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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Thu Nov 13 15:23:37 GMT 2003
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, November 12, 2003
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. US Officials Want Ban On British Protests
>2. Pentagon's Iraqi Media Network 'Fair And Balanced'
>3. Wesley Clark Campaigns Wrapped in the Flag
>4. The Center for Media & Democracy Needs Your Support!
>5. PR Watch Second Quarter Issue Now Online
>6. Cronkite Fires Back at VNR Producer
>7. Newman's Own Boosts McDonald's
>8. Miami Police "Embed" Journalists For Trade Protests
>9. Jessica Lynch Proves Her Courage & Integrity
>10. Image Is Everything in Bush's Propaganda War
>11. Lynch Says Military Should Not Have Filmed Her Rescue
>12. Bush Shifts War Justification To Democracy
>13. Jessica Lynch: The Symbol Clashes
>14. Street Poet As Stealth Huckster for Nissan
>15. Recovery or Snow Job?
>16. Battle Hymn of the New Liberal Media
>17. Deceivers or Deluded?
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. US OFFICIALS WANT BAN ON BRITISH PROTESTS
>http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=462900
> When George W. Bush visits London next week, U.S. officials want to
> keep protesters out of sight, demanding a rolling "exclusion zone"
> around the President. "The Stop The War Coalition said yesterday
> that it had been told by the police that it would not be allowed to
> demonstrate in Parliament Square and Whitehall next Thursday - a
> ban it said it was determined to resist," the Independent reports.
> "The coalition says that it has also been told by British officials
> that American officials want a distance kept between Mr Bush and
> protesters, for security reasons and to prevent their appearance in
> the same television shots. ... The mayor of London, Ken
> Livingstone, said yesterday that Mr Bush should not be shielded
> from public anger about the Iraq war, and Londoners should not have
> to pick up the £4m policing bill. He said: 'To create a situation
> in which perhaps 60,000 people remain unseen would require a
> shutdown of central London which is just not acceptable.'"
>SOURCE: Independent (UK), November 12, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068613204
>
>2. PENTAGON'S IRAQI MEDIA NETWORK 'FAIR AND BALANCED'
>http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0346/cotts.php
> The U.S. sponsored Iraqi Media Network -- planned to include a
> 24-hour satellite channel, two land-based TV channels, two radio
> channels, a national newspaper and studios in every major Iraqi
> region -- promises Iraqis "comprehensive, accurate, fair, and
> balanced news." The Village Voice's Cynthia Cotts reports, however,
> that IMN already faces credibility issues. Budgeted at $100 million
> (part of the $87.5 billion approved for Iraq), the project's money
> will flow through the Defense Department's Special Operations and
> Low-Intensity Conflict division, which also handles military
> psy-ops. "Critics say the network's mission is weakened by its
> contradictory goals. So far IMN is touted as both the voice of an
> occupying military force and an inspiration for Iraqis to produce
> fair and balanced news coverage. But many Iraqis have already
> dubbed the network a propaganda organ. (As if to underscore that
> impression, IMN recently ran a speech by CPA administrator Paul
> Bremer in which he spoke repeatedly of Hussein as 'the evil one.')
> A recent poll found that 35 percent of Iraqis now have satellite
> receivers, and of those, 67 percent prefer to get TV news from the
> satellite channels Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, rather than from
> IMN," Cotts writes.
>SOURCE: Village Voice, November 12, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068613203
>
>3. WESLEY CLARK CAMPAIGNS WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/12/politics/12CLAR.html?ex=1069648567&ei=1&en=3e9515bd12aa8d94
> The New York Times reports that former general and corporate
> lobbyist, now presidential candidate Wesley Clark supports "a
> proposed constitutional amendment that would make it illegal to
> desecrate the American flag by burning or other means, a position
> that puts him at odds with many constituencies in the Democratic
> Party and several other candidates for the Democratic nomination
> for president." Changing the U.S. Constitution to ban flag
> desecration has been criticized for years as a dangerous attack on
> free speech and dissent. Clark announced his positiion before the
> American Legion, a well-funded group long behind the amendment
> through the Citizens Flag Alliance. The CFA has been represented by
> PR and lobby heavyweights including Burson-Marsteller and Belanger
> Consulting.
>SOURCE: New York Times, Wednesday, November 12, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068613202
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068613202
>
>4. THE CENTER FOR MEDIA & DEMOCRACY NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!
