[ecrea] The Weekly Spin, October 11, 2006

>THE WEEKLY SPIN, October 11, 2006
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>1. Zigging and Zagging on Cutting and Running
>2. Remember Those Term-Limit Pledges?
>3. Accuracy of Report on Video News Releases Affirmed: CMD Issues 
>Full Rebuttal of RTNDA Claims
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>1. Hiding 600,000 Dead Iraqis
>2. Spinning Bout the Nukes in the Bay
>3. U.S. Army: From 'One' To 'Strong'
>4. First Soda, Now School Junk Food: Clinton Deal Claims Lower-Cal Crunch
>5. CMD's 2005 Annual Report Available On Line
>6. PR or School Teachers? Maldives Party Asks
>7. Blowing in the Wind
>8. Hill & Knowlton Challenged Over Maldives Work
>9. Losing Afghanistan Twice Over
>10. European Drug Pushers
>11. Burson Backs Licensing PR Professionals
>12. Covering Up for Foley?
>13. FCC Names Obesity/Food Marketing Task Force
>14. The Best Book Ever?
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>
>1. ZIGGING AND ZAGGING ON CUTTING AND RUNNING
>by Sheldon Rampton
>
>   The Bush administration's use of the term "cut and run" to
>   caricature opponents of the war in Iraq is yet another example of
>   the attention that America's war party pays to rhetorical repetition
>   and linguistic framing at the expense of realistic discourse and
>   analysis. Bush himself has taken to using this catchprase
>   repeatedly. At a recent speech in Birmingham, Alabama, he declared
>   that "The party of FDR, the party of Harry Truman, has become the
>   party of cut-and-run." He repeated the charge a few days later, at a
>   political fundraising breakfast for California Congressman Richard
>   Pombo. "The Democrats are the party of cut and run," he said. "Ours
>   is a party that has got a clear vision and says we will give our
>   commanders and troops the support necessary to achieve that victory
>   in Iraq."
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5098
>
>2. REMEMBER THOSE TERM-LIMIT PLEDGES?
>by Elliott Fullmer
>
>   It's hard to believe that twelve years have passed since the Newt
>   Gingrich-led Republican Revolution of 1994.
>        In that year, GOP candidates launched a successful effort to
>   take control of both the House and Senate, something they had not
>   been able to accomplish in the previous forty-two years. Their
>   campaign focused heavily on the Contract with America, a list of
>   objectives that Republicans promised to pursue in Congress if
>   elected into the majority.
>        One of the key proposals of the document was the Citizen
>   Legislature Act, a measure which would amend the Constitution to
>   place limits on the number of terms members of both the House and
>   Senate could serve. The argument was that career politicians become
>   too distant from the people and need to be replaced by ?citizen
>   legislators.? In a show of support for the proposed amendment,
>   which eventually failed in the House, several GOP candidates pledged
>   to limit their own terms (independent of any legislation forcing
>   them to do so) if elected. Small numbers of candidates followed this
>   trend in future elections as well.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5275
>
>3. ACCURACY OF REPORT ON VIDEO NEWS RELEASES AFFIRMED: CMD ISSUES 
>FULL REBUTTAL OF RTNDA CLAIMS
>by Diane Farsetta
>
>   October 9, 2006 ? The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD)
>   released today a full rebuttal of claims made against its April 2006
>   report, "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed." The report
>   tracked television stations' use of video news releases (VNRs),
>   narrated pre-packaged segments produced by public relations firms
>   for their clients. The report documented 77 television stations
>   airing VNRs or related materials; not once did stations disclose the
>   client behind the segment. The report led the U.S. Federal
>   Communications Commission (FCC) to launch an investigation of the 77
>   stations named, in August 2006.
>        Last week, the Radio-Television News Directors Association
>   (RTNDA), through the law and lobby firm Wiley Rein & Fielding, urged
>   the FCC to drop its investigation. RTNDA alleged that the
>   investigation has had "a chilling effect" on TV newsrooms. RTNDA
>   also issued a critique of CMD?s report that misrepresented and
>   distorted the substance of the report. CMD's full, point-by-point
>   rebuttal of the RTNDA critique is available online at:
>   www.prwatch.org/node/5282.
