Guest guest Posted July 6, 2005 Report Share Posted July 6, 2005 6 Jul 2005 15:42:01 -0000 weekly-spin Book The Weekly Spin, July 6, 2005 THE WEEKLY SPIN, July 6, 2005 --- sponsored by the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy http://www.prwatch.org To support our work now online visit: https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0 --- The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to further information about media, political spin and propaganda. It is emailed free each Wednesday to rs. SHARE US WITH A FRIEND (OR FIFTY FRIENDS) Who do you know who might want to receive Spin of the Week? Help us grow our r list! Just forward this message to people you know, encouraging them to sign up at this link: http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/_sotd.html --- THIS WEEK'S NEWS == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. America Supports You ... Kind Of: Bush's Support of Troops Misleading 2. Oprah Not " The Only Mad Cow In America, " Thanks to Texas Governor Perry == SPIN OF THE DAY == 1. Queen or King of All You Survey 2. Ethics Adviser Dumps On Shell 3. Where's That Spoonful of Sugar? 4. Store Wars: Return of the GMO Lobby 5. Spinning the Atom, Worldwide 6. The Invisible Hand of DuPont 7. When Journalists Embrace 'Reform' 8. U.S. House Says No Government-Funded Fake News 9. Laboring in Obscurity 10. Perception of Success Determines Public Support for War 11. Big Media's Ties to Corporate America ---- == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU ... KIND OF: BUSH'S SUPPORT OF TROOPS MISLEADING by Laura Miller " In this time of testing, our troops can know: The American people are behind you, " George W. Bush said in his national address last Tuesday night at Fort Bragg. " This Fourth of July, I ask you to find a way to thank the men and women defending our freedom - by flying the flag, sending a letter to our troops in the field, or helping the military family down the street. The Department of Defense has set up a website - AmericaSupportsYou.mil. You can go there to learn about private efforts in your own community. At this time when we celebrate our freedom, let us stand with the men and women who defend us all. " Traffic to the Pentagon's website, launched in November 2004, spiked with Bush's prime-time plug. " After the President's speech last night, the website was experiencing more than 10,000 hits per second, " White House spokesman Scott McClellan told the press corps. " Prior to the speech, it was about 103 hits per second. " A visit to AmericaSupportsYou.mil, however, raises questions about what the website is actually accomplishing. Could the site be nothing more than another Pentagon attempt to boost public support for war and distract the public's attention away from criticisms? For the rest of this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3807 2. OPRAH NOT " THE ONLY MAD COW IN AMERICA, " THANKS TO TEXAS GOVERNOR PERRY by John Stauber A popular Texas bumper sticker reads: " The only mad cow in America is Oprah. " Not anymore, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced that the first confirmed home-grown case of mad cow is a Texas beef cow. As Sheldon Rampton and I report in Mad Cow USA, the United States failed to take the measures necessary to stop the spread of the fatal dementia dubbed mad cow disease. However, a successful PR campaign by industry and government has, to this day, fooled most of the press and the public into believing that all necessary steps were taken long ago. A major part of the effort to spin and intimidate media coverage involved suing Oprah Winfrey under the Texas Food Disparagement Act, after her 1996 program examining mad cow risks in America. For the rest of this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3808 == SPIN OF THE DAY == 1. QUEEN OR KING OF ALL YOU SURVEY http://www.prwatch.org/survey/public/survey.php?name=citizenJournalism3 Since we launched our " No Fake News " survey last week, more than 450 people have responded. Thank you! Your input will help us develop our campaign to stop fake news - prepackaged TV and radio segments, paid pundits and other media manipulations presented, without disclosure, as independent journalism. If you haven't yet filled out our brief survey (at the above link), please do so today! The survey will only remain open until Wednesday, July 13. As a small thank you, ten randomly-selected survey respondents will win a free year's subscription to our award-winning quarterly journal, PR Watch. Why delay? Survey today! SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy, July 6, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3820 2. ETHICS ADVISER DUMPS ON SHELL http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1 & sy=afr & kw=Julie+Mack\ en & pb=afr & dt=selectRange & dr=today & so=relevance & s Following the execution of Nigerian environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and its attempt to dump the Brent Spar oil platform in the ocean, Shell appointed a dozen people to oversee its image overhaul. A decade later, Simon Longstaff, one of Shell's twelve and the director of Sydney's St. James Ethical Centre, lashed out at Shell. " The process we went through was thorough and exhaustive, but what concerned me was seeing the marketing arm of the company turn it into a PR exercise as soon as we had finished, " he said. " It was a process that should have happened slowly and been led from the top for real change to occur. Leveraging it for advertising and then having the process betrayed by the man at the top sent a very confused message to everyone in the company that wanted real change. " Longstaff's comments echo critiques of Shell's operations in Nigeria and apartheid South Africa. SOURCE: Australian Financial Review (sub. req'd.), July 6, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3819 3. WHERE'S THAT SPOONFUL OF SUGAR? http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112052096194576940,00.html?mod=mm%5Fmedia%5Fm\ arketing%5Fhs%5Fleft U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist called drug ads " fuel to America's skyrocketing drug costs " and asked companies to wait two years before advertising new drugs. Bristol-Myers Squibb set its own one-year moratorium on new drug ads. Legislation with bipartisan support would create a new office within the Food and Drug Administration to " evaluate advertisements for new drugs and high-risk drugs and treatments. " The American Medical Association is studying whether drug ads lead to " unnecessary prescriptions and higher health costs. " All this has the pharmaceutical industry " scrambling to respond. " The lobby group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America is " drafting new guidelines. " Drug ads should " include a greater discussion of the risks, " admitted PhRMA vice-president Ken Johnson. But if restrictions are placed on drug ads, " you'll probably see maybe more public relations " targeted to doctors, predicted Ogilvy & Mather's Michael Guarini. SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub. req'd.), July 5, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3818 4. STORE WARS: RETURN OF THE GMO LOBBY http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/13172157p-14015597c.html " Saying their livelihoods are threatened, powerful forces that drive California's $27 billion agricultural economy are mobilizing to defeat a November ballot initiative to ban biotech crops in Sonoma County, and possibly even prohibit such county bans with new legislation in coming days, " reports the Sacramento Bee. Sonoma County farm groups have raised $200,000 to fight the proposed " 10-year moratorium on growing genetically modified crops. " Their recent newspaper ad warned residents of anti-biotech groups' " scare tactics " and " fear and misinformation. " Statewide groups " have launched a political organizing effort, campaign Web site and fundraising operation to confront anti-biotech groups. " Three California counties have banned genetically engineered seeds. One state senator is trying to stop the Sonoma vote, by " stripping one of his air pollution bills of its language and inserting new language outlawing county bans on biotech seeds. " SOURCE: Sacramento Bee, July 3, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3817 5. SPINNING THE ATOM, WORLDWIDE http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/06/28/1119724585858.html " There are many reasons why nuclear power is back on the agenda, " reports Liz Minchin. There's global warming, and there's a " well funded and carefully planned international public relations strategy selling nuclear power as a 'clean, green and safe' solution to global warming. " International conferences have been key to the effort, writes Minchin. At a 2002 nuclear PR conference in Prague, the head of " the industry's peak global study, the World Nuclear Association, " called that year's World Summit on Sustainable Development " an enormous opportunity. " Former ABC reporter Alan Tate said the nuclear industry first " inundated " international conferences in 1998, " lobbying fiercely ... including with what appeared to be a number of front groups like Students for Nuclear Power. " But those early " fairly unsophisticated " efforts have become " much more polished performances " today. SOURCE: The Age (Australia), June 28, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3816 6. THE INVISIBLE HAND OF DUPONT http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/News/2005070236?pt=0 In March 2002, Andy Gallagher, then the spokesperson for West Virginia's Department of Environmental Protection, drafted a media release to inform residents in Wood County that the toxic chemical C8 was being emitted from DuPont's local plant. But the statement was never released. A Freedom of Information Act request filed with the federal Environment Protection Agency revealed that, in response to Gallagher's draft statement, DuPont PR official Dawn Jackson contacted company lawyer Ann Bradley. Due to DuPont's lobbying, Gallagher edited and then withdrew the statement. Last year, as part of a class action suit filed by local residents, Gallagher said West Virginia state toxicologist Dee Ann Staats insisted that all statements relating to C8 emissions be vetted by DuPont. SOURCE: Charleston Gazette (sub. req'd.), July 03, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3815 7. WHEN JOURNALISTS EMBRACE 'REFORM' http://afr.com/premium/articles/2005/07/01/1119724802230.html Reviewing the language used by journalists used to describe legislative changes designed to marginalise Australian unions, Deirdre Macken writes that stories in Rupert Murdoch's News Limited publications and by the publicly funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation often use the term " workplace reform. " A dictionary definition of " reform " , she notes, is making something " better by removal of faults or errors. " " Governments will always use the word reform in conjunction with legislative changes - think taxation reform, education reform, welfare reform - because it immediately gives them the moral high ground ... But the media should be more discerning. The first time they use the word 'reform', the debate is over, " she writes. SOURCE: Australian Financial Review (sub. req'd.), July 2, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3814 8. U.S. HOUSE SAYS NO GOVERNMENT-FUNDED FAKE NEWS http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2005/06/30/us_house_toughens_law_on_publ\ icity_propaganda/ The U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment barring the White House and federal agencies for one year