Archive for March 2004

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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Wed Mar 31 07:06:16 GMT 2004


>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, March 31, 2004
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. Kindler, Gentler War President
>2. Rendon Deals Losing Hand
>3. Glowing Reviews for Nuclear Power
>4. Bush's Other Brain
>5. Yellow Journalists?
>6. Shell Game With Human Rights
>7. Former Public Affairs Officer Speaks Out Against Bush
>8. Campaign Finance Deform
>9. Time for CNN, None for Congress
>10. Bad Times for Brand Martha
>11. The Smell of Money
>12. Covert Recruiting
>13. Spinning Spin Sisters
>14. When FOX Attacks...
>15. 'Anti-Chemical' = Pro-Public Health
>16. Don't Ask (Especially Not Now!), Don't Tell, Don't Employ
>17. Clear for Bush
>18. Jason Blair's Scandal Pales Compared to the VNR Scandal
>19. Voters Tune In and Drop Out
>20. Army Runs J-School
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. KINDLER, GENTLER WAR PRESIDENT
>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/03/30/bush_campaign_seeks_to_regain_compassionate_image/
>   "With the White House weathering allegations from its former
>   anti-terrorism adviser, revelations about the health of Medicare
>   and unrelenting turmoil in Iraq," George Bush is trying to
>   recapture a "compassionate conservative" image to boost his
>   campaign. Republican strategists say that "cozy voter forums" are
>   the way to go, and Bush has in fact "appeared at least nine times
>   in the past seven weeks at carefully staged meetings... in a
>   half-dozen states, including crucial battlegrounds like Florida and
>   Pennsylvania." Local news coverage featuring "a relaxed, smiling
>   Bush... with ordinary Americans" is key to the "conversation
>   formula." Recent campaign photo-ops include Bush "with black
>   families in the Philadelphia suburbs and with manufacturing workers
>   in Kentucky."
>SOURCE: Reuters, March 30, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080622800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080622800
>
>2. RENDON DEALS LOSING HAND
>http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040328-115803-2222r.htm
>   The secretive Washington-based PR firm the Rendon Group apparently
>   dealt the Columbian Ministry of Defense a losing hand. According to
>   its website, Rendon has been working closely with the Colombian
>   Army, Navy, Air Force and National Police on "message development
>   and dissemination, strategic communications planning, and media
>   event planning." To those ends, Rendon created a deck of playing
>   cards featuring Columbian "narco-terrorists" -- otherwise known as
>   members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and
>   two other antigovernment groups. The Washington Times writes, "A
>   State Department official ... said wanted posters in the form of
>   playing cards are a poor fit in Colombia. In fact, he said, some
>   diplomats were 'surprised' to find out last year that a defense
>   contractor working in Colombia used its contract dollars to produce
>   the decks." The State Department has blocked distribution of the
>   decks. The Rendon Group gained notoriety for its work in Iraq --
>   it's credited with creating the Iraqi National Congress for the CIA
>   in the early 90s -- and for its post-9/11 contract with the
>   Pentagon.
>SOURCE: Washington Times, March 29, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080536401
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080536401
>
>3. GLOWING REVIEWS FOR NUCLEAR POWER
>http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0329/p12s02-usec.html
>   "A quarter century ago this week, a nuclear reactor at Three Mile
>   Island [in Pennsylvania] underwent a partial meltdown... Since that
>   time, no American utility has dared to build a brand new nuclear
>   power plant... [But] power blackouts, rising natural-gas prices,
>   and concerns about greenhouse gases have changed public attitudes,"
>   writes David Francis. An Associated Press story claims: "By most
>   accounts, nuclear power is back in style." But nuclear power
>   critics have planned 48 actions in 18 states marking the Three Mile
>   Island anniversary. An alert about nuclear industry subsidies in
>   the federal energy bill notes: "The industry trade and lobby
>   organization, Nuclear Energy Institute, had contact with
>   Vice-President Cheney's energy task force 19 times -- reportedly
>   more than any other interest group or trade industry."
>SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, March 29, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080536400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080536400
>
>4. BUSH'S OTHER BRAIN
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/politics/campaign/28HUGHES.html
>   George W. Bush's long-time advisor Karen Hughes hits the book
>   circuit promoting her new autobiography Ten Minutes From Normal.