>For the rest of this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5283
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
>
>1. HIDING 600,000 DEAD IRAQIS
>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/world/middleeast/11casualties.html
>   Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber have a chapter in The Best War Ever
>   titled "Not Counting the Dead," reporting on how the US government
>   has chosen to hide the horrific impact of the US invasion and
>   occupation. Now the authors of a major study examined in the book
>   have a new study out. The New York Times reports, "A team of
>   American and Iraqi public health researchers has estimated that
>   600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003
>   American invasion, the highest estimate ever for the toll of the war
>   here. ... It is the second study by researchers from the Johns
>   Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. ... The study comes at a
>   sensitive time for the Iraqi government, which is under pressure
>   from American officials to take action against militias driving the
>   sectarian killings. In the last week of September, the government
>   barred the central morgue in Baghdad and the Health Ministry ? the
>   two main sources of information for civilian deaths ? from
>   releasing figures to the news media. Now, only the government is
>   allowed to release figures."
>SOURCE: The New York Times, October 11, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5289
>
>2. SPINNING BOUT THE NUKES IN THE BAY
>http://www.sundayherald.com/58383
>   "Scotland's green watchdog played down the risks of radioactive
>   contamination at a popular coastal resort in Fife following an
>   11th-hour intervention by government spin doctors," reports Rob
>   Edwards. "Internal emails reveal the Scottish Environment Protection
>   Agency (Sepa) delayed and then altered a news release after it had
>   been described as 'not entirely helpful' by a senior Scottish public
>   relations official." The Sepa release announced a "hazard
>   assessment," which found that radioactive waste dumped decades ago,
>   after the closure of a naval air base, had resulted in 100 radiation
>   hotspots. The area includes "Scotland's largest sailing club and a
>   beach." The intervention by Scottish Executive PR official Neil
>   Trotter resulted in major changes to the release. The original
>   version estimated the likelihood of radioactive exposure to be
>   "around 1 in 900 a year for the whole beach, and around 1 in 90 for
>   the area with the greatest concentration" of waste. The published
>   version merely stated the "likelihood of harm ... is considered to
>   be low." Sepa denied that they had "tone[d] down" the release,
>   saying, "The content of Sepa press releases is decided by Sepa."
>SOURCE: Sunday Herald (Scotland), October 8, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5287
>
>3. U.S. ARMY: FROM 'ONE' TO 'STRONG'
>http://adage.com/article?article_id=112420
>   "The Army spends more than $200 million annually on marketing -- the
>   biggest ad contract in the federal government," notes Advertising
>   Age. Ten months after winning the U.S. Army's main advertising
>   contract, the McCann Worldgroup firm announced the theme of its
>   first campaign: strength. "There's strong, and then there's Army
>   strong," explained a video from the firm. "There is nothing on this
>   green earth that is stronger than the U.S. Army." Like other
>   recruiting efforts, the Army's "strong" campaign "was developed to
>   specifically address not just those considering an Army career, but
>   family members and friends of potential recruits. Since the start of
>   the Iraq war, the U.S. military's advertising increasingly has
>   focused on convincing parents and peers that the choice of the
>   military career is a good one." The "strong" TV ads will start
>   airing November 9; print ads will run in 2007.
>SOURCE: Advertising Age, October 9, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5286
>
>4. FIRST SODA, NOW SCHOOL JUNK FOOD: CLINTON DEAL CLAIMS LOWER-CAL CRUNCH
>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061006/ap_on_he_me/diet_school_snacks
>   "Kids will buy what they want. We just stop by the bodega on the way
>   home." So says one thirteen year old, unimpressed by what the adults
>   have just signed -- a "voluntary agreement" between five snack food
>   makers (Kraft, M&M Mars, Campbell Soup Co., Dannon, and PepsiCo),
>   the American Heart Association, and the Clinton Foundation in round
>   two of the former president's voluntary intiatives to discourage bad
>   eating habits in America's schools. The "deal" is this: where
>   schools agree to follow "Competitive Food Guidelines," vending
>   machines will stock only products that contain no more than 35
>   percent of their calories from fat, no more than 10 percent
>   saturated fat, and no more than 35 percent of sugar content by
>   weight. Although the guidelines have been commended, implementation
>   raises doubts. Janey Thornton, president of the School Nutrition
>   Association, said, "It has to have some enforcement behind it... .
>   [S]ome states have none and that's where I think the problem comes
>   in." The Center for Science in the Public Interest noted that local
>   schools and vending machine companies could completely ignore the
>   program. Gary Ruskin, director of Commercial Alert, criticized the
>   initiative as "a sham and a public relations stunt" by junk food
>   firms.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, October 6, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5285
>
>5. CMD'S 2005 ANNUAL REPORT AVAILABLE ON LINE
>http://www.prwatch.org/pdfs/CMD_2005_Annual_Rpt.pdf
>   The Center for Media and Democracy's 2005 Annual Report is now
>   available online. Read CMD staff bios, descriptions of our projects,
>   a summary of media coverage we received in 2005, and our financial
>   statements. We appreciate the individuals and foundations that have
>   provided support for our work throughout the years. If you would
>   like to contribute to CMD, please click here to give through our
>   secure server.
