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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Wed Mar 10 10:59:26 GMT 2004
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, March 10, 2004
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>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.
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. PR Watch 2003 Issues Now Online
>2. The Elitism Myth
>3. Halliburton Subcontractor Talks Turkey
>4. Gagging Sir David
>5. Saudi Clerics Bash U.S. Funded Channel
>6. Silencing Science (Again)
>7. Flacks Back Shock Jocks
>8. It's Mourning in America
>9. Torte Reform
>10. Welcome to the Machines
>11. Bush Campaign Ads: Brought to You by ... Special Interests
>12. Kerry Get Your Gun
>13. Disappearing the Dead
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. PR WATCH 2003 ISSUES NOW ONLINE
>http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues
> The Third Quarter and Fourth Quarter 2003 issues of PR Watch are
> now available free online in the PR Watch Archives section of our
> website. Highlights of the Third Quarter issue include Sharon
> Beder's "The Electricity Deregulation Con Game," which looks at how
> companies like Enron used PR to sell the idea of energy
> deregulation to the public, with disastrous consequences; and Paul
> Goldberg's "Cancer PR Firms Still Addicted to Tobacco," which shows
> how the Shandwick and Edelman PR firms have worked on the U.S.
> National Dialogue on Cancer, despite a history of representing
> tobacco industry clients. In the Fourth Quarter 2003 issue, Laura
> Miller explains our Disinfopedia - a free, online "encyclopedia of
> propaganda" to which anyone - including you - can contribute
> research and information.
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1078894800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078894800
>
>2. THE ELITISM MYTH
>http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10070
> The "mystery of the United States," writes Tom Frank, is that
> "wealth is today concentrated in fewer hands than it has been since
> the 1920s; workers have less power over the conditions under which
> they toil than ever before in our lifetimes; and the corporation
> has become the most powerful actor in our world. Yet that rightward
> shift - still going strong to this day - sells itself as a war
> against elites, a righteous uprising of the little guy against an
> obnoxious upper class." Nevertheless, he adds, "There is a grain of
> truth in the backlash stereotype of liberalism. Certain kinds of
> leftists really do vacation in Europe and drive Volvos and drink
> lattes. ... And there is a small but very vocal part of the Left
> that has nothing but contempt for the working class. ... Until the
> American Left decides to take a long, unprejudiced look at deepest
> America, at the kind of people who think voting for George Bush
> constitutes a blow against the elite, they are fated to continue
> their slide to oblivion."
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078811897
>
>3. HALLIBURTON SUBCONTRACTOR TALKS TURKEY
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0309halliburton.htm
> "Halliburton, which according to its just-released 10-K report has
> earned $85 million on $3.6 billion in Iraqi work last year, has not
> yet paid the subcontractor that prepared the Thanksgiving Day
> photo-op of President George Bush serving the troops dinner in
> Baghdad International Airport," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. NBC
> News reports Event Source, which serves 100,000 meals a day to
> soldiers in Iraq, says Halliburton owes it $87 million. Event
> Source CEO Phil Morrell told NBC news that the company has already
> laid off U.S. employees and may have to stop serving hot meals to
> troops because the company's short on money. Morrell also said that
> he believes Halliburton and its other food service contractors did
> overcharge, billing the government not for meals actually served,
> but for meals a facility could have served. Halliburton's Wendy
> Hall told O'Dwyer's that she cannot comment on PR firms used by
> Dick Cheney's former company because of "competitive" reasons. Hall
> did say that Halliburton "from time to time" hires outside PR firms
> for specific projects.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR, March 9, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1078808400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078808400
>
>4. GAGGING SIR DAVID
>http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=499013
> Ivan Rogers, the principal private secretary to British Prime
> Minister Tony Blair, "<A HREF="tried to muzzle the Government's top
> scientific adviser after he warned that global warming was a more
> serious threat than international terrorism," report Steve Connor
> and Andrew Grice. In a leaked memo, Rogers ordered Sir David King -
> a scientist at Cambridge University - to decline any interview
> requests from British and American newspapers and BBC Radio. The
> memo and other documents related to the controversy came to light
> after Sir David's personal press secretary, Lucy Brunt-Jenner,
> inadvertently left a computer disk in the press room at the annual
> meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
> in Seattle, where Sir David gave a lecture. "The disk was lying on
> the top of a computer in the press room and I popped it into the
> machine to see what was on it," said freelance journalist, Mike
> Martin. Documents on the disk included scripted answers from
> Rogers, instructing the scientist how to answer a list of 136
> questions that reporters might ask him.
