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[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, May 28, 2003
Wed May 28 07:02:11 GMT 2003
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, May 28, 2003
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>sponsored by PR WATCH (www.prwatch.org)
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>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.
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. PR Trade Group Calls To Postpone FCC Ownership Vote
>2. Mad Cow Disease Hits North America
>3. Stossel's Political Promotion
>4. APCO Paving Way For Contracts To Rebuild Iraq
>5. Well Connected
>6. The Secret Plot Against Santa Claus
>7. Totally Terrorized Information Awareness
>8. Thought Crime in New Mexico
>9. Defense Contractor 'Re-establishes' Iraq's Media
>10. Who Is the US Trying to Fool?
>11. It's the Water, Stupid
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. PR TRADE GROUP CALLS TO POSTPONE FCC OWNERSHIP VOTE
>http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.052703/231475137&directory=/google&header_file=header.htm&footer_file=
> The leading PR trade association, the Public Relations Society of
> America, is calling on its 20,000 members to organize a "broad
> grassroots initiative to persuade the Federal Communications
> Commission to postpone its scheduled June 2 vote on the biennial
> review of regulations for broadcast ownership." The group, which
> represents government, corporate, institutional and individual
> public relations practitioners, says it advocates postponement of
> the FCC vote "until the Commission proactively encourages full
> public participation in an open, robust debate and discussion of
> this critically important issue." "This is a matter of
> transparency," said PRSA president and CEO Reed Bolton Byrum. "We
> encourage free and open debate of salient issues in our society -
> whether in government or institutional America."
>SOURCE: News Release, May 27, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1054008000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1054008000
>
>2. MAD COW DISEASE HITS NORTH AMERICA
>http://www.prwatch.org/books/madcow.html
> In 1997 Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber wrote Mad Cow USA: Could
> the Nightmare Happen Here. To further public education the book is
> now available free on our website as a PDF download. It predicted
> that Mad Cow Disease and similar ailments were likely to emerge in
> North America since the US (and Canada following its lead) refused
> to ban all feeding of slaughterhouse waste to livestock. For
> instance, US and Canadian dairy calves are fed milk formula
> containing cattle blood plasma, even though blood can transmit mad
> cow and similar diseases. Mad Cow Disease has now been found in
> Canada and contaminated feed is a likely source according to the
> Canadian government. To keep abreast of this issue bookmark the
> website of the Organic Consumers Association
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053921600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053921600
>
>3. STOSSEL'S POLITICAL PROMOTION
>http://www.fair.org/activism/stossel-anchor.html
> John Stossel has been promoted to co-anchor of ABC's 20/20 TV
> program. According to a source within the network, "These are
> conservative times... the network wants somebody to match the
> times." Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) points to
> Stossel's history of "bungled facts and twisted logic" and asks if
> "a record of credible and accurate reporting" shouldn't be more
> important than "matching the perceived political climate."
>SOURCE: FAIR/Extra!, May 23, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053662401
>
>4. APCO PAVING WAY FOR CONTRACTS TO REBUILD IRAQ
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0523apco.htm
> "APCO Worldwide, a Grey Global Group unit, has set up an Iraq
> reconstruction task force with a personnel roster of ex-government
> heavyweights to guide clients through the process of pursuing
> contracts," trade publication O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "Marc
> Ginsberg, former special coordinator for Middle East and
> Mediterranean trade and economic policy and ambassador to Morocco
> who is a senior VP at APCO, is heading the team. The rebuilding
> advisement team includes Former Sen. Don Riegle, ex-chairman of the
> Senate Banking Committee; five-year Federal Aviation Administration
> head Jane Garvey; ex-Rep. Steve Solarz, a Middle East expert
> formerly on the House International Affairs Committee, and Richard
> Allen, who was President Reagan's national security advisor."
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, May 23, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053662400
>
>5. WELL CONNECTED
>http://www.openairwaves.org/telecom/
> A new project by the Center for Public Integrity takes a close look
> at the telecommunications industry and its regulatory body, the
> Federal Communications Commission. Visitors to OpenAirWaves.org
> will find the CPI's "first-of-its-kind, 65,000 record, searchable
> database containing ownership information on virtually every radio
> station, television station, cable television system and telephone
> company in America." CPI also looked at FCC travel records. They
> report that the FCC commissioners "have been showered with nearly
> $2.8 million in travel and entertainment over the past eight years,
> most of it from the telecommunications and broadcast industries the
> agency regulates."
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053643384
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053643384
>
>6. THE SECRET PLOT AGAINST SANTA CLAUS
>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB90/press.htm
> The Central Intelligence Agency classified and withheld from public
> release a 25-year-old joke item in a weekly terrorism report about
> the terrorist threat to Santa Claus, notes a new report on
> government secrecy. "The CIA's secret Santa" leads what the report
> calls a "lengthy compilation of declassified documents that
> illustrate the arbitrary and capricious decision making that all
> too often characterizes the U.S. government's national security
> secrecy system." The government has also classified classified
> information to maintain a number of other, more serious "dubious
> secrets", such as intelligence budgets dating back to 1947 and
> death squad activities in El Salvador that would have undermined
> Congressional approval for military aid.