>SOURCE: CMD 2005 Annual Report
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5284
>
>6. PR OR SCHOOL TEACHERS? MALDIVES PARTY ASKS
>http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=2504
>   The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has called for the termination
>   of Hill & Knowlton's contract defending the repressive government of
>   the Maldives. The MDP calculated that the PR firm has been paid
>   $800,000 over almost three years. "According to World Bank figures,
>   $800,000 is enough money to pay for the salaries of 290 Maldivian
>   secondary school teachers for a whole year," acting MDP President
>   Ibrahim Hussain Zaki stated in a media release. In response to
>   recent media coverage of Hill & Knowlton's role in the Maldives, Tim
>   Fallon posted a note on his blog defending his work as leading to
>   "seismic" changes in the Islamic nation. Dozens of visitors to the
>   blog aren't buying his story. "Why on earth would you help a brutal
>   dictator who has murdered his own people? This shows what kind of a
>   company Hill & Knowlton really is," wrote one.
>SOURCE: Minivan News (Maldives), October 7, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5281
>
>7. BLOWING IN THE WIND
>http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-rocketdyne6oct06,1,5612437,full.story
>   A five-year long study into the 1959 meltdown of a nuclear reactor
>   near Simi Valley in California has concluded that it could have
>   caused between 260 and 1,800 cases of cancer. The report could not
>   be more specific because the U.S. Department of Energy and Boeing,
>   the parent company of Rocketdyne, refused to provide the weather
>   data crucial to modelling where the radioactive pollution went. The
>   report states that Boeing officials told the researchers that the
>   wind data was proprietary information. "How can you possibly declare
>   a trade secret which way the wind blew on a certain day?" Dan
>   Hirsch, the co-chairman of the advisory panel that oversaw the
>   study, told the Los Angeles Times. At the time of the accident, the
>   lab issued a media statement claiming, "No release of radioactive
>   materials to the plant or its environs occurred, and operating
>   personnel were not exposed to harmful conditions."
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5280
>
>8. HILL & KNOWLTON CHALLENGED OVER MALDIVES WORK
>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1799467.ece
>   In an overview of the changes occurring in the Maldives, a cluster
>   of islands to the southwest of India, reporter Meera Selva sketches
>   how the repressive president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, is failing to
>   respond to the either the democracy movement or the growing
>   influence of Islamic fundamentalism. "The government is aware that
>   the problems facing ordinary Maldivians may affect its tourism
>   industry, but its response has been cynical rather than hopeful,"
>   Selva writes. Tim Fallon from Hill and Knowlton's London office has
>   been working for Gayoom's government, to prevent a tourism boycott
>   in response to controversies over police brutality and the lack of
>   multi-party elections. Hill & Knowlton is reportedly on a ?13,000
>   (US$24,000) a month retainer. Speaking on BBC Radio, Maldives
>   democracy activist Jenny Latheef said, "I don't know why Hill &
>   Knowlton would support somebody like that. He's a dictator, a brutal
>   dictator."
>SOURCE: The Independent (UK), October 5, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5276
>
>9. LOSING AFGHANISTAN TWICE OVER
>http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092506R.shtml
>   Some readers of Newsweek read a cover story in the October 2, 2006
>   issue titled "Losing Afghanistan: The Rise of Jihadistan," but not
>   readers in the United States. Editions destined for Asia, Latin
>   America, and Europe provided an in-depth analysis of the situation
>   in Afghanistan and the failures of the U.S.-led war such as, "The
>   harsh truth is that five years after the US invasion on Oct. 7,
>   2001, most of the good news is confined to Kabul, with its choking
>   rush-hour traffic jams, a construction boom and a handful of
>   air-conditioned shopping malls. Much of the rest of Afghanistan
>   appears to be failing again. Most worrisome, a new failed-state
>   sanctuary is emerging across thousands of square miles along the
>   Afghan-Pakistan border: 'Jihadistan,' it could be called." Readers
>   in the U.S. instead were given a retrospective of the career of
>   photographer Annie Leibovitz.
