Archive for October 2004

(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, October 27, 2004

Wed Oct 27 08:43:00 GMT 2004


>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, October 27, 2004
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy (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. 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
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at the
>Center for Media and Democracy. 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 Center 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 and Democracy
>are tax-deductible. Send checks to:
>    CMD
>    520 University Ave. #227
>    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

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Carpentier Nico (Phd)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Katholieke Universiteit Brussel - Catholic University of Brussels
Vrijheidslaan 17 - B-1081 Brussel - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-412.42.78
F: ++ 32 (0)2/412.42.00
Office: 4/0/18
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Media Sociology (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.30
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.28.61
Office: 5B.454
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
European Consortium for Communication Research
Web: http://www.eccr.info
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ kubrussel.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------  


----------------
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]