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[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, June 11, 2003

Wed Jun 11 06:52:20 GMT 2003


>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, June 11, 2003
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. Mad Cow USA:  U.S. Weans Calves on Cattle Blood
>2. Martha Does Spin
>3. Patriotic Magazine Launched By US Army
>4. PR Flacks Protected Under Attorney-Client Privilege
>5. Saudi Arabia Markets Itself  As 'Modern Nation'
>6. U.S. PR Office In Baghdad Barely Functioning
>7. U.S. Drug Industry Steps Up Lobbying in Canada
>8. Twisted Intelligence on Iraq
>9. G.I. and Cleric Vie for Hearts and Minds in Baghdad
>10. Merge, Left
>11. U.S. Blocks U.N. Weapons Inspectors
>12. Democracy Up, America Down
>13. McDonald's Thinks It's 'Green'
>14. Rendon Group Works For Joint Chiefs of Staff
>15. Company Paid Doctors to Promote Drug
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. MAD COW USA:  U.S. WEANS CALVES ON CATTLE BLOOD
>http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-06-09-beef-cover_x.htm
>   USA Today examines the threat of mad cow disease in the U.S. asking
>   "did you know ... that calves, instead of drinking their mothers'
>   milk, are fed formula made from cows' blood? ... Says John Stauber,
>   [co-]author of Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?: 'What
>   we need to do is obvious but economically painful for the livestock
>   industry. That's to implement exactly the same regulations that
>   exist in Britain and Europe and ban all feeding of slaughterhouse
>   waste to livestock. Every time there's media attention to this
>   issue, every time consumers and producers start asking questions,
>   we get this lip service out of USDA and FDA that 'Yes, we need to
>   do the right thing; it's just going to take time.' But they're just
>   not ready to bite the bullet -- it's too economically painful for
>   the livestock feed industry."
>SOURCE: USA Today, June 10, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/June_2003.html#1055217602
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1055217602
>
>2. MARTHA DOES SPIN
>http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8268345&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=7546&rfi=6
>   Image consultants are praising Martha Stewart's bid to get public
>   opinion on her side and to influence potential jurors, reports the
>   Associated Press. The campaign includes a national newspaper
>   advertisement and a new website, marthatalks.com, that went up the
>   day Stewart was indicted in federal court for securities fraud and
>   lying to authorities. Eric Dezenhall, who runs a Washington,
>   D.C.-based public relations firm that specializes in damage
>   control, said the website and controlled message are critical. "She
>   doesn't have a whole variety of options to make people who dislike
>   her like her," Dezenhall told AP. "What she can do is put a press
>   on the Justice Department by having her supporters hammer the
>   narrative that this is a witchhunt." Stewart has hired Citigate
>   Sard Verbinnen, a New York-based firm that specializes in corporate
>   crisis communications and mergers and acquisitions, for her public
>   relations effort.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, June 10, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/June_2003.html#1055217601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1055217601
>
>3. PATRIOTIC MAGAZINE LAUNCHED BY US ARMY
>http://www.spacewar.com/2003/030610113023.xn8eaxtl.html
>   "The US army has launched a glossy patriotic magazine to rally its
>   3rd Infantry Division, whose troops face hostile action in the
>   badlands of western Iraq a full two months after Saddam Hussein's
>   ouster," Agence France-Press reports. "Called the 'Liberator', the
>   16-page in-house publication carries rousing reports from the field
>   to win over homesick troops who might be doubting the rationale for
>   the US presence more than six months after they first arrived in
>   Kuwait to train for the invasion." Specialist Jacob Boyer said in
>   the 5,000-copy launch edition, "Forget about weapons. Forget about
>   national defense. I've found my reason for being here. It's the
>   people." Perhaps not surprisingly, the publication lacks any Iraqi
>   voices or any criticism of US forces.
>SOURCE: Agence France-Presse, June 10, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1055217600
>
>4. PR FLACKS PROTECTED UNDER ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE
>http://www.holmesreport.com/holmestemp/story.cfm?edit_id=3318&typeid=1
>   "Litigation public relations discussions involving lawyers and
>   public relations professionals are protected under attorney-client
>   privilege, according to a ruling last week by U.S. District Judge
>   Lewis Kaplan," PR trade publication the Holmes Report writes. "The
>   ruling was hailed by public relations professionals as conferring
>   new credibility on their role and acknowledging a reality of
>   today's legal work. Judge Lewis Kaplan said the privilege --
>   granted to accountants and some other professionals in earlier
>   cases -- can also extend to conversations between the target and
>   the public relations firm, but only to the extent that the
>   conversations are 'for the purpose of obtaining legal services.'"