>SOURCE: National Security Archive, May 21, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053489601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053489601
>
>7. TOTALLY TERRORIZED INFORMATION AWARENESS
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19272-2003May21.html
> An angry public response forced the Pentagon to publicly back away
> from its Total Information Awareness surveillance program. Now it's
> back, with one major revision: a name change. Instead of "Total
> Information Awareness," they're calling it "Terrorism Information
> Awareness." According to Washington Post correspondent Ariana
> Eunjung Cha, the proposed system "would have the power to track
> people as never before. It would identify people at great distances
> by the irises of their eyes, the grooves in their face or even
> their gait. It would look for suspicious patterns in video footage
> of people's movements. And it would analyze airline ticket
> purchases, visa applications, as well as financial, medical,
> educational and biometric records to try to predict terrorists'
> acts or catch them in the planning stage." Another TIA proposal,
> the "Misinformation Detection" system, will analyze language and
> other aspects of text for false or misleading information. (It
> won't have far to look.)
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 21, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053489600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053489600
>
>8. THOUGHT CRIME IN NEW MEXICO
>http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/opinions03/052003_opinions_teachers.shtml
> Several high school teachers in New Mexico have been suspended or
> fired after refusing to enforce pro-war views in their classrooms.
> Geoff Barrett, a teacher at Albuquerque's Highland High School, was
> suspended after refusing to remove student-made artwork expressing
> views on the recent U.S. war against Iraq. The artwork included
> both pro- and antiwar views, but he was advised that the "pro-war"
> posters were not "pro-war enough." Bill Nevins of Rio Rancho High
> School lost his job and a poetry team that he advised has been
> disbanded after one of his students read an anti-war poem over the
> school's PA system. Several other teachers have been suspended
> after refusing to remove anti-war posters from their classrooms.
> "Meanwhile, pro-war, militaristic signs, posters and bumper
> stickers abound at many Albuquerque and Rio Rancho schools," note
> Eric Haas and Jama Fisk.
>SOURCE: Albuquerque Tribune, May 20, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053403202
>
>9. DEFENSE CONTRACTOR 'RE-ESTABLISHES' IRAQ'S MEDIA
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_worldwire.cfm?ID=180085&site=3
> "US efforts to re-establish Iraq's media hit a milestone last week
> as defense contractor Scientific Applications International (SAI)
> rolled out the country's first post-Saddam newspaper and original
> TV news program," PR Week reports. "The 30-minute nightly news
> show, staffed by Iraqi journalists formerly in exile, reportedly
> addresses concerns about electricity, water, and lawlessness in the
> region. The twice-weekly newspaper, al Sabah ("the Dawn"), began
> printing on Thursday with an initial run of 50,000 copies. The
> short-term goal is to quell unrest among Iraqis by establishing
> America's presence and control over basic issues. The San
> Diego-based information-technology firm holds a Pentagon-issued
> contract to set up a media operation in post-war Iraq in
> coordination with Psychological Operations and the White House
> communications staff. SAI referred all questions about the contract
> to the Pentagon, which would not comment beyond confirming the
> price of the contract, which is $45 million."
>SOURCE: PR Week, May 19, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053316801
>
>10. WHO IS THE US TRYING TO FOOL?
>http://www.iht.com/articles/96547.html
> "The situation in Iraq, even by friendly accounts, seems to be
> deteriorating," writes William Pfaff, "and unfriendly accounts in
> both the British and the French press are scathing." According to
> the international relief organization CARE, millions of people in
> Iraq are at risk as water and sewage systems crumble. "Many people
> do not have access to safe drinking water, and human waste is
> backing up and out of the drains in many parts of Baghdad," said
> CARE's Nick Southern. "The very hot season is coming, when
> temperatures will climb to 110 degrees and higher. This is a recipe
> for infectious diseases like cholera and typhoid."
>SOURCE: International Herald Tribune, May 17, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2003.html#1053144000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053144000
>
>11. IT'S THE WATER, STUPID
>http://www.counterpunch.org/wells05162003.html
> "Conspicuously missing from the ubiquitous Iraq war critique was
> the subtle agenda of water rights in the parched Middle East
> region," writes Leah C. Wells. "The dialogue about access to clean
> water is commonplace in peace talks throughout the Middle East, but
> Western diplomats rarely broach the topic. An anonymous U.S. State
> Department official quoted in National Geographic said, 'people
> outside the region tend not to hear about the issue (of water). It
> just doesn't make the news.' By design, not by accident, this issue
> is obscured from Western eyes because the propaganda machinery from
> Washington, DC has not allowed it."
>SOURCE: Counterpunch, May 16, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1053057602
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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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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