>https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=1118&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eprwatch%2Eorg%2Fbooks%2Fwmd%2Ehtml
> Please help to support our work here at the Center for Media &
> Democracy with a donation of $35, $100, $1,000 or more. You can
> securely donate on-line with a credit card. Contributors of at
> least $35 dollars will receive a subscription to our award winning
> quarterly PR Watch, now in its tenth year. To ensure independence
> we refuse to accept corporate or government grants or advertising,
> and depend on concerned individuals like you. Consider contributing
> $100 or more to receive a complimentary signed copy of our
> bestselling book, Weapons of Mass Deception. The Center remains the
> only public interest organization in the world dedicated to
> exposing and countering special interest propaganda, and we need
> your help now more than ever. Thank you!
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068613201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068613201
>
>5. PR WATCH SECOND QUARTER ISSUE NOW ONLINE
>http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2003Q2/index.html
> The second quarter 2003 issue of PR Watch is now available online,
> featuring stories about the anti-environmental Wise Use movement's
> propaganda campaign against fish in Oregon's Klamath Basin and an
> excerpt from our latest book, Weapons of Mass Deception.
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068613200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068613200
>
>6. CRONKITE FIRES BACK AT VNR PRODUCER
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/business/media/11walter.html
> In a follow-up to events that we mentioned in May and discussed on
> the PR Watch Forum, former CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite has
> filed a lawsuit against WJMK, a Florida producer of video news
> releases, seeking $25 million in damages and saying the company
> misled him and tarnished his reputation when it persuaded him to
> appear in videos that promoted prescription drugs and other
> products. The company previously filed suit against Cronkite in
> September after he tried to end a contract he had signed to appear
> as the host of a series of videos, including some called American
> Medical Review.
>SOURCE: New York Times, November 11, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068526800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068526800
>
>7. NEWMAN'S OWN BOOSTS MCDONALD'S
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=194582&site=3
> Faced with the nation's growing waistline and flat sales in recent
> years, fast-food restaurants are relying on new products and PR to
> help improve their image and their profit. "Mike Donahue, VP, US
> communications and customer satisfaction for McDonald's, notes that
> PR pioneered McDonald's integrated marketing push on its salads,"
> PR Week writes. "The company aligned its salads with Paul Newman's
> Newman's Own brand of salad dressings, offering those dressings for
> its new product. Newman's Own is highly regarded in the world of
> natural and organic foods. The company donates its profits to
> charitable and educational causes, giving more than $150 million
> since 1982. 'We felt the social responsibility connection would be
> impactful,' says Donahue. McDonald's launched its salads in March
> with a New York press event featuring Newman. PR from that sent
> salad sales up 15% even before advertising started, Donahue says.
> 'There was real credibility with Newman,' he recalls."
>SOURCE: PR Week, November 10, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068440402
>
>8. MIAMI POLICE "EMBED" JOURNALISTS FOR TRADE PROTESTS
>http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2024436
> Miami police will be "embedding" reporters with police squads
> during next week's protests against trade negotiations.The
> Associated Press reports, Police Chief John Timoney said his
> embedding plan would place journalists on the front lines during
> the Free Trade Area of the Americas talks taking place in Miami.
> Police expect tens of thousands of demonstrators. "The news
> organizations invited to participate in the embedding include The
> Associated Press, NBC, Reuters, The Miami Herald, CNN, Fox and
> several TV stations. The police are still drawing up the rules
> reporters must follow, so individual organizations have not
> officially agreed yet to participate," AP writes. "The journalists
> will be responsible for their own safety and will be required to
> have a riot helmet and gas mask. Journalists are also required to
> sign a release form as well as agree not to report on such things
> as the number of officers in a unit or how many units are
> participating in an event."
>SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, November 10, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068440401
>
>9. JESSICA LYNCH PROVES HER COURAGE & INTEGRITY
>http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/03/11/edi03002.html
> Buzzflash editorializes, "So this, in summary, is what happened:
> The Bush Cartel Ministry of Truth heard that a young blonde female
> soldier was severely injured and they made up a heroic story about
> her, as part of their ongoing Iraq-war attempt to manipulate
> American public opinion. And what does Jessica Lynch do? She has
> the nerve to toss out the script the propagandists wrote for her.
