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[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, May 7, 2003

Wed May 07 07:14:34 GMT 2003


>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, May 7, 2003
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. Aaron Brown Turning PR Flack for Phony  'Newscasts'
>2. Bush's War on Iraq: Was it Just for the Photo Ops?
>3. Networks Largely Ignore War's Long-Term Impact
>4. Israel Hopes Christian Right Will Help Ditch 'Road Map'
>5. Nature Conservancy Benefits Its Benefactors
>6. INC Seeks Enhanced Credibility
>7. Nature Conservancy Goes for the Black Gold
>8. Nature Conservancy Rakes in Corporate Cash
>9. Counterterrorism and Risk Management Expert Takes Over In Iraq
>10. Selling the 9/11 President  - Image Is Everything
>11. All the President's Lies
>12. Celebrity Speaks Out On Celebrities Speaking Out
>13. Two Different Languages
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. AARON BROWN TURNING PR FLACK FOR PHONY  'NEWSCASTS'
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/07/business/media/07DRUG.html?ex=1053276529&ei=1&en=178cb1461f05f6ff
>   "Aaron Brown of CNN, Walter Cronkite and other broadcast
>   journalists have been hired to appear in videos resembling
>   newscasts that are actually paid for by drug makers and other
>   health care companies, blurring the line between journalism and
>   advertising. ... For years, local news stations, as part of their
>   newscasts, have broadcast [video news releases (VNRs)] created by
>   drug companies' public relations agencies -- a practice that
>   critics equate to publishing unedited press releases. Now,
>   production companies are expanding that marketing tactic to public
>   television and the Web and using celebrity journalists to add to
>   the videos' credibility. ... Critics of the news media say that the
>   videos mislead viewers by packaging promotional material to look
>   like news."
>SOURCE: New York Times, May 7, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1052280000
>
>2. BUSH'S WAR ON IRAQ: WAS IT JUST FOR THE PHOTO OPS?
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/06/opinion/06KRUG.html?ex=1053276675&ei=1&en=3da0de8eee941752
>   Paul Krugman asks "why is the failure to find any evidence of an
>   active Iraqi nuclear weapons program, or vast quantities of
>   chemical and biological weapons ... a big deal? Mainly because it
>   feeds suspicions that the war wasn't waged to eliminate real
>   threats. This suspicion is further fed by the administration's
>   lackadaisical attitude toward those supposed threats once Baghdad
>   fell. For example, Iraq's main nuclear waste dump wasn't secured
>   until a few days ago, by which time it had been thoroughly looted.
>   So was it all about the photo ops? Well, Mr. Bush got to pose in
>   his flight suit. And given the absence of awkward questions, his
>   handlers surely feel empowered to make even more brazen use of the
>   national security issue in future."
>SOURCE: New York Times, May 6, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1052193603
>
>3. NETWORKS LARGELY IGNORE WAR'S LONG-TERM IMPACT
>   "Media have been quick to declare the U.S. war against Iraq a
>   success, but in-depth investigative reporting about the war's
>   likely health and environmental consequences has been scarce,"
>   media watchdog Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting writes. "Two
>   important issues getting shortchanged in the press are the U.S.'s
>   controversial use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium weapons.
>   According to a May 5 search of the Nexis database, there have been
>   no in-depth reports about cluster bombs on ABC, CBS or NBC's
>   nightly news programs since the start of the war. There have been,
>   however, a few passing mentions of cluster bombs -- enough so that
>   viewers may be aware of their existence. Not so with depleted
>   uranium. Since the beginning of the year, the words 'depleted
>   uranium' have not been uttered once on ABC World News Tonight, CBS
>   Evening News or NBC Nightly News, according to Nexis."
>SOURCE: FAIR, May 6, 2003
>Web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1052193602
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1052193602
>
>4. ISRAEL HOPES CHRISTIAN RIGHT WILL HELP DITCH 'ROAD MAP'
>http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn20030506.html
>   New York-based 5W PR counts as clients the Christian Coalition, the
>   Zionist Organization of America, and Israel's Ministry of Tourism,
>   according to O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Representatives from these
>   organizations are apparently now working to derail Bush's "road map
>   for peace." Democracy Now reports Israeli Tourism Minister Benny
>   Elon is lobbying the U.S. Congress and Christian fundamentalists --
>   including Christian Coalition President Roberta Combs and former
>   presidential candidate Gary Bauer and Pat Robertson -- against the
>   U.S. peace plan. The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reports Elon is
>   presenting a different plan that will call for the establishment of
>   a Palestinian state in Jordan. Ha'aretz reports that Elon said:
>   "What we are now seeing across the Muslim world is not a powerful
>   surge of faith but the dying embers of Islam. ... Within a few
>   years a Christian crusade against Islam will be launched, which
>   will be the major event of this millennium."
