The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, August 11, 2004

[Guest guest]

> 11 Aug 2004 05:00:01 -0000

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> The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, August 11, 2004

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>

> THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, August 11, 2004

>

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> sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy

> (www.prwatch.org)

>

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> The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries

> with links to

> further information about current public relations

> campaigns.

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> THIS WEEK'S NEWS

>

> 1. Not a Client to Bring Home to Mom

> 2. RNC: A Marketplace of GOP Ideas

> 3. Kids: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

> 4. Total Ad Saturation

> 5. Al-Jazeera Gets a Time Out

> 6. Politics vs Science, Round 432

> 7. PR Firm Needs Good PR

> 8. Media Is Sell

> 9. Bizarro Media Analysis, Part II

> 10. Wanting to Have Your Cake, Eat It Too, and Get

> Another Slice

> 11. When Vets Attack

> 12. Playing Good Flack, Bad Flack

> 13. Your Flack at Five

> 14. Bizarro Media Analysis

> 15. Angry Arabs

> 16. Employing America (Sort Of)

>

----

>

> 1. NOT A CLIENT TO BRING HOME TO MOM

> http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0810asg_eritrea.htm

> Eritrea " signed Alexander Strategy Group, a firm

> with strong

> Republican ties, to a contract worth more than

> $300K a year to

> improve its ties with the United States. "

> According to Amnesty

> International, " torture, arbitrary detention,

> 'disappearances' and

> ill-treatment of political prisoners " are common

> in the Horn of

> Africa nation. Human Rights Watch reports, " The

> Eritrean government

> has lobbied the United States to use Eritrea's Red

> Sea ports as

> military bases in the war against terrorism. " The

> contract " forbids

> the [Alexander Strategy Group] from discussing its

> work without the

> consent of Eritrea. " The Alexander Strategy

> Group's other clients

> include the Nuclear Energy Institute, Blackwater

> USA and PhRMA.

> SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (reg. req'd), August 10,

> 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1092110402

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092110402

>

> 2. RNC: A MARKETPLACE OF GOP IDEAS

> http://nytimes.com/2004/08/10/nyregion/10gop.html

> The Republican National Convention's entertainment

> director, former

> Gospel Music Association president Frank Breeden,

> calls his part of

> the program " Preachers and Patriots. " He

> explained, " Entertainment

> plays more of a prominent role in marketing

> messages today than

> ever before, " and convention organizers want to

> use music and

> culture to sell their political philosophy " just

> like Cadillac uses

> Led Zeppelin. " With limited network coverage, " we

> have to think

> like television, use a large pallet of creative

> ideas to convey the

> message. " Breeden is also " competing with the many

> parties that are

> being held by politicians, elected officials,

> lobbyists and

> corporations. Many have booked performers who

> might otherwise have

> appeared at the convention. "

> SOURCE: New York Times, August 10, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1092110401

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092110401

>

> 3. KIDS: BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID

>

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & cid=679 & ncid=742 & e=18 & u=/usatoday/20\

040810/cm_usatoday/kidsroleinsecuringusa

> The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's new

> " Ready for Kids "

> program will " teach fourth- to eighth-grade kids

> the ABCs of

> emergency preparedness in the event of a terrorist

> attack, " with

> help from " a mascot - an American shepherd dog -

> and instructions

> to bug parents to develop a family emergency

> plan. " The program,

> part of " National Preparedness Month " in

> September, will include TV

> and radio ads, a website and partnerships with the

> Boy and Girl

> Scouts, Salvation Army and Chamber of Commerce. A

> December survey

> by GOP pollster Frank Luntz " showed that only 14%

> of Americans had

> created a family communications plan or emergency

> kit, despite

> much-higher numbers after 9/11. "

> SOURCE: USA Today, August 10, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1092110400

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092110400

>

> 4. TOTAL AD SATURATION

> The Democratic 527 group America Coming Together

> " is deploying

> thousands of supporters with PalmOne hand-helds to

> battleground

> states to play electronic ads individually for

> voters. " The 15

> state, $125 million get-out-the-vote effort's

> " canvassers were

> already using 2,000 Palms to track voters. ...

