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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Wed Aug 25 15:01:40 GMT 2004
THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, August 25, 2004
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sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy (www.prwatch.org)
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
1. Disinfopedia versus Swift Boat Vets and Other Front Groups
2. Secret Justice
3. SLICK - The Novel
4. Secondhand Smoke Screen
5. Bush Campaign Grabs For Iraqi Gold
6. Full Court Press Release
7. Got the Big Stick; Need to Learn to Speak Softly
8. Vietnam, Re-revisited
9. Media "Bigfeet" Stumble
10. For Whom the Firm Polls
11. Perks for Peaceful Protesters
12. Growing Market Opposition to GMO Referenda
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1. DISINFOPEDIA VERSUS SWIFT BOAT VETS AND OTHER FRONT GROUPS
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=swift+boat&btnG=Google+Search
Last year we launched the Disinfopedia, a "wiki" website designed
to mobilize hundreds of volunteers to help us investigate and
expose front groups and propaganda campaigns. The Disinfopedia is
an experiment in participatory investigative journalism, and the
experiment seems to be succeeding. One recent example is the
Disinfopedia listing for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Not only is
the Disinfopeda entry on the group extensive, up to date and well
documented, it's being widely read by thousands daily and it
appears at or near the top in Google. There will always be
propaganda and deception, but Disinfopedia is proving a powerful
tool for getting to the truth. We invite you to help us to
research, edit and write the Disinfopedia; click here to learn how
to get started.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093406400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093406400
2. SECRET JUSTICE
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1183557.htm
After nearly three years of confinement at Guantanamo Bay,
Australian national David Hicks goes on trial for alleged terrorism
before a U.S. military court. "There'll be no pictures allowed of
David Hicks, no audio from the courtroom, no pictures of the
defence, prosecution or presiding officer entering the building,
and military camera operators will choose what images are broadcast
via closed circuit television to most journalists covering the
hearing," reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
According to reporter Leigh Sales, some of the restrictions on
press coverage "are bizarre and have no parallel. For example,
journalists in the courtroom can't use phone lines to file stories
during breaks in the proceedings. If you get up to go to the
toilet, you are then barred from the courtroom for the rest of the
day. ... Another restriction here, is that no sound or pictures
whatsoever will be taken of the military commissions, even though
they're one of the most important legal aspects of the Bush
administration's war on terrorism, and the first proceedings of
this kind since the Second World War."
SOURCE: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 24, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093320001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093320001
3. SLICK - THE NOVEL
http://www.slicknovel.com/
Check out the new book SLICK by first-time novelist Daniel Price.
SLICK's anti-hero protagonist, Scott Singer, works "in the field of
perception management, although the less colorful term is 'media
manipulation.' We're the CIA of PR, the sublime little gremlins who
live just outside your senses, selling you products and concepts
without you even knowing. ... I've conspired with the gun people,
schemed with the liquor people, toiled for tobacco, and moiled for
Monsanto. I've pushed polluters and promoted porn. I've shilled for
Shell and lied for Tide. I've helped a major pharmaceutical company
sell a drug that does nothing by promoting a disease that doesn't
exist. And that's just the old stuff on my resume." Daniel Price is
both a brilliant novelist and a sharp media critic who also
publishes AbusedByTheNews.com, a website "dedicated to analyzing
the tricks, kinks and quirks of America's corporate news media."
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093320000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093320000
4. SECONDHAND SMOKE SCREEN
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=220175&site=3
A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
finds that Philip Morris attempted to influence media coverage of
secondhand smoke. Citing internal industry documents, the study's
author, Dr. Richard Hunt, says the company and its PR firm,
Burson-Marsteller, made "a controversy out of secondhand smoke when
there wasn't any." Hurt also said Philip Morris gave "hundreds of
thousands of dollars" to training programs at the Herndon, VA-based
National Journalism Center. "Hurt said the funds went to support
speakers who would discount research on the dangers of secondhand
smoke," PR Week writes. "They also backed an internship program to
place reporters who supported the tobacco industry's position, Hurt
said."
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req'd), August 23, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093233601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093233601
5. BUSH CAMPAIGN GRABS FOR IRAQI GOLD
http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1288686,00.html
George W. Bush's re-election campaign has been accused of
appropriating the Olympics for political means. A recent
Bush/Cheney advertisement that links Iraq's and Afghanistan's
participation in the Olympic games with the White House's "war on
terror" is drawing criticism. "To the embarrassment of their media
handlers in Athens, members of the Iraqi football team have reacted
furiously to the news that their efforts are being used to aid Mr
Bush's efforts to win a second term in the White House," The
Guardian reports. The team's coach, Adnan Hamd, told Sports
Illustrated magazine, "My problem is not with the American people.
They are with what America has done; destroyed everything. The
American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom
when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?" The
Guardian is also reporting that Bush may be "planning to visit
Athens later this week to watch some sporting events, including a
potential gold-medal winning bid by the Iraqi football team."
SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), August 23, 2004
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093233600
6. FULL COURT PRESS RELEASE
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19616/
"Over the past few weeks of Presidential WrestleMania MMIV, the
Bush campaign has fired off more than a dozen press releases about
John Kerry's policies on energy, nuclear-waste storage, forest and
water protections, and other environmental issues - a hodgepodge of
smears, exaggerations, and obfuscations intended to besmirch
Kerry's pro-environment reputation," Grist Magazine's Amanda
Griscom writes. Polls indicate that swing-state voters are
concerned about things like pollution and wilderness conservation,
prompting the Bush campaign to "neutralize" the environment as an
election issue. "They know they can't persuade voters that Bush is
good on the environment, so they're trying to create enough
confusion about Kerry's record that people decide it can't be the
issue that decides their vote," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club
executive director. "Most of the Bush team's environment-related
releases rely on one of two tired claims - that Kerry is a
flip-flopper, or that creating jobs and protecting the environment
are incompatible goals," Griscom writes.
