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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, June 8, 2005
Wed Jun 08 17:23:20 GMT 2005
>
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, June 8, 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. Crashing the USDA's Dog-and-Pony Show
>2. The Drug Industry Gets a Dose of The Blues
>3. Pfizer's Fickle Philanthropy
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>1. An Agency of One
>2. Last Gasp For Racketeering Case Against Big Tobacco
>3. Another Company that Just Needs to Tell Its Story Better
>4. Above the Law & Order
>5. How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Perchlorate
>6. The Campaign For The Bush Agenda
>7. Industry Trade Groups Forced to Cut Costs
>8. Have You Herd?
>9. Something Phony About Fake News
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>
>1. CRASHING THE USDA'S DOG-AND-PONY SHOW
>by John Stauber
> The online free encyclopedia Wikipedia defines "dog-and-pony show"
> as a public "display that is somewhat pathetically contrived."
> That's what the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, is
> convening this Thursday, June 9, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
> Secretary Johanns will lead a roundtable discussion dominated
> by the most powerful agricultural lobby organizations in the United
> States to spread the good news that mad cow disease is no longer a
> problem in North America. The invited participants include the
> American Farm Bureau, the American Meat Institute, the National
> Cattlemen's Beef Association, the National Meat Association, the
> National Milk Producers and the National Renderers Association. Not
> a single consumer, human health or public interest group was invited
> to speak, nor were any scientists who research mad cow and related
> diseases, such as Nobel laureate Dr. Stanley Prusiner. The USDA
> hopes to convince the assembled news media that it's time to open
> the U.S. border to Canadian cattle and time for Japan and Korea to
> accept U.S. beef and cattle.
> There's just one problem with this rosy picture of mad cow
> disease in North America: it has little or no basis in fact.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3745
>
>2. THE DRUG INDUSTRY GETS A DOSE OF THE BLUES
>by Bob Burton
> In the heart of Sydney's Ryde Valley - Australia's drug industry
> alley - fifty marketing managers and PR advisers from major drug
> companies, including Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis and
> GlaxoSmithKline, pondered the industry's poor public standing.
> The drug industry representatives ⬠used to hustling
> everything from drugs for guys struggling with their love life to
> cancer cures ⬠were seriously depressed. "I am appalled by our
> reputation," Group Vice-President Far East Region for Schering
> Plough, Rod Unsworth, told a panel of industry heavy-hitters
> discussing "reputation management" at the third Australian Pharma
> Marketing Congress.
> Unsworth, who describes himself as a "passionate" supporter of
> the industry, bluntly told the mid-May gathering that the drug
> industry in Australia was way behind even the tobacco industry in
> its efforts to rebuild its political stocks.
> Unsworth warned the panel of the potentially fatal consequences
> of the Australian industry's defensive posture. "If we say we are
> going to just look after the opinion leaders and we don't give a
> damn about the public, we are dead. And if we let the debate be
> about price, we are dead," he said.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3726
>
>3. PFIZER'S FICKLE PHILANTHROPY
>by Bob Burton
> In a series of announcements in the aftermath of the tsunami that
> swept that swept through East Asia and parts of Africa on December
> 26, 2004, Pfizer committed itself to contribute a total of $20
> million in cash and $60 million worth of medicines. Pfizer's staff
> chipped in a further $2 million.
> On its U.S. website, Pfizer listed its tsunami response as an
> example of its commitment to corporate social responsibility.
> However, at a recent drug industry marketing conference in
> Sydney, Pfizer Australia's Manager of Government Affairs, David
> Miles, said that the company would have been better off being less
> generous. "We would be better off giving five million and shutting
> up," Miles said, only a little jokingly. "As soon as you get into
> big numbers people think you can double or triple it."
