The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, September 8, 2004

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> 8 Sep 2004 05:00:00 -0000

 

> The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, September 8,

> 2004

> weekly-spin-admin

>

> THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, September 8, 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

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> THIS WEEK'S NEWS

>

> 1. Dem Advisors Flip Flop Hats

> 2. When Is A Front Group Not A Front Group?

> 3. The Pampered Press

> 4. Spreading Freedom at the RNC

> 5. Oily (Not Girly) Men

> 6. They Fought the Law and the Law Won

> 7. The Right Angle

> 8. In a Class of Their Own

> 9. Back to the Future

> 10. Winning the War on Terror?

> 11. Moore Bad News

> 12. Hijacking Catastrophe

> 13. Tick Tock TV Set Convention Coverage

>

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>

> 1. DEM ADVISORS FLIP FLOP HATS

>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/politics/campaign/08adviser.html

> " Just last week, Stanley Greenberg was the polling

> mastermind

> guiding the way three liberal groups spent tens of

> millions of

> dollars attacking President Bush and registering

> voters. But he

> quit that position to be an unpaid adviser to the

> Kerry campaign as

> it presses to sharpen its message in the final 56

> days before the

> election. Mr. Greenberg is just the latest in a

> procession of top

> strategists who have moved between the campaigns

> and advocacy

> groups called 527's - the very organizations that

> are not supposed

> to coordinate their activities under campaign

> finance rules. "

> SOURCE: New York Times, September 8, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094616000

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094616000

>

> 2. WHEN IS A FRONT GROUP NOT A FRONT GROUP?

>

http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=221378 & site=3

> " We have been wrongfully labeled as an auto

> industry front group, "

> Ron DeFore, communications director for SUV Owners

> of America, told

> PR Week. The group is running a campaign opposing

> proposed

> regulations in California to limit truck and SUV

> emissions. Defore

> is also a principal at Stratacom, a PR firm that

> counts the auto

> industry as one of its biggest clients. Defore

> also told PR Week

> that Stratacomm had created the non-profit status

> of the SUV group

> two years ago after buying the name and other

> assets from its

> founder. " There was a tremendous need in the

> public-policy arena,

> as well as the media, for some balance to be

> brought to the

> coverage on SUVs, " Defore said. California

> represents 10% of the US

> auto market.

> SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), September 6, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094600434

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094600434

>

> 3. THE PAMPERED PRESS

>

http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?site=3 & ID=221135 & site=3 & /news/news_sto\

ry.cfm & setcookie=1

> " Reporters who cover political conventions are

> accustomed to tiny

> workspaces, often shoddy technical setups, and

> few, if any,

> luxuries, " PR Week writes. " Last week, New York

> City and the GOP -

> with the help of GCI Group- went to great lengths

> to break the

> mold. Journalists covering the Republican National

> Convention ...

> were treated to world-class accouterments,

> including facials,

> tailoring services, and gourmet food - drawing a

> marked contrast

> from the rather cramped conditions at the

> Democratic National

> Convention held last month in Boston. Most of the

> pampering took

> place across the street from [Madison Square]

> Garden in The Barneys

> Lounge, sponsored by upscale clothier Barneys ...

> The services were

> arranged by the 2004 New York City Host Committee

> and supervised

> (and aggressively publicized) by GCI. " The PR firm

> told PR Week,

> " We're basically saying to the reporters, 'We know

> you're working

> hard. Let us make your lives easier while you're

> in New York.' "

> SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd.), September 6, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094443200

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094443200

>

> 4. SPREADING FREEDOM AT THE RNC

> http://www.alternet.org/election04/19783/

> " Over the first three nights, the Republican

> Convention speakers

> carefully crafted a tri-partite frame for George

> W. Bush's Thursday

> acceptance speech: Night 1: The Global War on

> Terror defines our

> lives and our generation. Night 2: With enough

> discipline, all

> Americans can pull themselves up by their

> bootstraps and become

> prosperous. Those girly men have only themselves

> to blame. Night 3:

> Kerry is weak, unpatriotic, antimilitary, against

> national

> security, without resolve, soft-hearted, confused,

> and totally

> unfit to be commander-in-chief, " linguistics

> professor George

> Lakoff writes. Examining the domestic agenda

> section of Bush's

> speech, Lakoff observes, " The 'opportunity

> society' rhetoric is

> crafted to sound like it will remedy the same ills

> that the

> Democrats are talking about. But it is virtually

> the opposite in

> real content. " The rest of Bush's speech was on

> the War on Terror,

> " though he never once used the phrase. The frame

> inspiring terror

> had been well established on previous nights,

> leaving Bush to talk

> about spreading freedom. Significantly, he did not

> once use the

> phrase 'war on terror,' but did use the word

> 'liberty' 11 times and

> 'free' or 'freedom' 23 times, " Lakoff writes.