> [An] advertising

> consultant ... suggested that instead of just

> using the Palms to

> record information, the workers could also show

> voters

> state-specific political ads focused on an issue

> they care about. "

> ACT's political consultant said, " The response has

> been tremendous.

> Who has ever been to someone's door carrying a

> PalmPilot and

> showing an ad? Nobody! In some cases people have

> never seen a

> PalmPilot up close before. "

> SOURCE: Advertising Age, August 9, 2004

> Web links related to this story are available at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1092024000

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092024000

>

> 5. AL-JAZEERA GETS A TIME OUT

>

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/08/07/iraq.al.jazeera/

> " To protect the people of Iraq and the interests

> of Iraq, " Iraqi

> Prime Minister Ayad Allawi ordered the Al-Jazeera

> television

> network's Baghdad offices closed for one month.

> The closure " will

> give them the chance to readjust their policy

> against Iraq, " said

> Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib. An Interior

> Ministry statement

> charged Al-Jazeera with " contribut[ing] to

> hindering the Iraqi

> reconstruction process by justifying kidnappings

> and killing of

> foreigners working here. " Former U.S. ambassador

> to Qatar Kenton

> Keith said Al-Jazeera has a slant which " most

> Americans are not

> comfortable with, " but the network is " no more

> [biased] than other

> news organizations. "

> SOURCE: CNN, August 8, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091937600

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091937600

>

> 6. POLITICS VS SCIENCE, ROUND 432

>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/politics/07frazer.html

> Gary Frazer, the Interior Department's " senior

> career official in

> the Endangered Species Office, which has produced

> several

> scientific findings angering his political

> superiors in the Fish

> and Wildlife Service, was reassigned last week to

> a newly created

> post as his division's liaison to the United

> States Geological

> Survey. " Frazer's perhaps least admiring superior,

> Julie MacDonald,

> has been accused of creating " an overly cozy

> relationship between

> regulator and regulated " after she provided

> information helpful to

> the California Farm Bureau's effort to end

> endangered species

> protections for the delta smelt fish.

> SOURCE: New York Times, August 7, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091851200

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091851200

>

> 7. PR FIRM NEEDS GOOD PR

>

http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0806fh_enterprise.htm

> As if it hadn't gotten enough bad press lately, PR

> firm

> Fleishman-Hillard " is taking a media hit for its

> failed campaign on

> behalf of Enterprise Rent-A-Car to defeat a ...

> car rental tax to

> help pay for ... a $250 million arena in downtown

> Kansas City. " A

> mayoral aide suggested the firm " stay out of issue

> campaigning ...

> because they are incompetent. " Fleishman-Hillard

> lost another vote

> in support of riverboat gambling in Missouri, but

> " launched a major

> consumer education effort spotlighting healthy

> food and beverage

> products " made by PepsiCo. " Pepsi, like many food

> and beverage

> companies, has been criticized for contributing to

> the nation's

> obesity epidemic, " notes PR Week.

> SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd), August 6,

> 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091764803

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091764803

>

> 8. MEDIA IS SELL

>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44149-2004Aug5.html

> " Remember how the broadcast networks explained

> that they would

> cover only three hours of each of the four-day

> Democratic and

> Republican conventions because they are nothing

> more than

> infomercials? " asks Lisa de Moraes. Well, ABC and

> CBS will run

> " infomercials for products in which the networks

> have a financial

> interest " on their Friday newsmagazines. ABC will

> feature Victoria

> Gotti, of " Growing Up Gotti " on A & E, owned in part

> by ABC. CBS will

> feature Yoanna House, from the " America's Top

> Model " reality show

> on UPN, owned by CBS parent company Viacom. Fox

> will air a

> half-hour special on the " Alien vs. Predator "

> movie, from 20th

> Century Fox (although Fox News Channel, de Moraes

> notes, was " all

> over the convention " ).