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3733
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>
>1. AN AGENCY OF ONE
>
> The Army is looking for full-service marketing and PR agencies to
> submit proposals for an $800 million, five-year recruitment push. PR
> Week reports the contract would include "everything from advertising
> to promotional and publicity programs, internet campaigns, event
> marketing, and media relations." Leo Burnett Worldwide has overseen
> earlier the Army recruitment efforts. in May, the Army's recruiting
> commander Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle said the the advertising
> campaign would be geared to potential recruits, as well as to
> influencers. Meanwhile, the Army faces a recruiting crisis, falling
> short of it's goals. Conservative columnist Robert Novak noted,
> "[T]he focus at the Defense Department has been on the excesses of
> desperate recruiters, 37 of whom reflected their frustration in
> trying to meet quotas by going AWOL over the last 2-1/2 years."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd), June 6, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3744
>
>2. LAST GASP FOR RACKETEERING CASE AGAINST BIG TOBACCO
>http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tobacco7jun07,0,2585839.story?coll=la-home-headlines
> The final courtroom hearing in U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ)
> long-running racketeering case against major tobacco companies -
> including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco - is scheduled
> for this Thursday. "Despite the industry's dismal reputation, it is
> eager to avoid the stigma of a racketeering verdict ⬠which would
> be the first such judicial finding against a major industry," the
> Los Angeles Times reports. When Bill Clinton gave the go-ahead for
> the DOJ case in 1999 BSMG WorldWide was hired by Philip Morris to
> hose down potentially adverse reporting. Across the Atlantic, the
> Independent reports that four top German public health experts were
> "funded for years by the German Association of Cigarette
> Manufacturers, mainly via innocuous-sounding medical foundations in
> an attempt by the industry to play down the dangers of smoking."
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2005.
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3743
>
>3. ANOTHER COMPANY THAT JUST NEEDS TO TELL ITS STORY BETTER
>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/business/media/02adco.html?
> The drug company Merck is launching a $20 million, 6-month
> advertising campaign with the slogan "Merck. Where patients come
> first." The campaign, which was created by Ogilvy & Mather
> Worldwide, will include television ads showing "cute children
> reacting in charming confusion to requests to define 'measles,'
> 'mumps' and 'chicken pox.' 'Most kids today don't have a clue about
> diseases adults remember, thanks to Merck's scientists,' a female
> announcer says." Other ads will tout Merck programs offering
> reduced-price or free drugs to some people. Ogilvy & Mather's
> Michael Guarini said it's "simply not the case" that Merck's
> campaign is a response to the Vioxx scandal. In fact, work on the
> campaign began two years ago. While acknowledging Merck's and other
> drug companies' image problems, Guarini said, "it's always good to
> engage in dialogue, to make sure the public has true, balanced
> accurate information."
>SOURCE: New York Times, June 2, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3742
>
>4. ABOVE THE LAW & ORDER
>http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0603sb.htm
> On a recent episode, a character on NBC's "Law & Order" who was
> investigating the murder of a federal judge said, "Maybe we should
> put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." In response,
> the Free Enterprise Fund (which "advocates limited government and
> 'pro-growth' economic policies") worked with their PR firm, Shirley
> & Banister Public Affairs, to challenge the "witch-hunt to discredit
> Tom DeLay and the agenda he represents," in the words of FEF
> vice-president Lawrence Hunter. They had 450 T-shirts made, with
> DeLay's picture on the front and the words "Who's afraid of ['Law &
> Order' executive producer] Dick Wolf?" on the back. Shirley &
> Banister then organized a June 2 rally of T-shirt-clad DeLay
> supporters on Washington DC's Capitol Hill and promoted it to the
> media. Fox News, CNN and Roll Call covered the rally.
>SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd.), June 3, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3741
>
>5. HOW WE LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE PERCHLORATE
>http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stories/PE_News_Local_D_perch03.eac43.html
> A study used to determine "safe" levels of the rocket-fuel chemical
> perchlorate in drinking water is coming under increasing scrutiny.
> Perchlorate "can impair thyroid function and result in neurological
> impairment of fetuses and babies, metabolic disorders and other
> problems." The study - funded with $310,250 from perchlorate
> manufacturers and users Lockheed Martin, Kerr-McGee, Aerojet and
> Boeing, and submitted on behalf of the Perchlorate Study Group - was
> used to support Defense Department arguments for a 200 parts per
> billion limit. But independent analyses of the study's data by the
> Environmental Protection Agency and health officials in California,
> Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine suggest that perchlorate
> affects thyroid function at lower levels, especially in "fetuses,
> infants and people with impaired thyroids." The study, as originally
> published, did not disclose that three of seven people exposed to
> "safe" perchlorate levels for two weeks exhibited significant
> changes in thyroid function.
