Archive for October 2004

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[eccr] Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Wed Oct 13 14:48:38 GMT 2004


>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, October 13, 2004
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. Downtime
>2. U.S.A. Youth Marketing
>3. Flacks with PACs
>4. The Return of Karen Ryan
>5. Baghdad Confidential
>6. Cable TV's Secret Channels of Influence
>7. See No Evil Reporters, Hear No Evil Reports
>8. Exporting U.S. Spin Down Under
>9. Begging to Praise the War
>10. Anti-Feminist Group Hired to Train Iraqi Women
>11. PR Job in Iraq: Benefits Include Bodyguard
>12. Bloggers Shape the Post-Debate Debate
>13. Edelman Starts Blogging
>14. Accidental Full Disclosure by the FCC
>15. Planting Seeds of Acceptance for GMOs
>16. Bottom Line Environmental Protection
>17. Political Jihad and the American Blog
>18. Whistleblowers on Trial: Does Not Refute
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. DOWNTIME
>   If you visited the PR Watch website or the Disinfopedia on Tuesday,
>   you may have noticed some problems. The good news is that the
>   problems stem from increased usage of our website, forcing us to
>   upgrade to a higher-capacity server. We've now made the upgrade,
>   and hopefully the problems will not recur.
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097643603
>
>2. U.S.A. YOUTH MARKETING
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=224245&site=3
>   "The U.S. Department of State is taking another stab at putting
>   private-sector marketing smarts to work for America and its image
>   problem," reports PR Week. Mike Holtzman, a partner at the Brown
>   Lloyd James PR firm, was hired "to help plot a new course for U.S.
>   public diplomacy." Holtzman is expected to "move away from
>   government-branded initiatives and toward youth-oriented cultural
>   campaigns." He's suggested "a center ... [to] coordinate sporting
>   events, cultural and educational exchange, technological and
>   medical training, and other activities aimed at engaging ordinary
>   people - particularly the young - in more dialogue and
>   interaction." It's seen as a major move away from Charlotte Beers'
>   "Shared Values" ad campaign.
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), October 11, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097467202
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097467202
>
>3. FLACKS WITH PACS
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=224404&site=3
>   Believing that "political contributions help with all sorts of
>   clients, not just those for which the firm does public affairs
>   work," Qorvis Communications recently set up its own political
>   action committee. Other PR firms with federal PACs include
>   Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton and Fleishman-Hillard. The
>   Center for Responsive Politics' database lists which candidates
>   Burson-Marsteller (37% Democrats, 58% Republicans), Hill & Knowlton
>   (48% Dems, 52% Reps) and Fleishman-Hillard (47% Dems, 53% Reps)
>   have supported. Qorvis also contributes to candidates from both
>   major parties; "that balance is important," said their managing
>   director.
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), October 11, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097467201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097467201
>
>4. THE RETURN OF KAREN RYAN
>http://www.boston.com/news/politics/advertising/articles/2004/10/11/bush_ad_appears_to_be_news_story/
>   The Education Department promoted the No Child Left Behind law with
>   a video news release featuring "reporter" Karen Ryan. The VNR,
>   which "comes across as a news story but fails to make clear the
>   reporter involved was paid with taxpayer money," is similar to the
>   Health and Human Services Department's Medicare VNRs, which were
>   found to be "propaganda in violation of federal law" by the
>   nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. The VNR and rankings
>   for newspaper and reporter coverage of No Child Left Behind were
>   part of a $700,000 contract with the Ketchum PR firm. The Education
>   Department said it stopped using "narration-styled" VNRs after the
>   Medicare ruling.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, October 11, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097467200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097467200
>
>5. BAGHDAD CONFIDENTIAL
>http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/10/08/e_fassihi.html
>   "Can a journalist be too truthful?" That's a question that some
>   media pundits are asking after Farnaz Fassihi, the Wall Street
>   Journal's Middle East correspondent, sent a private email to
>   friends with an unusually candid description of the deteriorating
>   U.S. control over Iraq and the dangers of doing her job there. A
>   copy of her email began circulating on the internet. "One could
>   argue that Iraq is already lost beyond salvation," she wrote. "For
>   those of us on the ground it's hard to imagine what if any thing
>   could  salvage it from its violent downward spiral. The genie of
>   terrorism, chaos and mayhem has been unleashed onto this country as
>   a result of American mistakes and it can't be put back into a
>   bottle." Shortly after the email became public, Los Angeles Times
>   reporter Tim Rutten spoke with two Wall Street Journal reporters,
>   who told him that the paper has responded by forbidding Fassihi to
>   write about Iraq for the paper until after the election,
>   "presumably because unauthorized publication of her private
>   correspondence somehow called into question the fairness of her
>   journalism" -- even though other journalists in Iraq privately
>   share her assessment. Journalism professor Jay Rosen has reviewed
>   the subsequent pundit fuss and asks the obvious question: "Why
>   can't reporters on the ground occasionally speak to the 'public'
>   like this one occasionally spoke to her friends?"
