[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, November 3, 2004

>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, November 3, 2004
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. Always Fair and Balanced, Always
>2. Media Training Fuels Spinning
>3. PR Executives Refuse to 'Go Public'
>4. Blocking the Black Vote
>5. Market Share Erodes for Brand America
>6. Experts May Be Hazardous To Your Newspaper
>7. Future's So Bright, Gotta Wear Shades
>8. Modify the Apples Without Upsetting the Cart
>9. Trying to Buy a Little Extra Insurance
>10. Propaganda, Homeland Style
>11. Across the Pond, War Is Still Sell
>12. Who's Blowing Smoke Where?
>13. Don't Tell the Frogs It's Safe
>14. Getting Out the Quid Pro Quo
>15. New Voices in Citizen Journalism
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. ALWAYS FAIR AND BALANCED, ALWAYS
>http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2004-11-01-election-retail_x.htm
>   One group isn't too happy about the predicted high voter turnout:
>   retailers. "Election Day is a lousy shopping day," notes USA Today.
>   But "retailers are searching for ways to nudge folks out. ...
>   Shoppers at any of 2,620 Wal-Marts tonight will see live election
>   coverage via a link with Fox News." In doing so, "Wal-Mart may be
>   showing a Republican point of view to shoppers," said the president
>   of WSL Strategic Retail. "Most retailers tend to keep political
>   affiliations to themselves."
>SOURCE: USA Today, November 2, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2004.html#1099371600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099371600
>
>2. MEDIA TRAINING FUELS SPINNING
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/business/media/01training.html
>   "A media environment of round-the-clock news shows and a seemingly
>   insatiable demand for talking heads is creating new opportunities
>   for media trainers," writes the New York Times. "Traditionally,
>   media training was offered by large public relations firms like
>   Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton," but now there's competition
>   from "midsize firms" like Qorvis Communications and independent
>   shops. The Center for Media & Democracy's Sheldon Rampton "said the
>   problem with media training - especially in crisis management - is
>   that it's more about presentation than facts. ... 'You're getting
>   canned talking points rather than something genuinely
>   informative,'" he told the Times.
>SOURCE: New York Times, November 1, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2004.html#1099285203
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099285203
>
>3. PR EXECUTIVES REFUSE TO 'GO PUBLIC'
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1101pbs.htm
>   When PBS's "Frontline" airs "The Persuaders," a new documentary
>   exploring the marketing and advertising industry, you won't be
>   seeing public relations executives explaining their work on camera.
>   The program, which airs November 9, "intended to have a PR focus,
>   but PR executives refused to 'go public' about what they do, Justin
>   Vogt, a producer at 'Frontline,'" told the trade publication
>   O'Dwyer's PR Daily. O'Dwyer's reports that its staff "met with
>   three 'Frontline' producers earlier this year, and provided a list
>   of top executives for the program to contact. 'They were very
>   informative, but would only speak off-the-record,'" Vogt told
>   O'Dwyer's.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd), November 1, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2004.html#1099285202
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099285202
>
>4. BLOCKING THE BLACK VOTE
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/opinion/01herbert.html
>   "Overseas, our troops are being mauled in the long dark night of
>   Iraq," writes Bob Herbert. "At home, the party of the sitting
>   president is systematically stomping on the right of black
>   Americans to vote, a vile and racist practice that makes a mockery
>   of the president's claim to favor real democracy anywhere." In
>   response, the Dkosopedia has created a "Voter Registration Fraud
>   Clearinghouse" to track efforts at voter fraud and vote suppression
>   throughout the United States. And Vidvote.org is inviting people to
>   submit videotaped or photographic evidence of disturbances at
>   polling locations.
>SOURCE: New York Times, November 1, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2004.html#1099285201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099285201
>
>5. MARKET SHARE ERODES FOR BRAND AMERICA
>http://www.fastcompany.com/subscr/88/open_essay.html
>   Two recent studies of international opinion have found a drop in
>   williness to buy products from American companies. "People felt
>   exploited by global expansion, inundated by our entertainment
>   products, and put off by our arrogance," reports Kristina Sacci.
>   Within the past two years, she notes, "the number of consumers who
>   use U.S. products from companies such as Microsoft and McDonald's
>   had dropped to 27% from 30%. Non-U.S. brands held their ground in
>   the same period." To fight back an organization has been formed
>   called Business for Diplomatic Action: "a task force of
>   high-voltage professionals from marketing, political science,
>   research, and media. Its goal: to educate companies about the rise
>   of anti-Americanism and enlist their help in addressing the issue."
