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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, September 8, 2004
Wed Sep 08 06:10:13 GMT 2004
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, September 8, 2004
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>sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy (www.prwatch.org)
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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. Dem Advisors Flip Flop Hats
>2. When Is A Front Group Not A Front Group?
>3. The Pampered Press
>4. Spreading Freedom at the RNC
>5. Oily (Not Girly) Men
>6. They Fought the Law and the Law Won
>7. The Right Angle
>8. In a Class of Their Own
>9. Back to the Future
>10. Winning the War on Terror?
>11. Moore Bad News
>12. Hijacking Catastrophe
>13. Tick Tock TV Set Convention Coverage
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1. DEM ADVISORS FLIP FLOP HATS
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/politics/campaign/08adviser.html
> "Just last week, Stanley Greenberg was the polling mastermind
> guiding the way three liberal groups spent tens of millions of
> dollars attacking President Bush and registering voters. But he
> quit that position to be an unpaid adviser to the Kerry campaign as
> it presses to sharpen its message in the final 56 days before the
> election. Mr. Greenberg is just the latest in a procession of top
> strategists who have moved between the campaigns and advocacy
> groups called 527's - the very organizations that are not supposed
> to coordinate their activities under campaign finance rules."
>SOURCE: New York Times, September 8, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094616000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094616000
>
>2. WHEN IS A FRONT GROUP NOT A FRONT GROUP?
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=221378&site=3
> "We have been wrongfully labeled as an auto industry front group,"
> Ron DeFore, communications director for SUV Owners of America, told
> PR Week. The group is running a campaign opposing proposed
> regulations in California to limit truck and SUV emissions. Defore
> is also a principal at Stratacom, a PR firm that counts the auto
> industry as one of its biggest clients. Defore also told PR Week
> that Stratacomm had created the non-profit status of the SUV group
> two years ago after buying the name and other assets from its
> founder. "There was a tremendous need in the public-policy arena,
> as well as the media, for some balance to be brought to the
> coverage on SUVs," Defore said. California represents 10% of the US
> auto market.
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), September 6, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094600434
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094600434
>
>3. THE PAMPERED PRESS
>http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?site=3&ID=221135&site=3&/news/news_story.cfm&setcookie=1
> "Reporters who cover political conventions are accustomed to tiny
> workspaces, often shoddy technical setups, and few, if any,
> luxuries," PR Week writes. "Last week, New York City and the GOP -
> with the help of GCI Group- went to great lengths to break the
> mold. Journalists covering the Republican National Convention ...
> were treated to world-class accouterments, including facials,
> tailoring services, and gourmet food - drawing a marked contrast
> from the rather cramped conditions at the Democratic National
> Convention held last month in Boston. Most of the pampering took
> place across the street from [Madison Square] Garden in The Barneys
> Lounge, sponsored by upscale clothier Barneys ... The services were
> arranged by the 2004 New York City Host Committee and supervised
> (and aggressively publicized) by GCI." The PR firm told PR Week,
> "We're basically saying to the reporters, 'We know you're working
> hard. Let us make your lives easier while you're in New York.'"
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), September 6, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094443200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094443200
>
>4. SPREADING FREEDOM AT THE RNC
>http://www.alternet.org/election04/19783/
> "Over the first three nights, the Republican Convention speakers
> carefully crafted a tri-partite frame for George W. Bush's Thursday
> acceptance speech: Night 1: The Global War on Terror defines our
> lives and our generation. Night 2: With enough discipline, all
> Americans can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become
> prosperous. Those girly men have only themselves to blame. Night 3:
> Kerry is weak, unpatriotic, antimilitary, against national
> security, without resolve, soft-hearted, confused, and totally
> unfit to be commander-in-chief," linguistics professor George
> Lakoff writes. Examining the domestic agenda section of Bush's
> speech, Lakoff observes, "The 'opportunity society' rhetoric is
> crafted to sound like it will remedy the same ills that the
> Democrats are talking about. But it is virtually the opposite in
> real content." The rest of Bush's speech was on the War on Terror,
> "though he never once used the phrase. The frame inspiring terror
> had been well established on previous nights, leaving Bush to talk
> about spreading freedom. Significantly, he did not once use the
> phrase 'war on terror,' but did use the word 'liberty' 11 times and
> 'free' or 'freedom' 23 times," Lakoff writes.
