[ecrea] THE WEEKLY SPIN, March 14, 2007

>THE WEEKLY SPIN, MARCH 14, 2007
>
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>The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
>further information about media, political spin and propaganda. It
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>1. Moore Spin: Or, How Reporters Learned to Stop 
>Worrying and Love Nuclear Front Groups
>2. Tracking the Front Group "Boomerang"
>3. Help Solve the Mystery - For Whom Were the 
>Fired U.S. Attorneys Pushed Aside?
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
>1. MoveOn -- End This War or Manage This War?
>2. Medical Journal In Double Bubble with Apparent Beverage Industry Conflict
>3. Yet Another Fake News Epidemic
>4. "Public Intellectuals" Don't Come Cheap
>5. Destroying Journalism in Order to Save It
>6. Latest Version of Pay for Play: Bucks for Blogs
>7. Winning Hearts, Minds and Arabic Blogs
>8. Code (Red) for Cause-Related Marketing
>9. Exxon Mobil Partnership Proves Costly for Stanford
>10. Seven Papers Axe Coulter's Column
>11. Light Shy Lobbyists
>12. David Outsmarts Mining Goliath
>13. American Heart Association Sticks with Smoky Partner
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>
>1. MOORE SPIN: OR, HOW REPORTERS LEARNED TO STOP 
>WORRYING AND LOVE NUCLEAR FRONT GROUPS
>by Diane Farsetta
>        "We just find it maddening that Hill & Knowlton, which has an
>   $8 million account with the nuclear industry, should have such an
>   easy time working the press," concluded the Columbia Journalism
>   Review in an editorial in its July / August 2006 issue.
>        The magazine was rightly bemoaning the tendency of news
>   outlets to present former Greenpeace activist Patrick Moore and
>   former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman as environmentalists who
>   support nuclear power, without noting that both are paid
>   spokespeople for a group bankrolled by the Nuclear Energy Institute
>   (NEI).  NEI represents nuclear power plant operators, plant
>   designers, fuel suppliers and other sectors of the nuclear power
>   industry.  Hill & Knowlton is NEI's public relations firm, though
>   it's not the only firm working to build support for nuclear power.
>        Thanks in part to an ongoing, multifaceted PR push -- along
>   with very real concerns about energy prices, rising energy demand,
>   aging infrastructure, sustainability and global warming -- nuclear
>   power is attracting serious attention from reporters and
>   policymakers alike.  The question is whether a vital public debate
>   over energy choices is being skewed by deep-pocketed interests with
>   a dog in the fight.
>        The dangers of such distortions are especially acute at the
>   state and local levels.  That's where efforts to extend the licenses
>   of existing nuclear power plants, to maintain or expand nuclear
>   waste storage facilities, and to site new proposed nuclear power
>   plants, are made or broken.  And that's where pro-nuclear
>   campaigners appear to be focusing, adopting the mantle and tactics
>   of community groups while steadfastly refusing to provide details on
>   their operations.
>To read the rest of this item, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5833
>
>2. TRACKING THE FRONT GROUP "BOOMERANG"
>by Jonathan Rosenblum
>        Corporate front groups can cause a "boomerang effect" to
>   their sponsors, damaging the reputations of companies like
>   ExxonMobil, Merck, and PepsiCo, when the sponsor's role in
>   misrepresenting issues is widely revealed.  Moreover, advance
>   information or instruction can inoculate the public against
>   deception, according to a new study published in the February 2007
>   issue of Communications Research.
>        CMD has exposed corporate and PR front groups for yearssee
>   John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton's six books, not to mention Spin of
>   the Day and SourceWatch.  Now, and evidently for the first time,
>   scholars have undertaken an experiment to show how people respond to
>   and resent corporate manipulation.
>To read the rest of this item, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5847
>
>3. HELP SOLVE THE MYSTERY - FOR WHOM WERE THE 
>FIRED U.S. ATTORNEYS PUSHED ASIDE?
>by Elliott Fullmer
>        The nation's capital has been in an uproar this week over the
>   U.S. attorney firings controversy. Both the House and Senate
>   Judiciary Committees held hearings Tuesday on the matter, where six
>   of eight former U.S. attorneys (all fired in late 2006) testified
>   that they had been the target of complaints, telephone calls and
>   threats from either a high-ranking Justice Department official or
>   members of Congress in the days and weeks preceding their abrupt
>   dismissals. The replacements for the attorneys are rumored to be
>   political appointees with little prosecutorial experience.
>        The story dates back to March 2006, when President Bush
>   signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act. The bill included
>   a provision (inserted by a staffer to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) at
>   the request of the Justice Department) allowing the DOJ to appoint
>   U.S. attorneys indefinitely without a presidential nomination or
>   Senate confirmation (previously, this type of appointment could last
>   only a maximum of 120 days). In late 2006, the administration fired
>   eight U.S. attorneys, insisting each dismissal was motivated by
>   performance.
