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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Wed Sep 01 07:35:57 GMT 2004


>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, September 1, 2004
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
>further information about current public relations campaigns.
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>1. GCI Groups Does RNC PR
>2. Swift Boat Vets' Book Gets PR Help
>3. PR 101 - How to Slime a War Hero
>4. Gone Fishing for Publicity
>5. Keeping Jesus Off Camera
>6. Ghostwriters for Bush
>7. Auto Industry Front Group Opposes California Clean Air Proposal
>8. Block the Vote
>9. Press Conference From Hell
>10. This Song Is Your Song
>11. Media to Blame for Swift Boat Hype
>12. More Ads, Less Journalism
>13. Lower than Journalists
>14. Greenwashing Ford's SUVs
>15. Political Football
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. GCI GROUPS DOES RNC PR
>http://www.holmesreport.com/holmestemp/story.cfm?edit_id=4426&typeid=1
>   "The New York City Host Committee for the Republican National
>   Convention has retained GCI Group to provide on-site media services
>   for members of the press throughout the convention," PR trade
>   publication the Holmes Report writes. "GCI Group will be working
>   from the James A. Farley Building, which will house 10,000 members
>   of the media during the convention. 'The advantage of having the
>   media covering the convention in one location is that it allows the
>   Host Committee to provide excellent services to the press,' said
>   Host Committee president Kevin Sheekey.  'Perhaps the most
>   important service we will provide to reporters is the ability to
>   access helpful information about the convention and New York City
>   quickly and easily, and we are very happy that the GCI Group will
>   be providing this vital service.'"
>SOURCE: Holmes Report, August 30, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093838401
>
>2. SWIFT BOAT VETS' BOOK GETS PR HELP
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0830novak.htm
>   "Conservative columnist Bob Novak has touted the Swift Boat
>   Veterans for Truth book Unfit for Command without revealing that
>   his son heads marketing and PR for its publisher," O'Dwyer's PR
>   Daily reports. The New York Times writes that Novak has "lauded"
>   the book in his syndicated columns and on CNN's 'Crossfire.'
>   "Unmentioned in Mr. Novak's columns and television appearances,
>   however, is a personal connection he has to the book: his son, Alex
>   Novak, is the director of marketing for its publisher, the
>   conservative publishing house Regnery," the Times writes.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd), August 30, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093838400
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093838400
>
>3. PR 101 - HOW TO SLIME A WAR HERO
>http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/19695/
>   The Swift Boat attack on Kerry uses a classic [third party]
>   propaganda tactic: have PR professionals [such as Merrie Spaeth]
>   organize and launch a well-funded smear attack, an ad hominem
>   barrage against Kerry's integrity, and do it through a front group
>   with enough separation from the Bush campaign to pretend
>   independence. Then use the right-wing echo chamber to keep the
>   issue alive and churning, spitting plenty of mud and confusion.
>   It's a strategy that is virtually guaranteed to hurt Kerry in the
>   polls.
>SOURCE: Alternet
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093704619
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093704619
>
>4. GONE FISHING FOR PUBLICITY
>http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/archive.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2004/08/27/fishing_ad/index.html
>   Anglers on their way into the north woods of Wisconsin this Labor
>   Day weekend won't be seeing one important message about the Bush
>   administration's environmental record. This month Environment 2004
>   tried to place an advertisement on two billboards along a Wisconsin
>   highway that declared, "Mercury. It's what's for dinner. Served up
>   by the Bush Administration." The ads were refused by the billboard
>   company, Lamar Advertising of Central Wisconsin.
>SOURCE: Salon.com, August 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093665601
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093665601
>
>5. KEEPING JESUS OFF CAMERA
>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/28/MNG4G8G43C1.DTL
>   "Don't expect to see the reverends Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or
>   Franklin Graham at the podium during next week's Republican
>   National Convention, whose planners hope to keep fire, brimstone
>   and the Christian Right offstage at Madison Square Garden. About
>   the only big name Christians making prime-time noise at Madison
>   Square Garden at next week's Republican gathering will be Third
>   Day, a popular [pro-Bush] evangelical Christian rock band. .. .
>   Some say the prominent role of Christian conservatives at the 1992
>   convention turned moderate voters away from the Republican ticket.
>   This year, President Bush's campaign strategists have made
>   extraordinary efforts to mobilize conservative evangelical and
>   conservative Catholic voters -- hoping the president's stand
>   against abortion rights and same-sex marriage will get them to the
>   polls and into the Republican column. But the four-day convention
>   that opens in New York on Monday will highlight moderate
>   Republicans -- such as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and
>   Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz."
>SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, August 28, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093665600
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093665600
>
>6. GHOSTWRITERS FOR BUSH
>http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000619873
>   The Daily Kos recently uncovered an astroturf (fake grassroots)
>   initiative by the George W. Bush campaign, which generated
>   ghostwritten letters to the editor that found their way into at
>   least 60 newspapers. This isn't the first time that the Bush
>   administration has tried this trick, as we've reported in the past.
