[eccr] The Weekly Spin, June 1, 2005

>THE WEEKLY SPIN, June 1, 2005
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>sponsored by the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy
>http://www.prwatch.org
>To support our work now online visit:
>https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
>further information about media, political spin and propaganda.
>It is emailed free each Wednesday to subscribers.
>
>SHARE US WITH A FRIEND (OR FIFTY FRIENDS)
>Who do you know who might want to receive Spin of the Week?
>Help us grow our subscriber list!  Just forward this message to
>people you know, encouraging them to sign up at this link:
>
>http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>1. Stop the Fake News Dummies!
>2. Self-Hating Media Moguls Take More Airwaves
>3. U.S. Exports of Corporate Spin Are Up
>4. Spreading Democracy, for Shah
>5. Sowing Seeds of Discontent
>6. Praise the Lord and Pass the Vioxx
>7. International Aid and Image Assistance
>8. Dezenhall Bemused by Environmentalists' Wins
>9. From Britain, with Love - and Focus Groups
>10. Different Shade of Lipstick, Same Pigheaded Policies
>11. Advertainment Reigns
>12. Oiling The Wheels Of Fake News
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>
>1. STOP THE FAKE NEWS DUMMIES!
>https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=1118
>   Video news releases (like those featuring Karen Ryan) and pundit
>   payola (like Armstrong Williams' promotion of the No Child Left
>   Behind Act) are just two examples of how corporate and government
>   interests have infiltrated news media, turning reporters and
>   commentators into ventriloquists' dummies. The Center for Media and
>   Democracy is working hard to stop these fake news blockheads - and
>   we need your support! Last week, our fund appeal for our growing "No
>   Fake News!" campaign generated only a few donations. While we thank
>   who did donate, we've got a long way to go. The good news is, we've
>   got at least one Federal Communications Commission commissioner on
>   our side. At the May 2005 National Conference on Media Reform, the
>   FCC's Jonathan Adelstein said, "We're going to shut down this fraud
>   that is being perpetrated on the American people by the media. And
>   you're the ones to do it." Please, if you haven't already, donate to
>   the Center today! You can use the above link to access our secure,
>   online donation page, or mail a check made out to "CMD" to CMD, 520
>   University Ave, Suite 227, Madison, WI 53703.
>SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3730
>
>2. SELF-HATING MEDIA MOGULS TAKE MORE AIRWAVES
>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/30/business/media/30clear.html
>   "For weeks, it sounded as if amateurs had been bleeding their voices
>   into the broadcasts of stations in Akron, Ohio, owned by Clear
>   Channel, the corporate radio giant." The pirate broadcasters'
>   website contained "a manifesto about 'corporate-controlled music
>   playlists' that took potshots at several local Clear Channel
>   stations." But it was all a Clear Channel marketing campaign, to
>   promote an Akron station's switch to a "progressive talk" format.
>   "We tried to get into the mindset of people who would listen to this
>   new station," said the company's local marketing manager - a mindset
>   that "may involve a suspicion of Clear Channel itself." "It's the
>   heart of the problem with Clear Channel," said Carrie McLaren, the
>   editor of Stay Free magazine. "'We're this huge corporation and we
>   do everything to fake being local.'" Stay Free reported on the
>   outing of "Radio Free Ohio" by a (truly) independent Ohio radio
>   station.
>SOURCE: New York Times, May 30, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3734
>
>3. U.S. EXPORTS OF CORPORATE SPIN ARE UP
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=238434&site=3
>   Three new PR ventures "represent the globalization of a strategic
>   concept that's been de rigeur in Washington for more than a decade:
>   executing corporate PR campaigns as if they were political battles,
>   in which someone wins, someone loses, and the client is the
>   candidate," writes PR Week. One such effort is 360Advantage, a joint
>   Burson-Marsteller and Quinn Gillespie venture. Another is
>   Fleishman-Hillard's new "global network of public affairs shops,"
>   VOX Global Mandate. The third is ViaNovo, which will "offer
>   management and communications consulting services," reports
>   O'Dwyer's. ViaNovo's founders include Tucker Eskew, "who headed the
>   White House's global communications office to coordinate the 'war on
>   terror'"; Matthew Dowd, a Republican National Committee and
>   Bush-Cheney campaign media staffer; and Democrats Blaine Bull and
>   James Taylor, both formerly of Public Strategies Inc.
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), May 27, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3729
>
>4. SPREADING DEMOCRACY, FOR SHAH
>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/international/middleeast/29iran.html
>   "The Bush administration is expanding efforts to influence Iran's
>   internal politics," including increasing aid to exile groups and
>   airing "longer broadcasts criticizing the Iranian government" on
>   Voice of America satellite TV programs. Under secretary of state for
>   political affairs R. Nicholas Burns said the United States is
>   "taking a page from the playbook" on Ukraine and Georgia. In those
>   two countries, "opposition and pro-democracy groups" given U.S.
>   funding "later supported the peaceful overthrow of the governments
>   in power." Through the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S.