>   While she's plugging her book, she's also plugging the president's
>   re-election. The New York Times writes, "Ms. Hughes is the smiling,
>   media-savvy White House representative whose book now wraps her --
>   and, by implication, the president -- in the heroism of motherhood.
>   Its theme is clear by the identifying lines under her name on the
>   book's front jacket: 'Counselor to the President. Wife and Mother.
>   The woman who left the White House to put family first, and moved
>   back home to Texas.'" Hughes, however, won't be spending too much
>   time in Texas once she steps full-time into her role as senior
>   advisor to Bush's re-election campaign. She's already spreading
>   "the message about Mr. Bush in her speeches around the country, for
>   which she receives $50,000 each." Laura Flanders writes in her new
>   book "Bushwomen," that Hughes is "a career woman, GOP leader and
>   stay-out-of-the-home mom," who spent years massaging Bush's
>   "compassionate conservative" message. Marvin Olasky who is credited
>   with authoring the catch phrase, is hardly a friend to career
>   women. According to Flanders, he's "a man who believes in his heart
>   that success like [Hughes'] shames society."
>SOURCE: New York Times, March 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080450001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080450001
>
>5. YELLOW JOURNALISTS?
>http://counterpunch.org/lindorff03272004.html
>   Dave Lindorff calls it "a moment that spoke volumes last week about
>   the spinelessness of American journalism." At Colin Powell's March
>   19 Baghdad press conference, "all of the Iraqi and other Arab
>   journalists... got up and walked out, along with many reporters and
>   camera crews from European and other countries," to protest the
>   killing of two reporters for the Dubai-based Al-Arabiyya TV
>   channel. "But the American reporters... [shunned the] act of
>   professional solidarity in protest against rules of engagement that
>   allow American troops to slaughter accredited journalists." In a
>   letter to Donald Rumsfeld, the Committee to Protect Journalists
>   asks "whether U.S forces are adequately taking into account the
>   presence of journalists... and using appropriate measures to avoid
>   endangering them."
>SOURCE: Counterpunch, March 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080450000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080450000
>
>6. SHELL GAME WITH HUMAN RIGHTS
>http://www.corporateeurope.org/norms.html
>   Corporate lobby groups such as the International Chamber of
>   Commerce (ICC) have launched a fierce counter-campaign against the
>   proposed Norms on Business and Human Rights, which were developed
>   by a subcommission of the United Nations Commission on Human
>   Rights. The Norms oblige businesses internationally to refrain from
>   activities that violate human rights. In addition to the ICC, the
>   Norms have been vigorously opposed by the Shell oil company, a
>   self-proclaimed leader in the corporate social responsibility (CSR)
>   movement. "Is this not the kind of campaign one could expect only
>   from companies lagging behind and from free-riders refusing to
>   adapt to social and environmental concerns?" asks the Corporate
>   Europe Observatory (CEO). The motive behind Shell's opposition, CEO
>   suggests, is that "the company generally gets away easily with its
>   inflated claims concerning its social responsibility record. A
>   recent report by Christian Aid documents that Shell's operations in
>   the Niger Delta (Nigeria) are still causing serious problems for
>   local communities. The report also highlights that most of the
>   community development projects presented in various glossy Shell
>   reports on CSR are in fact failing. Hospitals, schools and water
>   supply systems are built but never start working, and roads are
>   mainly used to boost oil production. But beyond the debate about
>   the extent to which Shell`s CSR claims are actually greenwash and
>   poor-wash, it is clear that the company is determined to prevent
>   the emergence of international mechanisms through which communities
>   could hold it accountable to its pledges."
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080415559
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080415559
>
>7. FORMER PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST BUSH
>http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/26/1551246
>   Former navy public affairs office Lt. John Oliveira told Democracy
>   Now! that he didn't realize how stressful his military oath would
>   be for him when aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt last year. "I had
>   to get on television every day to talk to the American people and
>   the international public and continue to sell them on the
>   administration's policies, which I did not believe in," Oliveira
>   said. He oversaw embedded journalists on the aircraft carrier,
>   which at the time was in the eastern Mediterranean. "I'm [now]
>   doing what I can to support our troops. Up until two months ago, I
>   was one of those troops. I was unable to voice my opinion regarding
>   the administration policies on how they were using our military.
>   And one of the key things I say to Mr. Bush, 'support our troops
>   and join us.' Because the way he's doing it is not supporting our
>   troops, it's using them," Oliveira said.
