Guest guest Posted August 16, 2006 Report Share Posted August 16, 2006 16 Aug 2006 15:37:01 -0000 weekly-spin The Weekly Spin, August 16, 2006 THE WEEKLY SPIN, August 16, 2006 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 " The Weekly Spin " ? 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. Congress vs. The President 2. " Vets for Freedom " Fight for Rove and Lieberman == SPIN OF THE DAY == 1. CMD's 'Fake TV News' Report Fuels FCC Investigation 2. Some Like It Hot 3. Ben Santer Speaks (While " Global Climate Coalition " Slinks into History) 4. BP's Adman Got Suckered by His Own Scripts 5. The Blogs of War 6. More Net Neutrality Front Groups 7. VFF Loves GI Joe 8. Spinning an Iraq Oil Kickbacks Confession 9. Restless Drug Promotion 10. McHummer 11. U.S. Spreads Its Diplomacy Around 12. Making Cuba Libre, for Public Relations 13. PsyOps: The Other Middle East Air War -- == BLOG POSTINGS == 1. CONGRESS VS. THE PRESIDENT by Conor Kenny About two weeks ago, on July 26, 2006, the American Bar Association issued a report condemning President Bush's use of " signing statements. " These statements are essentially a " P.S. " written underneath his signature on a piece of legislation that states how he interprets and intends to enforce the law. (This is part of the Unitary Executive Theory.) The ABA is not happy about this. From the press release for the report: " Presidential signing statements that assert President Bush’s authority to disregard or decline to enforce laws adopted by Congress undermine the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers... To address these concerns, the task force urges Congress to adopt legislation enabling its members to seek court review of signing statements that assert the President’s right to ignore or not enforce laws passed by Congress, and urges the President to veto bills he feels are not constitutional. " The ABA asked and it shall receive: two days later Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) filed a bill that would allow the House or Senate to file a lawsuit to have the Supreme Court rule on the constitutionality of signing statements. Here's where Congresspedia comes in. I called Sen. Specter's office and confirmed that while the bill has been referred to Specter's Senate Judiciary Committee, there has yet to be a hearing and no other Senators have signed up to be cosponsors. So, where do members of the Senate stand on Specter's bill? Citizen journalists, help us find out. For the rest of this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5078 2. " VETS FOR FREEDOM " FIGHT FOR ROVE AND LIEBERMAN by John Stauber The Republican lobby group Vets for Freedom is the 2006 equivalent of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the Republican 527 committee whose attack advertisements in battleground states helped sink John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race by smearing him as a phony war hero and a traitor to his country. Vets for Freedom (VFF) made lame claims to be " non-partisan " when in early 2006 it first appeared out of the blue online and in op-ed pieces in the New York Times and other major papers and in TV interviews. An investigation of the group by citizen journalists at SourceWatch and by the Buffalo News blew the VFF claim of non-partisanship out of the water. For instance, the Buffalo News revealed in June that former White House flack Taylor Gross, who left Scott McClellan's office in 2005 to start his own PR firm, represented VFF and pitched them to papers as non-partisan journalists who would embed for these newspapers and report accurately and cheaply for them from Iraq. Now the camouflage has fallen completely off. Vets for Freedom has registered itself as a 527 committee and is going to run a full page advertisement in Connecticut's Hartford Courant on behalf of Joe Lieberman's renegade run for re-election to the US Senate as a 'stay the course in Iraq' candidate. For the rest of this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5077 == SPIN OF THE DAY == 1. CMD'S 'FAKE TV NEWS' REPORT FUELS FCC INVESTIGATION http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081401006.\ html The Washington Post reports, " The Federal Communications Commission has sent letters to 77 television broadcasters, asking whether their stations had properly labeled 'video news releases' ... before broadcasting them. ... The FCC inquiry follows an April study by the watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy that found that 77 stations had aired video news releases without properly labeling them. ... The survey's 'fake news' spots, as the center calls them, were produced by corporations, such as Panasonic Corp. and General Motors Corp. and trade groups. ... '[T]he investigation is really important because otherwise stations won't take seriously the disclosure laws that are already on the books,' the study's co-author, Diane Farsetta, said in an interview. 'The current practice is such a flagrant breach of the disclosure laws, we're happy that it looks like the FCC is putting some teeth in them.' " The ongoing fake TV news scandal is being widely covered in print press such as Bloomberg, Reuters, Ad Age and others. (Maybe TV news outlets are waiting to receive a VNR about the FCC investigation?) SOURCE: Washington Post, August 15, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5087 2. SOME LIKE IT HOT http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/boudreaux/s_46\ 5727.html Numerous climate change skeptics have spent most of the two decades denying increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations were anything to worry about. Donald J. Boudreaux, the chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University and an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute, takes a different tack. Referring to a recent New York Times report on increasing human longevity, Boudreaux attributes the change to the economic productivity of " capitalism. " Turning to climate change, he argues that " it's a perfectly legitimate stance for truly reasonable people to conclude that the best policy regarding global warming is to neglect it -- and let capitalism continue to make us healthier and wealthier. " SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, August 13, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5085 3. BEN SANTER SPEAKS (WHILE " GLOBAL CLIMATE COALITION " SLINKS INTO