Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, April 28, 2004

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The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, April 28, 2004

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THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, April 28, 2004

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sponsored by PR WATCH (www.prwatch.org)

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The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to

further information about current public relations campaigns.

It is emailed free each Wednesday to rs.

 

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THIS WEEK'S NEWS

 

1. US-Funded INC Faces GAO Probe For Propagandizing

2. Chernobyl Political Fallout Continues

3. Be Careful What You Draw

4. A Shot at the News

5. The Selling of Everything

6. Two-party Epistemology

7. Greenwashing Koch Industries

8. Rendon Groups Helps Afghan Government With Image

9. Big Pharma's Poison Pill

10. Baby, It's You

11. California Panel Blasts Virtual Voting

12. Fired for a Photo

13. And Now, a Word from Our Earth Day Sponsor

14. The Sounds of Silence

15. PRSA Talks the Ethical Talk

16. A Dirty Trickster's Bush Bonanza

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CHERNOBYL POLITICAL FALLOUT CONTINUES

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/24891/story.htm

" People living in the affected villages are very distressed because

the information they receive... is inconsistent, " an International

Atomic Energy Agency official said about the world's worst nuclear

accident. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

" spewed a cloud of radioactivity " ; the amount of radiation

released, the distance it traveled, and its health and

environmental impacts remain in dispute. An IAEA Chernobyl Forum is

now compiling " authoritative, transparent statements " for next

year's UN General Assembly. One nuclear engineer who studied

Chernobyl has warned: " The IAEA is in the business of promoting

nuclear energy, not discouraging it. " Earlier IAEA studies were

" sharply criticized in scientific journals " ; in 2000, the agency

stated " there is no evidence of a major public health impact " from

the Chernobyl radiation.

SOURCE: Reuters, April 27, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2004.html#1083038401

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083038401

 

 

5. THE SELLING OF EVERYTHING

http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=40348

Citing a recent poll which found 65% of respondents feel

" constantly bombarded with too much " advertising and 61% think

marketing is " out of control, " Commercial Alert's director writes:

" The main reason, I suspect, is that the [marketing] industry

abides no limits or boundaries... [the] implicit message is a total

lack of respect for our time, our privacy, our attention, our peace

of mind, and not least for our concerns about our kids. " Two

examples: ads on magazine spines and " a growing number of marketers

[who] want to persuade the nation's print magazines to open the

text of their editorial pages to product placements. " With

pharmaceutical marketing budgets up 21% last year, drug makers are

using " more aggressive marketing tactics, " according to a Young &

Rubicam Advertising executive.

SOURCE: Advertising Age, April 26, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2004.html#1082952000

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1082952000

 

 

7. GREENWASHING KOCH INDUSTRIES

http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/8499610.htm

" Flanked by 'Survivor' champions Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca and

two Washington Redskins cheerleaders, a leading D.C.

environmentalist took time on Earth Day to thank Wichita-based Koch

Industries, " reports Alan Bjerga. Doug Siglin, head of the

Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Anacostia River Initiative, praised

Koch for helping pick trash out of the Potomac and Anacostia

rivers. But while Koch colleagues heaped praise on the company,

critics wondered whether the event wasn't designed to clean up

Koch's image as much as the river. " You hate to sound cynical when

someone's doing something good, " said Brandon deMelle, an analyst

with th Environmental Working Group. " But given Koch's history, you

have to wonder. " Koch's track record on the environment includes

the largest pollution penalty ever assessed by the Environmental

Protection Agency, as well as lawsuits over groundwater pollution

in Minnesota, escaping benzene gas in Texas and oil leaks in six

states.

