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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Wed Oct 27 08:43:00 GMT 2004
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, October 27, 2004
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>sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy (www.prwatch.org)
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
>further information about current public relations campaigns.
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. PR Watch Looks at E-Voting
>2. Chemical Industry Helps Fund EPA Study
>3. A 72-Hour Plan, 30 Years in the Making
>4. Can a Few Rich Men Make Change?
>5. Florida Readies for a Political Storm
>6. A Flack Gets Back from Iraq
>7. Hill & Knowlton Gets Out the (Lost) Vote
>8. Fast Food Companies Are Bad for Your Health Care
>9. Arnold's Hollywood Hummer
>10. Beef: It's What's for the Election?
>11. Comparing Coke and Carrots (on Coke's Tab)
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. PR WATCH LOOKS AT E-VOTING
>http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2004Q2
> The second quarter 2004 issue of PR Watch is now online, featuring
> several articles by Diane Farsetta that look at the spin and
> dangers surrounding electronic voting machines. Despite questions
> remaining about the security and reliability of electronic voting,
> for-profit e-voting companies such as Diebold believe that their
> heavy lobbying are the key to winning support for public adoption
> of their voting devices.
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098861722
>
>2. CHEMICAL INDUSTRY HELPS FUND EPA STUDY
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62569-2004Oct25?language=printer
> The American Chemistry Council is giving the Environmental
> Protection Agency $2 million for a study to explore the impact of
> pesticides and household chemicals on young children. The trade
> association, which represents nearly 150 chemical and plastics
> manufacturers and has a $100 million budget, spent more than $2
> million on lobbying in 2003. The EPA says the money will help the
> agency conduct "groundbreaking work" on how chemicals are absorbed
> by infants and children as old as 3. "Environmental Working Group
> President Kenneth A. Cook questioned why an agency with a $572
> million research budget needed to accept industry contributions to
> conduct scientific research," the Washington Post writes. "This is
> a government function; we should be investing government funds to
> be absolutely sure it's independent," Cook told the Post.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, October 26, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098763202
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098763202
>
>3. A 72-HOUR PLAN, 30 YEARS IN THE MAKING
>http://alternet.org/election04/20295/
> In an article (which draws from Disinfopedia and echoes Banana
> Republicans) anticipating the Republican Party's "72-hour plan"
> before the election, Joshua Holland writes, "Public relations firms
> like [Richard] Viguerie's have played an important and growing role
> in the popular conservative movement - you might call it corporate
> populism. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Move America Forward
> ... and no less than a dozen 'popular' ballot initiatives have been
> linked to PR firms with deep ties to the Republican Party in the
> past two years. Creating a movement is becoming easy; with today's
> activist tools, anyone with adequate funding can launch a credible
> 'grassroots' campaign."
>SOURCE: AlterNet, October 26, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098763201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098763201
>
>4. CAN A FEW RICH MEN MAKE CHANGE?
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109874306239655206,00.html?mod=politics%5Fsecondary%5Fstories%5Fhs
> While "A Few Rich Men" like George Soros have funded 527 groups
> supporting John Kerry, business leaders "who have benefited
> handsomely from the policies of this administration and who would
> like to see George Bush re-elected" haven't supported conservative
> 527s. The November Fund, a 527 group created by the U.S. Chamber of
> Commerce "to raise alarms about the influence trial lawyers would
> have in a Kerry-Edwards administration," has only raised $150,000
> on top of the Chamber's "seed money." But Bush-Cheney campaign
> manager Ken Mehlman says of the Business Industry Political Action
> Committee's get-out-the-vote effort, "They are doing more than I
> have ever seen them do."
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (reg. req'd.), October 26, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098763200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098763200
>
>5. FLORIDA READIES FOR A POLITICAL STORM
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=225916&site=3
> "A bipartisan deployment of lawyers and legal challenges in the
> run-up to Election Day" has prompted the Republican Party to
> bolster its PR and media work, reports PR Week. Mindy Tucker
> Fletcher, an Ogilvy PR executive and the main Bush spokesperson
> during the 2000 recount, is leading the Bush campaign PR in
> Florida. Of the legal teams in swing states, Fletcher said, "The
> Democrats just don't like the laws, and they want to overturn
> them." Fletcher "and a team of GOP strategists are training
> spokespeople in swing states to answer questions regarding voter
> fraud, military ballots, and racial bias."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), October 25, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098676802
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098676802
>
>6. A FLACK GETS BACK FROM IRAQ
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=225899&site=3
> PR pro Gordon James recently returned from Iraq, where he was
> Director of Advance and Special Events in the Coalition Provisional
> Authority's Office of Strategic Communications. "We were
> highlighting Ambassador Bremer's work, trying to get a positive
> media spin," he told PR Week. "It was very rough work," but "we
> helped Iraqis with the signing of the Tal, their Declaration of
> Independence." James also headed the "100 Days to Sovereignty"
> countdown and helped organize the secret ceremony "when Ambassador
> Bremer was able to hand over sovereignty. Then we took [Bremer] to
> the airport, came back, and did the swearing-in ceremonies."
