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[eccr] The Weekly Spin, May 25, 2005
Wed May 25 18:36:50 GMT 2005
>THE WEEKLY SPIN, May 25, 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. Nuclear Energy's Green Glow
>2. Edelman's Rescue Plan for the PR Industry
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>1. Pay-for-Praise Comes Under Scrutiny
>2. U.S. Funded Al Hurra Looks For Good News In Iraq
>3. The Color TV of Fear
>4. Labouring Under Illusions
>5. Medicare Seeks Multiple PR Partners
>6. BP: Beyond Published Criticism
>7. Heal Thyself, Medical Journals Told
>8. Political Conformity on Social Security
>9. Doubting Scientists for Hire
>10. Still in the Torturers' Lobby
>11. The Passion of Fake Radio News
>12. Stormin' Morgan Joins Ad Bullies' League
>13. British PR Firms Go Nuclear
>14. Smokes Still Get in Children's Eyes
>15. American Diabetes Association Makes Sweet Deal with Cadbury Schweppes
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>
>1. NUCLEAR ENERGY'S GREEN GLOW
>by Laura Miller
> "Several of the nation's most prominent environmentalists have gone
> public with the message that nuclear power, long taboo among
> environmental advocates, should be reconsidered as a remedy for
> global warming," the New York Times' Felicity Barringer reports. And
> while environmentalists who support nuclear power as a supposedly
> "emission-free" alternative to fossil fuels are not representative
> of the larger movement, the buzz about them is mushrooming. "Their
> numbers are still small, but they represent growing cracks in what
> had been a virtually solid wall of opposition to nuclear power among
> most mainstream environmental groups," writes the Times.
> Make no mistake - nuclear power has not become any safer or
> cleaner. Nuclear plants still pose a huge threat to the communities
> in which they are located and highly radioactive spent fuel has yet
> to be dealt with adequately. "It's not that something new and
> important and good had happened with nuclear, it's that something
> new and important and bad has happened with climate change," Stewart
> Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and a new devotee of
> nuclear energy, told the Times.
> In fact, the only thing that the nuclear power industry has
> been working to clean up is its image. The first quarter issue of PR
> Watch, now available online, examines the industry's use of public
> relations to quell safety concerns and undermine grassroots efforts
> to shut down nuclear plants. Over the past several years, PR Watch
> has seen a marked increase in industry efforts to change the
> public's perception of nuclear power.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3679
>
>2. EDELMAN'S RESCUE PLAN FOR THE PR INDUSTRY
>by Bob Burton
> Over the last four months, Richard Edelman, the CEO, president and
> chair of the privately-owned PR firm Edelman, has been busy blogging
> away about how the public standing of the PR industry is in
> free-fall.
> In a May 2nd post, he was incredulous that blogger David
> Weinberger - who has been a consultant to Edelman's firm - doesn't
> think that PR people have a role in the blogosphere, because they
> are, by their very nature, propagandists.
> A few weeks back, Edelman blogged about spending a weekend
> smarting after CNN/US president Jon Klein referred to "sophisticated
> corporate PR departments, marketers and politicians" as
> "propagandists," during his speech to the National Association of
> Broadcasters.
> While it might seem self-evident to most people that the PR
> industry is in the propaganda business, these incidents led an
> agitated Edelman to propose a five-point plan to rescue the PR
> industryâ¬"s tarnished credentials.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3666
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>
>1. PAY-FOR-PRAISE COMES UNDER SCRUTINY
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/24/AR2005052401294.html
> Jonathan Adelstein of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
> called "for an investigation of experts who tout products on
> television without disclosing payments from the manufacturers." The
> Wall Street Journal and Washington Post have reported on "technology
> and other experts who are paid tens of thousands of dollars by such
> companies as Sony, Apple and Hewlett-Packard" and who have praised
> those companies' products "on NBC's 'Today' show, other network
> programs and during 'satellite tours' of local TV stations." Such
> payola violates federal law and could result in fines of up to
> $10,000 for repeat offenders. "It's very deceptive to pretend to be
> an objective expert when in fact you're shilling for some private
> company," said Adelstein.
>SOURCE: Washington Post, May 25, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3716
>
>2. U.S. FUNDED AL HURRA LOOKS FOR GOOD NEWS IN IRAQ
>http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,357110,00.html
> With a yearly budget of over $40 million, Al Hurra, a U.S. supported
> TV channel for the "Arab World," is "one of the US government's most
> expensive public diplomacy efforts yet," reports MediaCorp News, a
> Singapore-based media group. Since its launch in February 2004, most
> news stories about the 24-hour Arabic-language satellite station
> report that the channel is viewed as little more than U.S.
