[ecrea] THE WEEKLY SPIN, March 21, 2007

>     THE WEEKLY SPIN, MARCH 21, 2007
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>THIS WEEK'S NEWS
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>1. Iraq: Why Won't MoveOn Move Forward?
>2. The Corporate Art of Creating a Crisis
>3. What Philip Morris Seeks in FDA Regulation: Preservation of the Status Quo
>4. The "Friedman" Pundit Punt on the Iraq War Lives on in Congresspedia
>
>== BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST ==
>1. Help Us Update the Contact Information of the Freshman Members of Congress
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
>1. Out with the Old Front Groups & In with the New
>2. More Global Warming Edits See Light of Day
>3. Hello, Teens? Marketing Firms Are Calling
>4. Multifaceted PR Campaigns Grow on Trees
>5. Public Relations: The International Language
>6. Local TV Tales: Pro-Sweatshop Fake News and Paid Smokespeople
>7. A High-Stakes Game of Telephone
>8. U.S. House: Let the Sun Shine In
>9. News Media Aiming Low, Warns Report
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>== BLOG POSTINGS ==
>
>1. IRAQ: WHY WON'T MOVEON MOVE FORWARD?
>by Sheldon Rampton
>        This week marks the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion
>   of Iraq. To commemorate the occasion, the online advocacy group
>   MoveOn.org is organizing more than 1,000 candlelight vigils
>   throughout the United States. "We'll solemnly honor the sacrifice
>   made by more than 3,000 servicemen and women, and we'll contemplate
>   the path ahead of us," states MoveOn's website. "We cannot send tens
>   of thousands of exhausted, under-equipped, and unprepared troops
>   into the middle of an Iraqi civil war. ... Honor the sacrifice. Stop
>   the escalation. Bring the troops home."
>        MoveOn's 3.2 million members strongly oppose any continuation
>   of the war, and the language above seems to suggest that MoveOn's
>   leadership agrees. But MoveOn's organizing around Iraq has become
>   notably ambiguous lately. Although it talks in general terms about
>   bringing the troops home, specific timetables or meaningful steps in
>   that direction are nowhere discussed. Most strikingly, MoveOn has
>   adamantly refused to support the Iraq amendment from Congressional
>   Progressive Caucus leaders Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey and Maxine
>   Waters, which calls for "a fully funded, and systematic, withdrawal
>   of U.S. soldiers and military contractors from Iraq" by the end of
>   2007.
>To read the rest of this item, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5865
>
>2. THE CORPORATE ART OF CREATING A CRISIS
>by Bob Burton
>        By all indications, Mark McInnes is a smart cookie.
>        Currently the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer
>   of the Australian department store company David Jones Limited,
>   McInnes boasts over 17 years in senior management roles in major
>   stores. David Jones, colloquially known as DJ's, operates 37
>   department stores across Australia and brought in $A1.8 billion in
>   revenue in 2006. DJ's certainly seems to value McInnes's judgement,
>   as his total remuneration package stood at $A5.286 million in 2006,
>   according to DJ's annual report.
>        But one has to wonder about the wisdom of DJ's legal action
>   against The Australia Institute (TAI), a centre-left think tank. The
>   company is suing over an October 2006 media release from TAI,
>   titled, "Corporate paedophilia -- sexualising children by
>   advertising and marketing." The case, which opens before a Federal
>   Court of Australia judge in a Sydney courtroom on March 22, is
>   likely to play out as a corporate Goliath trying to squash the
>   dissenting views of a non-profit critic.
>        It could very well become a major PR crisis created by the
>   company itself on McInnes' watch.
>To read the rest of this item, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5858
>
>3. WHAT PHILIP MORRIS SEEKS IN FDA REGULATION: PRESERVATION OF THE STATUS QUO
>by Anne Landman
>        A 23-page, formerly "privileged and confidential" company
>   discussion document outlines Philip Morris' thinking behind its
>   180-degree turn from strongly opposing U.S. Food and Drug
>   Administration (FDA) oversight of cigarettes to in fact driving such
>   regulation.  It clues us in to the company's logic in proceeding
>   down this path and what the company hopes for and fears most in FDA
>   regulation.  It was written by Mark Berlind, who was Assistant
>   General Counsel of Philip Morris Worldwide Regulatory Affairs in
>   1998.
