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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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