>SOURCE: Democracy Now! March 26, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080277202
>
>8. CAMPAIGN FINANCE DEFORM
>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/03/26/its_a_lobbyists_paradise_in_washington/
>   "With corporate and union donations banned by a new law, lawmakers
>   are pressing lobbyists to raise campaign money," reports AP.
>   Lobbyist-organized fundraisers must raise at least $10,000 "to lure
>   a freshman lawmaker to one of their events," at least $15,000 for
>   veteran members, and $50,000 for committee chairs. "We raise money
>   for members of Congress because they become familiar with us as
>   individuals and when you ask for time from them, they're more
>   inclined to give it to you," said lobbyist Louis Dupart. Robert
>   Walker of the Wexler & Walker lobbying firm lamented that
>   "fund-raisers are becoming one of few ways lobbyists can see
>   members of Congress," due to increased security measures at the
>   Capitol.
>SOURCE: The Associated Press, March 26, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080277201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080277201
>
>9. TIME FOR CNN, NONE FOR CONGRESS
>http://nytimes.com/2004/03/26/politics/26COND.html
>   Condoleezza Rice is the White House official whose testimony is
>   desired the most by the congressional panel probing the Bush
>   administration's handling of Al Qaeda before the terrorist attacks
>   on Sept. 11, 2001, but the Bush administration refuses to have her
>   testify publicly. She hasn't exactly been invisible, though. In
>   response to criticisms of the White House by former anti-terrorism
>   czar Richard Clarke, Rice has been "spending the week on television
>   and in news media briefings," note Elizabeth Bumiller and Philip
>   Shenon. "She has infuriated some members of the panel, who wonder
>   why she has time for CNN but not for them. On Thursday they
>   questioned again whether she should be subpoenaed to testify. ...
>   'My gosh, I think she was on every single network the day the
>   commission opened its hearing this week, attacking our witnesses,'
>   said former Senator Bob Kerrey, a commission member and a
>   Democrat." Joshua Micah Marshall notes that Rice has even been
>   eager to reveal classified information if it helps the
>   administration's image. "She's a veritable information geyser, a
>   one-woman-FOIA," Marshall quips. "She just won't answer questions
>   under oath." The Washington Post notes, moreover, that Rice's
>   "flurry of media interviews and statements" have "contradicted
>   other administration officials and her own previous statements."
>SOURCE: New York Times, March 26, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080277200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080277200
>
>10. BAD TIMES FOR BRAND MARTHA
>http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/956.cfm
>   "Company founders have long believed that placing their name on
>   their company signals their willingness to stake their personal
>   reputation and stand behind their products," observes the
>   University of Pennsylvania's business school. "That's fine when
>   things are going well and the company and the CEO whose name it
>   bears are held in high regard. But what if the CEO falls from
>   grace? What happens to a company if the CEO's name is in effect its
>   brand o and then that name is tarnished? Rarely has that question
>   come up more sharply than in the case of Martha Stewart, America's
>   long-reigning diva of decor, who was recently convicted on
>   conspiracy and other charges. ... When it is done right, brand
>   personification can tap into the human desire to belong to a
>   community. In the case of Martha Stewart ... customers could
>   virtually lose their identity to that of the brand."
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080263942
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080263942
>
>11. THE SMELL OF MONEY
>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0403240263mar24,1,2641854.story
>   "From Alabama to Illinois, grass-roots groups have turned to the
>   courts in an attempt to shut down industrial-style concentrated
>   animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, or to keep them from being
>   built," reports Andrew Martin. Last year, the General Accounting
>   Office found that "loopholes in federal regulations and
>   inconsistent enforcement leave an estimated 60 percent of the
>   largest CAFOs unregulated." Large livestock operations are fighting
>   back through state-level "Right to Farm" bills promoted by the
>   corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC's
>   vaguely worded "Right to Farm" bill reads, in part: "A farm or farm
>   operation shall not be found to be a public or private nuisance if
>   [it]... conforms to generally accepted agriculture and management
>   practices."
>SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, March 24,2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080236472
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080236472
>
>12. COVERT RECRUITING
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108017385495064899,00.html?mod=mm%5Fhs%5Fadvertising
>   Army "situ-mercials" will air during the re-broadcast of a popular
>   World War II HBO miniseries. "In one segment of the [Army] program,
>   a modern soldier says, 'Once you put on this uniform, you feel like
>   you are doing something that a lot of people can't do.' The program
>   then shifts to a 'Band of Brothers' scene where one soldier asks
>   another why he wanted to join the paratroopers. [Army
>   public-affairs specialist Paul] Boyce says the effort is aimed at
>   an older demographic that might influence younger people when they
>   choose careers." The Army paid an estimated $800,000 to $1 million
>   to air a special 22-minute show and shorter "situational" ads
>   alongside "Band of Brothers" on the History Channel.
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080190802
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080190802
>
>13. SPINNING SPIN SISTERS
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0324sb.htm
>   "St. Martin's Press has brought in Shirley & Banister Public
>   Affairs to drum up conservative support for a new book accusing
>   women's magazines of a liberal bend and constant focus on the 'woes
>   of womanhood,'" reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. "Former Ladies Home
>   Journal editor-in-chief, Myrna Blyth, penned the tome, Spin
>   Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness and Liberalism
>   to the Women of America. In it she charges the $7 billion industry
>   and a 'Girls' Club' of female media elites are exploiting female
>   emotions and hawking a left-of-center, do-gooder agenda to their
>   audience." Shirley & Banister is a PR firm that "specializes in
>   getting authors onto conservative talk-radio programs."
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (requires subscription), March 25, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080190801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080190801
>
>14. WHEN FOX ATTACKS...
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22218-2004Mar24.html
>   Shortly before former counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke's
>   testimony to the September 11th commission, "the White House
>   violated its long-standing rules by authorizing Fox News to air
>   remarks favorable to Bush that Clarke had made anonymously at an
>   administration briefing in 2002. The White House press secretary
>   read passages from the 2002 remarks at his televised briefing, and
>   national security adviser Condoleezza Rice... called reporters into
>   her office to highlight the discrepancy. 'There are two very
>   different stories here,' she said. 'These stories can't be
>   reconciled.'" On Tuesday, White House press secretary Scott
>   McClellan read from Clarke's January 2003 resignation letter and
>   stated: "There was no mention of the grave concerns he claims to
>   have had about the direction of the war on terrorism." As
>   journalist Chris Albritton has noted, moreover, Fox News committed
>   "a major journalistic no-no" by publicizing Clarke's off-the-record
>   interview: "A news organization that was included in a briefing
>   with the agreement that it was on background - that is, with no
>   quotes and the briefer not be identified - approached a source's
>   former employer and offered to give up apparently conflicting words
>   that the employer could use against the source."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, March 25, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080190800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080190800
>
>15. 'ANTI-CHEMICAL' = PRO-PUBLIC HEALTH
>   "Industry officials are expressing grave concern that a growing
>   alliance between environmentalists and patient advocacy groups to
>   link exposure to harmful pollution with chronic diseases and
>   life-long disabilities could add credibility to activists' calls
>   for stricter environmental requirements," Inside EPA reports. Bart
>   Mongoven, who works for the private intelligence firm Stratfor,
>   told petroleum industry officials, "In five years, the
>   environmental community would like to see all debates [be about]
>   the environment and health." He warned the audience at the National
>   Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA) annual meeting that
>   connecting environmental issues to public health "works here." He
>   said that one way for industry to fight these new lobbying efforts,
>   which expand public health concerns beyond pesticides to industrial
>   emissions and effluent, is to paint the efforts as being
>   "anti-chemical," rather than in favor of a public health goal.
>SOURCE: Inside EPA, March 24, 2004
>Web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080104401
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080104401
>
>16. DON'T ASK (ESPECIALLY NOT NOW!), DON'T TELL, DON'T EMPLOY
>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-military24mar24,1,6772402.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
>   "When they need people, they keep them. When they don't, they
>   implement their policy of discrimination," said the director of the
>   Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. The group found that "the
>   number of gays dismissed from the military under the Pentagon's
>   'don't ask, don't tell' policy has dropped to its lowest level in
>   nine years as U.S. forces fought in Afghanistan and Iraq." In
>   related news, the Log Cabin Republicans protested the Office of
>   Special Counsel's decision to remove "information about
>   sexual-orientation discrimination" from federal websites. The
>   websites were changed based on the new Special Counsel's
>   interpretation of a 1978 law, which he believes bans discrimination
>   based on homosexual conduct, but not homosexual status.
