[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, January 29, 2003

>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, January 29, 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. Resource on Kasky vs. Nike
>2. Astroturf Letter Wars
>3. Staying on Message
>4. Why Can't We All Get Along?
>5. "Made in (Deleted)"
>6. Downward Career Trajectory
>7. The "Trust Vacuum"
>8. Bush Slips
>9. Congress Merges With Wall Street
>10. The Unseen Gulf War
>11. Practicing for Disaster
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. RESOURCE ON KASKY VS. NIKE
>http://reclaimdemocracy.org/nike/
>   ReclaimDemocracy.org has created a web resource tracking the Kasky
>   vs. Nike case, in which a California activist is suing the
>   sportswear company for making misleading statements about its
>   overseas labor practices.
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043696931
>
>2. ASTROTURF LETTER WARS
>http://nytimes.com/2003/01/27/technology/27LETT.html?pagewanted=print
>   "Newspapers and political organizations are engaged in
>   technological one-upmanship over 'AstroTurf' - letters to the
>   editor that look like authentic grass-roots responses from readers
>   but are not," reports Jennifer Lee. "Groups like the Republican
>   National Committee and Planned Parenthood are using Web sites and
>   e-mail lists to help disseminate form letters to publications
>   across the country." However, the people who edit the letters pages
>   are fighting back: "Armed with Internet search engines and e-mail
>   lists of their own, they are mapping Web sites and alerting each
>   other about the form letters appearing in their mailboxes."
>SOURCE: New York Times, January 27, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043643600
>
>3. STAYING ON MESSAGE
>http://asia.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2105989
>   As it prepares for war with Iraq, the new White House Office of
>   Global Communications (OGC) is "revving up a global effort to
>   defuse its image as arrogant and overbearing," reports Randall
>   Mikkelsen. The State Department is creating an Islamic media center
>   in London to manage U.S. communications with the al Jazeera
>   satellite television network. The OGC is also organizing "daily
>   telephone conference calls to coordinate foreign policy messages
>   among U.S. government agencies and representatives of British Prime
>   Minister Tony Blair. This is supplemented by a 'Global Messenger'
>   e-mail of talking points sent almost daily to administration
>   officials, U.S. embassies, Congress and others." The Bush
>   administration's effort to overcome its arrogant image suffered a
>   blow recently when Europeans responded negatively to Defense
>   Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's dismissal of French and German
>   opposition to U.S. war talk as an example of "old Europe" out of
>   touch with the world.
>SOURCE: Reuters, January 24, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043384400
>
>4. WHY CAN'T WE ALL GET ALONG?
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0123cca.htm
>   The Council of American Muslims for Understanding, an organization
>   created by the U.S. State Department, has been trying to impress
>   Muslims abroad with glowing portrayals of religious diversity and
>   tolerance in the United States. Unfortunately, the Bush
>   administration's supporters in the Christian Coalition of America
>   (CCA) have been sending a different message. The Council on
>   American-Islamic Relations is calling an upcoming CCA conference an
>   "Islamophobic hate-fest." Speakers include Daniel Pipes, who says
>   "increased stature, and affluence, and enfranchisement of American
>   Muslims...will present true dangers to American Jews," and
>   WorldNetDaily.com Editor Joseph Farah, who says "Islam has been at
>   war with the West, with Christianity, with Judaism ... ever since
>   the days of Muhammad." Former CCA head Pat Robertson has also been
>   a regular contributor to the rhetorical war, saying that Muslims
>   are worse than Hitler.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, January 23, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2003.html#1043298004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043298004
>
>5. "MADE IN (DELETED)"
>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/105400_boxes23.shtml
>   When President Bush gave a speech at a St. Louis warehouse
>   announcing his new tax plan, he stood against what appeared to be a
>   backdrop of cardboard boxes stamped "MADE IN U.S.A." The backdrop,
>   however, was actually a painted facade. Bush's advance team had
>   used pieces of white paper to cover over the "Made in China" stamps
>   on hundreds of real boxes in the warehouse.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, January 23, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043298003
>
>6. DOWNWARD CAREER TRAJECTORY
>http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/story/0,7494,880526,00.html
>   Tim Blackstone, who left his career as a porn star to become a
>   financial journalist before finally stooping to public relations,
>   has been fined for insider trading. A British court found him
>   guilty of buying and selling shares worth more than £13,000 based
>   on insider knowledge of top secret takeover plans being hatched by
>   a company to which he was a PR adviser.
>SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), January 23, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2003.html#1043298002
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043298002
>
>7. THE "TRUST VACUUM"
>http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/story/0,7494,880155,00.html
>   A survey by the Edelman PR firm has found what it calls a "trust
>   vacuum" in Europe, as the public's confidence in businesses and
>   governments hits an all-time low. Moreover, reports Julia Day,
>   "Public relations executives have taken over from estate agents as
>   the professionals the public trust least, according to a survey out
>   today."
>SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), January 23, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043298001
>
>8. BUSH SLIPS
>http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7128
>   "The latest poll results testify to growing doubts about President
>   Bush and the policies he is pursuing. The Gallup and Princeton
>   Research Center polls cited above both have Bush's job approval
>   ratings at 58 percent, the first time he has dipped below 60
>   percent since the September 11 tragedy," writes Ruy Teixeira.
>   Bush's handling of the economy has the approval of only 48 percent
>   of respondents; health-care policy, 43 percent; abortion, 39
>   percent; and 60 percent want the administration to take time to
>   find an alternative to war with Iraq.
>SOURCE: TomPaine.com
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043298000
>
>9. CONGRESS MERGES WITH WALL STREET
>http://www.publicampaign.org/stateoftheunion
>   A new poster depicts President Bush speaking on the floor of
>   Congress. Or is it the stock exchange trading floor? Or is it
>   really both? Produced by Public Campaign, which works for campaign
>   finance reform, the poster includes thirteen charts detailing how
>   big corporate campaign contributions from leading industries are
>   buying America, what they are getting for their political
>   investments and what the rest of us pay in higher taxes, dirty air
>   and water, billions lost from our retirement funds, and the like.
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043264560
>
>10. THE UNSEEN GULF WAR
>http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0212/pt_intro.html
>   During the first war in the Persian Gulf, U.S. citizens saw mostly
>   sanitized images of smart bombs hitting non-human targets. Images
>   of death and suffering were kept to a minimum, thanks in part to
>   the military's pool system which controlled the movements and
>   activities of most journalists. Photographer Peter Turnley refused
>   to participate in the pool system and managed to get pictures that
>   few people have seen. "Many people have asked the question 'how
>   many people died' during the war with Iraq and the question has
>   never been well answered," he writes. "Most of the photographs I
>   made of this scene have never been published anywhere and this has
>   always troubled me." Now a collection of his photographs is
>   available on the web.
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043258765
>
>11. PRACTICING FOR DISASTER
>http://www.prweek.com/thisweek/printer.cfm?ID=168635
>   When they aren't helping clients cope with real disasters, PR
>   professionals hone their skills by simulating fake ones and
>   rehearsing their responses. PR Week recounts the advice of "four
>   seasoned crisis experts" as they respond to a disease outbreak at a
>   fictional seafood plant. Their advice:
>        * "Call all the families that have been affected to let them
>   know that we care."
>        * "We need to devise what I call a constituent audience
>   matrix."
>        * "Should we mention the previous outbreak in the statement we
>   put out?"
>        * "No, absolutely not."
>        * "I see the CEO outside reading a statement. It's not a press
>   conference, it's a press briefing. You're not there to answer
>   questions. You're there to demonstrate your concern."
>SOURCE: PR Week, January 20, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1043038800
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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
----------------