brattleboro, VT, has been conducting an opinion poll
> using leading questions designed to influence public opinion, not
> measure it. "They were trying to sneak in some propaganda disguised
> as an objective poll," said one local resident after being called.
> "They claimed they didn't know who was paying for the poll." ENVY
> has been fighting to keep the plant open as town meetings convene
> to discuss its fate. Last year, the company spent $250,000 on a
> public relations campaign that narrowly defeated an anti-nuke
> ballot initiative whose supporters only spent $500.
>SOURCE: Brattleboro Reformer, January 17, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042779600
>
>9. CHARLOTTE'S WEB UNRAVELS
>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/16/world/main536756.shtml
> "The U.S. State Department has suspended its ad campaign extolling
> Muslim life in the U.S., barely a month after propaganda czar
> Charlotte Beers pitched 'paid media' as the best way to influence
> the Islamic World," reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. The TV ads were
> controversial in the countries where they aired, and government-run
> channels in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan refused to run them. "Islamic
> opinion is influenced more by what the U.S. does than anything it
> can say," comments an advertising executive quoted in the Wall
> Street Journal.
>SOURCE: CBS News, January 16, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2003.html#1042693200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042693200
>
>10. TV'S YELLOW JOURNALISM: HYPING WAR TO BOOST RATINGS
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/15/business/media/15TUBE.html?ex=1043742322&ei=1&en=8b717a5af1d08b19
> "As the military buildup continues in the Persian Gulf, another
> conflict is brewing at home, among MSNBC, CNN and the Fox News
> Channel. ... Recalling how CNN made its name during the gulf war,
> each channel is trying to distinguish itself and outdo its rivals.
> ... As a result, the reports are taking on a hypercharged tone as
> the cable networks try to persuade viewers ahead of time that they
> are the ones to watch should war break out. ... The networks now
> generally use a 'whooshing' sound to precede an on-screen headline.
> There is far more frequent use of the words 'Breaking News' or
> 'News Alert,' even for events that in the past would not have
> called for urgent treatment. ... At the very least, Graham T.
> Allison, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at
> Harvard, said the competition among the networks is adding to a
> public sense that war is inevitable."
>SOURCE: New York Times, January 15, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042606800
>
>11. THE CIA AND THE NEW YORK TIMES
>http://editorandpublisher.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urlID=5093455&fb=Y&partnerID=60
> "What would Americans think if they knew that their best newspaper,
> The New York Times, had allowed one of its national-security
> reporters to negotiate a book deal that needed the approval of the
> CIA?" writes Allan Wolper. "What would they say if they knew the
> CIA was editing the book while the country is days or weeks away
> from a war with Iraq and is counting on the Times to monitor the
> intelligence agency?"
>SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, January 14, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042520402
>
>12. PENTAGON MANAGES PRESS WITH REPORTER TRAININGS
>http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn20030114.html
> The Pentagon is training civilian reporters on its military bases
> for war reporting. "One hundred twenty journalists trained last
> November at the Quantico Marine Corps Base and the Norfolk Naval
> Station; another wave of reporters trained last month at Fort
> Benning, and another session is scheduled this month at Fort Dix in
> New Jersey," Democracy Now reports. "The training teaches reporters
> battlefield survival, military policy and weapons expertise." In a
> lively roundtable discussion on Democracy Now with military
> reporters and a Pentagon spokesperson, Harper's publisher Rick
> MacArthur calls the Pentagon's reporter training "innovative public
> relations" and a "con job."
>SOURCE: Democracy Now, January 14, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1042520401
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at PR Watch.
>To subscribe or unsubcribe, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html
>
>Daily updates and news from past weeks can be found at the
>Spin of the Day" section of the PR Watch website:
>http://www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html
>
>Archives of our quarterly publication, PR Watch, are at:
>http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues
>
>PR Watch, Spin of the Day and the Weekly Spin are projects
>of the Center for Media & Democracy, a nonprofit organization
>that offers investigative reporting on the public relations
>industry. We help the public recognize manipulative and
>misleading PR practices by exposing the activities of
>secretive, little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that
>work to control political debates and public opinion.
>Please send any questions or suggestions about our
>publications to:
>(editor /at/ prwatch.org)
>
>Contributions to the Center for Media & Democracy
>are tax-deductible. Send checks to:
> CMD
> 520 University Ave. #310
> Madison, WI 53703
>
>To donate now online, visit:
>https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0
>_______________________________________________
>Weekly-Spin mailing list
>(Weekly-Spin /at/ prwatch.org)
>http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/weekly-spin
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Carpentier Nico (Phd)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University Brussels
Studies on Media, Information & Telecommunication (SMIT)
Centre for Media Sociology (CeMeSO)
Office: C0.04
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.30
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.28.61
E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
W1: http://www.vub.ac.be/SCOM/smit
W2: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
W3: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~jteurlin/Koccc.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
ECCR-Mailing list
---
To unsubscribe, send an email message to (majordomo /at/ listserv.vub.ac.be)
with in the body of the message (NOT in the subject): unsubscribe eccr
---
ECCR - European Consortium for Communications Research
Secretariat: P.O. Box 106, B-1210 Brussels 21, Belgium
Tel.: +32-2-412 42 78/47
Fax.: +32-2-412 42 00
Email: (freenet002 /at/ pi.be) or (Rico.Lie /at/ pi.be)
URL: http://www.eccr.info
----------------
[Previous message][Next message][Back to index]