>SOURCE: Fast Company, November 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099285200
>
>6. EXPERTS MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR NEWSPAPER
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/weekinreview/31bott.html
>   New York Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent has critiqued the practice
>   by his newspaper and others of relying on information from "expert
>   analysts" without informing readers that many of the experts
>   represent the interests of their financial sponsors. "Bad reporters
>   find experts by calling up university press relations officials or
>   brokerage research departments and saying, in effect, 'Gimme an
>   expert,'" he writes. "Really bad reporters, paradoxically, work a
>   little harder: knowing the conclusions they want to arrive at, they
>   seek out experts who just happen to agree with them. Give me a
>   position, and I'll find you an expert to support it - and not just
>   an expert but one with an institutional affiliation sounding so
>   dignified it could make a nobleman genuflect. Give me a Center for
>   the Study of ..., an Institute for the Advancement of ..., or an
>   American Council on ..., and often as not I'll give you an
>   organization whose special interests are as sharply defined as its
>   name is not." Worse yet, some reporters seem to simply invent
>   anonymous experts as a way of inserting their own viewpoint into
>   the story. For example, Okrent took a look at the the October 26
>   issue of the Times noticed that 17 articles in that issue "cited
>   the wisdom of 'experts,' 'industry experts,' 'military budget
>   experts' and the like, but failed to name - or even describe - a
>   single one."
>SOURCE: New York Times, October 31, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099195200
>
>7. FUTURE'S SO BRIGHT, GOTTA WEAR SHADES
>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04303/403478.stm
>   "As part of the Bush administration's effort to boost the nuclear
>   power industry, physics students at Langley High School will become
>   the first in the country to use a new curriculum from the U.S.
>   Department of Energy that promotes nuclear energy," reports the
>   Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Federal energy officials said last week
>   they hope the new curriculum will encourage more students to pursue
>   careers in nuclear engineering." The program, called "The Harnessed
>   Atom: a new curriculum in nuclear science and technology," could be
>   expanded across the country "if it succeeds at Langley." Federal
>   officials "are touting nuclear energy as 'green' power," ignoring
>   the nuclear waste issue.
>SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 29, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1099022403
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099022403
>
>8. MODIFY THE APPLES WITHOUT UPSETTING THE CART
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109900106756659009,00.html?mod=world%5Fnews%5Ffeatured%5Farticles
>   The debate around genetically modified organisms "is fragmenting
>   global food markets and putting political pressure on food
>   exporters to choose between producing natural" or GMO crops. As
>   "big biotech companies ... are looking for growth opportunities in
>   Asia to compensate for the problems they have encountered in
>   European markets," Thailand developed "a seven-year plan to ...
>   [become] a regional biotech hub." The Thai government "commissioned
>   a team of U.S. biotech experts to tailor a pro-GMO national-policy
>   message that wouldn't alienate Thailand's biggest anti-GMO export
>   markets." The state also funds Biotec, a "biotech research and
>   engineering outfit," whose scientists "are ready to patent various
>   Thai-specific" GMO grains, fruits and vegetables.
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (reg. req'd.), October 29, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099022402
>
>9. TRYING TO BUY A LITTLE EXTRA INSURANCE
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109901287731159422,00.html?mod=us_business_whats_news
>   The insurance giant American International Group fired Qorvis
>   Communications, the PR firm it had hired to help address New York
>   Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's probe of the insurance industry.
>   The firing (for being "unhelpful") happened the same day that a
>   booking agency, at Qorvis' request, sent emails to financial
>   commentators asking if they would consider being paid as much as
>   $25,000 to help AIG by criticizing Spitzer's investigation. The
>   emails suggested talking points, including that revamping
>   "long-standing industry-wide practices is better left to regulators
>   who understand the industry, rather than criminal investigators,"
>   and pitying the "individual investor" as an "innocent bystander"
>   whose stocks are hurt by Spitzer's "theatrics."
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (reg. req'd.), October 29, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1099022401
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099022401
>
>10. PROPAGANDA, HOMELAND STYLE
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7445-2004Oct28.html
>   A leaked draft public relations plan for the Department of Homeland
>   Security's Customs and Border Protection bureau suggested
>   "repeating the message, in the weeks leading up to the presidential
>   election, that America is safer," reports the Washington Post. The
>   plan's objective is "to change perception through continuous,
>   consistent and highly credible information." It suggests using
>   "surrogates" to spread messages, and adopting a "theme of the
>   month": "Border Patrol" in October, "Agriculture" in November, and
>   "Trade" in December. The PR plan also proposed pitching stories to
>   the Washington Times editorial board and "morning shows," with an
>   exclusive "FOX 3-4 part series ... Geraldo or as backup Dr. Bob
>   Arnot with MSNBC."