>SOURCE: The Holmes Report, June 9, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1055131203
>
>5. SAUDI ARABIA MARKETS ITSELF  AS 'MODERN NATION'
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0609saudis_pay_qorvis.htm
>   "Saudi Arabia breaks ads in the top 25 U.S. markets this month to
>   give Americans a 'better perspective' of the Kingdom, and highlight
>   its 'steadfast commitment' to fighting terrorism. The ads also
>   depict Saudi Arabia as a 'modern nation' with 'normal people' who
>   are struggling against the scourge of terror," O'Dwyer's PR Daily
>   reports. The Kingdom paid its PR firm Qorvis Communications $1.4
>   million during its latest six-month reporting period, according to
>   the company's Justice Dept. filing. Qorvis billed $1.2 million of
>   that amount for PR, $150,000 for government relations and $50,000
>   for research. "The firm's extensive media relations effort included
>   arranging the two-day trip to Saudi Arabia for Katie Couric of
>   'Today' in which she chatted with Crown Prince Abdullah and Prince
>   Saudi Al-Faisal," O'Dwyer's writes. Qorvis also arranged "off the
>   record briefings" for top Saudi spokesman Adel Al-Jubeir attended
>   by major TV and print news outlets.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, June 9, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1055131202
>
>6. U.S. PR OFFICE IN BAGHDAD BARELY FUNCTIONING
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=182090&site=3
>   "Journalists and government officials complained last week that the
>   Bush administration has virtually abandoned its public affairs
>   operation in Baghdad," PR Week reports. "Moroccan ambassador
>   Margaret Tutwiler was sent to oversee the operation in April after
>   major hostilities ended. But according to administration sources,
>   she returned to Morocco within a month. Department of Justice (DoJ)
>   press secretary Mark Corallo arrived in May to handle day-to-day
>   press duties, but stayed just a week after being told by Tutwiler
>   there was no role for him." PR Week reports the U.S. government's
>   public affairs office in Baghdad is barely functional, operating
>   without reliable phones, enough computers, or much accurate
>   information.
>SOURCE: PR Week, June 9, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1055131201
>
>7. U.S. DRUG INDUSTRY STEPS UP LOBBYING IN CANADA
>http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/story.asp?id=15815BBE-4A30-4C29-BEF1-059A6FDB0B6F
>   "America's big drug companies are intensifying their lobbying
>   efforts to 'change the Canadian health-care system' and eliminate
>   subsidized prescription drug prices enjoyed by Canadians," CanWest
>   News Service reports. "A prescription drug industry spokesman in
>   Washington confirmed to CanWest News Service that information
>   contained in confidential industry documents is accurate and that
>   $1 million US is being added to the already heavily funded drug
>   lobby against the Canadian system." The Pharmaceutical Research and
>   Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is the leading drug industry trade
>   group behind the increased lobbying and PR campaign. PhRMA is also
>   spending $450,000 to target the booming Canadian Internet pharmacy
>   industry, which provides Americans with prescription drugs at lower
>   prices than in the United States.
>SOURCE: CanWest News Service, June 9, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1055131200
>
>8. TWISTED INTELLIGENCE ON IRAQ
>http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/159/nation/US_said_to_twist_its_data_on_IraqP.shtml
>   The Bush administration distorted intelligence and presented
>   conjecture as evidence to justify a US invasion of Iraq, said Greg
>   Thielmann, who served as director of the strategic, proliferation,
>   and military issues office in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of
>   Intelligence and Research during the months before the war. "What
>   disturbs me deeply is what I think are the disingenuous statements
>   made from the very top about what the intelligence did say," said
>   Thielmann. "The area of distortion was greatest in the nuclear
>   field."
>SOURCE: Associated Press, June 8, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1055044801
>
>9. G.I. AND CLERIC VIE FOR HEARTS AND MINDS IN BAGHDAD
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/international/worldspecial/08CLER.html?pagewanted=print
>   "While policy makers and analysts in Washington discuss curbing the
>   spread of militant Islam in the abstract, a political struggle
>   between the American military and hard-line Iraqi religious leaders
>   is steadily intensifying in Iraq," reports David Rohde. U.S. Lt.
>   Col. David Haight recently arrested Sheik Jassim al-Saadi, a young
>   Islamic cleric accused of incitement against the U.S. military
>   presence in Iraq. "Across the country, young American military
>   officers are competing with young, politically savvy Shiite and
>   Sunni clerics for popular support," Rohde writes. "Military
>   officials and residents say some clerics spread false rumors that
>   American soldiers distribute candy wrapped in pornographic
>   pictures, kidnap Iraqi women and girls for prostitution and can see
>   through women's clothing with their night-vision goggles."
>SOURCE: New York Times, June 8, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1055044800
>
>10. MERGE, LEFT
>http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/7987
>   "The rules of political engagement have changed, and progressives
>   had best observe the planful discipline that has brought right-wing
>   conservatives to such powerful heights," writes Joe Bevilacqua.
>   "The ladder of these heights was built, rung by rung, through the
>   efforts of non-profit organizations. ... In a slow and calculated
>   manner over the last 30 years, the Right has built a solid
>   organization that is only now reaping the fruits of its labors in
>   the form of unprecedented governmental, corporate and media
>   control. The Left has sat quietly, letting it happen."
