Archive for May 2005

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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, May 18, 2005

Wed May 18 18:43:10 GMT 2005


>THE WEEKLY SPIN, May 18, 2005
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>1. FCC Commissioner Adelstein Issues Fake News Challenge
>2. U.S. Senate Holds "Fake News" Hearing: PR Industry Imitates Big Tobacco
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>1. Bill Moyers Blasts CPB Chair Tomlinson
>2. The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Oil Money
>3. The K Street Project Bears Fruit
>4. Ecomagine That: GE Stalls on PCB Cleanup
>5. Drug Industry Prescribes Self-Regulation
>6. Blogging Puts PR in a Spin
>7. Is "Return on Investment" Armstrong's Lesson?
>8. Empowering Secrecy
>9. The Junkman Judgeth
>10. More Government-Grown "News": USDA Pays Writer
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>
>1. FCC COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN ISSUES FAKE NEWS CHALLENGE
>by Laura Miller
>   "We need to fight one of [media consolidation's] most pernicious
>   symptoms, I think, which is the increasing commercialization of
>   media," the Federal Communications Commission's Jonathan Adelstein
>   told an audience of nearly two thousand at the National Conference
>   on Media Reform. Adelstein listed as examples "thinly disguised
>   payola" and "video news releases, masquerading as news." Also guilty
>   of commercializing media are "PR agents pushing political and
>   commercial agendas, squeezing out real news coverage and local
>   community concerns" and product placements, which are "turning news
>   and entertainment shows alike into undisclosed commercials for an
>   unwitting public," he said.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3671
>
>2. U.S. SENATE HOLDS "FAKE NEWS" HEARING: PR INDUSTRY IMITATES BIG TOBACCO
>by Diane Farsetta
>   Anyone who's ever looked at a package of cigarettes in the United
>   States since 1965 is familiar with the Surgeon General's warning
>   labels.
>        The tobacco industry did not want their product being labeled
>   with, "Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may
>   complicate pregnancy." However, Congress determined that the public
>   interest was best served by ensuring that everyone purchasing
>   cigarettes knew of their ill effects. Providing this information
>   didn't end smoking (today, 22 percent of U.S. adults use
>   cigarettes), but it helped balance years of Big Tobacco's deceptive
>   PR by simply presenting the facts in an appropriate, immediate and
>   universal way.
>        Congress is now engaged in a similar debate about labeling
>   "fake news." On May 12, public relations and broadcasting industry
>   representatives testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on
>   Commerce, Science and Transportation about the Truth in Broadcasting
>   Act (S 967). Their remarks were reminiscent of how the tobacco
>   industry responded to the threat of cigarette labeling four decades
>   ago.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3667
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>
>1. BILL MOYERS BLASTS CPB CHAIR TOMLINSON
>http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=70
>   Television journalist Bill Moyers harangued Corporation for Public
>   Broadcasting chair Kenneth Tomlinson at the recent National Media
>   Reform Conference. Tomlinson is "aggressively pressing public
>   television to correct what he and other conservatives consider
>   liberal bias," according to the May 2 edition of the New York Times.
>   "The more compelling our journalism, the angrier the radical right
>   of the Republican Party gets," Moyers told the audience of 1,400.
>   "That's because the one thing they loathe more than liberals is the
>   truth. And the quickest way to be damned by them as liberal is to
>   tell the truth." The veteran journalist skewered Tomlinson (mp3) for
>   spending $10,000 of public money to monitor PBS's "Now with Bill
>   Moyers" and refusing to release the results. "That great mob that is
>   democracy is rarely heard, and that's not just the fault of the
>   current residents of the White House and Capitol," Moyers said.
>   "There is a great chasm between those of us in the business and
>   those who depend on TV and radio as their window to the world. We
>   treat them too much like audiences and not enough like citizens."
>SOURCE: Free Press, May 15, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3677
>
>2. THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE OIL MONEY
>http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12236
>   In 2001, Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky (now on trial for
>   fraud and tax evasion) hired APCO Worldwide, "to restore investors'
>   trust in the company," reported O'Dwyer's at the time. Lucy Komisar
>   writes that, at APCO's suggestion, Khodorkovsky's Yukos Oil
>   Corporation "created the Open Russia Foundation ... to build
>   cooperation between Russia and the West." Yet, the foundation's
>   activities "seemed aimed more at cultivating powerful friends." Last
>   year, Yukos retained the Burson-Marsteller firm BKSH, "to keep
>   Washington abreast of political, legal and business developments."
