(From 2002 until 2005, this mailing list was called the ECCR mailing list)
[Previous message][Next message][Back to index]
[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, November 5, 2003
Wed Nov 05 17:02:28 GMT 2003
THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, November 5, 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. CBS Caves to Pressure, Dumps Reagan Movie
2. Media Reform Conference Begins Friday in Madison
3. Private Sector Takes On Public Diplomacy
4. Copyright vs. Democracy
5. Sheep's Clothing
6. 'By-Passing the Media Filter' on the Iraq War
7. Media Blackout on Local Issues
8. Raped By the Globe
9. Gay-Bashing Provocateurs
10. Chemical Industry PR to Counter Health Activists
11. Puffery for Puff Daddy
12. Arson Attack on Peace Activists
13. Fox Gets the Memo
14. Bush Seeks Scapegoats for 'Mission Accomplished' Stunt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. CBS CAVES TO PRESSURE, DUMPS REAGAN MOVIE
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/business/media/05TUBE.html?ex=1069002888&ei=1&en=2163c6474be84cfb
TV docu-dramas, such as this Sunday's red, white and blue Iraqi war
mythology Saving Private Lynch, always play fast and loose with the
facts, twisting reality into fiction for entertainment's sake. But
a much hyped CBS miniseries on Ronald Reagan drew the wrath of the
Right, and CBS has dumped the show. The New York Times reports that
"CBS executives ... denied they were capitulating to pressure from
Republicans and conservative groups in moving the 'The Reagans' to
the pay cable channel Showtime, a sister network at Viacom. The
decision, they argued, was instead 'a moral call,' reached after
concluding that the four-hour television movie carried a liberal
political agenda and treated the Reagans unfairly. ... On Oct. 28,
the Media Research Center ... wrote a letter to a list of 100 top
television sponsors urging them to 'refuse to associate your
products with this movie.' At around the same time Michael
Paranzino, a former Republican Congressional staff member from
Betheseda Md., decided to start a Web site called BoycottCBS.com.
... Last Friday, the Republican National Committee entered the
fray."
SOURCE: New York Times, November 5, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068008401
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068008401
2. MEDIA REFORM CONFERENCE BEGINS FRIDAY IN MADISON
http://www.mediareform.net/conference.php
Some 1,500 journalists, political reformers and citizens at large
are convening in our home town of Madison, Wisconsin, November 7th
- 9th for the National Conference on Media Reform. The conference
begins Friday with a 2pm panel featuring professor Nancy Snow,
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and our own John Stauber, co-author
of Weapons of Mass Deception. The dozens of speakers and performing
artists include Bill Moyers, Al Franken, members of the US House
and Senate, FCC Commissioners, John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, Ralph
Nader, Janine Jackson of FAIR, Billy Bragg and many more.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068008400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068008400
3. PRIVATE SECTOR TAKES ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=194146&site=3
As the US slips in international opinion polls, some private sector
imagemakers think its time to bolster Washington's public diplomacy
efforts, PR Week's Douglas Quenqua reports. "Keith Reinhard,
chairman of Omnicom ad firm DDB Worldwide, announced the formation
of the Task Force to Mobilize American Business for Public
Diplomacy, a collection of marketing and PR experts who've come
together to help American corporations improve America's image in
foreign lands." Reinhard's initial research showed that "the world
overwhelmingly shares the same four negative perceptions about US
companies: they exploit workers; they're a corrupting influence,
promoting values that are in conflict with local customs; they're
grossly insensitive and arrogant; and the practice
hyper-consumerism, increasing profits it the only priority." "I
looked at the data and I said, 'They're talking about companies and
brands that mean business to me. ... All these big multinational
companies, these are our clients,'" Reinhard told PR Week. "Our own
company gets 61% of our revenue from outside the US. So I thought
we could organize and address some of these perceptions."
SOURCE: PR Week, November 3, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835603
4. COPYRIGHT VS. DEMOCRACY
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1103-04.htm
"Diebold Election Systems, which makes voting machines, is waging
legal war against grass-roots advocates, including dozens of
college students, who are posting on the Internet copies of the
company's internal communications about its electronic voting
machines," reports John Schwartz. The company's attorneys have sent
letters threatening legal action against the students, who are
circulating "thousands of e-mail messages and memorandums dating to
March 2003 from January 1999 that include discussions of bugs in
Diebold's software and warnings that its computer network are
poorly protected against hackers." Questions are also being raised
about whether Diebold's voting machines can be trusted to deliver
an honest result. "Diebold has become a favorite target of
advocates who accuse it of partisanship," Schwartz states. "Company
executives have made large contributions to the Republican Party
and the chief executive, Walden W. O'Dell, said in an invitation to
a fund-raiser that he was 'committed to helping Ohio deliver its
electoral votes to the president next year.'"