>   According to Editor and Publisher, however, the National Conference
>   of Editorial Writers (NCEW) is now taking the issue seriously. "On
>   its NCEW e-mail listserv, some 600 subscribers who are mostly
>   editorial page writers and editors, can alert one another of
>   suspicious letters," writes Charles Geraci. "In fact, this is the
>   most consistent topic on the listserv." Meanwhile, the Columbia
>   Journalism Review's Campaign Desk critiques the Washington Post's
>   coverage of the topic, showing how an "obsession with
>   'even-handedness'" led the Post to falsely claim that the Kerry
>   campaign is doing the same thing.
>SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, August 27, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093579200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093579200
>
>7. AUTO INDUSTRY FRONT GROUP OPPOSES CALIFORNIA CLEAN AIR PROPOSAL
>file:///Users/lauramiller/Desktop/Ad%20Firm%20Targets%20Emissions%20Proposal.html
>   "A public relations firm with ties to the automobile industry has
>   launched ads suggesting that a proposed California rule to cut
>   carbon dioxide exhaust could cause more people to die in traffic
>   accidents," the Los Angeles Times reports. "Starring 'Squeezy the
>   Clown,' the radio and newspaper advertisements by the Sport Utility
>   Vehicle Owners of America use humor to make a questionable claim:
>   The regulation to combat global warming will compel auto companies
>   to make smaller vehicles, forcing California families into
>   diminutive cars and trucks that could endanger their lives. ... But
>   SUV Owners of America is not a grass-roots organization. It is run
>   by Strat@comm, a Washington, D.C., public relations firm whose
>   clients have included General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Ford, as
>   well as the auto industry's two major trade groups."
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093492802
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093492802
>
>8. BLOCK THE VOTE
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33798-2004Aug25.html
>   The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
>   (NAACP) and other civil rights leaders say the Republican Party is
>   mounting a campaign to keep African-Americans and other minority
>   voters away from the polls this November. "In recent years, many
>   minority communities have tended to align with the Democratic
>   Party," states a new report cosponsored by the NAACP and People for
>   the American Way. "Over the past two decades, the Republican Party
>   has launched a series of 'ballot security' and 'voter integrity'
>   initiatives which have targeted minority communities. ...Voter
>   intimidation is not a relic of the past, but a pervasive strategy
>   used with disturbing frequency in recent years. Sustaining the
>   bright promise of the civil rights era, and maintaining the dream
>   of equal voting rights for every citizen requires constant
>   vigilance, courageous leadership, and an active, committed and
>   well-informed citizenry." (We've reported ourselves on efforts at
>   voter suppression in our latest book, Banana Republicans: How the
>   Right Wing Is Turning America Into a One-Party State.)
>SOURCE: Washington Post, August 26, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093492801
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093492801
>
>9. PRESS CONFERENCE FROM HELL
>http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/000810.php
>   "I don't know what the news is from the rest of Iraq or even what's
>   going on with the governor of Najaf," writes Chris Albritton, a
>   freelance journalist who has been covering the fighting in Iraq. "I
>   do know what's happening with the police department, however.
>   They're raiding the Sea of Najaf hotel and rounding the 100 or so
>   journalists at gunpoint and subjecting them to mass arrest."
>   Albritton describes his recent experience, when police "raided the
>   hotel and forced all the journalists out onto the street. We were
>   terrified. The cops yelled at us and pointed their weapons toward
>   us. Several large trucks were waiting and knew we would be loaded
>   onto them. Then they started shooting. ... BANG BANG! They fired
>   their weapons just over our heads forcing us to crouch." The
>   reporters were hauled off to the police station, where they were
>   treated to what Albritton describes as "the most bizarre press
>   conference of my life." The police chief informed them that "The
>   Shrine would be stormed tonight, ... and we would be allowed to get
>   on a bus and go visit it tomorrow to see the damage the Mahdi Army
>   had done to it. The Sistani protesters in Kufa were really Mahdi
>   guys and they had to be killed. Oh, and thank you for coming."
>   Albritton says the Najaf police are "like the old regime, only less
>   disciplined. They're terrifying and they're the most dangerous
>   element in this conflict. ... The police here have been engaging in
>   a systematic intimidation of us for three weeks now. The governor
>   of Najaf has reportedly threatened to jail journalists who don't
>   write down exactly what he says when he says it in interviews."
>SOURCE: Back to Iraq, August 26, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093492800
>
>10. THIS SONG IS YOUR SONG
>http://news.com.com/JibJab+beats+copyright+rap/2100-1026_3-5322970.html?tag=st.pop
>   Ludlow Music, a humor-challenged company that claimed to own the
>   rights to Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land," has dropped its
>   lawsuit against JibJab Media, the Web animators who adapted
>   Guthrie's song to create a wildly popular parody of the U.S.
>   presidential campaign.