> She has the audacity to speak for herself. She has the American
> heartland respect for the truth. She became a hero, in an entirely
> different role than the Bush Cartel wrote for her. Jessica Lynch,
> the young woman who joined the army after she was turned down for a
> position at Wal-Mart has something no one else in the Bush Cartel
> has -- or anyone in the fawning corporate media -- or anyone of the
> braying 'amen choir' of millionaire GOP television and radio
> pundits: Jessica Lynch has integrity."
>SOURCE: Buzzflash, November 10, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068440400
>
>10. IMAGE IS EVERYTHING IN BUSH'S PROPAGANDA WAR
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/arts/09RICH.html?ex=1069420430&ei=1&en=cb9eb90b23f0b950
> Frank Rich writes, "Ah, the dazzling pyrotechnics of 'shock and
> awe.' The finality of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue. The
> thrill of that re-enactment of 'Top Gun.' The sense of closure
> provided by the banner reading 'Mission Accomplished.' Like all
> wars of the TV age, the war in Iraq is not just a clash of armies,
> but a succession of iconic images. Those who control the images,
> and the narratives they encapsulate, control history. At least
> until a new reality crashes in. ... The Bush administration tries
> to shut down pictures as effectively as it has stonewalled
> Congressional committees and the bipartisan commissions looking
> into intelligence failures surrounding 9/11."
>SOURCE: New York Times, November 9, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068354000
>
>11. LYNCH SAYS MILITARY SHOULD NOT HAVE FILMED HER RESCUE
>http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/031107/w110724.html
> "Former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch said the U.S. military was
> wrong to manipulate the story of her dramatic rescue and should not
> have filmed it in the first place. ... 'It's wrong,' she said." As
> we report in Weapons of Mass Deception, the filming of Lynch's
> rescue was done by the Pentagon's own propaganda unit called Combat
> Camera. No real journalists participated in or filmed the event as
> it happened. Film was later provided by the Pentagon to the news
> media. Lynch's book written by Rick Bragg claims she was raped,
> although she has no memory of being raped and her Iraqi doctors who
> saved her life are saying they saw no evidence of sexual assault
> and they are wondering why such sensational claims are being made.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, November 8, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068267600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068267600
>
>12. BUSH SHIFTS WAR JUSTIFICATION TO DEMOCRACY
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10003-2003Nov6.html
> Addressing the National Endowment for Democracy, George W. Bush
> said that "the United States must commit itself to a decades-long
> transformation of the Middle East and termed the U.S. occupation of
> Iraq a turning point in the future of worldwide democracy," the
> Washington Post reports. "Bush's speech was the latest effort by
> the administration to stop the slipping support for the U.S.
> occupation of Iraq at home and abroad. Though he had previously
> mentioned the spread of Mideast democracy as a justification for
> the invasion of Iraq, Bush elevated that rationale to primacy
> yesterday, making no mention of weapons of mass destruction and
> only passing reference to national security and terrorism." But
> Washington has a "long-standing credibility problem" in the Middle
> East. "In the past, every time a U.S. official has talked about
> democracy and responsible government, people in the region have
> looked at them and said, 'You're running against a 50-year legacy
> of doing the opposite.' We grew up understanding that the United
> States would not tolerate real democracy as we'd end up with
> governments or leaders or ideologies that were not compatible with
> the West," Hisham Melhem, an Arab journalist and commentator, told
> the Post.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, November 7, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068181201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068181201
>
>13. JESSICA LYNCH: THE SYMBOL CLASHES
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/07/national/07LYNC.html
> In her first significant public interview, Private Jessica Lynch
> has debunked many of the official stories told by the U.S. military
> about her personal heroics, abuse at the hands of Iraqis, and
> rescue. "It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that
> they had no truth about," Lynch said, adding that it bothered her
> that "they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff. Yeah, it's
> wrong." Meanwhile, an NBC docudrama about Lynch's rescue is taking
> as many liberties with the truth as the Pentagon. Mohammed Odeh
> al-Rehaief, the Iraqi who led the Americans to Lynch, is the focus
> of the NBC documentary and was reportedly an advisor to NBC on the
> film that lionizes his heroism. After the rescue he was granted
> asylum in the US and given a job at the powerful DC lobby shop run
> by Republican Bob Livingston and Democrat Toby Moffet. Livingston
> has personally lobbied in the past for GE, the parent company of
> NBC. The movie is likely to spur sales of Mohammed's book which is
> being promoted by his lobbyist co-worker Lauri Fitz-Pegado. She
> was, in 1990, the account supervisor for the Hill & Knowlton PR
> firm's lucrative work with the front group "Citizens for a Free
> Kuwait" which featured the phony and now infamous "Nayirah" claims
> about Iraqi soldiers killing babies in hospitals.