> propaganda in the form of news and entertainment. Al Hurra's
> credibility as an independent news outlet is challenged by the
> German magazine Der Spiegel's report that the station's "50 staff
> members in Iraq have been instructed to be on the lookout for signs
> of improvement. 'If the power comes back on in a part of the city,
> we see this as being more newsworthy than reporting that the power
> is out someplace else,' says one employee."
>SOURCE: Der Spiegel, May 21, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3715
>
>3. THE COLOR TV OF FEAR
>http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/05/22/crime_scenes?pg=full
> "Obsessive coverage of urban crime by local television stations,
> UCLA law professor Jerry Kang argued in the Harvard Law Review ...
> is one of the engines driving lingering racism in the United States.
> So counterproductive is local broadcast news, he says, that it is
> time the FCC stopped using the number of hours a station devotes to
> local news as evidence of the station's contribution to the 'public
> interest,' which has traditionally been a requirement for a
> broadcast license." Kang cites psychological research that racist
> assumptions linking people of color with violence and crime are
> weakened, after "footage of a respected black figure like Bill Cosby
> or Martin Luther King, Jr." is viewed. Local TV news reinforces
> racist stereotypes, Kang argues, pointing to a 13-month study of Los
> Angeles stations that found crime stories led broadcasts "51 percent
> of the time and took up 25 percent of total newscast minutes."
>SOURCE: Boston Globe, May 22, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3714
>
>4. LABOURING UNDER ILLUSIONS
>http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/comment/0,7494,1490418,00.html
> Britain's Channel 4 documentary "Undercover in New Labour" includes
> footage from "a reporter wearing hidden cameras who volunteered to
> work on the party's election campaign and ended up being drafted to
> work at its national PR headquarters." The documentary shows Labour
> staff using "party supporters in key professions from medicine and
> the law to the armed forces and the police, who were prepared to
> appear on TV and in the papers and lie through their teeth that
> their support for this or that policy was entirely unsolicited,"
> writes Mark Borkowski. But "is singling out New Labour for criticism
> reasonable," Borkowski asks, when astroturfing "has been going on
> for decades in business, especially among the oil, pharmaceutical
> and tobacco industries?" Undercover reporters were placed with
> Britain's three main political parties, "but it was decided the
> strongest story was the way the Labour campaign was run," an
> anonymous source told the Guardian.
>SOURCE: Guardian, May 23, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3713
>
>5. MEDICARE SEEKS MULTIPLE PR PARTNERS
>http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=238286&site=3
> The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which
> greatly increased spending on private PR firms in 2003, "is looking
> for at least three agencies that will be responsible for nearly all
> of its outreach programs over the next five years." CMS's current
> "preferred" firms - the only ones it solicits pitches from - are
> Ketchum, GCI Group, Ogilvy PR and American Education Development.
> "Under the last umbrella contract," reports PR Week, "Ketchum led a
> $25 million integrated marketing campaign to drive people to the
> Medicare (800) number and website." The new $17.25 million contract
> will involve "research, messaging, social marketing, education,
> training, and media relations." One priority will be "raising
> awareness of reforms mandated by the 2003 Medicare Modernization
> Act," which Congress mandated additional funding for "education and
> enrollment efforts around."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), May 23, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3712
>
>6. BP: BEYOND PUBLISHED CRITICISM
>http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45132
> Like General Motors and Morgan Stanley, the energy company BP "has
> adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward negative editorial coverage."
> BP's media buyer, the WPP firm MindShare, now "demands that
> ad-accepting publications inform BP in advance of any news text or
> visuals they plan to publish that directly mention the company, a
> competitor or the oil-and-energy industry" and give BP "the option
> to pull any advertising from the issue without penalty." An unnamed
> magazine executive called BP's new policy a "stupid request," but
> said his company has "unwritten guidelines with advertisers from
> several industries, including auto, airlines and tobacco, to pull
> their ads if related negative stories are in the issue." In 1997,
> following similar demands from Chrysler, the Magazine Publishers of
> America and the American Society of Magazine Editors took a stance
> against magazines giving advertisers "a sneak peek at stories,
> photos or tables of contents."