>SOURCE: Alternet, September 3, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094184003
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094184003
>
>5. OILY (NOT GIRLY) MEN
>http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/9571776.htm?1c
> "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious plan to reorganize almost
> every aspect of state government was influenced significantly by
> oil and gas giant ChevronTexaco," including "streamlining the
> permit process for the construction of new oil refineries" and
> "reorganizing the regulatory process for ... energy facilities,"
> reports Associated Press. ChevronTexaco, "one of about 20 companies
> that paid the send the governor and his staff to this week's
> Republican National Convention," has contributed more than $200,000
> to Schwarzenegger committees and $500,000 to the California
> Republican Party since the October recall election. "That is what
> we are here for," said ChevronTexaco's general manager over state
> government relations.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, September 3, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094184002
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094184002
>
>6. THEY FOUGHT THE LAW AND THE LAW WON
>http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/03/protest/
> "As Republicans inside Madison Square Garden praised the NYPD for
> keeping order," writes Michelle Goldberg, "grim stories of
> preemptive, arbitrary arrests, filthy jail conditions and long
> detentions without access to attorneys circulated among protesters,
> lawyers and quite a few ordinary New Yorkers who were arrested for
> being in the wrong place at the wrong time. ... Whenever groups of
> activists gathered, row upon row of riot cops would surround them
> with orange plastic netting and often arrest everyone inside,
> including journalists and bystanders. Police then defied state law
> by holding many people well over 24 hours without access to
> attorneys." According to Elspeth Schell, whose daughter was among
> the detainees, "this is looking more and more like a South American
> Republic."
>SOURCE: Salon.com, September 3, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094184001
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094184001
>
>7. THE RIGHT ANGLE
>http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=70970
> "Stephan Savoia glowed about the picture he would take at the end
> of the Republican National Convention," writes Karen Brown
> Dunlap. "He planned it hours before the President's speech by
> suspending a camera high in Madison Square Garden for the right
> angle. He imagined the beauty of the moment, but he also growled in
> anger. 'The picture will be exactly what the White House wanted,'
> he said. It would show President George W. Bush surrounded by a
> cheering crowd, family, confetti, and balloons after his nomination
> acceptance speech. He would be standing on a special stage with the
> Presidential seal underfoot. 'Why do you think they put the
> Presidential seal on the floor?' Savoia said. "We're sucked into
> the photo op.'"
>SOURCE: Poynter Online, September 3, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094184000
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094184000
>
>8. IN A CLASS OF THEIR OWN
>http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=42547
> "Shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist hijackings, the
> Pentagon hired the Rendon Group to orchestrate sympathetic media
> coverage around the globe, including Muslim countries. The firm has
> worked for the government of Kuwait since the Persian Gulf War. In
> the 1990s, the CIA hired the Rendon Group to wage a public
> relations war against Saddam Hussein. ... Rendon helped create and
> promote the Iraqi National Congress, the exile group headed by
> Ahmed Chalabi." The PR firm has come under scrutiny again, for
> receiving more than $14,000 of Massachusetts' anti-terrorism funds
> to videotape a state police graduation ceremony in August 2002.
>SOURCE: Boston Herald, September 2, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094097603
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094097603
>
>9. BACK TO THE FUTURE
>http://www.slate.com/id/2106214/
> "For $2.4 trillion, guess what word other than 'a,' 'and,' and
> 'the' - occurs most frequently in the acceptance speech George W.
