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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Wed Aug 04 06:27:53 GMT 2004
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, August 4, 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. The Carbon PR Cycle
>2. Who's Your Sugar Daddy?
>3. Race, Elections and the Media
>4. Painting Happy Faces on Black Boxes
>5. Heal Thyself!
>6. Mine, All Mine
>7. Al Qaeda at the DNC
>8. Triumph of the Trivial
>9. Crossed Wires and Banana Republicans
>10. A Match Made... Well, Somewhere
>11. Riddle of the Sphinx
>12. One Straight Shooter
>13. Can Monsanto's Raider Vanquish Nader?
>14. PR: Making Words Obscure Actions
>15. Convention 'Hospitality'
>16. Iraq's War on Unwarranted Criticism
>17. They Blacklist, You Decide
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. THE CARBON PR CYCLE
>http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/84/carbon.html#WB
> "Organized by the World Bank, the International Emissions Trading
> Association and Koelnmesse (Cologne Trade Fair), Carbon Expo was
> supposed to be 'the Coming of Age of the Global Carbon Market,'"
> reports Chris Lang. At a journalists' workshop, World Bank
> Communications Advisor Sergio Jellinek said the Bank wanted to help
> journalists "in terms of getting the story right. You set the tone
> of the debate. It's a debate we want to be involved in," he
> stressed. "Carbon emission trading, a vehicle for development. Is
> this a story that's worth telling? I think it is."
>SOURCE: World Rainforest Movement Bulletin
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091567777
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091567777
>
>2. WHO'S YOUR SUGAR DADDY?
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=218037&site=3
> "A grassroots PR effort that included giving away American flags
> for the Fourth of July has helped Donald Trump win the right to
> build a new casino in Orange County, an economically depressed area
> in Indiana," reports PR Week. Competition for the casino license
> was fierce; Indianapolis PR firm MZD promoted Trump as experienced
> and caring. Trump "pledged to give $5 million each to refurbish two
> local resort hotels." MZD offered "to replace [businesses' and
> families'] worn-out American flags with new ones. One citizen at a
> public meeting mentioned [the free flags] as a sign that Trump
> truly cared."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd), August 2, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091419202
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091419202
>
>3. RACE, ELECTIONS AND THE MEDIA
>http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/weeklyView.cfm?articlenumber=1562
> "Gaining access to the Republican National Convention has become a
> tortuous struggle for a slew of local ethnic publications," reports
> a New York City weekly. In Arizona, a Bush-Cheney organizer
> "insisted on knowing the race of a ... journalist assigned to
> photograph Vice President Dick Cheney," saying the information was
> needed "to distinguish her from someone else who might have the
> same name" - which seems unlikely, since her name is Mamta Popat.
> In New Mexico, "Democrats who signed up to hear [Cheney] speak ...
> were refused tickets unless they signed a pledge to endorse
> President Bush." One media analysis company estimates that, with
> Iraq coverage dominating the news, "67 percent of stories on Bush
> were negative, while only 36 percent were negative for Kerry."
>SOURCE: City Limits, August 2, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091419201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091419201
>
>4. PAINTING HAPPY FACES ON BLACK BOXES
>http://alternet.org/election04/19423/
> "It's amazing how far the reputation of electronic voting has
> fallen," writes Center for Media and Democracy researcher Diane
> Farsetta. On November 9, 2000, one company bragged, "If Florida had
> used an e-voting system, we'd know the winner already." But over
> the past few years, as "expert critiques of and troubling incidents
> with e-voting systems multiplied to the point of attracting major
> media attention," the multi-industry group Information Technology
> Association of America "urged e-voting companies to unite under a
> public relations banner." A longer version of this article ran in
> the Center's quarterly journal, PR Watch. Subscribe today and be
> among the first to read future exposes!
>SOURCE: AlterNet, August 2, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091419200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091419200
>
>5. HEAL THYSELF!
>http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7460/247?etoc
> Just 13 percent of Americans think pharmaceutical companies are
> "generally honest and trustworthy," according to a recent survey.
> "Public confidence in drug companies has plunged harder and faster
> than for any other industry," putting them "on a par with tobacco,
> oil and [HMOs]." With medical journals not identifying drug study
> authors' "relevant conflicts of interest," Schering-Plough pleading
> guilty to defrauding Medicaid, Bristol-Myers Squibb settling
> charges of financial improprieties, and GlaxoSmithKline withholding
> information about its antidepressants' usefulness for adolescents,
> it's not too hard to understand the survey results.