>SOURCE: The Press-Enterprise (California), June 3, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3740
>
>6. THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE BUSH AGENDA
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR2005052701736.html
> Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman recently told NBC
> News' Elizabeth Wilner his assessment of the media's coverage of the
> White House. She writes, "He ventured that we were treating
> President Bush's Social Security proposal like a political campaign
> rather than what it really is: a legislative effort." But "it's no
> accident" says Wilner. "The techniques of the campaign trail have
> become a staple of the Bush White House's approach to pushing its
> legislative agenda." The group Progress for America may best
> exemplify the synthesis between electoral work and legislative
> advocacy. The group has recently been in the news pushing Bush's
> judicial appointments, opposing judicial filibusters, attacking
> Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid, and promoting Social Security
> privatization. The Progress for America Voter Fund, a 527 group,
> spent $35,631,378 in support of Bush's reelection, making it the
> eighth largest spending 527 group of 2004. Democratic strategist Jim
> Jordan called the efforts, "supersized versions of the fights by
> business interests," Wilner writes.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 29, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3738
>
>7. INDUSTRY TRADE GROUPS FORCED TO CUT COSTS
>http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/060105/associations.html
> Industry trade associations are having to "tighten their belts," The
> Hill reports. Member companies responding to "new competitive
> pressures in a global marketplace" are insisting their
> representatives in Washington keep their costs down - a demand that
> "continues to reshape trade groups in town." For example, the
> American Chemistry Council lost member companies and saw its head
> fired because chemical industry executives were "frustrated by what
> they saw as the slow pace of the cost cutting" at ACC. Trade
> associations are adopting a "value-based dues system," focusing more
> heavily on lobbying, and looking for ways to generate non-dues
> revenue, like charging for white papers, conventions and membership
> in special consortia. "Though not necessarily a revenue raiser for
> trade associations, spin-off coalitions are an increasingly popular
> lobbying device," The Hill reports.
>SOURCE: The Hill, June 1, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3737
>
>8. HAVE YOU HERD?
>http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111755564979447168,00.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
> The Wall Street Journal obtained a memo showing that, "five months
> after Canada disclosed its first case of mad-cow disease in May
> 2003, a U.S. Agriculture Department agency made unpublicized policy
> changes that helped the U.S. meat industry gain access to more beef
> products from Canada, despite safety concerns." Then-deputy
> administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
> (and current administrator) Ron DeHaven sent the memo, which warned
> that the "significant change" would increase "the possibility that
> higher risk product may be imported." In related news, the World
> Organization of Animal Health relaxed its standards for countries'
> mad cow disease status, "allowing for a lifting of bans on U.S. and
> European Union meat." And in Britain, three young mad cows represent
> "the first time three cases born after 1996 have been linked to one
> farm." The cases are significant, since Britain banned all mammalian
> protein from cattle feed in 1996.
>SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub. req'd.), May 31, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3736
>
>9. SOMETHING PHONY ABOUT FAKE NEWS
>http://prweek.com/thisweek/index.cfm?ID=238459&site=3
> During a video news release (VNR) producers' roundtable discussion,
> Medialink's Larry Moskowitz suggested that "what The New York Times"
> and members of Congress "found venal" were VNR voice-overs, the
> scripted audio mimicking reporters' narration. So Medialink is
> "formulating a plan to advise government to not use a voice-over."
> Roundtable participants opposed on-screen disclosure, which the
> Truth in Broadcasting Act would require for government VNRs. "It's
> meant to create a question that it's not reporting," complained West
> Glen Communications' Stan Zeitlin. "It says that there's something
> phony about it, something that's not quite right." Alan Weiss
> Productions' Alan Weiss said "another production company" had used
> actors for supposedly unsolicited "people on the street" interviews.
> Weiss decried such "slanted" VNRs, satellite media tours and B-roll
> video footage, but added, "What's neat about our country is that
> there's no censorship. ... We are journalists if we're supplying
> videos to a journalistic organization."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), May 30, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3735
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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