>SOURCE: Independent (UK), March 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1078722000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078722000
>
>5. SAUDI CLERICS BASH U.S. FUNDED CHANNEL
>http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,238884,00.html
> Two Saudi clerics have said that Muslims should not watch, work
> for, or advertise on the new U.S. funded Al-Hurra satellite
> channel. In a written fatwa, Sheik Ibrahim al-Khudairi said the
> channel was "founded by America to fight Islam, and to propagate
> massive decay to Americanise the world." Al-Hurra, which means the
> free one, is the latest Arabic-language media project run by the
> Broadcasting Board of Governors. According to U.S. officials, the
> channel, which will cost U.S. taxpayers about $62 million this
> year, seeks to counter the anti-American "hateful propaganda" seen
> in the Muslim world.
>SOURCE: Singapore Straits Times, March 7, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1078635600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078635600
>
>6. SILENCING SCIENCE (AGAIN)
>http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2004/03/06/presidents_panelskewed_facts_2_scientists_say/
> "Two scientists from President Bush's top advisory board on
> cutting-edge medical research yesterday published a detailed
> criticism of the board's own reports, and said the board skewed
> scientific facts in service of a political and ideological cause,"
> reports Gareth Cook. One of the scientists, Janet Rowley, is a
> member of the President's Council on Bioethics. The other Elizabeth
> H. Blackburn, is a highly regarded biologist who was fired from the
> panel last Friday. Their critique charges that reports issued by
> the council have played down the potential of embryonic stem cell
> research, which is opposed by fundamentalist anti-abortion groups
> and by the Bush administration.
>SOURCE: Boston Globe, March 6, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078549200
>
>7. FLACKS BACK SHOCK JOCKS
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0305fcc_prsa.htm
> "If we start losing small, independent broadcasters because they
> can't afford the risk of getting fined on some arbitrary
> application of a vague standard, all we'll have left are a few big
> media companies." So reads a letter from the Public Relations
> Society of America to Federal Communications Commission Chair
> Michael Powell. The PRSA opposes large increases in the FCC's
> maximum indecency fine; legislation just passed by House
> subcommittee would hike the current $27,500 limit to $500,000. The
> "widening and increasingly polarized campaign to clean up the
> nation's airwaves" makes strange political bedfellows; one of PRSA
> President Del Galloway's specialties is "employee communications
> during a downsizing."
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, March 5, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1078462801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078462801
>
>8. IT'S MOURNING IN AMERICA
>http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/ny-usads053695948mar05,0,7306852.story?coll=ny-lipolitics-print
> Believe it or not, the Bush campaign's TV ads list "an economy in
> recession, a stock market in decline" among the reasons to vote for
> their candidate. They also feature footage from the September 11
> terrorist attacks, which has drawn an angry response from
> firefighters and family members of people who died on 9/11. The
> International Association of Fire Fighters, which has endorsed
> Kerry, blasted the ads as "hypocrisy at its worst. ... Here is a
> President that proposed two budgets with no funding for FIRE Act
> grants and still plays on the image of America's bravest. His
> advertisements are disgraceful." Carol Ashley, whose daughter died
> in the attacks, comments: "For somebody to use the death of my
> daughter and the other nearly 3,000 people - it's just appalling to
> me that they would use it for political reasons." Other 9/11 family
> members say they find it "an insult," "totally disgusting," "makes
> me sick" and is "mind-boggling ... that he can see this event as a
> positive reflection on his administration."