>SOURCE: British Medical Journal, July 31, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091246400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091246400
>
>6. MINE, ALL MINE
>http://www.montanaforum.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=580&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
> Montana's citizen-passed ban on cyanide leach mining may be
> repealed in a November initiative supported by the group Miners,
> Merchants and Montanans for Jobs and Economic Opportunity. The
> group receives almost all of its funding from Colorado's Canyon
> Resources Corp. - which may explain a "little-known part" of the
> initiative "that would restore mining rights that any company or
> person had when the cyanide method was banned in 1998." Initiative
> opponents, concerned at the environmental effects of cyanide
> mining, have formed a "Save the Blackfoot" group, whose board
> consists "largely of southwestern Montana residents, some of them
> Blackfoot River users."
>SOURCE: Associated Press, July 30, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091160003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091160003
>
>7. AL QAEDA AT THE DNC
>http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/07/30/queda_came.html
> Journalism professor Jay Rosen, who attended the Democratic
> national convention, says the "great overlooked story in all the
> reporting" was the heightened security situation. "It was in your
> face, nonstop, in thousands of ways inside what was called, in
> military terms, The Perimeter," Rosen writes. "It came lunging at
> you as you approached the site and enveloped all when you were on
> site. You could have your credentials checked twenty times on a
> single trip from the ground floor to your seats. ... It was telling
> us that we live in a different world than the last time there was a
> political convention. ... What was all this security about? And who
> authored it? Ultimately, Al Queda did. ... Al Queda also came to
> the convention."
>SOURCE: PressThink, July 30, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091160002
>
>8. TRIUMPH OF THE TRIVIAL
>http://nytimes.com/2004/07/30/opinion/30krugman.html?hp
> New York Times' columnist Paul Krugman looks into why Americans
> haven't heard much about John Kerry's proposal to extend health
> insurance to lower- and middle-income families. After "reading 60
> days' worth" of transcripts from major cable and broadcast TV
> networks Krugman writes, "Never mind the details - I couldn't even
> find a clear statement that Mr. Kerry wants to roll back recent
> high-income tax cuts and use the money to cover most of the
> uninsured. When reports mentioned the Kerry plan at all, it was
> usually horse race analysis - how it's playing, not what's in it.
> On the other hand, everyone knows that Teresa Heinz Kerry told
> someone to 'shove it,' though even there, the context was missing."
> Krugman continues, "Somewhere along the line, TV news stopped
> reporting on candidates' policies, and turned instead to trivia
> that supposedly reveal their personalities. We hear about Mr.
> Kerry's haircuts, not his health care proposals. We hear about
> George Bush's brush-cutting, not his environmental policies. ... In
> short, the triumph of the trivial is not a trivial matter. The
> failure of TV news to inform the public about the policy proposals
> of this year's presidential candidates is, in its own way, as
> serious a journalistic betrayal as the failure to raise questions
> about the rush to invade Iraq."
>SOURCE: New York Times, July 30, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091160001
>
>9. CROSSED WIRES AND BANANA REPUBLICANS
>http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-florida30jul30,1,4532416.story?coll=la-headlines-technology
> Florida's Republicans are getting mixed signals about November.
> Governor Jeb Bush "has tried for months to persuade Florida voters
> touch-screen [electronic] voting machines are reliable." But the
> state GOP party is circulating a flier that reads, in part, "The
> new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify
> your vote in case of a recount. Make sure your vote counts. Order
> your absentee ballot today." Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County elections
> officials are "very pleased" that they found a compact disk
> containing the votes cast on e-voting machines in the 2002
> gubernatorial primary; the information had been reported lost.
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, July 30, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091160000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091160000
>
>10. A MATCH MADE... WELL, SOMEWHERE
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22128-2004Jul28.html
> "Citizens for a Sound Economy and Empower America have merged to
> form FreedomWorks, a grass-roots advocacy and political group to
> bolster their fight for 'lower taxes, less government and more
> economic freedom,'" reports Judy Sarasohn. The new group will be
> co-chaired by Dick Armey, C. Boyden Gray and Jack Kemp, with Matt
> Kibbe as president. Freedom Works is "intended, in part, to
> challenge political liberal groups such as MoveOn.org for voters
> this campaign season" and will engage in "lobbying, political
> fundraising and political activities, including voter education and
> get-out-the-vote efforts in key campaigns," according to Armey.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, July 29, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091073601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091073601
>
>11. RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109104875075676781,00.html?mod=health%5Fhs%5Fpolicy%5Flegislation
> "The pyramid has crumbled," said a food industry consultant. The
> U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and
> Promotion hired the Porter Novelli PR firm to redesign the Food
> Pyramid, or, as one PR pro called it, the "Food Guidance System, so
> it's not prejudiced that it's going to be a pyramid." Food is a
> $500 billion industry, so "everybody and their dog" is interested,
> said the Wheat Foods Council president. Concerned groups include
> the U.S. Potato Board, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Atkins
> Nutritionals and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The
> USDA will pay Porter Novelli at least $1.6 million over the next
> year, for the redesign, slogan, Internet work and educational
> materials, reports Adweek.