>SOURCE: PressThink, October 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097208003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097208003
>
>6. CABLE TV'S SECRET CHANNELS OF INFLUENCE
>http://www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/report.aspx?aid=395&sid=200
>   If cable TV subscribers paid for just the channels they watch ("a
>   la carte"), instead of paying a flat fee for channel packages, it
>   would "jeopardize an economic model that has helped the industry
>   maintain huge profits." The Center for Public Integrity reports on
>   "a highly sophisticated lobbying campaign" by the cable industry to
>   build anti-a la carte "astroturf." Some of the "seemingly
>   disinterested third parties" opposing a la carte have received
>   large donations and other benefits from cable companies. Time
>   Warner lobbyist Leslie Harris worked "closely with Oxygen Media" to
>   "organize over 30 prominent women's organizations"; civil rights
>   groups and lawmakers have also taken anti-a la carte positions.
>SOURCE: The Center for Public Integrity, October 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097208002
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097208002
>
>7. SEE NO EVIL REPORTERS, HEAR NO EVIL REPORTS
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16131-2004Oct7.html
>   Having "held the fewest solo news conferences of any president
>   since records were kept" - 15 so far - may be hurting George Bush
>   in the debates. Presidential rhetoric specialist Wayne Fields said,
>   "If you don't talk to the press and deal with audiences with some
>   degree of skepticism, you can't build understanding so people have
>   confidence in you in hard times." The "Ask President Bush" forums
>   "are tightly managed by the Bush-Cheney campaign, with the
>   president calling mainly on people sitting in sections filled with
>   his most loyal supporters." While Senator John Kerry's campaign
>   events are "notably less scripted," Kerry has also been criticized
>   for ignoring the media.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, October 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097208001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097208001
>
>8. EXPORTING U.S. SPIN DOWN UNDER
>http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1008/p06s01-woap.html
>   Australia's October 9 national election might sound familiar to
>   Americans -- the two major party candidates are running neck and
>   neck, Iraq is a major issue, and U.S. political consultants are
>   shaping the campaigns. "Campaign operatives from across the
>   spectrum of Australian politics head to Washington every year to
>   learn how to manage budgets, articulate messages, and develop
>   poll-driven communication strategies. Even Prime Minister John
>   Howard, who is seeking reelection as head of the conservative
>   Liberal Party, has sent his son to work on the Bush campaign in the
>   hopes of picking up trade secrets. The two main parties here have
>   also imported American consultants to advise on everything from
>   developing public policy to fundraising."
>SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, October 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097208000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097208000
>
>9. BEGGING TO PRAISE THE WAR
>http://www.usni.org/proceedings/Articles04/PRO10lacey.htm
>   Jim Lacey, a correspondent who has written for Time Magazine and
>   the National Review, says he "had an agenda that correlated exactly
>   with the military's" but still couldn't get the military to answer
>   his journalistic queries, even though he was desperately trying to
>   write pro-war puff pieces. "If given the right access, I told them,
>   I probably could get the cover of a major newsweekly several times
>   over the course of a couple of months. In addition, I had several
>   national opinion magazines lined up that would publish all I could
>   send them. I also was in conversations with producers of a network
>   TV news magazine, and they were interested in doing a piece along
>   the same positive lines." But even so, "I still found virtually my
>   every attempt to get information from public affairs officers
>   (PAOs) to be akin to getting water from a stone. Many times I sat
>   looking at the phone in disbelief at some answer or non-answer a
>   PAO had given me. ... Sometimes, I had to sit back and count off
>   the reasons I should not just start writing mean little articles
>   about the military." He has some advice, though, for ways the
>   military can improve things. For starters, "assign a
>   captain/lieutenant to each of the major media organizations. I like
>   to use the term 'reverse embed.'" Also, "The military would also do
>   well to look into funding various media operations," even though it
>   might "give the appearance of a state-controlled media."
>SOURCE: Proceedings of the Naval Institute, October 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097182624
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097182624
>
>10. ANTI-FEMINIST GROUP HIRED TO TRAIN IRAQI WOMEN
>http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/printnews.asp?id=8669
>   The Feminist Majority Foundation has objected to the U.S.
>   Department of State's decision to award part of a $10 million grant
>   to an anti-feminist group, the Independent Women's Forum for
>   "leadership training, democracy education and coalition building
>   assistance" to women in Iraq. The IWF, which was created initially
>   to defend Clarence Thomas against charges of sexual harassment
>   during his U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearings, says that its
>   mission is to counter "the dangerous influence of radical
>   feminism." It will be working in Iraq with the American Islamic
>   Conference and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a
>   think tank with neoconservative ties.
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097100880
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097100880
>
>11. PR JOB IN IRAQ: BENEFITS INCLUDE BODYGUARD
>http://career.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2522
>   MarketingSherpa, a weblog for PR professionals, has posted a job
>   announcement from the NettResults PR firm, which operates
>   throughout the Middle East as well as in Africa, Asia and East
>   Europe. The company is seeking someone to "serve as one of the
>   three key contact for the Multi-National Corps - Iraq (MNC-I) media
>   team promoting development and aid news/events in-country to the
>   Iraqi population. ... Ideal candidate speaks Arabic and has 8-10
>   yrs exper. in press office/media relations operations in a PR
>   agency, for the government or armed forces. We offer: Full
>   lodgings/offices, armored protection, life insurance."
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097081395
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097081395
>
>12. BLOGGERS SHAPE THE POST-DEBATE DEBATE
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/markosmoulitsas/story/0,15139,1320053,00.html
>   Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos weblog has written an insightful
>   article about how bloggers helped turn the perception of first
>   election debate in favor of John Kerry. "Bloggers, thinktanks, the
>   Kerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) all
>   worked to fact-check Bush and point out his bizarre behaviour," he
>   writes. "The flow of information flowed two ways, as the party
>   establishment and allied organisations worked hand-in-hand with the
>   blogs to gather ammunition, then blast it out to the world. The DNC
>   and bloggers also urged readers and supporters to swamp online
>   polls after the debate, and they did. Hours after the debate, just
>   about every online poll gave Kerry huge victories in the debate."
>SOURCE: Guardian (UK), October 5, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097080352
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097080352
>
>13. EDELMAN STARTS BLOGGING
>http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/
>   Richard Edelman, CEO of the Edelman PR firm, has started his own
>   weblog. He hasn't had a lot to say yet, but stay tuned...