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1080104400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080104400
>
>17. CLEAR FOR BUSH
>http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/2004-03-23-clear_x.htm
>   The Clear Channel radio network says it didn't have a political
>   agenda for canning shock jock Howard Stern, who has become an
>   outspoken critic of President Bush. But new political contribution
>   data shows that the network has given "$42,200 to Bush, vs. $1,750
>   to likely Democratic nominee John Kerry in the 2004 race," reports
>   Jim Hopkins. "What's more, the executives and Clear Channel's
>   political action committee gave 77% of their $334,501 in federal
>   contributions to Republicans. That's a bigger share than any other
>   entertainment company, says the non-partisan Center for Responsive
>   Politics."
>SOURCE: USA Today, March 23, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1080018002
>
>18. JASON BLAIR'S SCANDAL PALES COMPARED TO THE VNR SCANDAL
>http://www.abusedbythenews.com/columns/col003.htm
>   Web journalist and novelist Daniel Price points out that here at
>   the Center for Media & Democracy we have been sounding the alarm on
>   Video News Releases for over a decade. Price writes that "thanks to
>   the Medicare fake news flap (see 3/22 'spin of the day' below)
>   America has been formally introduced to the Video News Release.
>   Except they've been around for twenty years and we've already seen
>   thousands of them. You know life is getting strange when even Jon
>   Stewart can't handle the irony. As host of Comedy Central's The
>   Daily Show, America's leading source of mock news and news-mocking,
>   Stewart devoted a chunk of the March 17 broadcast to [the Karen
>   Ryan VNR controversy.] ... The real humdinger -- as Stewart was
>   quick to point out -- is that the entire news report was bogus; a
>   slick video package commissioned by the government, produced by a
>   media communications firm , performed by a PR consultant, and then
>   distributed to newsrooms all across the country. Forty different
>   stations had shuffled the story into their homegrown newscasts,
>   never once attributing the source. Upon hearing this, the Daily
>   Show studio audience vented their surprise through a procession of
>   screams and jeers. Stewart himself seemed to have a hard time
>   wrapping his mind around the fact that out of TV's many
>   journalistic outlets, it took a fake news show to expose a real
>   news show for passing fake news off as real. ... Welcome to the
>   strange and secret world of the Video News Release, where reality
>   is bent in ways that even Jayson Blair couldn't imagine ... ."
>SOURCE: Abused By the News, March 22, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1079931603
>
>19. VOTERS TUNE IN AND DROP OUT
>http:///www.odwyerpr.com/members/0322bush_kerry.htm
>   Communications consultant Fraser Seitel says this year's
>   presidential campaign "promises to be the filthiest, grimiest, most
>   mean-spirited in the history of the Republic." He predicts: "the
>   Karl Rovian/ Bob Shrumian mega-million dollar PR strategies" will
>   have Bush slamming Kerry as a "position-hopping, tax-popping,
>   liberal toady" and Kerry painting Bush as a "bible thumping, fat
>   cat pumping, right wing wildman." Noting Bush's penchant for
>   western ranch imagery and Kerry's motorcycle photo-ops, the Los
>   Angeles Times asked whether the campaign has a "Who is more macho?"
>   subtext. And a recent survey of cable TV viewers found that "people
>   are really unhappy about their role, or lack of it, in the
>   democratic process."
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, March 22, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1079931602
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1079931602
>
>20. ARMY RUNS J-SCHOOL
>http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/soldierstories/story.php?story_id_key=5753
>   The U.S. Army is training Iraqis, many of them translators, to be
>   journalists. In workshops taught by military public affairs
>   officers, students learn "things like news gathering, writing fair
>   and balanced stories, interviewing techniques, ethics, the
>   Associated Press Style Guide, and the role of the press in a free
>   society," according to the U.S. Army website "Soldier Stories."
>   "[The students] met for six hours a day, six days a week for about
>   five weeks. Since completing the workshop, the writers have
>   produced stories geared toward Iraqi readers about how Soldiers are
>   helping the Iraqi people, positive changes to the country's economy
>   and the history of their culture. In addition to 'Baghdad Now' --
>   which is printed in English and Arabic -- their stories have
>   appeared in the 1st AD's 'Ironside' Magazine and on several U.S.
>   military Web sites."
>SOURCE: Soldier Stories, March 17, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1079499600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1079499600
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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