Wanted 250,000 Americans to fight fake news
THE WEEKLY SPIN, March 16, 2005
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. WANTED: 250,000 Americans to Fight Fake News & Government Propaganda
2. Desperately Seeking Disclosure: What Happens When Public Funds Go To Private PR Firms?
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Investing in "Ethical" Uranium
2. Gloom in the Ranks of PR
3. Not So "Firewall," After All
4. Where the Buffalo Shills Roam
5. Video News Responses
6. State of the Fourth Estate
7. Ten Minutes from Normal Relations
8. Fake News on the BBC
9. The New York Times Catches on to VNRs
10. Pro-Cedar, Anti-Syria
11. Still in the Movie Business
12. McPositioning
13. Counting Votes First, Dead Later
14. The Reverse British Invasion
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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. WANTED: 250,000 AMERICANS TO FIGHT FAKE NEWS & GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA
by John Stauber
The Center for Media and Democracy is working with Free Press to
gather a quarter million signatures on our petition mobilizing the
American public to fight fake news and government propaganda. On
Sunday, the New York Times reported that at least 20 federal
agencies have made and distributed pre-packaged, ready-to-serve
television news segments to promote President Bush's policies and
initiatives. Congress' Government Accountability Office determined
that these "video news releases" were illegal "covert propaganda"
and told federal agencies to stop. But last Friday, the White House
ordered all agencies to disregard Congress' directive. The Bush
administration is using hundreds of millions of your tax dollars to
manipulate public opinion. Here's how to stop them.
For the rest of this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3365
2. DESPERATELY SEEKING DISCLOSURE: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PUBLIC FUNDS GO TO PRIVATE PR FIRMS?
by Diane Farsetta
In some ways, Armstrong Williams got a bad rap.
The conservative Black commentator, who was paid $240,000 by
the U.S. Department of Education to advertise and advocate for the
controversial "No Child Left Behind" law, lost his syndicated
newspaper column and was pilloried for not disclosing the payment.
Williams seriously betrayed the public trust. But he was a
small fry â?? a subcontractor on the $1 million deal between the
Education Department and Ketchum, one of the world's largest public
relations agencies.
At first, Ketchum refused to talk to reporters. Then they
blamed Williams. "We would assume that the commentator/pundit would
disclose," senior partner Lorraine Thelian said. Nearly two weeks
later, Ketchum announced "a new policy for the signing and
authorization of contracts with spokespeople," and requirements for
subcontractors "to abide by the agencyâ??s ethical standards." Not
the most confidence-inspiring response, especially given its
vagueness.
For the rest of this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3348
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. INVESTING IN "ETHICAL" URANIUM
http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=afr&kw=Sustainable+Asset+Management&pb=afr&dt=selectRange&dr=toda
Mining giant BHP-Billiton's proposed acquisition of WMC Resources, a
major uranium mining company, poses no problem for the global
ethical investment fund Sustainable Asset Management (SAM). While
some ethical funds avoid both BHP-Billiton shares, following the Ok
Tedi environmental disaster in Papua New Guinea, and WMC shares, due
to its uranium project, SAM holds both. SAM's research manager,
Francis Grey, explained that while they don't agree with uranium or
nuclear power, company projects owned before 1994 do not affect
SAM's "ethical" rating system. "We have an expression of BS, meaning
before sustainability, a time when it was a different world and they
did all sorts of different things," he said. A few years ago, SAM
angered tobacco control activists by including British American
Tobacco in their "ethical" fund index.
SOURCE: Australian Financial Review, March 16, 2005. (sub req'd)
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3371
2. GLOOM IN THE RANKS OF PR
http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/
After last Sunday's New York Times article on video news releases,
Richard Edelman, the president and CEO of the PR company Edelman,
wrote that the PR industry can expect more criticisms. "Why am I so
sure of this? In part, because we have allowed our profession to be
increasing defined as complicit in a cover-up, as willing shills who
let money overwhelm our judgment and moral compass. We are accused
of foisting government propaganda on the American people, in direct
violation of the law," he wrote. Among his suggestions were that the
"reporter" in VNRs ask "a few difficult questions." "How about
identifying the former reporter as such, or including a note to
viewers on-screen that the VNR came from the US Government?" he
suggested. As for corporate VNRs, Edelman remained mute.