> SOURCE: Washington Post, August 6, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091764802

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091764802

>

> 9. BIZARRO MEDIA ANALYSIS, PART II

>

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109175404288784675,00.html?mod=mm%5Fhs%5Fmedi\

a

> " At this late stage, media companies have grown so

> large and

> powerful, and their dominance has become so

> detrimental ... that

> there remains only one alternative: bust up the

> big conglomerates.

> ... We've done this before: to railroad trusts in

> the first part of

> the 20th century, to Ma Bell more recently.

> Politically, big media

> may be on the wrong side of history, " wrote Time

> Warner board

> member and Turner Broadcasting System founder Ted

> Turner, in an

> article for Washington Monthly magazine. Turner

> admits that he's

> benefited from media consolidation, but writes,

> " Yet I felt then,

> as I do now, that the government was not doing its

> job. "

> SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, August 6, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091764801

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091764801

>

> 10. WANTING TO HAVE YOUR CAKE, EAT IT TOO, AND GET

> ANOTHER SLICE

>

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews & storyID=5896708

> The U.S. Federal Election Commission unanimously

> dismissed Citizens

> United's complaint against the movie " Fahrenheit

> 9/11. " The

> conservative group, which previously mounted a

> failed court

> challenge against the campaign finance reform law,

> sought to bar

> ads for the movie after July 30. Campaign finance

> reform prohibits

> companies and unions from running

> candidate-related ads 60 days

> before an election and 30 days before a

> convention. But Citizens

> United is requesting a media exemption for itself,

> so that it can

> " run election-time ads for a book called 'The Many

> Faces of John

> Kerry: Why This Massachusetts Liberal is Wrong for

> America' ... and

> a documentary film on [Kerry] and his running

> mate, John Edwards. "

> SOURCE: Reuters, August 6, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091764800

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091764800

>

> 11. WHEN VETS ATTACK

>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/05/politics/campaign/05veterans.html

> " A group of Vietnam veterans has bought television

> time in three

> swing states for an advertisement that attacks

> Senator John Kerry,

> accusing him of lying about his war record,

> including the

> circumstances surrounding his medals, and

> betraying his comrades by

> later opposing the war. " The Swift Boat Veterans

> for Truth is a 527

> group that receives a significant amount of

> funding from Republican

> donors. The group worked with PR consultant Merrie

> Spaeth and

> Republican firm Stevens, Reed, Curcio & Potham;

> both were part of a

> nasty campaign against Senator John McCain during

> the 2000

> primaries. McCain blasted the new ad, saying, " I

> deplore this kind

> of politics. I think the ad is dishonest and

> dishonorable. "

> SOURCE: New York Times, August 5, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091678400

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091678400

>

> 12. PLAYING GOOD FLACK, BAD FLACK

> http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11486

> " On the eve of the Democratic National Convention

> ... well-dressed

> politicians, corporate executives and their

> friends watched

> [fireworks] from a private party at a waterfront

> restaurant. ...

> Rick Rendon [was] the man in charge of the party, "

> writes Pratap

> Chatterjee. Rick and brother John, senior staff

> for the secretive

> Rendon Group PR firm, present " two entirely

> different faces to the

> world while working out of the same corporation:

> Spin doctoring for

> the Colombian military's counter insurgency;

> encouraging citizens

> of Massachusetts to pay their taxes and recycle

> ... doing public

> relations for Jean Bertrand Aristide when he was

> being re-installed

> by the Clinton administration and for the citizen

> groups advocating

> the overthrow of Noreiga as the U.S. military

> invaded. "

> SOURCE: CorpWatch, August 4, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091592002

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091592002

>

> 13. YOUR FLACK AT FIVE

>

http://citypages.com/databank/25/1235/article12352.asp

> Cyndy Brucato recently returned as a news anchor

> on Minneapolis-St

> Paul's ABC affiliate - after nearly two decades of

> doing PR.