>SOURCE: Democracy Now, May 6, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1052193601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1052193601
>
>5. NATURE CONSERVANCY BENEFITS ITS BENEFACTORS
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17955-2003May5.html
>   In the last of its investigative series the Washington Post reports
>   on how a multi-billion dollar environmental charity takes care of
>   its own. For example, "on New York's Shelter Island, the Nature
>   Conservancy three years ago bought an undeveloped, 10-acre tract
>   overlooking its Mashomack Preserve ... just a stone's skip from the
>   exclusive Hamptons. Cost to the charity: $2.1 million. Seven weeks
>   later, it resold the land, with some development restrictions, to
>   James Dougherty, former chairman of the charity's regional chapter,
>   and his wife, Nancy, a trustee at the Conservancy's preserve. Cost
>   to the Doughertys: $500,000. ... Time and again, the nonprofit has
>   bought raw land and resold it at a loss to a trustee or supporter."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 6, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1052193600
>
>6. INC SEEKS ENHANCED CREDIBILITY
>   "Burson-Marsteller is working to enhance the credibility of the
>   Iraqi National Congress as it seeks to establish itself as a
>   legitimate force in postinvasion Iraq," writes The Holmes Report, a
>   PR trade publication. "B-M has been working with the Congress, led
>   by highprofile Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi, since 1999, under a state
>   department contract. Chalabi and the Congress have close ties with
>   the Bush administration, but some critics are concerned that their
>   support within Iraq is shallow. 'We've been the communications
>   vehicle on the outside as the INC moved into northern Iraq, then to
>   Nasiriya, and to Baghdad,' K. Riva Levinson, who heads the INC
>   account for Burson out of Washington, told reporters. 'We were
>   helping the INC get out statements and videos that made clear that
>   the exiled opposition was consolidating and moving. It's been a
>   tremendous ride for them and for us.'"
>SOURCE: The Holmes Report, May 5, 2003
>Web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1052107201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1052107201
>
>7. NATURE CONSERVANCY GOES FOR THE BLACK GOLD
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13933-2003May4.html
>   The second part of the Post's examination of a multi-billion dollar
>   tax exempt corporation: "Eight years ago, Mobil Oil gave the Nature
>   Conservancy what was one of the group's largest corporate
>   donations, a patch of prairie that encompassed the last native
>   breeding ground of a highly endangered bird. ... The Conservancy
>   ... started acting like an oil company. The Conservancy sank a well
>   under the bird's nesting ground. Drilling in sensitive areas is
>   opposed as destructive by most environmentalists. But the
>   Conservancy subscribes to an aggressive form of 'compatible
>   development,' a pragmatic approach that seeks to accommodate the
>   needs of business as well as environmentalism. The Conservancy
>   wanted the Texas City Prairie Preserve to be a national model to
>   show that drilling can be accomplished without harming the
>   environment. It would use the drilling profits to buy more habitat
>   for the birds. That's not the way things worked out."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 5, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1052107200
>
>8. NATURE CONSERVANCY RAKES IN CORPORATE CASH
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9888-2003May3.html
>   In the first of three articles the Washington Post takes a long
>   look at the Nature Conservancy, "the world's richest environmental
>   group, amassing $3 billion in assets by pledging to save precious
>   places. ... Yet the Conservancy has logged forests, engineered a
>   $64 million deal paving the way for opulent houses on fragile
>   grasslands and drilled for natural gas under the last breeding
>   ground of an endangered bird species. ... Its governing board and
>   advisory council now include executives and directors from one or
>   more oil companies, chemical producers, auto manufacturers, mining
>   concerns, logging operations and coal-burning electric utilities.
>   ... It is also the leading proponent of a brand of environmentalism
>   that promotes compromise between conservation and corporate
>   America."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 4, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1052020800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1052020800
>
>9. COUNTERTERRORISM AND RISK MANAGEMENT EXPERT TAKES OVER IN IRAQ
>http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2675685
>   A former State Department counterterrorism expert and crisis
>   consulting CEO will step into the fray in Baghdad. Reuters reports
>   L. Paul Bremer is replacing retired general Jay Garner as the top
>   U.S. civilian official in postwar Iraq. Between 1986-89, Bremer
>   served as President Ronald Reagan's ambassador-at-large for
>   counterterrorism, "a post that made him responsible for crafting
>   U.S. policies to combat terrorism." After leaving the State
>   Department, Bremer worked at Kissinger Associates, former Secretary
>   of State Henry Kissinger's consulting firm. In 2002, Bremer was
>   appointed to the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council.