SOURCE: Richard Edelman's Speak Up blog, March 14, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3370
3. NOT SO "FIREWALL," AFTER ALL
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29941/story.htm
"We believe FDA is overstating industry's compliance with the animal
feed ban and understating the potential risk of (mad cow disease)
for U.S. cattle in its reports to Congress and the American people,"
the Government Accountability Office concluded, in a report on the
Food and Drug Administration's management of what government press
releases refer to as the "firewall feed ban." The feed ban is "the
most important U.S. safeguard against mad cow disease." The GAO
report also took issue with FDA's claim of 99% industry compliance
with the ban. That figure is "based on inspections of only about 570
firms," "does not include all serious violations," and counts as
"compliant" firms "that lacked written procedures to prevent" ban
violations, states the report.
SOURCE: Reuters, March 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3369
4. WHERE THE BUFFALO SHILLS ROAM
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3622087,00.html
"The University of Colorado's governing Board of Regents has
retained a $350-per-hour public relations consultant," to deal "with
the fallout from a football recruiting scandal and the ongoing saga
surrounding controversial professor Ward Churchill." The consultant
is Christopher Simpson, a former Washington Times reporter and press
secretary to Senator Strom Thurmond. Simpson said he will work to
get attention "back focused on the tremendous attributes" of the
university. The new hire is in addition to "a contract with local
public relations firm GBSM," and "the combined salaries of several
people on the university's staff who handle public relations,"
including two associate vice-presidents paid $150,000 each.
SOURCE: Rocky Mountain News, March 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3368
5. VIDEO NEWS RESPONSES
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&u=/ap/20050314/ap_on_go_pr_wh/government_videos&printer=1
In response to Sunday's New York Times expose, White House press
secretary Scott McClellan called government-produced video news
releases "an informational tool." Their source, he said, is "very
clear to the TV stations." The head of Medialink, one of the largest
VNR companies, said "the government's use of VNRs dates back to the
Eisenhower presidency," adding that the Times "failed to report on
the long history of such government education programs." In a letter
to the Times, the president of West Glen Communications wrote,
"Newspapers don't reveal that much of the news they print originates
from press releases supplied by corporate communications
departments, PR agencies, college sports information offices and
staffs of mayors and legislators." O'Dwyer's summed up VNR
producers' reactions as saying the Times piece was "old" and
"politics-ridden."
SOURCE: Associated Press, March 14, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3367
6. STATE OF THE FOURTH ESTATE
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000837511
The Project for Excellence in Journalism's "State of the News Media
2005" concludes that U.S. media coverage of Iraq was balanced, that
campaign coverage favored John Kerry, and that Fox was "the most
one-sided of all major news outlets." On Iraq, 25% of 2,000 stories
analyzed were negative and 20% were positive. "Fox News Channel was
twice as likely to be positive than negative, while CNN and MSNBC
were evenhanded." A "more limited analysis of campaign coverage
found that Bush received more negative, and less positive, coverage
than Kerry," perhaps due to setbacks in Iraq and Bush's incumbent
status. Also, "with the exception of Republicans who prefer Fox
News," American's don't seek out news sources that reinforce their
beliefs.
SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, March 13, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3366
7. TEN MINUTES FROM NORMAL RELATIONS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25347-2005Mar10.html
Former White House counselor and Bush campaign advisor Karen Hughes
"will take over the Bush administration's troubled public diplomacy
effort intended to burnish the U.S. image abroad, particularly in
the Muslim world." The Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and
Public Affairs position at the State Department, previously held by
Margaret Tutwiler and Charlotte Beers, uses "exchange programs,
foreign language media and other initiatives ... to promote American
values" while "combating negative images." Hughes will be assisted
by Dina Powell, the current White House Chief of Personnel and "an
American of Egyptian descent who speaks fluent Arabic."
SOURCE: Washington Post, March 12, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3364
8. FAKE NEWS ON THE BBC
http://spinwatch.server101.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=342
"We have our very own fake journalists operating in the UK," writes
David Miller of Europe's SpinWatch. Miller cites the British Forces
Broadcasting Service, whose reports have been aired by the BBC. BFBS
is run by the Services Sound and Vision Corporation, an entity
"fully funded by the Ministry of Defence," which brags about its
"considerable contribution" to the armed forces' morale. BBC
Scotland insiders, Miller writes, "are livid" about the BFBS pieces,
calling them "an audio press release for the Army." Other members of
the British "network of propaganda agencies" are the London Press
Service, run by Intelfax for the government's Foreign Office, and
British Satellite News, run by the international communications
company World Television.