>SOURCE: PR Week (reg. req'd.), October 25, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098676801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098676801
>
>7. HILL & KNOWLTON GETS OUT THE (LOST) VOTE
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1025voting.htm
> The Hill & Knowlton PR firm "is working to allay any voters'
> concerns in Florida's fourth largest county amid reports that votes
> were not counted by new electronic balloting machines in an August
> primary." The firm's $160,000 contract with Hillsborough County
> includes promoting e-voting machines and encouraging "voters to
> turn out and cast ballots." Hill & Knowlton is also helping
> Republican elections supervisor Buddy Johnson address "revelations
> that 245 votes were 'lost' in a close primary race which was
> decided by 130 votes." The votes weren't counted because a poll
> worker had left the e-voting machine in "test" mode.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (reg. req'd.), October 25, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098676800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098676800
>
>8. FAST FOOD COMPANIES ARE BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH CARE
>http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-schlosser24oct24,1,1257060.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
> "California's initiative laws, initially passed to thwart corporate
> influence in politics, now facilitate just the opposite," writes
> Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser. Proposition 72, "an
> initiative that would require large and medium-sized business
> owners to give health benefits to their workers," is opposed by
> McDonald's, Burger King, Best Buy, Target and other fast food and
> big box companies. The California Restaurant Association claimed
> that "Proposition 72 would immediately cause one-fifth of the
> state's restaurants to shut down," when "the proposition would
> apply to one-tenth of the state's restaurants." Schlosser writes,
> "The disinformation being spread by multinational fast-food chains"
> is aimed at preserving the "McJobs" model of low wages, few
> benefits, little training and high turnover.
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098590400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098590400
>
>9. ARNOLD'S HOLLYWOOD HUMMER
>http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hummer23oct23,1,2276767,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california
> "A smiling Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wheeled a shiny new Hummer
> into a hydrogen fueling station at Los Angeles International
> Airport on Friday in what aides called a fulfillment of a campaign
> promise to convert one of his tank-sized gas guzzlers to run on the
> alternative fuel," the Los Angeles Times reports. "However, the
> entire made-for-media event, staged before about 300 dignitaries,
> hydrogen power advocates and journalists, had more than a hint of
> Hollywood make-believe. The blue Hummer the actor turned governor
> drove was not one of his own, but a specially made prototype built
> from the ground up by a worldwide team of GM engineers. Despite its
> burly looks, it is a showpiece that cannot be taken off-road,
> company officials said. The hydrogen fuel pump nozzle the governor
> pushed into the Hummer's tank as he posed for the cameras doesn't
> work yet. The station is not set to open for a month."
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, October 23, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098504001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098504001
>
>10. BEEF: IT'S WHAT'S FOR THE ELECTION?
>http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=0d055714-3b88-4293-8ad4-618c868aafff
> "U.S. and Japanese negotiators struck a deal Saturday to allow
> limited imports of U.S. beef into Japan," reports Canadian Press.
> Japan imported $1.7 billion of U.S. beef in 2003, but closed its
> markets last December, after a Washington state cow was found to
> have mad cow disease. The chair of the Canada Beef Export
> Federation called the announcement was "old news," saying, "The
> Americans are trying to put a new spin on it for their election."
> The head of U.S. beef producer Creekstone Farms, which
> unsuccessfully petitioned the USDA to do its own mad cow disease
> testing, said, "We would still like to test."
>SOURCE: Canadian Press, October 23, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098504000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098504000
>
>11. COMPARING COKE AND CARROTS (ON COKE'S TAB)
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109838149664752057,00.html?mod=mm%5Fmedia%5Fmarketing%5Fhs%5Fleft
> At a conference on sugar and other sweeteners, medicine and
> epidemiology professor Adam Drewnowski challenged the World Health
> Organization's characterization of soft drinks as "energy-dense
> foods." He said that soft drinks' "high water content gives them
> the energy density of fresh carrots." Oldways Preservation &
> Exchange Trust, a think tank on food issues, organized the
> conference, which was sponsored by Coca-Cola's Beverage Institute
> for Health and Wellness and co-sponsored by four sweetener
> manufacturers. Oldways' president explained, "If you want to deal
> with a serious problem, you have to try to get as much information
> as you can. Who knows more about this than Coca-Cola?"
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, October 22, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098417600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098417600
>
>
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>
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