>   In March 2005, APCO "launched a series of advertisements" on the New
>   York Times website, "designed to look like a newsletter named
>   'Russia in Focus.'" One issue "included an attack on the
>   Khodorkovsky prosecution co-authored by Stuart Eizenstat
>   (incidentally a member of APCO's international advisory board) and
>   Jonathan Winer - both former Clinton State Department officials."
>SOURCE: CorpWatch, May 10, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3676
>
>3. THE K STREET PROJECT BEARS FRUIT
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/16/AR2005051601334_pf.html
>   The Washington Post reports on how House Majority Whip Roy Blunt
>   "has converted what had been an informal and ad hoc relationship
>   between congressional leaders and the Washington corporate and trade
>   community into a formal, institutionalized alliance." Blunt's
>   "organization of whips and lobbyist vote counters ... has delivered
>   more than 50 consecutive victories for the GOP leadership on tough
>   fights over issues including tax and trade bills, District of
>   Columbia school choice and tort reform." The "de facto 'executive
>   committee'" of "the Republican leadership's K Street lobbying arm"
>   includes Ed Gillespie of Quinn Gillespie & Associates; Mark
>   Isakowitz and Samantha Poole of Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock; Tony
>   Rudy of Alexander Strategy Group and Greenberg Traurig; Lyle
>   Beckwitch of the National Association of Convenience Stores; and
>   Ralph Hellmann of the Information Technology Industry Council.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 17, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3675
>
>4. ECOMAGINE THAT: GE STALLS ON PCB CLEANUP
>http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050517/NEWS01/505170325/1006
>   "The National Academy of Sciences would investigate the
>   effectiveness of dredging PCB-contaminated sediment under a
>   directive written largely by General Electric Co. and attached to a
>   House of Representatives spending bill last week," reported the
>   Poughkeepsie Journal. A GE spokesperson said, "We think the public
>   and regulators will benefit from knowing more about these issues."
>   But environmentalists and Senator Charles Schumer say the study
>   would needlessly delay the cleanup of New York's Hudson River, which
>   was contaminated by PCBs from GE plants in the 1970s. An
>   Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson said, "We have the data
>   to prove [dredging] is the best thing for this river, for the
>   environment, and for the communities here." GE's efforts to delay
>   the Hudson River cleanup contrast with its recently launched $90
>   million pro-environmental PR and ad campaign, called
>   "Ecomagination."
>SOURCE: Poughkeepsie Journal, May 17, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3674
>
>5. DRUG INDUSTRY PRESCRIBES SELF-REGULATION
>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/17/politics/17drug.html?
>   According to former member of Congress Billy Tauzin, now the
>   Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's head
>   lobbyist, "drug companies [are] trying to develop a voluntary code
>   of conduct for the advertising of prescription medicines on
>   television and in print." Tauzin said "a good strong code" would
>   likely be issued this June or July. However, "one purpose" for the
>   code "is to fend off more stringent federal regulation," according
>   to the New York Times. "Better to self-regulate than to have someone
>   else tell you how to conduct your business," one pharmaceutical
>   marketing chief told Advertising Age. PhRMA's announcement comes as
>   mounting evidence suggests "drug sales don't necessarily rise or
>   fall as TV ads are boosted or reduced," because, unlike other
>   products, "a consumer can't buy a prescription drug without a
>   doctor's signature," reported the Wall Street Journal. Drug ads have
>   come under increasing scrutiny following "the safety controversy
>   over highly advertised painkillers Vioxx from Merck & Co. and
>   Celebrex from Pfizer."
>SOURCE: New York Times, May 17, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3673
>
>6. BLOGGING PUTS PR IN A SPIN
>http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/mediarpt/stories/s1364821.htm
>   Jay Rosen, who is an Associate Professor at New York University's
>   Journalism Department and author of the PressThink blog, believes
>   the rise of blogging is posing a major challenge to the PR industry.
