(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, January 21, 2004
Wed Jan 21 07:58:31 GMT 2004
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, January 21, 2004
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>sponsored by PR WATCH (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. 'Healthy Marriage' Healthy For PR
>2. Mad Cow: It's What's For Dinner
>3. A Hard Spin: War Crimes Suspect to President
>4. Army Will Continue To Tell Its Own Story
>5. The State of the Campaign
>6. Bush Sweet On Sugar
>7. A Wall By Any Other Name
>8. Watching the Campaign Watchers
>9. Harvard Center Is A Front for Mad Cow PR
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. 'HEALTHY MARRIAGE' HEALTHY FOR PR
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=199847&site=3
> "A strong America must also value the institution of marriage,"
> Bush declared in his State of the Union address. PR Week's Douglas
> Quenqua writes that the administration may soon be "on the hunt for
> a PR firm to lead a controversial campaign educating the American
> public about the skills required to sustain a marriage. Such a
> campaign, which has been blasted by gay-rights advocates, lies at
> the heart of a $1.5 billion proposal now before Congress. The
> 'Healthy Marriage' initiative, already approved by the House,
> proposes a massive increase in funding for federally run programs,
> particularly in low-income communities, offering classes in
> conflict resolution, communication, and other skills the
> administration feels are essential to maintaining lifelong
> partnerships." The Department of Health and Human Services says it
> will "absolutely" seek private-sector PR help. The campaign "would
> carry two central messages: successful marriages require skills,
> not luck; and there are classes available to help people acquire
> those skills."
>SOURCE: PR Week, January 19, 2004; CNN, January 20, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074574802
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074574802
>
>2. MAD COW: IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER
>http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~30541~1902162,00.html
> The Denver Post reports that "livestock organizations are launching
> a $5.5 million media campaign to promote domestic demand for beef
> in the face of mad-cow concerns. A $4 million series of television
> ads will launch Monday. They were originally scheduled to start
> January 12, but the beef groups decided to delay the campaign for
> two weeks while news coverage of mad cow disease eased up. ...
> 'From a marketing perspective, consumers watching (mad cow) news
> clips followed by 'Beef, it's what's for dinner' was not what we
> wanted,' said Mark Thomas, vice president of global marketing for
> the [National Cattlemen's Beef Association]. U.S. beef exports have
> been virtually shut down since the mad- cow case, causing wholesale
> prices to fall 25 percent. ... The new $5.5 million beef campaign
> includes $1.3 million from the industry's "crisis fund" to help
> sway public opinion. The crisis fund will help launch a radio
> advertising and promotional campaign that will piggyback on the new
> TV ads." The US government still refuses to take the only steps
> known to control mad cow disease, a total ban on feeding
> slaughterhouse waste to livestock, and the testing of millions of
> cows. In the past month more than 70,000 people have downloaded a
> free copy of Mad Cow USA, our 1997 investigation of this issue, and
> 25,000 people a day are getting their mad cow information from the
> website of the Organic Consumers Association.
>SOURCE: Denver Post, January 20, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074574801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074574801
>
>3. A HARD SPIN: WAR CRIMES SUSPECT TO PRESIDENT
>http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20040119.E03&irec=2
> Indonesia will hold its first-ever direct presidential elections in
> July 2004. Noting that Indonesia is "a thriving democracy where
> public opinion matters," a partner in the Jakarta-based PR firm
> Maverick writes in today's Jakarta Post that "the more
> forward-thinking" candidates "have already appointed their image
> gurus." Not every candidate will clean up well, though. General
> Wiranto, who is waging a well-financed and politically
> well-regarded campaign, stands accused of crimes against humanity
> by the United Nations. The charges stem from Indonesian military
> and militia violence in East Timor in 1999, when people in that
> country voted for independence from Indonesia in an UN-organized
> referendum.
>SOURCE: The Jakarta Post, January 20, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074574800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074574800
>
>4. ARMY WILL CONTINUE TO TELL ITS OWN STORY
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=199639&site=3
> "The Army has abandoned plans to outsource nearly one in six of its
> jobs to the private sector, a move that could have resulted in the
> loss of thousands of public affairs positions worldwide and a
> windfall of contracts for private PR firms," PR Week reports. "The
> outsourcing plan, first announced in late 2002, was part of
> President Bush's directive to trim the government by farming out
> all work not 'inherently governmental.' The Army also cited an
> interest in directing more of its resources to national security
> and the war on terrorism. The public affairs office had submitted a
> request that most of its positions be spared on the grounds that
> 'telling [the Army's] story' is something only an Army officer
> could do, said a spokesman last year. ... The initiative was
> pronounced all but dead last month when Army spokeswoman Jennifer
> Gunn said, 'It has been put on hold, and nothing has been done or
> sent up to the Army leadership about it.'"