>SOURCE: Advertising Age, May 24, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3711
>
>7. HEAL THYSELF, MEDICAL JOURNALS TOLD
>http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020138
>
> In an essay for the Public Library of Science, the former editor of
> the British Medical Journal, Richard Smith, argues that while
> corporate advertising may be the most obvious source of revenue for
> medical journals, they are "the least corrupting." More significant,
> he writes, are the clinical trials the journal publishes which carry
> "the journal's stamp of approval (unlike the advertising)." While
> journals can more tightly screen what gets published, Smith thinks
> more fundamental steps are required to "stop journals from being
> beholden to companies." He argues more public funding to research
> treatments is needed, and journals should consider not publishing
> trials at all. Trial results, he suggests, "should be made available
> on regulated Web sites. Instead of publishing trials, journals could
> concentrate on critically describing them." But the editor of the
> New England Journal of Medicine accused Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and
> Merck of "making a mockery" of an online list of drug trials, saying
> the companies' entries "are written in a way that they are trying to
> hide what they are doing."
>SOURCE: Public Library of Science, May 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3710
>
>8. POLITICAL CONFORMITY ON SOCIAL SECURITY
>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush20may20,0,4316498.story
> A worker who knows Social Security "could run out before they
> retire," a couple with children who like "the idea of leaving
> something behind to the family," and a single parent who wants "more
> retirement options and security" than Social Security offers - all
> younger than 29. Those are people the White House asked the group
> Women Impacting Public Policy to recruit for a Rochester, New York
> event promoting Bush's Social Security plan. The participants in a
> Wisconsin event last week "appeared to mirror" the same profile,
> reported the Los Angeles Times. A White House spokesperson said,
> "Every president ... has used the bully pulpit to talk about their
> agenda." Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic Congresswoman who
> heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and
> Medicare, said, "It's unfortunate that the president never hears any
> opposition to a plan that has a lot of opposition."
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3709
>
>9. DOUBTING SCIENTISTS FOR HIRE
>http://www.gsenet.org/fri.php#Industry%20Strategy:%20Create%20Doubt%20to%20Fight%20Regulations
> "The vilification of threatening research as 'junk science' and the
> corresponding sanctification of industry-commissioned research as
> 'sound science' has become nothing less than standard operating
> procedure in some parts of corporate America," writes Clinton-era
> Energy Department epidemiologist David Michaels. One example is
> beryllium, an "extremely toxic" metal used in nuclear warheads.
> Beryllium producers hired two "product defense" firms to "dispute
> and reanalyze data showing adverse health effects." Michaels says
> industry groups "have grown more brazen since George W. Bush became
> president," pointing to industry-friendly appointments to an
> advisory panel on childhood lead poisoning and the Data Quality Act.
> The Data Quality Act (promoted at the state level by the American
> Legislative Exchange Council) has been "used by groups bankrolled by
> the oil industry to discredit the National Assessment on Climate
> Change" and "by the Salt Institute to challenge the advise of the
> National Institutes of Health that Americans should reduce their
> salt consumption."
>SOURCE: Scientific American, June 15, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3708
>
>10. STILL IN THE TORTURERS' LOBBY
>http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=15624
> The London office of U.S.-based PR giant Hill & Knowlton signed a
> $600,000 contract with the government of Uganda, "to improve
> Uganda's stained reputation as a human rights abuser and democracy
> laggard." Foreign Minister Sam Kuteesa confirmed the contract, which
> calls for Hill & Knowlton "to improve Uganda's image with donors and
> to help blunt damaging reports from human rights watchdogs that have
> been highly critical of the government." In Uganda, political
> activity is "restricted" and planned elections in 2006 "have been
> overshadowed by a controversial bid to amend the constitution so
> President Yoweri Museveni can stand for a third term." Reports by
> the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch have "documented
> recent cases of torture by Ugandan security forces against political
> opponents, alleged rebels and criminal suspects."
>SOURCE: Agence France-Presse, May 21, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3707
>
>11. THE PASSION OF FAKE RADIO NEWS
>http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/11705164.htm
> "Back when Mel Gibson's movie 'The Passion of the Christ' was
> arousing passions nationwide, a promotion packet arrived at local
> public radio station KAZU," writes Karen Ravn in California. It
> included "a transcript of questions an enterprising reporter might
> want to ask Jim Caviezel, the movie's star," and "a CD of
> Caviezel-recorded answers." As KAZU's news director at the time,
> Bernhard Drax, described, "The transcript would say, 'Hi, Jim, how
> are you?' and on the CD, Jim would say, 'I'm fine. It's good to be
> here.'" KAZU didn't air the canned interview, but Drax said he
> understood why other radio stations might. "The pressure in local
> newsrooms ... is incredible," said Drax. Audio news releases like
> the Caviezel interview help ease the "economic pressure" on strapped
> radio newsrooms.