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1054956407
>
>11. U.S. BLOCKS U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTORS
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2967598.stm
>   Although the U.S. is allowing the International Atomic Energy
>   Agency to visit Iraq briefly, it has rejected calls for the return
>   of United Nations inspectors to Iraq to join in the hunt for
>   alleged weapons of mass destruction, and chief UN weapons inspector
>   Hans Blix has sharpened his public criticism. In a BBC interview,
>   Blix said he had been disappointed with the tips his office
>   received prior to the war from British and US intelligence. of the
>   information he received prior to the war from British and U.S.
>   intelligence sources. "Only in three of those cases did we find
>   anything at all, and in none of these cases were there any weapons
>   of mass destruction, and that shook me a bit, I must say," Blix
>   said. "I thought - my God, if this is the best intelligence they
>   have and we find nothing, what about the rest?" His comments came
>   as U.S. officials fought to minimize the political damage from
>   their own leaked intelligence analysis of September 2002, which
>   reported "no reliable evidence" on Iraqi weapons.
>SOURCE: BBC (UK), June 6, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/June_2003.html#1054872000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1054872000
>
>12. DEMOCRACY UP, AMERICA DOWN
>http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=185
>   Throughout the world, including Muslim countries, people place a
>   high value on freedom of expression, freedom of the press,
>   multi-party systems and equal treatment under the law, reports a
>   44-nation survey of world opinion conducted by the Pew Research
>   Center for the People and the Press. Support for the United States,
>   however, is another matter. "The speed of the war in Iraq and the
>   prevailing belief that the Iraqi people are better off as a result
>   have modestly improved the image of America," states the survey
>   summary. "But in most countries, opinions of the U.S. are markedly
>   lower than they were a year ago. The war has widened the rift
>   between Americans and Western Europeans, further inflamed the
>   Muslim world, softened support for the war on terrorism, and
>   significantly weakened global public support for the pillars of the
>   post-World War II era -- the U.N. and the North Atlantic alliance."
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1054731074
>
>13. MCDONALD'S THINKS IT'S 'GREEN'
>   Inter Press Service reports that "The recent appointment of fast
>   food giant McDonald's to the advisory board of an environmental
>   group has drawn accusations of 'green washing' from
>   environmentalists and led one board member to resign in protest.
>   Paul Hawken, a well-known activist and environmentalist respected
>   for his strong opposition to corporate globalisation, resigned two
>   weeks ago from the Green Business Network... . 'McDonald's doesn't
>   have the expertise, the credibility or the values to be on the
>   steering committee of a green business,' Hawken, a board member
>   since the NGO started its operation in 2000, told IPS in an
>   interview." Meanwhile, as if to prove his point, the fast food
>   chain is suing a prominent Italian food writer for criticizing its
>   offerings. McDonald's wants Edoardo Raspelli to fork over millions
>   of dollars for telling an interviewer, among other things, that
>   'gastronomically speaking, I find their meals repellent.'
>SOURCE: Inter Press Service, The Guardian, June 4, 2003
>Web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/June_2003.html#1054699201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1054699201
>
>14. RENDON GROUP WORKS FOR JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0603rendon.htm
>   The Rendon Group, a secretive PR firm whose government clients have
>   included the Pentagon, the CIA, and USAID, has gone to work for the
>   Joint Chiefs of Staff, trade publication O'Dwyer's PR Daily
>   reports. The Washington D.C.-based firm is providing "strategic
>   communications counsel, media analysis and consultation support
>   services" to the Joint Chiefs, combatant commanders and top
>   military advisors. O'Dwyer's reports that the Joint Chiefs
>   exercised an option on the Rendon Groups initial four-month
>   $397,000 contract with the Pentagon, awarded without bid following
>   the 9/11 attacks. The Rendon Group has been credited with creating
>   the Iraqi National Congress in the aftermath of the 1991 Persian
>   Gulf War. The New Yorker's Seymour Hersch reported last year that
>   Rendon received more than $100 million from the CIA for clandestine
>   operations in Iraq between 1991-1996.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, June 3, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/June_2003.html#1054612801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1054612801
>
>15. COMPANY PAID DOCTORS TO PROMOTE DRUG
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/30/business/30DRUG.html?ex=1055727962&ei=1&en=efb1bfd6b1b233e6
>   "Documents released yesterday in the case of a drug company
>   whistle-blower shed light on how extensively doctors were involved
>   in promoting unapproved uses of a Warner-Lambert drug, Neurontin.
>   Warner-Lambert paid dozens of doctors tens of thousands of dollars
>   each to speak to other physicians about how Neurontin, an epilepsy
>   drug, could be prescribed for more than a dozen other medical uses
>   that had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The
>   top speaker for Neurontin, Dr. B. J. Wilder, a former professor of
>   neurology at the University of Florida, received more than $300,000
>   for speeches given from 1994 to 1997, according to a court filing.
>   Six other doctors, including some from top medical schools,
>   received more than $100,000 each."
>SOURCE: New York Times, May 30, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1054267202
>
>
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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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