SOURCE: New York Times, November 3, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835602
5. SHEEP'S CLOTHING
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9286
A group calling itself Partnership for the West (PFTW) was formally
unveiled in late October and aims to influence environmental
legislation in Washington. "The group plans to work on 'restoring a
common sense balance to economic growth and conservation in the
West,'" notes Bill Berkowitz, adding that this "sounds nice, until
you see who's behind it. Claiming to be a grassroots lobby group,
PFTW actually represents a kinder, gentler and more politically
savvy brand of anti-environmentalism. ... The group's members
number over a hundred, and include large interests in fossil fuel,
logging and mining industries. ... Partnership for the West grew
out of summit in Denver, Colorado, attended by elected officials,
corporate representatives and long-standing anti-environmental
organizations like the American Land Rights Association, the Blue
Ribbon Coalition, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, and People
for the USA. Its president, Jim Sims, is the former communications
director for the National Energy Policy Task Force - also known as
Cheney's secret panel - and helped craft the administration's
energy policy." According to Scott Silver, who heads a real
environmental group called Wild Wilderness, "These people are paid
lobbyists and public relations consultants serving the needs of
every imaginable sort of polluter, developer, resource extractor or
despoiler of the environment."
SOURCE: TomPaine.com, November 3, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1067835601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835601
6. 'BY-PASSING THE MEDIA FILTER' ON THE IRAQ WAR
http://www.truthuncovered.com/index.cfm?ms=alternet
As part of its PR strategy to 'by-pass the media filter' that it
claims is distorting public perception of the Iraq war with too
much negative reporting, the Bush administration has been granting
interviews to smaller, more friendly media. A 'media by-pass'
tactic of a different sort is being used by critics of the war who,
as we've documented in our book Weapons of Mass Deception, have
been locked out of mainstream media coverage. Alternet has
announced that "A provocative new DVD that documents how the Bush
Administration exaggerated the threat of Iraq, debuts today.
Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald,
"Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War" takes you behind
the scenes, as CIA, Pentagon and foreign service experts speak out
and reveal the lies, misstatements and exaggerations that the Bush
administration used to deceive the public." Word of the DVD is
"going to millions of MoveOn members, Nation subscribers, Working
Assets customers, and others as part of an unprecedented,
simultaneous effort to bypass the film and media gatekeepers and
take the information directly to the people."
SOURCE: Alternet, November 3, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1067835600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835600
7. MEDIA BLACKOUT ON LOCAL ISSUES
http://www.bettercampaigns.org/press/release.php?ReleaseID=50
Local public affairs shows account for less than one half of one
percent of all programming on local television stations, according
to a study released by the Alliance for Better Campaigns.
"Broadcasters have relegated local public-affairs programming to
the very bottom of the heap - behind cartoons, kitchenware
specials, reruns, courtroom dramas, dating shows and late-night
talk shows," reports Jennifer Harper. "The analysis found, for
example, that there were three times as many 'Seinfeld' reruns as
local public-affairs shows on TV stations nationwide. There were
four times as many cartoon shows, seven times as many pro football
games, nine times as many dating shows, 19 times as many late-night
talk shows, 20 times as many courtroom dramas and 23 times as many
soap operas."
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067830733
8. RAPED BY THE GLOBE
http://salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/10/31/kobe/index.html
The Globe, a tabloid newspaper, is running a titillating photograph
of alleged rapist Kobe Bryant's accuser at her high school prom.
"In it, the woman is lifting up her prom dress to reveal a garter
belt," notes Rebecca Traister. "The headline reads: 'Kobe Bryant's
Accuser: Did she really say no?' Next to the photo, in half-inch
type, is the 19-year-old woman's name." Traister interviewed
journalism professors and magazine editors who are shocked by the
Globe's decision. "It is misogynistic and truly exploitative to try
to get big sales off of identifying an alleged rape victim," said
Us Weekly's editor in chief Janice Min. "Was a woman dressed
inappropriately? Did she ask for it? Is a sexy woman more likely to
get raped than a non-sexy woman? These are the anachronistic,
horrible ideas that come up because of a cover like that. Morally,
it's wrong."
SOURCE: Salon.com, October 31, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067576400
9. GAY-BASHING PROVOCATEURS
http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=702
A gay-bashing, right wing student newspaper at Roger Williams
University in Rhode Island offers a fresh example of the
conservative media's strategy of "publicizing censorship of their
papers" so they can "cast themselves as the little guy up against
the leftist establishment." The Hawk's Right Eye provoked the
university administration into clamping down by running nasty
attacks on Judy Shepard, whose son was beaten to death in Texas for
being gay. After Shepard spoke on campus, HRE accused her of
"preying on students' emotions and naivety" [sic] so that she could
become "a mascot for the homosexual agenda." Now that the
university has established a "publications and broadcast review
committee" and is considering revoking HRE's funding, national
conservative groups have swarmed to its defense, complaining of
"harassment" and "a heavy-handed approach to silencing ideas that
oppose the leftist orthodoxy so prevalent on college campuses."