>SOURCE: Monterey County Herald (California), May 21, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3706
>
>12. STORMIN' MORGAN JOINS AD BULLIES' LEAGUE
>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050519/RMORGAN19/TPBusiness/International
> "Morgan Stanley, whose battle with unhappy shareholders has played
> out on the business pages, is warning prominent newspapers that it
> could pull its advertising if it objects to articles." Morgan
> Stanley's new ad policy says the company "must be notified" of any
> "objectionable editorial coverage," so that a "last-minute change"
> in its advertising can be made. If notification is impossible, the
> policy directs all ads to be canceled, "for a minimum of 48 hours,"
> reports Advertising Age. Morgan Stanley discussed the policy with
> the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other major publications. The
> Journal's publisher called it impractical, since "the ad department
> has no knowledge of what stories are running." An anonymous
> "high-ranking editor" told AdAge, "There's a fairly lengthy list of
> companies that have instructions like this." Last month, General
> Motors pulled its ads from the Los Angeles Times, due to negative
> coverage.
>SOURCE: Reuters, May 19, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3682
>
>13. BRITISH PR FIRMS GO NUCLEAR
>http://www.newstatesman.com/Ideas/200505230004
> "In the year or so before the general election" in Britain, "the
> nuclear industry slowly but surely put together a classy public
> relations act," report Jonathan Leake and Dan Box. "Last October,
> British Energy appointed Craig Stevenson, formerly Monsanto's top UK
> lobbyist, as head of government affairs. ... In December, BE
> enlisted Helen Liddell, the former energy minister, to provide
> 'strategic advice.'" This "on top of the £1m BE paid to another PR
> firm, Financial Dynamics." The Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, which
> is "charged with cleaning up the mess from Britain's previous
> nuclear programme, poached Jon Phillips," Heathrow Airport's PR head
> who led a "successful campaign for a fifth terminal at Heathrow
> despite furious public opposition." The waste disposal body Nirex
> hired "the Promise public relations firm to promote a
> multimillion-pound rebranding and renaming exercise," while the UK
> Atomic Energy Authority "employed Grayling Political Strategy to
> help raise its profile."
>SOURCE: The New Statesman (sub. req'd.), May 23, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3681
>
>14. SMOKES STILL GET IN CHILDREN'S EYES
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4556765.stm
> "Major tobacco companies agreed to stop pushing for their products
> to be promoted in the arts from 1998," but "the number of tobacco
> brand appearances in U.S. films aimed at children has not fallen
> significantly," according to a report published in the Journal of
> the American Medical Association. The percentage of "films aimed at
> children show[ing] tobacco brand names, or trademarks" fell slightly
> from 15 to 12, after 1998. Yet, in the ongoing federal racketeering
> trial against major tobacco companies, industry lawyers claimed
> companies have "voluntarily" adopted tough advertising restrictions.
> A Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company lawyer "suggested that the
> companies had stopped advertising in magazines with youth
> readerships of more than 15 percent or more than two million,"
> reported the New York Times. Government witness and Campaign for
> Tobacco-Free Kids president Matthew Myers disputed the claim,
> pointing out recent ads in Sports Illustrated.
>SOURCE: BBC News, May 18, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3680
>
>15. AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION MAKES SWEET DEAL WITH CADBURY SCHWEPPES
>http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2005/000204.html
> "If you are wondering why Americans are losing the wars on cancer,
> heart disease and diabetes, you might look at the funding sources of
> the major public health groups," Russell Mokhiber and Robert
> Weissman write. "Big corporations dump big money into these groups.
> And pretty soon, the groups start taking the line of the big
> corporations. Case in point: the American Diabetes Association
> (ADA). Earlier this month, the ADA cut a deal with candy and soda
> pop maker Cadbury Schweppes. Here's the deal - Cadbury Schweppes
> kicks in a couple million dollars to the ADA. In return, the company
> gets to use the ADA label on its diet drinks - plus the positive
> publicity generated by the deal. Cadbury makes Dr. Pepper and such
> nutritious treats as Cadbury's Cream Egg. You would have to have
> your head buried deeply in the sand to deny that sugar-filled soda
> is fueling childhood obesity - which in turn in is fueling type 2
> diabetes." In an interview with the Corporate Crime Reporter, ADA's
> Richard Kahn emphasized that the ADA logo would only appear on
> "products that are better to eat."
>SOURCE: Corp-Focus, May 16, 2005
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/3678
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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