HISTORY) http://pubs.acs.org//journals/esthag-w/2006/aug/policy/pt_santer.html It " was one of the most vicious attacks I have ever seen on the integrity of a scientist, " says one scientist on how the energy industry used to treat federal global climate expert Ben Santer. Santer's " heresy " was a 1995 report, known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Second Assessment and the following words: " The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate. " At that time, more than 70 groups from the American Petroleum Institute to Union Carbide, painted their target (and rhetoric) on Santer. The Global Climate Coalition set an early standard for front groups and astroturf, and accused Santer of " scientific cleansing " when the world was reeling from Bosnia's " ethnic cleansing. " Now the GCC is defunct and Santer's work has been afffirmed by sophisticated new testing, models and technology. Santer reflects: " I was a messenger bearing news that some very powerful people did not want to hear. So they went after the messenger. ... I just happened to get in the way and had to be discredited. " Today, says Santer, " All of us--policymakers, public, media, and scientists--have important roles in [climate change] debate. Let's hope it takes place sooner rather than later. " SOURCE: Environmental Science & Technology Online News, August 9, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5083 4. BP'S ADMAN GOT SUCKERED BY HIS OWN SCRIPTS http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/opinion/14kenney.html BP is the most successful oil company at greenwashing its own image. Unfortunately for BP, the recent news about its massive oil leak in Alaska and the shutting down of its corrosive pipelines have revealed the truth -- it really is all about oil profits. In the New York Times , a BP adman admits that even he was suckered. John Kenney writes, " Six years ago I helped create BP’s current advertising campaign, the man-in-the-street television commercials. I can’t take credit for changing the company’s name from 'British Petroleum' to 'beyond petroleum' (lower case is cooler); my boss at the time came up with it. ... I believed wholeheartedly in BP’s message, that we could go -- or at least work toward going -- beyond petroleum. " Now Kenney sees it differently: " They didn’t go beyond petroleum. They are petroleum. " SOURCE: New York Times, August 14, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5082 5. THE BLOGS OF WAR http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/08/10/Blogging/ Amid the growing media attention surrounding the Israel-Lebanon-Hezbollah conflict in the Middle East, dozens of independent blogs are providing eyewitness accounts and describing what life is like in the middle of a war. Crawford Kilian offers a rundown of a number of blogs whose views range from pro-Hezbollah to pro-Israel. According to Lisa Goldman, the war in Lebanon may be " the first conflict to be blogged from day one " and " the first time that residents of 'enemy' countries engaged in an ongoing conversation while missiles were falling. " SOURCE: The Tyee (Canada), August 14, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5081 6. MORE NET NEUTRALITY FRONT GROUPS http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG & b=2007877 & auid=1871905 Back in March, Common Cause released " Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, " which detailed the activities of nine groups masquerading as think tanks and public interest organizations when in fact they were front groups for telephone and cable companies in the net neutrality debate. Now they've added another five groups to the list: " For example, Hands off the Internet sounds like activists wanting to protect the Internet. Actually, it's a telecommunications industry-backed organization that was spending $20,000 a day on television commercials aimed at eliminating long-standing net neutrality protections so that telephone and cable companies can maximize profit and minimize competition on the Internet. " SOURCE: Common Cause, August 10, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5079 7. VFF LOVES GI JOE http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB115517527587831779.htm Vets for Freedom is a 527 committee managed by Republican public relations and political consultants, including Taylor Gross, attempting to defeat candidates who advocate an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The Wall Street Journal reports that in Connecticut, " An organization of mainly Republican veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is working with Republican strategist Dan Senor to boost Joe Lieberman's efforts to win re-election as an independent. Mr. Senor is working in an unpaid capacity for Vets for Freedom, which plans to kick off its pro-Lieberman push with a full-page ad in Monday's Hartford Courant that praises Mr. Lieberman for 'integrity, leadership, and unwavering commitment to America's troops.' The organization hopes to run other print and radio ads in the fall, and is also planning on campaigning door-to-door for Mr. Lieberman and holding a public rally on his behalf. 'These vets are grateful to Sen. Lieberman for not letting politics compromise his positions, and they wanted to express that,' Mr. Senor says. " Senor previously did media work for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), August 10, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5076 8. SPINNING AN IRAQ OIL KICKBACKS CONFESSION http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20084091-1702,00.html Faced with a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the payment of approximately $A300 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government, in breach of the United Nations' Iraq Oil-for-Food Program, the Australian wheat trader AWB Limited hired crisis management guru Peter Sandman to help it draft an apology. The Australian inquiry released e-mails between Sandman and AWB, which reveal that Sandman's proposed confessional statement was watered down by ABW's other PR adviser, Ian Smith from Gavin Anderson & Company. " The less you blame yourself, the more the public will blame you. You aren't blaming yourself nearly enough in this draft, " Sandman wrote in one e-mail. Sandman's original three-page statement was eventually pared back to only one page. However, AWB executives decided not to make a public apology at all. The inquiry resumes public hearings in two weeks. SOURCE: News.com.au (Australia), August 10, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5075 9. RESTLESS DRUG PROMOTION http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2300695,00.html GlaxoSmithKline breached the British drug industry's own self-regulatory code of conduct by promoting ropinirole to treat restless legs syndrome before the drug had been approved for that use. The Sunday Times reports that GSK ran ads between September 2004 and November 2005 directing sufferers to the website of the Ekbom Support Group. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's complaints panel, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority, ruled that " GSK was, in effect, directing patients to a website that contained misleading messages about the safety of ropinirole, which might indirectly encourage patients to ask their doctors to prescribe it. " Some doctors have cited " restless legs syndrome " as an example of disease mongering, where the prevalence of a condition is exaggerated as a way of increasing the potential market for related drugs. SOURCE: The Sunday Times (UK), August 6, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5074 10. MCHUMMER http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/business/media/10adco.html? During August, U.S. McDonald's is teaming up with GM to include a model of the gas-guzzling Hummer in its " Happy Meals. " The New York Times notes that McDonald's " appears not to have gotten the message " about rising petrol prices. In an attempt to gain mainstream media coverage for its " Hummer of a Summer " marketing campaign, McDonald's organised a lunch-hour parade down Chicago's Michigan Avenue featuring Ronald McDonald on the hood of a Hummer. In support of its promotion, McDonald's released an electronic press kit, including B-roll video footage for use by television stations or websites. Shannelle Armstrong, McDonald's U.S. communications manager, told PR Week that the company evaluates how " overall store sales are affected when we do a push, and not just for Happy Meals. " SOURCE: New York Times, August 10, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5073 11. U.S. SPREADS ITS DIPLOMACY AROUND http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115515302287431295.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone " To make up for the diplomatic damage done by the Iraq war and to try and leave the U.S. better positioned to respond to -- and possibly even pre-empt -- conflagrations of the future, " the Bush administration is trying to make foreign-service officers " more agile and less hemmed in by the high walls and bureaucracies of the traditional embassy. " Currently, " a fifth of all U.S. diplomats are in Europe, which contains about a tenth of the world's population. " As part of the new push, " 100 or so positions [are] being moved from European capitals to China, India and a few other developing countries. " In Afghanistan, " senior-ranking diplomats ... work on democracy projects among U.S. military forces. " In Indonesia, Egypt and southern Sudan, the U.S. has " low-infrastructure, one-man 'presence posts' " ; similar posts are planned in Venezuela, India and China. SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), August 10, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5071 12. MAKING CUBA LIBRE, FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami/sfl-0807radiomarti,0,4268182.story?\ coll=sfla-news-miami Following news of Cuban President Fidel Castro's illness, " the United States beefed up its television transmissions to Cuba ... through its Miami-based TV Marti station, " reports Associated Press. " The Office of Cuba Broadcasting unveiled a new G-1 twin turbo propeller plane, which will increase the transmissions from one afternoon a week to six. " The 2006 U.S. budget includes $10 million, " to develop airborne TV broadcasting and counter the Cuban government's mostly successful efforts to jam the transmission. " Cuban officials may crack down on satellite dishes, which are illegal, saying that " a good part of the programming ... is destabilizing, interventionist, subversive. " Castro's death " could be the first step toward ending the decades-long U.S. embargo and opening the country to U.S. corporate interests, " writes PR Week. " Most PR firms interested in the Cuban market already have an idea of what they will do when Castro is out of the picture. " Burson-Marsteller's Latin America president called setting up Cuba operations " one of the biggest challenges ... but the opportunity is there. " SOURCE: Associated Press, August 7, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5069 13. PSYOPS: THE OTHER MIDDLE EAST AIR WAR http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080800603_\ pf.html " Cell phones and land lines across Lebanon have been ringing with automated, recorded messages -- part of a propaganda war being waged along with Israel's assault on Lebanon, " reports Associated Press. " The Israeli army has refused to confirm that is is behind the phone calls. But few Lebanese have any doubts. " One call asks, " Who is using you as human shields? " Similar messages appear on leaflets dropped by Israeli planes and in Israeli radio broadcasts into south Lebanon. The Los Angeles Times reports that " during three recent TV broadcasts, Israel has hacked into Hezbollah's Al Manar channel. ... The Israel Defense Forces had confirmed that the hacking was the work of the army's intelligence corps. " Professor Charles Harb at the American University of Beirut called the approaches " a classic psychological ploy " meant to make Lebanese civilians feel closer to their government and more distant from Hezbollah. SOURCE: Associated Press, August 8, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5068 -- 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 in the " Spin of the Day " section of CMD's website: http://www.prwatch.org/spin 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. For more information, visit: 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 Avenue, Suite 227 Madison, WI 53703 To donate now online, visit: https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0 _____________ Weekly-Spin mailing list Weekly-Spin http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/weekly-spin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.