>        Berlind recaps PM's history of opposing FDA regulation and
>   recommends  that PM USA advocate for regulation as a way to maintain
>   the status quo, or "perpetuate the existing framework's philosophy
>   that adults continue to be permitted to assume" the inherent risks
>   of cigarette smoking.
>To read the rest of this item, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5848
>
>4. THE "FRIEDMAN" PUNDIT PUNT ON THE IRAQ WAR LIVES ON IN CONGRESSPEDIA
>by Conor Kenny
>        Blogger Atrios lamented today that the Wikipedia entry for
>   "Friedman (unit)" has been targeted for deletion through a merger
>   into the "Atrios" article. A "Friedman", in the parlance of pundits
>   and politicians discussing the Iraq War, is six months. Atrios
>   coined the term on his blog to deal with New York Times columnist
>   Thomas Friedman's constant invocation of "just six more months" to
>   see how things were going in Iraq, something he began doing on
>   November 30, 2003 and continued to do as late as May 11, 2006. While
>   Friedman has lately moved on to saying that the U.S. should stay in
>   Iraq for "10 months or 10 years," many government officials, pundits
>   and politicians continue to move the goalposts on when it is
>   acceptable to ascertain true progress in Iraq, and six months is an
>   eerily common benchmark.
>To read the rest of this item, visit:
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5871
>
>== BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST ==
>
>1. HELP US UPDATE THE CONTACT INFORMATION OF THE FRESHMAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5881
>   One of the key pieces of information on Congresspedia's member of
>   Congress articles is the contact information for the member's
>   district and Washington offices. This helps constituents know
>   exactly where they can go to voice their opinions, deliver petitions
>   or send letters. Congresspedia has all the phone numbers and
>   addresses for the incumbents, but we need to update the pages of the
>   freshman members, which now only list campaign offices. Consider
>   helping out your fellow citizens out by quickly adding the
>   information to the wiki if you're from one of these states: AZ, CA,
>   CO, CT, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE,
>   NH, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI.
>   We've got complete instructions and a "red phone" line to the
>   Congresspedia Managing Editor if any 
> assistance is needed. Go to 
> http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch:Wikiproject_Member_of_Congress_information 
> to get started.
>   SOURCE: Congresspedia
>
>== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
>
>1. OUT WITH THE OLD FRONT GROUPS & IN WITH THE NEW
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5879
>   Two former food industry websites -- Best Food Nation and the Grow
>   America Project -- are being merged and re-birthed as a new front
>   group, the Center for Food Integrity (CFI). CFI's web domain was
>   registered earlier this month by Charlie Arnot, who runs a small
>   Missouri-based PR firm, CMA Consulting. CFI, which lists Monsanto as
>   one of its supporters, states that it aims "to build consumer trust
>   and confidence in the contemporary U.S. food system." Joseph
>   Mendelson, the legal director of the Center for Food Safety, a
>   consumer group, told Food NavigatorUSA.com that CFI is simply "a PR
>   entity to try and battle regulations designed to create a safer food
>   supply ... This is a way for it to promote its agenda under a green
>   wash label."  Mendelson also believes that the CFI's name was
>   "chosen to try to distract attention from groups like ours and to
>   confuse consumers." (Note: Mendelson is on the Center for Media and
>   Democracy's Board of Directors.)
>SOURCE: Food NavigatorUSA.com, March 20, 2007
>
>2. MORE GLOBAL WARMING EDITS SEE LIGHT OF DAY
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5877
>   The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
>   released documents showing "hundreds of instances" where a former
>   and current oil industry lobbyist had edited government reports to
>   downplay the impact of human activities on global warming trends.
>   Committee chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said the documents suggested
>   "a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of
>   climate change." The edits were by Philip A. Cooney, the former
>   chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
>   Cooney, who has no scientific credentials, worked for the American
>   Petroleum Institute prior to the Bush administration position and is
>   now working for Exxon Mobil. Cooney said that his edits were meant
>   to reflect the "most authoritative and current views of the state of
>   scientific knowledge." NASA climate expert Dr. James Hansen warned
>   at the House hearing, "If public affairs offices are left under the
>   control of political appointees, it seems to me that inherently they
>   become offices of propaganda."