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097079858
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097079858
>
>14. ACCIDENTAL FULL DISCLOSURE BY THE FCC
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9726-2004Oct5.html
>   "A trade association that represents competitors of the large
>   regional telephone companies" had their lobbying plan "published by
>   mistake on the Federal Communications Commission's Web site." The
>   Association for Local Telecommunication Services's (ALTS) lobbying
>   plan "starkly criticized the policy positions of FCC members and
>   lawmakers and described the need for the association to hire, for
>   $120,000 a year, a 'heavyweight Republican [lobbyist] that can
>   navigate between the FCC chairman and the White House.'" The plan
>   also said "ALTS has 'helped' with five fundraising events" for
>   Congressional telecommunications policy committee members, but
>   "needed to raise even more money for lawmakers." ALTS's president,
>   who authored the plan, resigned, saying, "I wish that I had been
>   more vigilant, either being more precise or not writing anything at
>   all."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, October 6, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097035201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097035201
>
>15. PLANTING SEEDS OF ACCEPTANCE FOR GMOS
>http://www.iht.com/articles/542151.html
>   "U.S. companies like Monsanto, which invested heavily in
>   [genetically modified crops], suffered huge losses when Europe
>   balked. As part of a public relations effort, the U.S. State
>   Department enlisted a Vatican academy last month as a co-sponsor of
>   a conference in Rome, 'Feeding a Hungry World: The Moral Imperative
>   of Biotechnology.'" (This although a United Nations report found
>   "clear evidence that the problems of the poor are being neglected"
>   by the biotech industry.) "In response to such pressure, the
>   European Union has relaxed legal restrictions on genetically
>   modified foods." A Syngenta spokesperson said European consumers'
>   rejection of GMOs is "not based on facts" but "is a political,
>   cultural and media-driven decision."
>SOURCE: International Herald Tribune, October 6, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1097035200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1097035200
>
>16. BOTTOM LINE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
>http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/9831730.htm
>   The controversial head of an obscure agency in the White House is a
>   "lightening rod" for criticism of Bush administration regulatory
>   actions. John D. Graham runs the Office of Information and
>   Regulatory Affairs and is "known as a stickler for the bottom
>   line," the Seattle Times' Alex Fryer writes. "Through rigorous
>   analysis, Graham wants to create 'smart' regulation that protects
>   the environment at lower cost. But it is a process fraught with
>   subjectivity. While it's relatively simple to document how
>   environmental regulation hurts businesses, the value of pristine
>   forests, clean lakes and species protection can't be expressed in
>   dollars. As a result, the ratio between costs and benefits often
>   appears skewed. And when it comes to actually writing regulation,
>   OIRA has a record of adopting language proposed by industry
>   lobbyists, not environmentalists."
>SOURCE: Seattle Times, October 4, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1096862405
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1096862405
>
>17. POLITICAL JIHAD AND THE AMERICAN BLOG
>http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/10/04/satullo_view.html
>   Journalism professor Jay Rosen has written another of his
>   characteristically long-winded but thoughtful ruminations on the
>   fallout from the Dan Rather memo affair and what it means for the
>   long-running battle between conservatives and the "liberal media,"
>   as well as for the more recent contest between traditional media
>   and online bloggers. He particularly recommends (and annotates) a
>   commentary by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Chris Satullo. (Warning:
>   registration required.)
>SOURCE: PressThink, October 4, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1096862404
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1096862404
>
>18. WHISTLEBLOWERS ON TRIAL: DOES NOT REFUTE
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/03/politics/03whistle.html
>   Dozens of cases - including that of the chief Medicare actuary, who
>   was threatened with dismissal "if he provided data to Congress
>   showing the cost of the new Medicare law" - have motivated Congress
>   "to increase protections for federal employees who expose fraud,
>   waste and wrongdoing." But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
>   Federal Circuit, which hears whistleblower cases, "often assumes
>   that a federal agency acted properly unless an employee offers
>   'irrefragable proof to the contrary'." New legislation (opposed by
>   the Bush administration) would change the "irrefragable" - or
>   impossible to refute - standard to "protect the disclosure of
>   information that a whistleblower 'reasonably believes' to be
>   evidence of government illegality or misconduct."
>SOURCE: New York Times, October 3, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1096776000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1096776000
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
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