>SOURCE: TruthOut.org, September 25, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5278
>
>10. EUROPEAN DRUG PUSHERS
>http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15046930/
>   The drug industry is hopeful that it will succeed in watering down
>   the European Union's ban on direct to consumer advertising (DTCA) of
>   pharmaceuticals. Draft proposals from a working group, which
>   includes members of the European Commission and the drug industry,
>   have proposed a public-private partnership to provide patient
>   "information" on prescription medicines. It is a prospect that
>   horrifies the medical watchdog group Health Action International
>   (HAI). In response (pdf) to the latest EU push, HAI stated, "The
>   pharmaceutical industry is in no position to provide the information
>   people want, need and deserve; information that is unbiased,
>   reliable and comparative." In 2004 a push to weaken the EU's DTCA
>   ban was overwhelmingly rejected. HAI reports that one of the
>   European Union members of parliament defended the latest move on the
>   grounds that "70% of the current MEPs were new to their positions."
>SOURCE: MSNBC, September 28, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5274
>
>11. BURSON BACKS LICENSING PR PROFESSIONALS
>http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/article/596797/Burson-calls-PR-industry-counter-bad-publicity/
>   Harold Burson, the founder of Burson-Marsteller, has flagged his
>   support for the licensing of PR professionals. "It would overcome
>   the derogatory manner in which we are depicted in the news media,"
>   he told a PR conference in India. The idea of licensing of PR
>   practitioners has a long history within the profession. PR industry
>   pioneer Edward Bernays supported it, while Burson previously opposed
>   it. In a speech in 1992, Bernays argued that without a system of
>   licensing, a set of guiding principles and "a strict ethical code,
>   PR will be relegated to an increasingly diluted status and waning
>   importance in our society."
>SOURCE: PR Week (sub req'd), October 5, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5273
>
>12. COVERING UP FOR FOLEY?
>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/washington/05hastert.html
>   Republicans in the U.S. Congress continue to grapple with the
>   controversy surrounding the resignation in disgrace of Rep. Mark
>   Foley. Former Foley chief of staff Kirk Fordham, who subsequently
>   became chief of staff to Rep. Tom Reynolds (chair of the National
>   Republican Congressional Committee), has resigned following reports
>   that he tried to stop ABC News from reporting on the sexually
>   explicit chats that Foley had with teenagers about the Grand Old
>   Party in his pants. But Fordham seems unwilling to play the role of
>   fall guy in the cover-up scandal. In a news conference he told
>   reporters that he had been warning people about Foley since 2003 or
>   earlier, holding "more than one conversation with senior staff at
>   the highest levels of the House of Representatives, asking them to
>   intervene when I was informed of Mr. Foley?s inappropriate
>   behavior." As the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz observes, "That's
>   what's driving this whole thing, the sense that key Republicans were
>   more concerned with the politics of the Foley mess than protecting
>   the teenagers he was hitting up online."
>SOURCE: New York Times, October 5, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5270
>
>13. FCC NAMES OBESITY/FOOD MARKETING TASK FORCE
>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060928/ap_on_he_me/food_ads_kids;_ylt=AhJ8mx7X
>   Citing "a public health problem that will only get worse unless we
>   take action," Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin
>   Martin announced a joint task force on child obesity. The task force
>   currently brings together mostly corporate and conservative members,
>   including Walt Disney, media watchdog Parents Television Council
>   (which recently lauded General Mills for "family friendly
>   advertising" and specializes in indecency complaints to the FCC),
>   and the Beverly LaHaye Institute, which opposes sex trafficking,
>   promotes abstinence and attacks feminists. Sesame Workshop and
>   Children Now reportedly have also been invited to participate.
>   Children Now's board chair is marketing consultant and former ad
>   exec Jane Gardner. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who urged Martin to
>   create the task force, said that he did not consult with any other
>   members of Congress. In the press conference announcing the task
>   force, Sen. Brownback appeared to propose his own conclusion to the
>   task force's work: further voluntary restrictions, rather than FCC
>   regulations on media marketing to children. "If we start down the
>   road of saying we're going to limit everything and we're going to do
>   it with a regulatory regime, I think you get everybody in a quick
>   adversarial relationship." The Institute of Medicine of the National
>   Academies has already recommended specific food marketing
>   restrictions.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, September 27, 2006
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5239
>
>14. THE BEST BOOK EVER?
>
>   Haven't had a chance to buy our new book, The Best War Ever?
>   Wondering what it's all about? Click here to read exclusive passages
>   from the book. Chapters excerpted include "Not Counting the Dead,"
>   "Rewriting History," and "Big Impact." We hope you'll take this
>   opportunity to whet your appetite and will go on to read the book in
>   its entirety. You can order it online, or ask your local bookseller
>   if they have it in stock. And after you read it, please consider
>   posting a review on Amazon to encourage others to read this
>   important book. And don't forget to visit The Best War Ever website
>   to watch the great four minute flash video about the book!
>SOURCE:
>For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5265
>
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