SOURCE: Student Press Law Center, October 30, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067490002
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067490002
10. CHEMICAL INDUSTRY PR TO COUNTER HEALTH ACTIVISTS
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=1
Monique Harden and Nathalie Walker, two public interest lawyers,
report that they attended "the recent conference of the American
Chemistry Council (ACC), called 'Communicating in a Volatile
World.' ACC is the trade association for the 180 largest
manufacturers of chemicals in the U.S. Until recently, ACC was
known as the Chemical Manufacturers Association. The ACC conference
was a real eye-opener. It revealed the ACC's genuine fears about
the accomplishments of environmental health activists. In
particular, ACC communications staff and presenters at the
conference conceded that the work of coalitions like the
Collaborative on Health and the Environment and Health Care Without
Harm has effectively raised public awareness about the health
dangers of toxic chemicals in the environment and in consumer
products. They also concluded that the success of these coalitions
is due to their diversity of members and supporters who include
community groups, environmental justice organizations, health
professionals, and researchers who focus on body burden and
low-dose chemical exposures, shareholder/investment institutions,
and consumers. Here are the salient details of the various
presentations at the conference..."
SOURCE: Rachel's Environment & Health News, October 30, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067490001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067490001
11. PUFFERY FOR PUFF DADDY
http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1030klores.htm
Dan Klores Communications, a PR firm that specializes in "crisis
communications" for clients embroiled in scandals, is representing
Sean ("P. Diddy") Combs, the artist formerly known as "Puff Daddy,"
as he faces criticism for the use of sweatshop labor to manufacture
his clothing line. "The National Labor Committee, the organization
which targeted Kathy Lee Gifford with similar charges eight years
ago, this week released a report detailing forced overtime without
pay, mandatory pregnancy tests and other 'systematic human and
worker rights violations' at a factory which producesarticles for
Combs' 'Sean John' line," reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Combs has
been a long-time client of Klores, which encouraged him to carry a
Bible to court during his 2001 trial for illegal gun possession in
connection with a nightclub shooting. The PR firm has also
represented Combs at other embarrassing moments such as his 2002
legal battle with an ex-girlfriend over child support for their
infant son. Other Klores clients have included Britney Spears, Mike
Tyson and Lizzie Grubman.
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, October 30, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067490000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067490000
12. ARSON ATTACK ON PEACE ACTIVISTS
http://www.progressive.org/mcwatch03/mc102903.html
Cindy Hunter and her husband, Sam Nickels, opposed Bush's war
against Iraq and put a sign on their front porch showing the number
of Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers who have been wounded or
killed thus far in the war. An anonymous arson responded by setting
fire to the sign, endangering their lives and causing an estimated
$50,000 in damages to their home. This incident is only one of
dozens that the Progressive magazine lists on its "McCarthyism
Watch," which monitors "the New McCarthyism that is sweeping the
country."
SOURCE: Progressive, October 29, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067403602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067403602
13. FOX GETS THE MEMO
http://poynter.org/forum/?id=letters#foxnews
Charlie Reina, a former producer for Fox News, has posted a letter
to the Poynter Institute's online journalism forum, explaining how
the network deliberately slants the news. "Editorially, the FNC
newsroom is under the constant control and vigilance of
management," he writes. "The pressure ranges from subtle to
direct. First of all, it's a news network run by one of the most
high-profile political operatives of recent times. ... The roots of
FNC's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in
the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each
morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often,
suggesting how they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel
responsible for the channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the
bible. If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem
to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo
is behind it."
SOURCE: Poynter Online Forums, October 29, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067403601
14. BUSH SEEKS SCAPEGOATS FOR 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED' STUNT
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/politics/29BANN.html?ex=1068435851&ei=1&en=a3423473eff9af7f
As the propaganda that led America to attack Iraq continues to fall
apart, President Bush is looking for scapegoats for his own PR
stunts. "The triumphal 'Mission Accomplished' banner was the pride
of the White House advance team, the image makers who set the stage
for the president's close-ups. On May 1, on a golden Pacific
evening aboard the carrier Abraham Lincoln, they made sure that the
banner was perfectly captured in the camera shots of President
Bush's speech declaring major combat in Iraq at an end. But on
Tuesday in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush publicly disavowed the
banner... 'I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious
advance man from my staff. They weren't that ingenious, by the
way.' ... The banner 'was suggested by those on the ship,' [Bush
press secretary Scotty McClellan] said. 'They asked us to do the
production of the banner, and we did. They're the ones who put it
up.' The man responsible for the banner, Scott Sforza, a former ABC
producer now with the White House communications office, was
traveling overseas on Tuesday and declined to answer questions. He
is known for the production of the sophisticated backdrops that
appear behind Mr. Bush with the White House message of the day,
like 'Helping Small Business,' repeated over and over." On May 16th
the New York Times reported that "White House officials say that a
variety of people, including the president" came up with the
carrier landing stunt. We wonder, is that super-sexy flight suit
President Bush wore on its way to the Smithsonian, or the shredder?
SOURCE: New York Times, October 22, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067403600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067403600
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------
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]