> SOURCE: Alternet, September 3, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094184003

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094184003

>

> 5. OILY (NOT GIRLY) MEN

>

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/9571776.htm?1c

> " Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious plan to

> reorganize almost

> every aspect of state government was influenced

> significantly by

> oil and gas giant ChevronTexaco, " including

> " streamlining the

> permit process for the construction of new oil

> refineries " and

> " reorganizing the regulatory process for ...

> energy facilities, "

> reports Associated Press. ChevronTexaco, " one of

> about 20 companies

> that paid the send the governor and his staff to

> this week's

> Republican National Convention, " has contributed

> more than $200,000

> to Schwarzenegger committees and $500,000 to the

> California

> Republican Party since the October recall

> election. " That is what

> we are here for, " said ChevronTexaco's general

> manager over state

> government relations.

> SOURCE: Associated Press, September 3, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094184002

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094184002

>

> 6. THEY FOUGHT THE LAW AND THE LAW WON

>

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/03/protest/

> " As Republicans inside Madison Square Garden

> praised the NYPD for

> keeping order, " writes Michelle Goldberg, " grim

> stories of

> preemptive, arbitrary arrests, filthy jail

> conditions and long

> detentions without access to attorneys circulated

> among protesters,

> lawyers and quite a few ordinary New Yorkers who

> were arrested for

> being in the wrong place at the wrong time. ...

> Whenever groups of

> activists gathered, row upon row of riot cops

> would surround them

> with orange plastic netting and often arrest

> everyone inside,

> including journalists and bystanders. Police then

> defied state law

> by holding many people well over 24 hours without

> access to

> attorneys. " According to Elspeth Schell, whose

> daughter was among

> the detainees, " this is looking more and more like

> a South American

> Republic. "

> SOURCE: Salon.com, September 3, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094184001

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094184001

>

> 7. THE RIGHT ANGLE

>

http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=70970

> " Stephan Savoia glowed about the picture he would

> take at the end

> of the Republican National Convention, " writes

> Karen Brown

> Dunlap. " He planned it hours before the

> President's speech by

> suspending a camera high in Madison Square Garden

> for the right

> angle. He imagined the beauty of the moment, but

> he also growled in

> anger. 'The picture will be exactly what the White

> House wanted,'

> he said. It would show President George W. Bush

> surrounded by a

> cheering crowd, family, confetti, and balloons

> after his nomination

> acceptance speech. He would be standing on a

> special stage with the

> Presidential seal underfoot. 'Why do you think

> they put the

> Presidential seal on the floor?' Savoia said.

> " We're sucked into

> the photo op.' "

> SOURCE: Poynter Online, September 3, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094184000

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094184000

>

> 8. IN A CLASS OF THEIR OWN

>

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=42547

> " Shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist

> hijackings, the

> Pentagon hired the Rendon Group to orchestrate

> sympathetic media

> coverage around the globe, including Muslim

> countries. The firm has

> worked for the government of Kuwait since the

> Persian Gulf War. In

> the 1990s, the CIA hired the Rendon Group to wage

> a public

> relations war against Saddam Hussein. ... Rendon

> helped create and

> promote the Iraqi National Congress, the exile

> group headed by

> Ahmed Chalabi. " The PR firm has come under

> scrutiny again, for

> receiving more than $14,000 of Massachusetts'

> anti-terrorism funds

> to videotape a state police graduation ceremony in

> August 2002.

> SOURCE: Boston Herald, September 2, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094097603

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094097603

>

> 9. BACK TO THE FUTURE

> http://www.slate.com/id/2106214/

> " For $2.4 trillion, guess what word other than

> 'a,' 'and,' and

> 'the' - occurs most frequently in the acceptance

> speech George W.

> Bush delivered tonight, " writes William Saletan.