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091073600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091073600
>
>12. ONE STRAIGHT SHOOTER
>http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000589029
> Ohio's concealed carry law allows "only the media to find out the
> names of those obtaining such permits" for weapons. So Cleveland's
> newspaper, The Plain Dealer, published the "names, ages and home
> counties of the 3,000 residents who have taken out such permits,
> citing the public's right to know." In response, Ohioans for
> Concealed Carry posted the newspaper editor's home address, phone
> number and other personal information on their website, along with
> a map to his house, saying, "The editor believes in open records."
> The editor's home phone has received "a steady stream of phone
> calls, some of them obscene."
>SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, July 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090987203
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090987203
>
>13. CAN MONSANTO'S RAIDER VANQUISH NADER?
>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001990673_nader28.html
> Toby Moffett is a well-connected Washington lobbyist employed at
> the Livingston Group, a powerful lobby firm begun by former
> Republican representative Robert Livingston. One of Moffett's close
> colleagues at Livingston is Lauri Fitz-Pegado who worked for the
> front group Citizens for a Free Kuwait. Moffett was previously a
> vice-president of Monsanto, the giant genetic engineering and
> pesticide company. In his youth Moffett worked for Ralph Nader and
> now as he did in 2000 he is trading on his "Nader's Raider" past to
> raise hefty contributions for a well-oiled attack campaign against
> Nader's run for the presidency. According to the Seattle Times,
> "anti-Nader groups have been organized for months. But the efforts
> have taken 'a huge move' recently in fund raising, research and a
> detailed attack plan, Moffett said. 'This guy [Nader] is still a
> huge threat,' he said. 'We're just not going to make the same
> mistake we made in 2000.' ... A memo given to potential supporters
> said Moffett's group, United Progressives for Victory, will do
> research, community organizing, media outreach and Internet
> marketing aimed at weakening Nader's standing. Last night, Nader
> called it a smear campaign and said, 'It's the Democrats'
> undemocratic attempt' to quash third-party candidates."
>SOURCE: Seattle Times, Wednesday, July 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090987202
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090987202
>
>14. PR: MAKING WORDS OBSCURE ACTIONS
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0728apco_indonesia.htm
> The international PR firm APCO Worldwide "is spreading the word
> that Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is a
> staunch U.S. ally committed to combating terrorism." APCO signed a
> six-month agreement with Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and
> Information "to promote positive U.S./Indonesia ties," including a
> high-level delegation to Washington DC, after Indonesia's
> presidential run-off election in September. Yet "Indonesian police
> ... dropped plans to charge militant cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir with
> involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings following a court ruling last
> week that curbed the use of a tough antiterrorism law," reports the
> Wall Street Journal.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, July 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090987201
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090987201
>
>15. CONVENTION 'HOSPITALITY'
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19546-2004Jul27.html
> Candidates, delegates, protesters and media aren't the only folks
> attending the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer.
> Lobbyists, by the thousands, are doing "what amounts to the only
> real work going on at the convention - the nonstop currying of
> favor of elected officials by the most powerful interests in the
> country," the Washington Post writes. Representing their
> well-heeled clients, lobbyists are hosting hundreds of events at
> the conventions hoping to make connections that will pay off for
> them in the future. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), played down
> the $19,000 luncheon given in his honor by the Chicago Board
> Options Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago
> Mercantile Exchange. Durbin, an original co-sponsor of the
> McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, called the luncheon an
> extension of his "day-to-day contact with business from my state."
> "It's hospitality at the convention, and I think that's part of the
> experience," he told the Post.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, July 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090987200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090987200
>
>16. IRAQ'S WAR ON UNWARRANTED CRITICISM
>http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087374001384
> "In a difficult security situation, we need to fight the terrorists
> by all means, and one of the main means is the media. We need them
> all to co-operate, even the private sector. It's for national
> security," said Ibrahim Janabi, a former Iraqi intelligence officer
> who Prime Minister Iyad Allawi just appointed as the head of the
> new Higher Media Commission. The Commission, which will be housed
> in the old Information Ministry building, will "impose restrictions
> on print and broadcast media." Janabi said the restrictions would
> include "unwarranted criticism of the prime minister."
>SOURCE: Financial Times (UK), July 27, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090900801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090900801
>
>17. THEY BLACKLIST, YOU DECIDE
>http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=25615
> "All PR people pitch stories to reporters, but Fox is unusually
> forceful ... and active in letting reporters know when it is
> unhappy," writes Alex Ben Block. "Among the hundreds of reporters
> with whom the [Fox News Channel] publicists regularly deal, some
> have written things that are deemed so offensive that Fox just
> stops talking to them." The "blacklisted" include an Associated
> Press reporter who wrote an article about Paula Zahn leaving Fox
> for CNN and a Baltimore Sun reporter who, in late 2001, "noted that
> Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera was not actually at the scene of a
> battle [in Afghanistan], as he had described."
>SOURCE: TV Week, July 25, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090728000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090728000
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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