>SOURCE: New York Times, November 7, 2003
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068181200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068181200
>
>14. STREET POET AS STEALTH HUCKSTER FOR NISSAN
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/06/business/media/06adco.html?ex=1069559522&ei=1&en=c50fc79789f5a9e7
> "Nissan Motors is planting actors in movie theaters to perform live
> commercials before the start of showings of 'The Matrix
> Revolutions' in an effort to expose jaded, skeptical consumers to
> advertising by masking it as something else. The brief in-person
> pitches feature actors scattered among the ticket-buying audience
> who stand and deliver lines that evoke the words spoken by poets at
> events known as slams or jams. Their performances are timed to
> accompany a commercial the audience sees on the movie screen, which
> begins without identifying the sponsor but concludes with the
> Nissan Altima logo. The campaign by the Nissan North America
> division of Nissan Motor, intended to pique the curiosity of
> younger consumers about the Nissan Altima sedan, began yesterday in
> theaters operated by the Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation
> in seven large markets and is scheduled to continue through
> tomorrow."
>SOURCE: New York Times, November 6, 2003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068094800
>
>15. RECOVERY OR SNOW JOB?
>http://www.tompaine.com/op_ads/opad2.cfm/ID/9315
> Recent news reports have heralded a recent jump in the U.S. Gross
> Domestic Product (GDP) as signs that the economy is turning around.
> The question, however is, "Which economy?" While the GDP grew 7.2%
> last quarter, 146,000 jobs were lost. That's good news for
> corporate CEOs, but bad news for most of the rest of us. And
> economists warn that even the boost to the CEO economy is a
> temporary "sugar high" that won't last once markets respond to
> tolerate the fiscal recklessness and heavy debt the White House has
> embraced. As Jonathan Tahini observes, "GDP was never meant to be
> such a central factor in describing economic growth" and its
> current use for that purpose produces a grossly distorted picture.
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068047397
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068047397
>
>16. BATTLE HYMN OF THE NEW LIBERAL MEDIA
>http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1016-06.htm
> If corporations can play the talk radio game, so can labor unions.
> United Auto Workers has put money and resources into developing the
> i.e. America Radio Network, which syndicates liberal talk radio
> from coast to coast. "Following on i.e.'s successes, AnShell media,
> according to industry rumors, is on the verge of achieving funding
> goals to roll out America's second liberal radio network in
> January," notes i.e. America talker Thom Hartmann. "Al Gore and
> Joel Hyatt are talking about a cable TV network to take on Fox
> News. ... Progressive business people and labor unions are learning
> from the success of conservative media that with a good business
> plan and a little patience it's possible to both advance your
> side's social/political goals and to reach customers and potential
> members. Working together with progressive talent, liberal
> activists, and progressive, democracy-oriented companies and
> unions, America's "new liberal media" just may succeed in the
> battle to wrest American back from the clutching fingers of the
> extremist conservatives who've held sway these past two decades."
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068017119
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068017119
>
>17. DECEIVERS OR DELUDED?
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/opinion/05KRIS.html
> The New York Times' Nicolas Kristof writes, "Ultimately, Saddam's
> rule collapsed in part because he couldn't read Iraq and made
> decisions based on hubris and bad information. These days,
> President Bush and his aides are having the same problem. Critics
> complain that they lied to the American public about how difficult
> the war would be, but I fear the critics are wrong: they didn't
> just fool us -- they also fooled themselves. Evidence suggests that
> Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney may have actually believed that our troops
> would be, as Mr. Cheney predicted, 'greeted as liberators.' The
> administration chose to rely not on intelligence but on wishful
> thinking, and it became intoxicated by the siren calls of Ahmad
> Chalabi, a silver-tongued charlatan." Ever optimistic, Cheney cited
> a Zogby International poll to back his claim that there is "very
> positive news" in Iraq. But Kristof writes that pollster John Zogby
> told him, "I was floored to see the spin that was put on it; some
> of the numbers were not my numbers at all." Zogby points his finger
> at the American Enterprise Institute, who commissioned the poll, as
> the source of the spin. AEI's interpretation of Zogby's poll was
> used by Cheney in an October "Meet the Press" appearance.
>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#1068008402
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068008402
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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Carpentier Nico (Phd)
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