> " The word is

> 'will.' It appears 76 times. This was a speech all

> about what Bush

> will do, and what will happen, if he becomes

> president. Except he

> already is president. He already ran this

> campaign. He promised

> great things. They haven't happened. So, he's

> trying to go back in

> time. He wants you to see in him the potential you

> saw four years

> ago. He can't show you the things he promised, so

> he asks you to

> envision them. ... Bush pointed to the wars he had

> launched and the

> bills he had signed, but he couldn't point to the

> benefits those

> laws and wars were supposed to deliver. The

> benefits haven't

> happened yet. They 'will.' "

> SOURCE: Slate, September 2, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094097602

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094097602

>

> 10. WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR?

> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5889435/

> " As speakers at the GOP convention trumpet Bush

> administration

> successes in the war on terrorism, an NBC News

> analysis of Islamic

> terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, shows that attacks

> are on the rise

> worldwide - dramatically, " report Robert Rivas and

> Robert Windrem

> NBC News. " Of the roughly 2,929 terrorism-related

> deaths around the

> world since the attacks on New York and

> Washington, the NBC News

> analysis shows 58 percent of them - 1,709 - have

> occurred this

> year. "

> SOURCE: MSNBC, September 2, 2004

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094097601

>

> 11. MOORE BAD NEWS

>

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

1000623684

> " Security guards at the Republican National

> Convention overreacted

> when USA Today guest columnist Michael Moore

> entered Madison Square

> Garden Monday night and were responsible for a

> disruption that made

> it difficult for several members of the press,

> including Moore, to

> cover the proceedings, said the U.S. House Daily

> Press Gallery,

> which oversees press credentials for the

> convention. The gallery

> conducted a review of the Monday incident, which

> it calls the worst

> case of police media control since the 1968

> Chicago convention. "

> SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, September 2, 2004

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094097600

>

> 12. HIJACKING CATASTROPHE

>

http://www.mef.tv/index.php?module=pagesetter & func=viewpub & tid=2 & pid=1

> A new video from the Media Education Foundation

> examines how the

> Bush administration uses the Sept. 11 terrorist

> attacks to

> manipulate Americans. Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11,

> Fear & the

> Selling of American Empire places the last three

> years of White

> House deceptions in a global context, asking

> questions seldom posed

> by mainstream corporate media. The hour-long

> documentary features

> nearly twenty political observers, including Lt.

> Colonel Karen

> Kwiatkowski, former Chief UN Weapons Inspector

> Scott Ritter, former

> Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg, Nobel Peace

> Prize Laureate Jody

> Williams, international activist Vandan Shiva,

> journalism academic

> Robert Jensen, and musician Michael Franti. " By

> helping us

> understand how fear is being actively cultivated

> and manipulated by

> the current administration, Hijacking Catastrophe

> stands to become

> an explosive and empowering information weapon in

> this decisive

> year in U.S. history, " writes Naomi Klein, author

> of No Logo.

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094070476

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094070476

>

> 13. TICK TOCK TV SET CONVENTION COVERAGE

>

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/08/31/cnn_rnc.html

> " The idea was to grab a location 'that screamed

> New York.' And said

> politics, " PressThink's Jay Rosen writes of his

> meeting with Sam

> Feist, CNN senior executive producer for political

> programming, at

> the Tick Tock Diner, a " real " New York City diner

> catty corner from

> Madison Square Garden that is being used as a TV

> set for CNN's

> convention coverage. While CNN sees the story of

> the RNC taking

> place inside the convention hall, Feist told Rosen

> the network is

> ready to cover the protests " a little or a lot, it

> depends on the

> size of the protests, it frankly depends on

> whether any protests

> turn violent, ... and obviously whether or not the

> protests disrupt

> the convention. " Rosen asked Feist, " The protests

> disrupt the

> convention if they disrupt the televising of the

> convention-- isn't

> that so? " He answered, " I don't see that the

> protests have

> disrupted the televising of the convention and I

> don't see that

> happening. " Rosen writes in his blog: " New York

> and Boston are

> parallel events, they will get equal coverage.

> There was nothing to

> puzzle over, even with the signs of a counter

> convention on the

> streets of New York. We cover the news, Sam

> reasoned. If the

> protests make news, we'll cover that. "

> SOURCE: Press Think, September 1, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2004.html#1094011200

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1094011200

>

>

>

----

>

> The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers

> at the

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