>SOURCE: Newsday, March 5, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1078462800
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078462800
>
>9. TORTE REFORM
>http://thehill.com/news/030404/cheeseburger.aspx
> The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on
> a "cheeseburger bill." The bill -- the Personal Responsibility in
> Food Consumption Act (HR 339) -- would bar lawsuits against
> fast-food outlets accused of causing obesity. Majority Leader Tom
> DeLay's spokesperson explained: "We have a guns-and-butter
> strategy...[favoring] narrow bills that highlight Democratic ties
> to special-interest trial lawyers." The bill is partially in
> response to a failed lawsuit filed by two New York teenagers
> against McDonald's -- which, incidentally, just ended "Supersize"
> options. The tobacco, booze and food industry front group Center
> for Consumer Freedom has applauded similar state-level measures.
>SOURCE: The Hill, March 4, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1078376401
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078376401
>
>10. WELCOME TO THE MACHINES
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0304ohio.htm
> Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and PR giant
> Burson-Marsteller are launching "Help Ohio Vote," a state-wide,
> 18-month, $15.3 million PR and advertising campaign "educating Ohio
> voters about new [electronic] voting machines." The massive
> campaign includes focus groups, media tours, ads, direct mail, and
> an "embedded" media program. Local press noted that Blackwell's
> media work for the campaign may help his potential gubernatorial
> run in 2006. Meanwhile, e-voting machines received mixed marks on
> Super Tuesday. In San Diego, "touchscreens failed to boot properly,
> causing delays of up to two hours and forcing some voters to other
> polling places." Computer science professor Avi Rubin concluded:
> "Some of my concerns were laid to rest and some were made worse"
> after serving as a Baltimore County election judge.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, March 4, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1078376400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078376400
>
>11. BUSH CAMPAIGN ADS: BROUGHT TO YOU BY ... SPECIAL INTERESTS
>http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1656
> Public Citizen has released a report outlining who helped pay for
> the Bush administration's campaign ads and what favors they have
> received during his presidency. Bush backers include the finance,
> real estate, communications, energy, health care, and insurance
> industries. The report also lists the tax breaks, regulatory
> changes, legislative favors and plum appointments Bush has given
> his backers.
>SOURCE: Public Citizen, March 3, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078290001
>
>12. KERRY GET YOUR GUN
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=203624&site=3
> "Democrats are altering their approach to the Second Amendment this
> year in hopes of wooing Southern and rural voters, but the National
> Rifle Association (NRA) says it's positioned to expose what it
> calls 'camouflage candidates,'" PR Week's Douglas Quenqua reports.
> "A group of Democratic pollsters and strategists sent a memo to all
> Democratic candidates last month urging them to accentuate their
> intention to let gun owners keep their firearms while stressing the
> need for gun safety. 'By articulating their values,' the memo read,
> 'Democrats can speak to millions of moderate gun owners and make
> inroads in many states where owning a firearm is a way of life.'
> ... But the NRA, largely credited with tipping the balance in the
> 2000 presidential election by courting traditional Democratic
> voting blocs, is vowing to counter such 'posturing.'"
>SOURCE: PR Week, March 1, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2004.html#1078117203
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1078117203
>
>13. DISAPPEARING THE DEAD
>http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FB27Ak02.html
> When planning war, one of the most important targets for military
> officials is public opinion. "This holds true especially in a
> democracy, when one is fighting a war of choice - as in invading
> another country - instead of fighting a war of national survival,"
> observes David Isenberg. "In such wars, issues like human rights
> and civilian casualties loom larger. Since such casualties are
> inevitable, special pains must be taken to explain them away. But
> how to do so? In a word, spin." This is the topic of a
> recently-released study,"Disappearing the Dead: Iraq, Afghanistan
> and the Idea of a New Warfare" by Carl Conetta of the Cambridge,
> Massachusetts-based Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA). Conetta
> looks at the "public information battlespace" and shows how the
> military and the media framed events such as marketplace bombings
> in Baghdad, coining misleading phrases such as "precision warfare"
> and using "casualty agnosticism" to avoic counting civilian deaths.
>SOURCE: Asia Times, February 27, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/February_2004.html#1077858001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1077858001
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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