>To read the rest of this item, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5830
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
>
>1. MOVEON -- END THIS WAR OR MANAGE THIS WAR?
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5857
>   Author Norman Solomon editorializes that "Nancy Pelosi is speaker
>   of the House, and Harry Reid is majority leader of the Senate. But
>   neither speaks for, much less leads, the antiwar movement that we
>   need.  When you look at the practicalities of the situation, Pelosi
>   and Reid could be more accurately described as speaker and leader
>   for the war-management movement."  Solomon notes that the powerful
>   liberal advocacy group  "MoveOn seems to have wrapped itself around
>   the political sensibilities of Reid, Pelosi and others at the top of
>   Capitol Hill leadership.   ...  Last week, while MoveOn was sending
>   out a mass e-mail to its 3.2 million members offering free bumper
>   stickers urging 'End This War,'  the MoveOn leadership was
>   continuing its failure to back the efforts of the Congressional
>   Progressive Caucus for 'a fully funded, and systematic, withdrawal
>   of U.S. soldiers and military contractors from Iraq.'   ...  It's
>   good to see MoveOn churning out bumper stickers that advocate an end
>   to the Iraq war -- but sad to see its handful of decision-makers
>   failing to support a measure to fund an orderly and prompt
>   withdrawal from the war."
>SOURCE: Common Dreams, Tuesday, March 13, 2007
>
>2. MEDICAL JOURNAL IN DOUBLE BUBBLE WITH APPARENT BEVERAGE INDUSTRY CONFLICT
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5855
>   In its current issue, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
>   acknowledges that a review of soft drinks and obesity (which
>   challenges links between the one and the other) was funded by the
>   American Beverage Association. But the journal excludes information
>   that one of the authors personally and professionally has had close
>   ties to the beverage industry. "(T)he Associated Press reported last
>   year that [Researcher Adam] Drewnowski owns stock in beverage
>   companies and much of his prior research has been financed by the
>   beverage industry," reports the Center for Science in the Public
>   Interest (CSPI).  Another study by Drewnowski was funded by the Corn
>   Refiners Association and American Beverage Institute. The journal
>   article's co-author, France Bellisle, for his part, sits on an
>   advisory board for McDonald's.  Researchers, including CSPI staff,
>   have written that industry-financed studies predictably reach
>   conclusions favorable to the beverage companies.
>SOURCE: Center for Science in the Public Interest, March 12, 2007
>
>3. YET ANOTHER FAKE NEWS EPIDEMIC
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5852
>   As a result of "hospitals' desperate need to compete for lucrative
>   lines of business" and "TV's hunger for cheap and easy stories,"
>   healthcare companies are increasingly getting into the (fake) news
>   business.  Sometimes "the hospitals pay for airtime"; sometimes
>   "they don't but still provide expertise and story ideas" -- or
>   prepackaged video news releases. "Viewers who think they are getting
>   news are really getting a form of advertising," reports Trudy
>   Lieberman. One healthcare company, Cleveland Clinic, "sends out
>   prepackaged stories" every day, including to "Fox News Edge, a
>   service for Fox affiliates that in turn distributes the pieces to
>   140 Fox stations." And, "since TV news operations are finding that
>   they can get this kind of health 'news' supplied to them -- and
>   might even make money on the deal -- they are tempted not to invest
>   in a legitimate health reporter who would ask harder questions and
>   look at the larger picture." Not surprisingly, Lieberman finds that
>   "too often the full nature of the arrangements is not disclosed, or
>   inadequately disclosed."
>SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, March / April 2007
>
>4. "PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS" DON'T COME CHEAP
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5851
>   After billionaire insurance mogul Maurice "Hank" Greenberg was
>   charged with fraud and insurance and securities violations, he hired
>   the eSapience PR firm -- whose executives include the dean of MIT's
>   Sloan School of Management -- to buff up his image. Now eSapience is
>   suing Greenberg for unpaid bills. The lawsuit states that eSapience
>   executives "set up a new think tank, the Barbon Institute,
>   specifically to provide a credible-sounding new platform for
>   Greenberg" to give an "image-rehabilitating speech." Greenberg is
>   disputing $2 million in charges racked up by eSapience executives
>   who billed him $400 to $1,000 hourly -- rates that they said
>   "reflected the level of detail, sophistication, and status necessary
>   to present Greenberg in the best light and to assure the presence
>   and participation of key intellectual and public figures."
>SOURCE: Boston Globe, March 10, 2007
>
>5. DESTROYING JOURNALISM IN ORDER TO SAVE IT
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5850
>   While fleeing an ambush in Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers reportedly
>   opened fire on civilian cars and pedestrians and then destroyed
>   photos and video taken at the scene by freelance journalists.