>SOURCE: New York Times, March 20, 2007
>
>3. HELLO, TEENS? MARKETING FIRMS ARE CALLING
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5876
>   Retailers "eager to connect with teen and twentysomething
>   shoppers" are increasingly marketing to them through their cell
>   phones, reports USA Today. New marketing approaches include "coupons
>   that go to shoppers' cellphones." The marketing firm Access 360
>   Media "saw redemption rates of about 40%" with cell-delivered
>   coupons, as opposed to "less than 2% for many print or online coupon
>   campaigns." Then there's GPShopper, "an Internet-style search engine
>   that lets shoppers search a chain's entire inventory," with Best
>   Buy, Toys R Us and Sports Authority among the chains using the
>   service. Lastly, "an interactive dressing room mirror" was unveiled
>   at a Manhattan Bloomingdale's last week. The mirror "streams
>   high-definition video of shoppers modeling clothes to their friends'
>   computers or mobile devices." The friends can then "comment on a
>   shopper's outfits" and help "select other clothes for her [sic] to
>   try."
>SOURCE: USA Today, March 20, 2007
>
>4. MULTIFACETED PR CAMPAIGNS GROW ON TREES
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5874
>   PR Week gave its "Public Affairs Campaign of the Year 2007" award
>   to the Porter Novelli firm and the Abundant Forests Alliance, a
>   front group for the "wood and paper products industry." The campaign
>   was launched in response to "environmental activist" efforts to
>   "change the foresting industry's procurement practices." The
>   campaign's goal was to convince "college-educated women ages 35 to
>   54 with children" that the logging industry is "encouraging
>   recycling and other environmentally responsible practices." The $10
>   million "multifaceted campaign" included a children's book by The
>   Rolling Stones' Chuck Leavell titled, "The Tree Farmer," a
>   television satellite media tour, Earth Day and Arbor Day events, and
>   "environmental grant programs" in Dallas and Los Angeles, developed
>   in conjunction with Project Learning Tree. In addition, "lifestyle
>   expert" Katie Brown and "paper artist" Lynette Young promoted "the
>   use of wood and paper in homemade gifts," including through
>   "scrapbooking demonstrations at 500 Wal-Marts around the country."
>SOURCE: PR Week (print edition), March 12, 2007
>
>5. PUBLIC RELATIONS: THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5870
>   "Overseas political groups are increasingly seeking to raise their
>   legitimacy and sell their agendas in their home countries through
>   communications outreach to US politicians, media, think tanks, and
>   other influential audiences," writes PR Week. The party of former
>   Ukrainian "Orange Revolution" leader Yulia Tymoshenko is working
>   with TD International, Glover Park Group and Dezenhall Resources.
>   Armenian defense minister Serge Sarkisian, "who plans to run for
>   president," has hired Burson-Marsteller and its BKSH & Associates
>   unit, on a $65,000 per month contract. B-M is also working for
>   Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Opposition Party. For their international
>   clients, the firms arrange meetings "with government officials,
>   members of Congress, the media, and others ... to emphasize the
>   individual's or his or her party's desire to promote greater
>   political freedom and human rights," often along with a focus on
>   "energy security." Former CBS News correspondent turned PR executive
>   David Henderson said, "Media is international, and this approach
>   tends to add to [foreign groups'] perceived credibility and
>   influence in their own countries."
>SOURCE: PR Week, March 16, 2007
>
>6. LOCAL TV TALES: PRO-SWEATSHOP FAKE NEWS AND PAID SMOKESPEOPLE
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5869
>   After federal authorities accused Francesco Insolia "of running a
>   sweatshop to fulfill $220 million in military contracts and
>   employing 361 illegal immigrants," he closed his New Bedford, Mass.,
>   factory to reporters. In an affidavit filed in conjunction with an
>   immigration raid on the factory, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan's
>   office said "workers were docked $20 for taking more than two
>   minutes in the bathroom, and for being more than 15 minutes late."