from contracting with PR firms and journalists to secretly promote policies through the use of fake news. " The passage of this amendment is a critical victory for the American people who, as a result of these secret government contracts with writers, broadcasters, and public relations specialists, have been unable to determine whether they are receiving real, objective news or government-sponsored propaganda, " said Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), who chairs the Future of American Media Caucus and sponsored the amendment. " A properly functioning democracy depends on a news media that is free of any conflicts-of-interest, especially with the government that it is supposed to be holding accountable. " For more information, visit our No Fake News page. SOURCE: Boston Globe, June 30, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3812 9. LABORING IN OBSCURITY http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1155 & slug\ =Free+Trade+Studies " The Labor Department worked for more than a year to maintain secrecy for studies that were critical of working conditions in Central America, " reports the Associated Press. The department hired a contractor to study the likely effect of the Central America Free Trade Agreement, now before Congress. But the contractor, the International Labor Rights Fund, concluded that " labor laws on the books in Central America are not sufficient to deter employers from violations. " The Labor Department ordered the report removed from the contractor's website, sequestered paper copies and forbade discussions of it with outsiders. The department also launched " a pre-emptive campaign to undercut the study's conclusions, " disseminating talking points that called the report " unsubstantiated " and filled with " biased attacks, not the facts. " The department and " an independent evaluator " concluded that the contractor " failed to meet the academic rigor expected. " SOURCE: Associated Press, June 29, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3809 10. PERCEPTION OF SUCCESS DETERMINES PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR WAR http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/29/AR2005062902792.\ html George W. Bush's Tuesday night national address reflected " a purposeful strategy based on extensive study of public opinion about how to maintain support for a costly and problem-plagued military mission, " the Washington Post's Peter Baker and Dan Balz write. The White House consulted the work of Duke University political scientists Peter D. Feaver and Christopher F. Gelpi, who study public opinion during wartime. " The most important single factor in determining public support for a war is the perception that the mission will succeed, " Gelpi told the Post. Feaver recently joined the National Security Council, as " special adviser for strategic planning and institutional reform. " He questions " the widespread view that public opinion turned sour on the Vietnam War because of mounting casualties that were beamed into living rooms every night. Instead, Bush advisers have concluded that public opinion shifted after opinion leaders signaled that they no longer believed the United States could win, " the Post writes. SOURCE: Washington Post, June 30, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3805 11. BIG MEDIA'S TIES TO CORPORATE AMERICA http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert400.shtml " Mainstream media is the term often used to describe the collective group of big TV, radio and newspapers in the United States, " Project Censored's Peter Phillips writes. " However, mainstream media no longer produce news for the mainstream population - nor should we consider the media as plural. Instead it is more accurate to speak of big media in the US today as the corporate media and to use the term in the singular tense - as it refers to the singular monolithic top-down power structure of self-interested news giants. " Research carried out by Phillips and a team at Sonoma State University finds that " only 118 people comprise the membership on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. ... These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate boards of 288 national and international corporations. " SOURCE: MediaChannel.org, June 27, 2005 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3803 ---- The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a nonprofit public interest organization. To or unsubcribe, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/_sotd.html Daily updates and news from past weeks can be found at the " Spin of the Day " section of the Center website: http://www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html Archives of our quarterly publication, PR Watch, are at: http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues CMD also sponsors SourceWatch, a collaborative research project that invites anyone (including you) to contribute and edit articles: http://www.sourcewatch.org PR Watch, Spin of the Day, the Weekly Spin and SourceWatch are projects of the Center for Media & Democracy, a nonprofit organization that offers investigative reporting on the public relations industry. We help the public recognize manipulative and misleading PR practices by exposing the activities of secretive, little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that work to control political debates and public opinion. Please send any questions or suggestions about our publications to: editor Contributions to the Center for Media and Democracy are tax-deductible. Send checks to: CMD 520 University Ave. #227 Madison, WI 53703 To donate now online, visit: https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0 _________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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