>   Destroying the evidence was necessary, a military official explained
>   later, to protect "investigative integrity" because photos or video
>   taken by "untrained people" might "capture visual details that are
>   not as they originally were." He added, "We are completely committed
>   to a free and independent press, and we hope that we can help
>   encourage this tradition in places where new and free governments
>   are taking root." Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll
>   remained unconvinced. "In democratic societies," she noted,
>   "legitimate journalists are allowed to work without having their
>   equipment seized and their images deleted."
>SOURCE: Miami Herald, March 10, 2007
>
>6. LATEST VERSION OF PAY FOR PLAY: BUCKS FOR BLOGS
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5846
>   Beware the blog that gushes about a product, movie, or anything
>   you might consider purchasing. There's a chance that the blogger is
>   on the payroll of "new marketing middlemen such as PayPerPost Inc.
>   that connect advertisers with mom-and-pop webmasters." PayPerPost
>   alone pays 15,500 bloggers for inserting their clients into blog
>   postings. Other companies that pay bloggers for mentions include
>   ReviewMe, Loud Launch and SponsoredReviews.com. Not all bloggers
>   think it's a good idea. "PayPerPost versus authentic blogging is
>   like comparing prostitution with making love to someone you care for
>   deeply. No one with any level of ethics would get involved with
>   these clowns," said Jason McCabe Calacanis, co-founder of Weblogs
>   Inc. The quid pro quo is multilayered; one sponsored blogger's
>   "traffic has doubled thanks partly to PayPerPost's fanatical users,
>   who link often to fellow Posties. That gives her a bigger audience
>   for her unpaid musings." The Federal Trade Commission recently
>   directed word-of-mouth marketers to clearly disclose.
>SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, March 9, 2007
>
>7. WINNING HEARTS, MINDS AND ARABIC BLOGS
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5845
>   The Washington Times reports on the U.S. State Department's
>   "digital outreach team," mentioned in a recent interview by Karen
>   Hughes, the Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.
>   "We want to make sure that U.S. views are present in the Arabic
>   cyberspace," said the State Department's Jeremy Curtin. "The first
>   step of success is to be there and have people respond. ... The
>   second step is to engage in a conversation. We try to adopt an
>   informal tone, and we are careful what we say." The State Department
>   team "recently began a thread" on egyptiantalks.org, asking, "Will
>   violence end in Iraq if U.S. forces withdraw?" In another online
>   engagement described by Curtin, participants challenged "accusations
>   that the U.S. military is engaged in widespread rape of men and
>   women in Iraq." A team member explained, "I stated that, when there
>   have been cases of misconduct by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi
>   civilians, a legal process has been implemented. I also said
>   allegations that such misconduct is widespread are untrue and
>   unproven."
>SOURCE: Washington Times, March 9, 2007
>
>8. CODE (RED) FOR CAUSE-RELATED MARKETING
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5844
>   A year into the Red campaign -- a cause-related marketing effort
>   that allows partners to profit from charity -- $100 million has been
>   spent on marketing, but only $18 million has been raised worldwide
>   for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. "The
>   disproportionate ratio between the marketing outlay and the money
>   raised is drawing concern among nonprofit watchdogs, cause-marketing
>   experts and even executives in the ad business," reports Advertising
>   Age. "It threatens to spur a backlash, not just against the Red
>   campaign ... but also for the brands involved," Gap, Apple and
>   Motorola. The Global Fund's Rajesh Anandan defended Red: "The launch
>   cost of this kind of campaign is going to be hugely frontloaded."
>   The website buylesscrap.org parodies Red, stating, "Shopping is not
>   a solution," and encouraging direct donations to the Global Fund.
>   Professor Mark Rosenman explained, "There is a broadening concern
>   that business is taking on the patina of philanthropy and crowding
>   out philanthropic activity and even substituting for it. It benefits
>   the for-profit partners much more than the charitable causes."
>SOURCE: Advertising Age, March 5, 2007
>
>9. EXXON MOBIL PARTNERSHIP PROVES COSTLY FOR STANFORD
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5843
>   "Exxon Mobil has teamed up with Stanford University to find
>   breakthrough technologies that deliver more energy while reducing
>   greenhouse gas emissions," enthuses a TV commercial by the oil
>   giant. Under Exxon Mobil's partnership with Stanford, first
>   announced in 2002, the university "will get up to $100 million from
>   the company over 10 years to fund climate and energy research."