>   But television news can still show the factory, thanks to a Boston
>   PR firm that released "a three-minute video" on behalf of Insolia,
>   showing "seamstresses diligently stitching camouflage backpacks ...
>   and taking umbrage at what is being said and written about the
>   company," reports Aaron Nicodemus. According to O'Dwyer's, the video
>   was shot by the Rendon Group's Boston office and "was aired on
>   Boston TV stations WGBH and Fox-25." Meanwhile, the Kansas City
>   Pitch reports that KSHB-41 sportscaster Jack Harry praised the
>   "laser acupuncture" company New Beginnings for helping him quit
>   smoking, in a station news segment. "What Harry didn't mention is
>   that he's also a paid spokesman for the company," adds the Pitch.
>   New Beginnings' president "says it's common to find radio and TV
>   personalities to plug a product during the course of a show." KSHB's
>   news director admits "that the piece should've included a
>   disclaimer. She said the initial script has one, but it was cut at
>   the last minute because of time."
>SOURCE: South Coast Today (Massachusetts), March 17, 2007
>
>7. A HIGH-STAKES GAME OF TELEPHONE
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5868
>   In documents filed with the International Court of Arbitration in
>   New York, the state-owned Norwegian telecommunications company
>   Telenor is accusing the Russian telecom company Altimo of having
>   "bribed journalists, whipped up nationalism and distorted the truth
>   in an attempt to gain control of a mobile network in Ukraine which
>   is jointly owned by the two companies," reports Michael Harrison.
>   Telenor's court filings include what it says is documentation that
>   "Altimo was paying a local Ukrainian public relations firm $12,000
>   (£6,200) a month to run a campaign against it. The budget also
>   included $141,000 to 'discredit the image of Norway in Ukraine.'"
>   Altimo is also accused of paying journalists "for writing
>   unfavourable stories about Telenor including $1,000 for an article
>   about Telenor's share price falling and $5,600 for an interview with
>   Altimo's vice-president." Altimo is challenging the allegations,
>   which The Independent calls "the latest" in "a long-running dispute"
>   between the two companies.
>SOURCE: The Independent (UK), March 14, 2007
>
>8. U.S. HOUSE: LET THE SUN SHINE IN
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5861
>   On March 14, the U.S. House of Representatives "passed three bills
>   to open government records to the public, brushing aside White House
>   opposition, and in one case, a veto threat." The bills "would force
>   government to be more responsive to Freedom of Information Act
>   requests, make contributions to presidential libraries public and
>   overturn a 2001 presidential directive giving the president
>   authority to keep his records from public view," reports Associated
>   Press. President Bush opposes the FOIA bill and has threatened to
>   veto the presidential records bill, as well as another bill
>   extending whistleblower protections. The House FOIA bill would
>   reinstitute a "presumption of disclosure" standard, overturning a
>   post-9/11 directive from then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to not
>   release information if there is "uncertainty over security or law
>   enforcement exemptions." The measures are being considered during
>   Sunshine Week, a media-led observance of "open government and
>   freedom of information" issues.
>SOURCE: Associated Press, March 14, 2007
>
>9. NEWS MEDIA AIMING LOW, WARNS REPORT
>http://www.prwatch.org/node/5860
>   "We sense the news business entering a new phase heading into 2007
>   -- a phase of more limited ambition," the Project for Excellence in
>   Journalism (PEJ) writes in the overview to its "State of the News
>   Media 2007" report. News organizations are "starting to redefine
>   their appeal and their purpose based on diminished capacity.
>   Increasingly outlets are looking for 'brand' or 'franchise' areas of
>   coverage to build audiences around." These news "brands" include
>   "hyper localism," citizen media, opinion, and personal involvement.
>   PEJ warns that some of these "can be marketing speak for simply
>   doing less," while "branding can also be a mask for bias." Among the
>   report's conclusions: "The news industry must become more aggressive
>   about developing a new economic model," and the "Argument Culture"
>   is giving way to the "Answer Culture." By the "answer culture," PEJ
>   means "news outlets, programs and journalists offering up solutions,
>   crusades, certainty and the impression of putting all the blur of
>   information in clear order for people."
>SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, March 12, 2007
>
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