>   State Department has already spent $500,000 to investigate "human
>   rights, business enterprise and women's rights" in Iran. Over the
>   next year, the State Department will spend $3 million, "for the
>   benefit of Iranians living inside Iran," including on "broadcast
>   activities, Internet programs and 'working with people inside
>   Iran.'"
>SOURCE: New York Times, May 29, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3728
>
>5. SOWING SEEDS OF DISCONTENT
>http://counterpunch.org/tokar05262005.html
>   "Close to 100 New England towns have passed resolutions opposing the
>   unregulated use of GMOs (genetically modified organisms); nearly a
>   quarter of these have called for local moratoria on the planting of
>   GMO seeds. In 2004, three California counties, Mendocino, Trinity
>   and Marin, passed ordinances banning the raising of genetically
>   engineered crops and livestock." In response, "fifteen states
>   recently have introduced legislation removing local control of
>   plants and seeds. Eleven of these states have already passed the
>   provisions into law." The move to deny local control over food was
>   launched at a May 2004 American Legislative Exchange Council forum,
>   where industry groups proposed a "Biotechnology state uniformity
>   resolution." Previously, the tobacco industry used a similar
>   approach. A Philip Morris employee explained, "By introducing
>   preemptive statewide legislation, we can shift the battle away from
>   the community level back to the state legislatures where we are on
>   stronger ground."
>SOURCE: CounterPunch, May 26, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3725
>
>6. PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE VIOXX
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=238374&site=3
>   The industry lobby group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers
>   of America (PhRMA) is launching "an aggressive new PR plan,"
>   highlighting its new CEO, former Congressman and cancer survivor
>   Billy Tauzin. According to PhRMA senior vice-president of
>   communications Ken Johnson, the new plan includes reorganizing media
>   relations "almost like a beat system," with point people for "state,
>   federal, or international outreach." PhRMA has also launched a radio
>   series called Healthcare Now, "which Johnson likens to an ANR (audio
>   news release) that can be played in small markets without health
>   reporters." PhRMA is also "building an onsite studio" to allow
>   Tauzin to do more television interviews and speaking events. Johnson
>   said part of PhRMA's PR strategy is to make Tauzin "an evangelist
>   for the pharmaceutical industry."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), May 26, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3724
>
>7. INTERNATIONAL AID AND IMAGE ASSISTANCE
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0527usaid.htm
>   A U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) advertising
>   campaign, coinciding with Laura Bush's Middle East visit last week
>   and designed to improve America's image among Palestinians, lacked a
>   Palestinian spokesperson. "None of the Palestinian entertainers or
>   athletes approached by the agency would serve as 'goodwill
>   ambassador'," so an "Israeli Arab soccer player" was recruited.
>   Billboards and TV ads highlight USAID education and water projects
>   in the Palestinian territories, in line with recent Council on
>   Foreign Relations suggestions to make U.S. aid to Muslim countries
>   more visible. But USAID "cancelled plans to contract a firm to
>   develop an integrated communications plan for its initiative to
>   foster public-private alliances in its overseas work," the Global
>   Development Alliance. No reason was given for canceling the plan to
>   promote "USAID's successes."
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd.), May 27, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3723
>
>8. DEZENHALL BEMUSED BY ENVIRONMENTALISTS' WINS
>http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=GREENCOMPANIES-05-25-05&cat=AN
>   Joan Lowy notes that environmental groups like Greenpeace,
>   Rainforest Action Network and the Texas Campaign for the Environment
>   are having success with campaigns that bypass government and
>   directly lobby corporations instead. The trend bemuses Eric
>   Dezenhall, the president of Dezenhall Resources, a Washington D.C.
>   PR firm with a reputation for promoting aggressive strategies
>   against activist groups. "The desire of corporations to be accepted
>   by the marketplace and to be personally liked has spawned an entire
>   industry of activism and corporate capitulation that I've never seen
>   before - it's unprecedented ... I've seen situations where companies
>   are simply being harassed so badly that it pays to get out of a
>   certain endeavor just to make the harassment stop," he said.
>SOURCE: Scripps Howard News Service, May 25, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3722
>
>9. FROM BRITAIN, WITH LOVE - AND FOCUS GROUPS
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1491840,00.html
>   The Iranian presidential campaign of Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, "a
>   conservative former revolutionary guard air force commander whose
>   candidacy has the blessing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
>   Khamenei," is patterned after that of British Prime Minister Tony
>   Blair, reports the Guardian. "The Qalibaf campaign is deploying
>   focus groups," using them to compile "a list of 10 key priorities,
>   including unemployment, inflation, social security and quality of
>   life issues." In the campaign office, "strategists and policy wonks
>   confer daily on how to market Mr. Qalibaf ... to Iran's vast army of
>   young voters as a vigorous moderniser." The campaign is playing down
>   Mr. Qalibaf's "strong religious convictions," showing him "without a
>   beard" and "moonlighting as a commercial pilot for a local airline."
>   Some Iranian reformers are criticizing "Mr. Qalibaf's carefully
>   honed image of studied reasonableness," pointing to his 1999 call to
>   crack down on student demonstrators.