>   After seeing the ads, major Stanford donor Steve Bing "decided to
>   rescind a promised $2.5 million donation to the school." He is also
>   "asking other major philanthropists to reconsider their promises to
>   give to the Stanford cause," and is pushing for "an end to the
>   4-year-old ad campaign." Bing's advisor on climate issues said,
>   "Exxon Mobil is trying to greenwash itself, and it's using Stanford
>   as its brush." A Stanford spokesperson countered, "We are proud of
>   our work on seeking solutions to serious energy and environmental
>   problems and our collaborations in these areas with a variety of
>   private and non-profit organizations." An earlier Exxon print ad,
>   carrying the Stanford seal, "suggested that scientists were debating
>   the cause of global warming."
>SOURCE: Mercury News (San Jose, CA), March 11, 2007
>
>10. SEVEN PAPERS AXE COULTER'S COLUMN
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5842
>   In the last week at least seven newspapers have dropped the
>   syndicated column of conservative firebrand Ann Coulter. Speaking at
>   the American Conservative Union's annual Conservative Political
>   Action Conference in Washington, D.C. on March 2, Coulter said "I
>   was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic
>   presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go
>   into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I -- so kind of an
>   impasse, can't really talk about Edwards." Newspapers that have
>   dropped her column include: Sanford Herald (North Carolina); Daily
>   Chronicle (Illinois); American Press (Louisiana); Lancaster New Era
>   (Pennsylvania); The Oakland Press, (Michigan); The Mountain Press
>   (Tennessee); and The Times (Louisiana). The editorial director of
>   The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, David Hampton, said that
>   while he disagreed with her opinions, the paper would keep her
>   column. "I think her popularity will continue to wane. I believe
>   ideas rise and fall on their merits, and I haven't seen much depth
>   in hers," he said.
>SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, March 9, 2007
>
>11. LIGHT SHY LOBBYISTS
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5841
>   Andrew Parker, the head of the Australian PR and lobbying firm
>   Parker & Partners -- a part of the Ogilvy PR Worldwide network -- is
>   worried that the Australian government will re-introduce a system of
>   regulating lobbyists. Calls for registering lobbyists have grown in
>   the wake of a series of revelations over the lobbying activities of
>   former West Australian Premier Brian Burke, who was later imprisoned
>   after a Royal commission of Inquiry into business deals done by his
>   government. After serving seven months of a two-year prison
>   sentence, Burke re-invented himself as a lobbyist. "There is no
>   denying the Brian Burkes of this world -- those lobbyists who rely
>   on personal 'political mates' alone -- face extinction. But we need
>   to speed up this process," Parker wrote in an opinion column. While
>   Parker supports lobbyist registration, he has caveats. "Calls for
>   complete financial disclosure are not only unprecedented for other
>   professional service sectors but are designed to simply give these
>   [anti-business] crusaders the ability to misrepresent and deceive,"
>   he complained. In the U.S., lobbyists are required to disclose
>   clients and broad details of their work for them.
>SOURCE: The Australian, March 9, 2007
>
>12. DAVID OUTSMARTS MINING GOLIATH
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5840
>   By invoking Australian copyright law, the New South Wales Minerals
>   Council (NSWMC) twice succeeded in shutting down a website that
>   satirized its "Life: Brought to you by mining" advertising campaign.
>   However, the website of the spoofers, Rising Tide Newcastle, is now
>   hosted overseas. Following protests that the mining industry was
>   attempting to "silence" them, the environmentalists are enjoying
>   more web traffic than their corporate rivals. NSWMC's chief
>   executive, Nikki Williams, said the industry's campaign is about
>   "establishing a fair voice for the mining industry." Associate
>   lecturer in law at the Queensland University of Technology Peter
>   Black argues, "This is clearly a situation that would be covered by
>   the fair dealing defence of parody and satire. ... This is political
>   speech that is being suppressed by our copyright regulations, which
>   is something that should not happen." The NSWMC represents major
>   mining companies, including subsidiaries of global corporations such
>   as BHP-Billiton and Xstrata.
>SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, March 5, 2007
>
>13. AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION STICKS WITH SMOKY PARTNER
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5829
>   The American Heart Association (AHA) is once again partnering with
>   the Rite Aid Drug Store chain to promote its "Go Red for Women"
>   campaign, aimed at increasing public awareness of heart disease in
>   women. But just last year, AHA was embarrassed by the partnership
>   after a web site featured photos of AHA's "healthy heart" posters
>   located immediately next to cigarette displays in Rite Aid Stores.
>   AHA then promised tobacco control advocates that it would pull its
>   partnership with Rite Aid. AHA does not currently list Rite Aid as a
>   sponsor on its "Go Red" campaign web site, but the partnership was
>   renewed for this Spring's campaign. Rite Aid is notorious among
>   public health advocates, for having launched its own brand of
>   cigarettes, for helping the tobacco industry fight anti-tobacco
>   legislation, and for fighting a bill to reduce young people's access
>   to cigarettes.
>SOURCE: Rite Aid press release, February 1, 2007
>
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