>SOURCE: Washington Post, October 29, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1099022400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1099022400
>
>11. ACROSS THE POND, WAR IS STILL SELL
>http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=576965
>   The former chief investigator of Britain's Intelligence and
>   Security Committee said that "intelligence has been used as a 'PR
>   tool' since Tony Blair came to power." During 1998's Operation
>   Desert Fox in Iraq, "I was under pressure and my analysts were
>   under pressure," said John Morrison. "It got to the point that
>   individual analysts were being rung up by the press office and
>   being asked to say 'this is great, isn't it?'" During 1999's Kosovo
>   bombing, Morrison set up his own press office to have greater
>   control, but "we were under constant pressure to field talking
>   heads ... [and] to have themes for individual days."
>SOURCE: Independent (UK), October 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098936001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098936001
>
>12. WHO'S BLOWING SMOKE WHERE?
>http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/27895/story.htm
>   Pharmacology professor Sorell Schwartz of the Center for
>   Environmental Health and Human Toxicology testified against the
>   industry-funded Tobacco Institute, during the ongoing $280 billion
>   federal lawsuit against big tobacco. Schwartz said that, in the
>   1980s, the Institute's PR team, "who felt that we were not being
>   cooperative enough," urged him and other supposedly independent
>   researchers to "take a more advocative position" on issues like
>   secondhand smoke. But former Institute lawyer John Rupp (now with
>   the Covington & Burling law and lobbying firm) insisted that "the
>   industry sought out scientists and paid them to make an 'objective
>   appraisal'" on secondhand smoke, to "dispel the 'extreme views' of
>   some anti-smoking activists."
>SOURCE: Reuters, October 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098936000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098936000
>
>13. DON'T TELL THE FROGS IT'S SAFE
>http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/10030367.htm
>   Syngenta Crop Protection hired the Alston & Bird firm, and enlisted
>   former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, to lobby promoting the
>   safety of atrazine, a herbicide linked to cancer and frog
>   deformities that's been banned in the European Union. Sygenta spent
>   $260,000 lobbying the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and
>   others over the past two years; Dole met at least once with White
>   House officials. The EPA concluded that no studies showed that
>   "potential cancer risk is likely from exposure to atrazine."
>   Atrazine is used on two-thirds of the corn and 90% of the sugar
>   cane grown in the United States.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, October 27, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098849601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098849601
>
>14. GETTING OUT THE QUID PRO QUO
>http://thehill.com/business/102704_lobbyists.aspx
>   "Washington lobbyists are being deployed in droves to tight
>   congressional races and presidential battleground states around the
>   country," reports The Hill. "Both parties have been recruiting,"
>   but some Republican officials have set "participation quotas,
>   requiring [firms] to supply a certain number of volunteers." The
>   pressure is high; "People who didn't go may be looked on
>   negatively" after the election, said one lobbyist. The help isn't
>   given "out of a particular patriotism but because it's a good way
>   to help reinforce relationships," warned Celia Wexler of Common
>   Cause. The lobbyists "will come back to [officials] later and ask
>   them to look kindly on issues they are advancing."
>SOURCE: The Hill, October 27, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098849600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098849600
>
>15. NEW VOICES IN CITIZEN JOURNALISM
>http://ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1098833871.php
>   A quiet revolution in journalism is taking place, according to Mark
>   Glazer, with the emergence of "hyperlocal online publications that
>   promise to publish nearly every article, opinion and photo that any
>   Joe Blow might submit. In a small corner of small Bakersfield,
>   California, a bold publisher launched the Northwest Voice online
>   and in print in May and has already had nearly 500 people submit
>   articles or photos. In Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago,
>   students at Northwestern University launched GoSkokie to study how
>   citizen media sites might operate with little editorial oversight.
>   In Columbia, Missouri, students at the University of Missouri
>   launched MyMissourian in affiliation with the student-run daily
>   newspaper and with a miracle budget near $0." According to the
>   Northwest Voice's Mary Lou Fulton, "We are the traditional
>   journalism model turned upside down. Instead of being the
>   gatekeeper, telling people that what's important to them 'isn't
>   news,' we're just opening up the gates and letting people come on
>   in. We are a better community newspaper for having thousands of
>   readers who serve as the eyes and ears for the Voice, rather than
>   having everything filtered through the views of a small group of
>   reporters and editors."
>SOURCE: Online Journalism Review, October 26, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2004.html#1098763203
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1098763203
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
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