> Bush delivered tonight," writes William Saletan. "The word is
> 'will.' It appears 76 times. This was a speech all about what Bush
> will do, and what will happen, if he becomes president. Except he
> already is president. He already ran this campaign. He promised
> great things. They haven't happened. So, he's trying to go back in
> time. He wants you to see in him the potential you saw four years
> ago. He can't show you the things he promised, so he asks you to
> envision them. ... Bush pointed to the wars he had launched and the
> bills he had signed, but he couldn't point to the benefits those
> laws and wars were supposed to deliver. The benefits haven't
> happened yet. They 'will.'"
>SOURCE: Slate, September 2, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094097602
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094097602
>
>10. WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR?
>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5889435/
> "As speakers at the GOP convention trumpet Bush administration
> successes in the war on terrorism, an NBC News analysis of Islamic
> terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, shows that attacks are on the rise
> worldwide - dramatically," report Robert Rivas and Robert Windrem
> NBC News. "Of the roughly 2,929 terrorism-related deaths around the
> world since the attacks on New York and Washington, the NBC News
> analysis shows 58 percent of them - 1,709 - have occurred this
> year."
>SOURCE: MSNBC, September 2, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094097601
>
>11. MOORE BAD NEWS
>http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000623684
> "Security guards at the Republican National Convention overreacted
> when USA Today guest columnist Michael Moore entered Madison Square
> Garden Monday night and were responsible for a disruption that made
> it difficult for several members of the press, including Moore, to
> cover the proceedings, said the U.S. House Daily Press Gallery,
> which oversees press credentials for the convention. The gallery
> conducted a review of the Monday incident, which it calls the worst
> case of police media control since the 1968 Chicago convention."
>SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, September 2, 2004
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094097600
>
>12. HIJACKING CATASTROPHE
>http://www.mef.tv/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=2&pid=1
> A new video from the Media Education Foundation examines how the
> Bush administration uses the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to
> manipulate Americans. Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the
> Selling of American Empire places the last three years of White
> House deceptions in a global context, asking questions seldom posed
> by mainstream corporate media. The hour-long documentary features
> nearly twenty political observers, including Lt. Colonel Karen
> Kwiatkowski, former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, former
> Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody
> Williams, international activist Vandan Shiva, journalism academic
> Robert Jensen, and musician Michael Franti. "By helping us
> understand how fear is being actively cultivated and manipulated by
> the current administration, Hijacking Catastrophe stands to become
> an explosive and empowering information weapon in this decisive
> year in U.S. history," writes Naomi Klein, author of No Logo.
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094070476
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094070476
>
>13. TICK TOCK TV SET CONVENTION COVERAGE
>http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/08/31/cnn_rnc.html
> "The idea was to grab a location 'that screamed New York.' And said
> politics," PressThink's Jay Rosen writes of his meeting with Sam
> Feist, CNN senior executive producer for political programming, at
> the Tick Tock Diner, a "real" New York City diner catty corner from
> Madison Square Garden that is being used as a TV set for CNN's
> convention coverage. While CNN sees the story of the RNC taking
> place inside the convention hall, Feist told Rosen the network is
> ready to cover the protests "a little or a lot, it depends on the
> size of the protests, it frankly depends on whether any protests
> turn violent, ... and obviously whether or not the protests disrupt
> the convention." Rosen asked Feist, "The protests disrupt the
> convention if they disrupt the televising of the convention-- isn't
> that so?" He answered, "I don't see that the protests have
> disrupted the televising of the convention and I don't see that
> happening." Rosen writes in his blog: "New York and Boston are
> parallel events, they will get equal coverage. There was nothing to
> puzzle over, even with the signs of a counter convention on the
> streets of New York. We cover the news, Sam reasoned. If the
> protests make news, we'll cover that."
>SOURCE: Press Think, September 1, 2004
>More web links related to this story are available at:
> http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094011200
>To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
> http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094011200
>
>
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