>   Bremer serves as chairman and CEO of the Crisis Consulting Practice
>   of Marsh Inc. According to its website, Marsh's mission is "to
>   create and deliver risk solutions and services that make our
>   clients more successful." With an annual revenue of $5.9 billion,
>   Marsh is active in more than 100 countries. According to Reuters,
>   in a January Washington Times column entitled "Charting a course
>   for war," Bremer wrote: "This fight cannot be won on the defensive
>   ... So we must go on the offensive. To be blunt, we have to kill
>   the terrorists before they kill us."
>SOURCE: Reuters, May 2, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1051848001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1051848001
>
>10. SELLING THE 9/11 PRESIDENT  - IMAGE IS EVERYTHING
>http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woplan023264874may02,0,7998934.story?coll=ny-worldnews-print
>   "In a city where image is everything ... the White House has
>   created an indelible, and formidable, image by having Bush land
>   aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln to deliver a speech signaling the
>   end of the military phase of the war with Iraq. ... The attention
>   the event generated was a political consultant's dream, said
>   Michael Deaver, who was President Ronald Reagan's White House image
>   guru. ... Paul Begala, a former Clinton aide, called the flight a
>   'tax-subsidized commercial.' ... Navy officials were unable
>   yesterday to provide the per-hour cost to operate two S-3B Vikings,
>   one carrying the president and the other his chief of staff."
>SOURCE: Newsday, May 2, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1051848000
>
>11. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S LIES
>http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/5/bennett-d.html
>   "Other presidents have had problems with truth-telling," write
>   Drake Bennett and Heidi Pauken. "But George W. Bush is in a class
>   by himself when it comes to prevarication. It is no exaggeration to
>   say that lying has become Bush's signature as president." They
>   detail the gap between words and deeds in Bush's policies on
>   education, health and the environment. (Unfortunately, the article
>   is inaccurately titled. Bennett and Pauken caught a few of the
>   president's lies, but certainly not "all" of them.)
>SOURCE: American Prospect, May 1, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1051761600
>
>12. CELEBRITY SPEAKS OUT ON CELEBRITIES SPEAKING OUT
>http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15780
>   "I'm so public about this because I've been asked to do so and
>   because I painfully felt that the anti-war movement was being
>   ignored," comedian and anti-war activist Janeane Garofalo told The
>   Progressive's Elizabeth DiNovella. "It became abundantly clear that
>   no one was getting on TV talking about this. ... I can't stand
>   watching history roll right over us. It's like they're asking you
>   to bend over, put your head in the sand, and put a flag in your
>   ass." Garofalo, who's been active with Win Without War, has
>   appeared on Crossfire, Inside Politics, Good Morning America, Fox
>   News Sunday, MSNBC, and CNN. She accused the press of wasting
>   America's time with celebrity bashing. "You can book a guest you
>   can respect or you can respect the guest you book. They love to
>   pretend that if you are in entertainment, that's what defines you
>   and you can't possibly have any knowledge of what's going on in the
>   news. So you have grown adult anchors and media people who are
>   literally acting like twelve year olds, saying, 'You shut up. You
>   don't know anything.' Literally treating you with the contempt of a
>   schoolyard bully," Garofalo said.
>SOURCE: Alternet, April 30, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2003.html#1051675200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1051675200
>
>13. TWO DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
>http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15778
>   MSNBC correspondent Ashleigh Banfield was reprimanded by her
>   network following a speech she gave at Kansas State University
>   about U.S. news coverage of the war in Iraq. Too bad, because it
>   was a pretty good speech. Banfield criticized the "glorious,
>   wonderful picture" that the media painted of the war, saying it
>   "wasn't journalism." But she also provided valuable insights into
>   the "two different languages" with which the combatants on opposing
>   sides of conflicts see the world. "You cannot negotiate when
>   someone can't hear you or refuses to hear you or can't even
>   understand your language," she said, "and that's clearly what's
>   happening in a lot of places in the world right now, the West Bank,
>   Gaza and Israel, not the least of which there's very little
>   listening and understanding going on."
>SOURCE: Alternet, April 29, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1051588801
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Carpentier Nico (Phd)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University Brussels
Studies on Media, Information & Telecommunication (SMIT)
Centre for Media Sociology (CeMeSO)
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