SOURCE: SpinWatch, March 15, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3363
9. THE NEW YORK TIMES CATCHES ON TO VNRS
http://nytimes.com/2005/03/13/politics/13covert.html
New York Times reporters David Barstow and Robin Stein have written
a lengthy report on the use of video news releases as covert
propaganda. "Under the Bush administration," they write, "the
federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of
public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that
major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch
everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at
least 20 federal agencies ... have made and distributed hundreds of
television news segments in the past four years, records and
interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations
across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's
role." VNRs are produced for the government by private contractors
and the State Department's Office of Broadcasting Services, the
Agriculture Department's Broadcast Media and Technology Center, and
the Defense Department's Pentagon Channel, among others. We've been
criticizing VNRs used as propaganda for more than a decade. For
example, our 1995 book Toxic Sludge Is Good For You described how
VNRs were used to sell the first Bush administration's Persian Gulf
war. It's nice to see the Times starting to notice.
SOURCE: New York Times, March 13, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3362
10. PRO-CEDAR, ANTI-SYRIA
http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=236397&site=3
The Lebanese American Council for Democracy, the "group that played
a key role in the passage of the Syrian Accountability Act,"
retained 5W Public Relations for "strategic counsel and media
relations." The group's goal is "to gain support from U.S. political
leaders and United Nations officials to pressure Syria to withdraw
its troops." The group is reportedly "closely aligned with Michel
Aoun, the former Prime Minister who was ousted by the Syrians" in
1990. The 5W firm is "preparing daily briefing sheets for the media
to respond to current events." The Syrian Accountability Act, passed
in 2003, "imposed sanctions on Syria for occupying Lebanon."
SOURCE: PR Week (reg. req'd.), March 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3361
11. STILL IN THE MOVIE BUSINESS
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-video10mar10,0,7563065.story?coll=la
In California, more video news releases produced by the
Schwarzenegger administration have been identified. The VNRs tout
administration proposals to reduce nursing staff levels in
hospitals, to make teachers' pay merit-based, to make tenure more
stringent, to lower prescription drug prices, and to end mandatory
employee rest breaks. Schwarzenegger's spokesperson called the VNRs
"just a press release in video form." But the VNRs push
controversial proposals, as opposed to those by the Gray Davis
administration, which explained new driver's licenses or celebrated
Labor Day. PR Week reports that California "has launched an effort
to make VNR production easier for all government departments," by
hiring a multimedia communications specialist.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3360
12. MCPOSITIONING
http://www.suntimes.com/output/lazare/cst-fin-lew10.html
A new round of global television advertisements developed for
McDonaldâ??s by the Leo Burnett advertising agency, Chicago
columnist Lewis Lazare writes, are "pushing too hard to position
itself as a health-conscious company, a claim that comes off a bit
disingenuous." Across the Pacific, New Zealand Minister for Health
and former dental nurse Annette King was busy dismissing the
suggestion that having Ronald McDonaldâ??s clown face painted on
vans that deliver dental services to remote communities was helping
McDonaldâ??s marketing and advertising plans.
SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times, March 10, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3359
13. COUNTING VOTES FIRST, DEAD LATER
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7491/550?etoc
Visiting professor of public health epidemiology at Oxford
University, Klim McPherson, notes that while the British government
has criticized estimates that put the number of Iraqi casualties of
the war at 100,000, a defence ministry group has been slow to
produce a better estimate. "Electorates, in Iraq and elsewhere, have
a right to know. To procrastinate further for no good reason is to
devalue public health processes, not to mention Iraqi lives. As
public health professionals we need to know the health costs," he
wrote.
SOURCE: British Medical Journal, March 12, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3358
14. THE REVERSE BRITISH INVASION
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1431306,00.html
The global warming "denial lobby" is targeting Britain, reports the
Observer, and it has U.S. connections. "The UK-based Scientific
Alliance, which organised the meeting of skeptics in London last
month, recently published a joint report with America's George C.
Marshall Institute, a think-tank which has received donations from
Exxon. ... Exxon has also contributed $50,000 to the International
Policy Network, headquartered in London. Key personnel at the IPN
have connections with the Institute of Economic Affairs, Britain's
leading conservative think-tank, as well as the Competitive
Enterprise Institute in the U.S., whose global warming expert is
Myron Ebell, President Bush's climate adviser."
SOURCE: Observer, March 6, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3357
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posted by Raleigh myers @ 3/20/2005
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