SOURCE: Wichita Eagle, April 23, 2004

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1082692804

 

 

9. BIG PHARMA'S POISON PILL

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews & storyID=4922249§ion=n\

ews

The British medical journal The Lancet published a review of " six

published and six unpublished trials " studying antidepressant use

by children that concluded that, in most cases, " the risks exceeded

the benefits. " More disturbingly, the review found evidence that

pharmaceutical companies " had been aware of problems but did not

reveal them. " In a memo leaked last month from GlaxoSmithKline, the

company warned, " negative trial results could not be released "

because it would damage the " profile " of the drug. An earlier

review of cancer drug trials found that 5 percent of pharmaceutical

industry studies reported negatively on the drug under examination,

compared to 38 percent of studies carried out by independent labs.

SOURCE: Reuters, April 23, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2004.html#1082692802

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1082692802

 

10. BABY, IT'S YOU

http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=208950 & site=3

A survey of youth marketers, PR and advertising professionals found

that, while respondents say children are " unable to make

intelligent choices as consumers " until nearly 12 years old, it's

OK to market to seven year olds. Just over 60 percent of those

surveyed say advertising targets children at too young an age, but

others feel " educational purposes " and brand loyalty justify

targeting three year olds. The president of The Wonder Group, a

youth-marketing agency, said: " When we do research, the parents

want the child to know about the product... As a marketer do you

really care that the consumer is getting exactly the message you

want or can recognize the brand? They point to Tony the Tiger. "

SOURCE: PR Week, April 23, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2004.html#1082692801

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1082692801

 

 

13. AND NOW, A WORD FROM OUR EARTH DAY SPONSOR

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/opinion/22JOHN.html

" Through concerted marketing and public relations campaigns...

'greenwashers' attract eco-conscious consumers and push the notion

that they don't need environmental regulations because they are

already environmentally responsible. Greenwashing appears in

misleading product labels like 'all natural' and 'eco-friendly'; in

television commercials showing S.U.V.'s rolling peacefully through

the wilderness; and in the co-opting of environmental buzzwords

like 'sound science' and 'sustainability', " writes Geoffrey Johnson

in a New York Times op/ed. Today, " petroleum powers [Marathan Oil

and ChevronTexaco], big-box developers [Wal-Mart], old-growth

loggers [sierra Pacific] and chemically dependent coffee companies

[starbucks] [are] trying to paint their public image green " by

sponsoring local Earth Day celebrations across the country.

SOURCE: New York Times, April 22, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2004.html#1082606400

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1082606400

 

14. THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25451-2004Apr19.html

" Americans seeking to know what President Bush said in his phone

conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this

month went to the obvious place: the Kremlin, " writes Dana Milbank.

" It may come as a surprise to some that the Kremlin, symbol of

secrecy and repression, has become more transparent that the White

House, symbol of freedom and democracy... Agence France-Presse

White House correspondent Olivier Know has proposed a slogan for

the Bush team: 'When we have something to announce, another country

will announce it'. " Milbank notes that the White House has also

refused to confirm meetings with foreign dignitaries, domestic

trips, overseas diplomatic appointments and T-ball games announced

by others.

SOURCE: The Washington Post, April 20, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2004.html#1082433602

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1082433602

 

15. PRSA TALKS THE ETHICAL TALK

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/04/20/prsa_ryan.html

The Public Relations Society of America has issued a statement

saying that video news releases (VNRs) should no longer use

signoffs like the one that got Karen Ryan into hot water: " In

Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting. " According to the PRSA

statement, " This has caused some confusion among people who

question whether someone who is not actually a reporter should be

identified in a manner that could suggest that he or she is a

journalist. While this is often done when VNRs are produced, we

agree that this can be considered confusing and/or misleading. "

PRSA also says that " Television stations airing VNRs should

identify sources of the material. " The Campaign Desk web site,

which has done some of the best reporting on the Karen Ryan affair,

says it is " too early to tell if these changes will actually reduce

the number of VNRs that end up running as news - or even eliminate

the practice of using PR reps to impersonate reporters. But it

seems safe to say that hereafter, PR companies, government

agencies, and corporations will proceed with a little more caution

in using this particular tactic. "

SOURCE: PressThink, April 20, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2004.html#1082433601

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1082433601

 

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