>   Rosen argues that because PR is "totally about control," the PR
>   industry will struggle to cope with the proliferation of sources of
>   information and opinions available on the Internet. Journalists,
>   Rosen says, have become "quite reliant on public relations people,"
>   while "bloggers donâ¬"t really care" about them. Two weeks ago,
>   Richard Edelman, the CEO of Edelman, wrote with  alarm about
>   bloggers' disdain for PR people. Earlier this year, his company
>   released a report on some of the implications of blogging for
>   companies, while Issue Dynamics has created a blogger practice
>   group.
>SOURCE: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, May 12, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3669
>
>7. IS "RETURN ON INVESTMENT" ARMSTRONG'S LESSON?
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=238048&site=3
>   Just weeks after the Department of Education's Office of Inspector
>   General's damning report on the Ketchum / Armstrong Williams
>   contract to promote the No Child Left Behind legislation, the
>   department "is looking for a vendor to help it measure how well it
>   is communicating with the public." According to PR Week, a major
>   concern is the department's failure to get adequate "return on
>   investment." The new Education Department contractor will "compile a
>   daily list of placements and transcript summaries of local and
>   national news programs that mention the department and its
>   officials," and "provide an analysis of the audience that each
>   broadcast outlet reaches."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), May 12, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3665
>
>8. EMPOWERING SECRECY
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0512rendon.htm
>   The conservative legal group Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against
>   the Defense Department, for not responding to their March 2004
>   Freedom of Information Act request on what "strategic influence,
>   perception management, strategic information warfare and/or
>   psychological operations" contracts the Pentagon has signed since
>   September 11, 2001. Judicial Watch is especially concerned with
>   "Empower Peace," an Internet-based program run by the secretive
>   Rendon Group, to link "American school age children with their
>   counterparts in the Arab world." Judicial Watch says the site might
>   be "propagandizing the American public," and maintains that the
>   Pentagon has spent $40 million on the project, "while guys are
>   running around getting killed in Iraq." Rick Rendon calls Judicial
>   Watch's charges "absolutely not true," saying Empower Peace receives
>   no Pentagon funding.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd.), May 12, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3664
>
>9. THE JUNKMAN JUDGETH
>http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2005/may/business/pt_junkscience.html
>   One of PR Watch's "usual suspects," Steven J. Milloy, managed to get
>   himself invited to be a judge for the 2004 American Association for
>   the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Journalism Awards: Online
>   Category. Milloy, who calls himself "The Junkman," is an adjunct
>   scholar at the Cato Institute, a commentator for FoxNews.com, and
>   the creator of JunkScience.com. He earns his living attacking
>   scientific research and public health activism that goes against
>   industry interests. While Milloy claims the judgeship on his
>   website, the AAAS does not list Milloy as a judge in last yearâ¬"s
>   competition. "According to AAAS spokesperson Ginger Pinholster,
>   Milloy was invited to be a judge but quickly notified the other
>   panelists that he had conflicts of interest due to his affiliation
>   with the Cato Institute, [a] libertarian think tank," journalist
>   Paul Thacker writes. "'It was just kind of a snafu, and he had a
>   nice lunch on us,' she said in a phone message. 'We've already dealt
>   with it. This is a sponsored, nonprofit program, and I just want it
>   to go away.' 'This is somewhat like discovering that Karl Rove
>   [President Bush's chief political adviser] was a judge in a contest
>   for political journalism,' says Seth Borenstein, a national
>   correspondent who covers the environment, science, and health for
>   the Washington, D.C., bureau of Knight Ridder."
>SOURCE: Environmental Science and Technology Online, May 11, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3663
>
>10. MORE GOVERNMENT-GROWN "NEWS": USDA PAYS WRITER
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051001593.html
>   "An Agriculture Department agency paid a freelance writer at least
>   $7,500 to write articles touting federal conservation programs and
>   place them in outdoors magazines," reports the Washington Post. In
>   2003, the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service hired Dave
>   Smith to "research and write articles for hunting and fishing
>   magazines describing the benefits of NRCS Farm Bill programs." None
>   of the three articles Smith published, in the Outdoor Oklahoma and
>   Washington-Oregon Game & Fish magazines, disclosed the USDA
>   payments. An NRCS public relations staffer offered the position to
>   Smith because, according to NRCS head David Gagner, "We truly didn't
>   think we had somebody who was a good enough expert on these issues,
>   and that type of writer." Gagner said NRCS would consider similar
>   contracts in the future, but would ensure articles disclosed "that
>   that writing was done by, for" the USDA.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 11, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3662
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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