> " Brucato spun professionally for the likes of the

> Minnesota House

> Republican Caucus, the tobacco company Brown &

> Williamson, the

> pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, and Koch

> Industries. " She " remains

> the owner of a public relations firm - Brucato and

> Halliday - [but]

> says she is no longer involved in the day-to-day

> operations. " Since

> her return, " KSTP aired one of its more peculiar

> offerings: a

> soft-focus feature about a suburban couple who

> were upset that

> Planned Parenthood is selling T-shirts emblazoned

> with the words,

> 'I had an abortion.' The story [was] apparently

> plucked from the

> Drudge Report. "

> SOURCE: City Pages (Minneapolis-St Paul), August 4,

> 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091592001

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091592001

>

> 14. BIZARRO MEDIA ANALYSIS

>

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=\

1000592440

> " I think there are a lot of reasons to be critical

> of the media in

> America. I think that a lot of times the media

> sensationalize or

> magnify things that aren't - that really shouldn't

> be. I do think

> there's a big move away from actual reporting,

> trying to report

> facts. It's in newspapers and everything you read

> - that a lot more

> is opinion, " said First Lady Laura Bush, in an

> interview with Fox

> News Channel's " The O'Reilly Factor. "

> SOURCE: Associated Press, August 4, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091592000

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091592000

>

> 15. ANGRY ARABS

>

http://www.juancole.com/2004_08_01_juancole_archive.html#109155146717746999

> Two new opinion polls show that Arab anger at the

> United States has

> deepened - " to such an extent that in Egypt - an

> important ally in

> the region - nearly 100 percent of the population

> now holds an

> unfavorable opinion of the country, " reports the

> Washington Post's

> Dafna Linzer. The polls were conducted by Zogby

> International,

> which did similar polling two years ago. " In

> Zogby's 2002 survey,

> 76 percent of Egyptians had a negative attitude

> toward the United

> States, compared with 98 percent this year, "

> Linzer writes. " In

> Morocco, 61 percent viewed the country unfavorably

> in 2002, but in

> two years, that number has jumped to 88 percent.

> In Saudi Arabia,

> such responses rose from 87 percent in 2002 to 94

> percent in June.

> Attitudes were virtually unchanged in Lebanon but

> improved slightly

> in the [united Arab Emirates], from 87 percent who

> said in 2002

> that they disliked the United States to 73 percent

> this year. " As

> Middle East historian Juan Cole observes, this

> marks a significant

> change in attitude from the last year of the

> Clinton

> administration, when the U.S. favorability rating

> in some Middle

> Eastern countries was as high as 75%. " Even after

> the Afghanistan

> war, a third of Jordanians thought well of the

> US, " Cole writes.

> " Now almost no one anywhere does. These changes in

> attitude (which

> greatly benefit al-Qaeda) are mostly the result of

> [the] war on,

> and occupation of Iraq. "

> SOURCE: Informed Comment weblog, August 3, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091505601

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091505601

>

> 16. EMPLOYING AMERICA (SORT OF)

>

http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?site=3 & ID=218474 & site=3 & /news/news_story.c\

fm & setcookie=1

> " We Employ America, a national cooperative

> marketing and

> advertising campaign targeting the loss of

> American jobs to

> outsourcing, " was launched by Milwaukee-based ad

> firm Catral Doyle

> Creative. WEA describes itself as " a

> market-driven, consumer

> focused program ... designed to pool the resources

> of enrolled

> American manufacturers to inform consumers that,

> by choosing to

> purchase products from WEA member companies, they

> are supporting

> American jobs and economic stability. " To join

> WEA, " potential

> corporate members " must simply " demonstrate it has

> at least one

> product ... [with] at least 65% of the total cost

> of the

> components, manufacture and packaging incurred

> within the United

> States. "

> SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd), August 3, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091505600

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091505600

>

>

>

----

>

> The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers

> at the

> Center for Media and Democracy. To or

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