>SOURCE: PR Week, January 19, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074488401
>
>5. THE STATE OF THE CAMPAIGN
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/19/politics/19UNIO.html
> Today's New York Times quotes an unnamed Republican "close to the
> Bush campaign" who says the timing of the State of the Union speech
> -- one day after the Iowa caucuses -- is no accident. The goal is
> "to get people to focus on the president's positive agenda after
> two weeks of people beating his brains in and criticizing every
> aspect of his policies." Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New
> York counters: "There's more excitement now in the Democratic
> primaries than there is in the State of the Union." Meanwhile, the
> online public interest journal TomPaine.com is encouraging readers
> to download a State of the Union Scorecard to rate the accuracy of
> this year's speech.
>SOURCE: The New York Times, January 19, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074488400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074488400
>
>6. BUSH SWEET ON SUGAR
>http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1125730,00.html
> The World Health Oragnization's leading scientists are accusing the
> Bush administration of putting the sugar industry's interests ahead
> of the global fight against obesity. The Observer reports,
> "Professor Kaare Norum, leader of the World Health Organisation's
> fight to prevent millions developing diet-related diseases, has
> sparked an international war of words with a highly critical letter
> to US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson. In it he tells of his grave
> concern over American opposition to the WHO's blueprint to combat
> obesity. He accuses the US of making the health of millions of
> young Americans 'a hostage to fortune' because it has failed to
> take action over the fat epidemic as a result of its business
> interests, particularly the sugar lobby." The Bush administration
> says weight control is a matter for the individual, not the state,
> and has criticized the WHO strategy for its lack of sound science.
> Bush and fellow senators have received hundreds of thousands of
> dollars in funding from "Big Sugar." According to the Observer,
> sugar baron Jose 'Pepe' Fanjul, head of Florida Crystals, has
> raised at least $100,000 for Bush's re-election campaign.
>SOURCE: Observer (UK), January 18, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074402000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074402000
>
>7. A WALL BY ANY OTHER NAME
>http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3977598/
> The Israeli government refers to the controversial barrier it's
> building in the West Bank as a "security fence," but that may soon
> change. The Associated Press reports that a new name, the "terror
> prevention fence," was discussed at a recent meeting between Prime
> Minister Ariel Sharon and high-ranking officials. According to AP,
> the name change is part of an effort "to improve its international
> image" prior to a case on the barrier's legality before the
> International Court of Justice in The Hague next month. Israel says
> the barrier is needed to keep out suicide bombers, while
> Palestinian groups (who refer to it as the "Berlin Wall" or
> "apartheid wall") call it a land grab.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, Friday, January 16, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074229200
>
>8. WATCHING THE CAMPAIGN WATCHERS
>http://campaigndesk.org/
> The Columbia Journalism Review has started up a new web site, the
> CampaignDesk, devoted to analyzing their coverage of reporters
> covering the election campaign. According to Steve Lovelady, the
> site's managing editor, journalists are the site's primary
> audience. "Most blogs are 99.9 percent opinion," he said. "This is
> a Web site run by and staffed by responsible journalists whose job
> is to monitor, critique and praise the campaign press, on a daily
> basis."
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074184056
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074184056
>
>9. HARVARD CENTER IS A FRONT FOR MAD COW PR
>http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Harvard_Center_for_Risk_Analysis
> In our book Trust Us, We're Experts! we describe the "third party
> technique" that PR experts use. Reassuring words come from the
> mouths of supposed objective scientific experts to convince the
> public that a crisis is really no problem at all. A current example
> would be the industry front group called the Harvard Center for
> Risk Analysis. This organization has an impressive sounding name,
> but it is funded by and fronts for industry. Under Clinton's
> Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman it received $800,000 to
> produce an elaborate risk analysis study concluding that mad cow
> disease would be no problem in the US. Now that the disease is
> here, the US Department of Agriculture is refusing to take the
> necessary steps to stop it. Instead, the Harvard Center is all over
> the news media assuring the public that mad cow disease in the US
> is no big deal. Unfortunately, most news media so far are falling
> for this trick, treating the Harvard Center with a respect that it
> does not deserve instead of exposing its paid role in the
> government and industry PR campaign on mad cow disease.
>SOURCE: January 14, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074056400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074056400
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at PR Watch.
>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 PR Watch 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 & Democracy
>are tax-deductible. Send checks to:
> CMD
> 520 University Ave. #310
> 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: C0.05
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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]