>SOURCE: CNET, August 25, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093406403
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093406403
>
>11. MEDIA TO BLAME FOR SWIFT BOAT HYPE
>http://www.campaigndesk.org/archives/000851.asp
>   While the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth may have a questionable
>   grasp of the facts, it has been extraordinarily sophisticated in
>   its manipulation of the media," observes the Columbia Journalism
>   Review's Campaign Desk weblog. "To understand why this campaign has
>   been hijacked by a small group of veterans bearing a thirty-year
>   old grudge, it's worth examining the institutional susceptibilities
>   of a campaign press corps that allowed the SBVFT's accusations to
>   take on a life of their own. The SBVFT may have put themselves in
>   the game, but it's a flawed media that made them stars. Campaign
>   Desk has written many times about the perils of 'he said/she said'
>   journalism, the practice of reporters parroting competing rhetoric
>   instead of measuring it for veracity against known facts. In the
>   wake of the first SBVFT spot early this month, cable news programs
>   for the most part offered viewers two talking heads, one on each
>   side of the issue, to debate the merits of the claims. Verifiable
>   facts were rarely offered to viewers -- despite the fact that
>   military records supporting Kerry's version of events were readily
>   available. Instead of acting as filters for the truth, reporters
>   nodded and attentively transcribed both sides of the story,
>   invariably failing to provide context, background, or any sense of
>   which claims held up and which were misleading. ... There have been
>   dozens of press failures during this presidential campaign. But
>   this one ... has to rank as a low point."
>SOURCE: Campaign Desk, August 25, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093406402
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093406402
>
>12. MORE ADS, LESS JOURNALISM
>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11504
>   "Continuing a twenty-year trend that has seen advertising expenses
>   skyrocket as traditional political party organizing has fallen by
>   the wayside, the total for political ads this election year is
>   estimated by most industry analysts at over $1.5 billion, $400
>   million of which will be spent by the presidential campaigns,"
>   report Sakura Saunders and Ben Clarke. "Over the last 24 years,
>   broadcast TV advertising alone has increased from $90 million to
>   over a $1 billion. At roughly the same pace that advertising
>   revenue has grown, broadcast TV coverage of substantive electoral
>   issues has dwindled. Network convention coverage, for example, has
>   fallen from around 100 hours in 1980 to approximately 18 hours this
>   year."
>SOURCE: Corpwatch, August 25, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093406401
>
>13. LOWER THAN JOURNALISTS
>http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=554501
>   Among the professions "less popular than journalism," notes Bill
>   Hagerty, the "furtive world of public relations" is considered by
>   many people to be "a black art, inferior only to child
>   slave-trading or body-snatching." He cites a recent survey showing
>   that British journalists hold PR people in especially low esteem.
>   Nevertheless, he notes, "indications are that PR and publicists are
>   becoming increasingly more influential and powerful."
>SOURCE: Independent (UK), August 24, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093320002
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093320002
>
>14. GREENWASHING FORD'S SUVS
>http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0823-11.htm
>   "The launching of the 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid this fall marks an
>   auto industry first: the coupling of a hybrid electric engine,
>   containing the most energy-efficient fuel system available, with an
>   SUV, the least efficient class of passenger vehicle," writes
>   Geoffrey Johnson. The Escape Hybrid won't do much to improve the
>   environment, and Ford isn't expected to make money on it either.
>   Johnson concludes that Ford, which has the worst fleetwide fuel
>   economy of any major U.S. auto manufacturer, is engaged in "a
>   clear-cut case of 'greenwashing.' Ford hopes to mold a public
>   perception that Ford has gone green, that the company is a model of
>   corporate responsibility. ... In the end, the slick images and
>   exaggerated claims of greenwashing by Ford and others divert our
>   attention from the corporate-fueled environmental destruction
>   taking place all around us. And that means that greenwashing, far
>   from promoting a better world, is itself a serious environmental
>   problem."
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093147200
>
>15. POLITICAL FOOTBALL
>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/olympics/2004/writers/08/19/iraq/
>   Iraqi soccer players at the Olympic games in Greece are angered at
>   the Bush campaign for using the Iraqi Olympic team in Bush's latest
>   re-election campaign advertisements. "Iraq as a team does not want
>   Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," said Iraqi
>   midfielder Salih Sadir. Another player, Ahmed Manajid, had even
>   stronger words: "How will he meet his god having slaughtered so
>   many men and women?" Manajid said. "He has committed so many
>   crimes." Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl interviewed the
>   players. "To a man," he reports, "members of the Iraqi Olympic
>   delegation say they are glad that former Olympic committee head
>   Uday Hussein, who was responsible for the serial torture of Iraqi
>   athletes and?was killed ?four?months?after the U.S.-led coalition
>   invaded Iraq?in March 2003, is no longer in power. But they also
>   find it offensive that Bush is using ?Iraq for his own gain when
>   they do not support his administration's actions."
>SOURCE: Sports Illustrated, August 19, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
>    http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092888001
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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