>SOURCE: Guardian, May 25, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3721
>
>10. DIFFERENT SHADE OF LIPSTICK, SAME PIGHEADED POLICIES
>http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00328.htm
>   A new report from the Council on Foreign Relations suggests that
>   better U.S. communications with Muslim countries require "listening
>   more, a humbler tone, and focusing on bilateral aid and partnership,
>   while tolerating disagreement on controversial policy issues." The
>   report, which was based on focus groups held in Morocco, Egypt and
>   Indonesia, says U.S. tsunami relief, the Iraqi election and new
>   Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts provide "a window of opportunity
>   to change Muslim attitudes." Specific recommendations include
>   engaging "local and regional media via press releases, interviews,
>   Op-Eds, press conferences, and site visits," and launching "an
>   advertising campaign on U.S. aid and support for reform in local and
>   regional media, and acknowledge the U.S. government as the source."
>   Focus group members "do not take seriously U.S. government media,
>   such as Radio Sawa, al-Hurra TV, and Hi magazine, as information
>   sources."
>SOURCE: Scoop (New Zealand), May 26, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3720
>
>11. ADVERTAINMENT REIGNS
>http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-payola26may26.story
>   Product placements on television shows are booming, with this year's
>   market expected to total $4.2 billion. "Advertisers pay as much as
>   $2 million an episode to get their products featured on NBC's 'The
>   Apprentice,'" reports the Los Angeles Times. At the TV industry's
>   annual sales drive, actor Amanda Bynes of WB's "What I Like About
>   You" said of her show's characters, "This season we found out, like,
>   they eat Pringles and use Herbal Essence shampoo. Next season, we
>   hope to find out what cellphones they're using and what cars they
>   drive." Other recent product placements include a couple on Fox's
>   "The O.C." looking at AmericanAirlines.com, a character on ABC's
>   "Desperate Housewives" working for Buick LaCrosse, and contestants
>   on CBS' "Survivor:Palau" using Home Depot tools. The Federal
>   Communications Commission's Jonathan Adelstein said the current
>   standard of listing paid sponsorships in the show's closing credits
>   is inadequate disclosure.
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3719
>
>12. OILING THE WHEELS OF FAKE NEWS
>http://www.digitalproducer.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=25474
>   In a column for Digital Producer magazine, Steven Klapow recounts
>   that a producer of video news releases for an oil company was under
>   strict instructions to avoid including images, including on B-roll
>   footage, that may not look good for the sponsoring company. "We have
>   to avoid any shots that can be taken out of context," the producer
>   said. The sort of shots that could cause problems, Klapow wrote,
>   includes "steam emitting from a refinery could be perceived or
>   described as smoke" and "any dirty areas in shots that are captured
>   at filling stations." The producers of fake news are opposing the
>   on-screen disclosure of the sponsors of corporate videos.
>SOURCE: Digital Producer, May 26, 2005.
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3718
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at the
>Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a nonprofit public
>interest organization. To subscribe or unsubcribe, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html
>
>Daily updates and news from past weeks can be found at the
>"Spin of the Day" section of the Center website:
>http://www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html
>
>Archives of our quarterly publication, PR Watch, are at:
>http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues
>
>CMD also sponsors SourceWatch, a collaborative research
>project that invites anyone (including you) to contribute
>and edit articles:
>http://www.sourcewatch.org
>
>PR Watch, Spin of the Day, the Weekly Spin and SourceWatch
>are projects of the Center for Media & Democracy, a nonprofit
>organization that offers investigative reporting on the public
>relations industry. We help the public recognize manipulative
>and misleading PR practices by exposing the activities of
>secretive, little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that
>work to control political debates and public opinion.
>Please send any questions or suggestions about our
>publications to:
>(editor /at/ prwatch.org)
>
>Contributions to the Center for Media and Democracy
>are tax-deductible. Send checks to:
>    CMD
>    520 University Ave. #227
>    Madison, WI 53703
>
>To donate now online, visit:
>https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0
>
>_______________________________________________
>Weekly-Spin mailing list
>(Weekly-Spin /at/ prwatch.org)
>http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/weekly-spin

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Carpentier Nico (Phd)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Katholieke Universiteit Brussel - Catholic University of Brussels
Vrijheidslaan 17 - B-1081 Brussel - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-412.42.78
F: ++ 32 (0)2/412.42.00
Office: 4/0/18
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Media Sociology (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.30
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.28.61
Office: 5B.401a
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
European Consortium for Communication Research
Web: http://www.eccr.info
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ kubrussel.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------  


----------------
ECCR-Mailing list
---
To unsubscribe, send an email message to (majordomo /at/ listserv.vub.ac.be)
with in the body of the message (NOT in the subject): unsubscribe eccr
---
ECCR - European Consortium for Communications Research
Secretariat: P.O. Box 106, B-1210 Brussels 21, Belgium
Tel.: +32-2-412 42 78
Fax.: +32-2-412 42 00
Email: (info /at/ eccr.info)
URL: http://www.eccr.info
----------------