SOURCE: Alternet, August 20, 2004
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092974403
7. GOT THE BIG STICK; NEED TO LEARN TO SPEAK SOFTLY
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17134-2004Aug19.html
Condoleezza Rice admitted, "We are obviously not very well
organized for the side of public diplomacy." The 9/11 Commission
warned, "If the United States does not act aggressively to define
itself in the Islamic world, the extremists will gladly do the job
for us." Former State Department diplomacy head Margaret Tutwiler
said, "Public diplomacy need[s] to be seriously prioritized on an
equal level with an aircraft carriers." State Department Cultural
Affairs head Patricia Harrison described ongoing efforts: "'good
news' stories on reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan [for]
American and foreign news," an Iraq sister-city program, support
for the Iraqi National Symphony, and donating "thousands of
wheelchairs to Iraq, Morocco, Jordan, Oman and other areas of the
Arab world."
SOURCE: Washington Post, August 20, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1092974402
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092974402
8. VIETNAM, RE-REVISITED
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html
John Kerry called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group "a front
for the Bush campaign." The New York Times' in-depth report on the
group finds "a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile
Texas political figures and President Bush's chief political aide,
Karl Rove. ... The group received the bulk of its initial financing
from two men with ties to the president and his family - one a
longtime political associate of Mr. Rove's, the other a trustee of
the foundation for Mr. Bush's father's presidential library. A
Texas publicist who once helped prepare Mr. Bush's father for his
debate when he was running for vice president provided them with
strategic advice. And the group's television commercial was
produced by the same team that made the devastating ad mocking
Michael S. Dukakis in an oversized tank helmet when he and Mr.
Bush's father faced off in the 1988 presidential election. ... On
close examination, the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
prove to be riddled with inconsistencies."
SOURCE: New York Times, August 20, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1092974401
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092974401
9. MEDIA "BIGFEET" STUMBLE
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/187147_joel20.html
"Although we're not yet through the national conventions, 2004 is
emerging as a snakebitten election for America's media 'Bigfeet' -
our news organizations and TV's non-stop talking heads," writes
Joel Connelly. "They've been wrong so much of the time already."
During the Democratic primaries, the punditocracy erroneously
anointed Howard Dean the frontrunner; more recently, they've
largely ignored the worsening mess in Iraq while declaring that
Iraq is putting Kerry on the defensive. Why are the big media doing
such a poor job? Connelly says it's because "they're rich," "they
pursue trivia," and "they're tempted" by a 24-hour news cycle that
is driving journalistic standards out the window.
SOURCE: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 20, 2004
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092974400
10. FOR WHOM THE FIRM POLLS
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4433912,00.html
The U.S.-based "strategic market research firm" Penn, Schoen &
Berland is under scrutiny in Venezuela. The firm's polling
erroneously predicted that President Hugo Chavez lost a recall
referendum; the opposition "insists [the poll] shows the results of
the vote itself were fraudulent." Moreover, poll "results ... were
sent out by fax and e-mail to media outlets and opposition offices
more than four hours before polls closed," in violation of
Venezuelan law. The fact that "members of Sumate, a Venezuelan
group that helped organize the recall initiative, [did] the
fieldwork for the poll," has also raised questions; Sumate received
U.S. National Endowment for Democracy funding "to encourage
participation in the referendum."
SOURCE: Associated Press, August 19, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1092888000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092888000
11. PERKS FOR PEACEFUL PROTESTERS
http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=219938&site=3
"In a PR appeasement attempt, NYC & Company, the city's official
tourism-marketing organization, has offered incentives to
Republican National Convention protestors who will protest
peacefully," writes PR Week. Participating restaurants, museums,
hotels and shops called the "Peaceful Political Activists" campaign
"a good business decision." United for Peace and Justice, which is
seeking a protest permit for Central Park, called it a publicity
stunt. The director of the business consortium Sensible Priorities,
who developed the campaign, said, "I'm afraid this Central Park
thing is really going to blow up." Across from the press conference
announcing the campaign, "four members of Code Pink, a women's
protest group, were arrested for trying to dangle a 40-foot-long
banner from their ninth-floor [hotel] window."
SOURCE: PR Week (reg. req'd), August 18, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1092801600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092801600
12. GROWING MARKET OPPOSITION TO GMO REFERENDA
http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/10397422p-11317095c.html
"Worried that county bans on biotech crops could spread throughout
the state, mainstream farm groups from the California Cattlemen's
Association to the national Farm Bureau are marshaling their
resources," reports the Sacramento Bee. The California Rice
Commission is "developing a 'communications plan' to influence
Butte [County] voters along with a backup litigation plan in case
the [anti-biotech] measure passes." Following votes to ban biotech
crops in California's Mendocino and Trinity counties, "biotech
backers are widely rumored to be shopping legislation that would
stop counties from regulating biotech crops. Even the U.S.
Department of Agriculture ... reportedly is scouring county
initiatives to build a legal case against them."
SOURCE: Sacramento Bee, August 16, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1092628805
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092628805
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