== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. Hill & Knowlton’s 50 Year Fudge
2. Iraq: The “Gift”? That Keeps On Bleeding
3. The Untold Story of How & Why Philip Morris is Pushing for FDA Regulation
== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. GM Goodies Result in Radio Mentions, FCC Complaint
2. Big-Spending Drug Industry Defenders
3. When Drug Industry Flacks Attack
4. Edelman Reps Diebold’s Not-So-Amicable Split
5. Spinning Wikipedia
6. Brother, Can You Spare $3 Million for “Strategic Communication”?
7. American Legion and VFW Launch Pro-War Lobby & PR Campaigns
8. Petraeus as Puppet
9. Journalism’s New Economics
——————————————————————–
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. HILL & KNOWLTON’S 50 YEAR FUDGE
by Bob Burton
Some PR executives take citizens for complete idiots.
Almost three weeks ago a local branch of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME)
called on the University of California to dump the giant PR firm
Hill & Knowlton (H&K). In a letter to the university, AFSCME and
other groups pointed to H&K’s work for the tobacco industry, its
attack on research pointing to the impact of exposure to lead on
children, and its work for “some of the worst human rights abusing
states in the world.” In a statement emailed to the trade
publication PR Week, H&K’s Executive Vice-President and Chief
Operating Officer Mark Thorne claimed that the union’s criticism “is
directed to work done more than 50 years ago. While we disagree that
H&K ever was engaged in any improper conduct, our current firm
policy is that we will not provide services in any way related to
tobacco, anywhere in the world.”
Sorry, Mark, but you can’t get away with a fudge like that
quite so easily.
To read the rest of this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6356
2. IRAQ: THE “GIFT”? THAT KEEPS ON BLEEDING
by John Stauber
Shortly after the November 2006 election the Democracy
Alliance, an exclusive group of about 100 Democratic Party
millionaire activists, met in Miami, Florida. Members and their
guests heard their keynote speaker and liberal legend Mario Cuomo
analyze the Democratic Party in the wake of its stunning electoral
victories that had given Democrats control of the US Congress.
Cuomo criticized the Democratic Party for lacking vision, big ideas
and a winning political argument. His recipe for future Democratic
victories was simple: “You seize the biggest idea you can, the
biggest idea you can understand. And this is what moves elections.”
Cuomo then dared to voice an inconvenient truth: “Now it’s
2006 and we’re all rejoicing. Why? Because of Iraq. A GIFT. A
gift to the Democrats. A lot of whom voted for the war anyway.”
To read the rest of this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6368
3. THE UNTOLD STORY OF HOW & WHY PHILIP MORRIS IS PUSHING FOR FDA REGULATION
by Anne Landman
It may seem incongruous to the average person why Philip
Morris (PM) would back legislation to restrict its business, yet
that is what PM seems to be is doing by supporting S. 625, the
“Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act,” the bill that
would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority
over tobacco products. After all, PM has a corporate mandate to
increase profits for its shareholders, so PM would not support this
legislation if it wasn’t going to benefit its bottom line, and it is
practically an axiom in public health that whatever benefits PM’s
bottom line is going to be bad for public health. That’s what makes
this bill especially troubling to people who study tobacco industry
documents; it is clear that PM had a hand in crafting it. That
alone sounds like a lot, but PM’s efforts to enact it are clearly
delivering the company a hefty side-benefit of causing dissent
within the tobacco control community over its passage.
To read the rest of this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6351
== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. GM GOODIES RESULT IN RADIO MENTIONS, FCC COMPLAINT
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6367
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has filed a complaint with the
Federal Communications Commission, objecting to General Motors
giveaways to radio stations. Nader’s filed his complaint after
reading an Automotive News article that described how GM is giving
“America’s best known radio personalities … new GM cars and trucks
to drive for two weeks each month,” and inviting them “to Detroit
for private meetings with top executives and VIP tours of GM
facilities,” in addition to advertising on their shows. Bloomberg
News notes that “FCC rules require broadcasters to say if content
has been aired in exchange for money or other considerations.” The
Automotive News article reported that Rush Limbaugh, one of those
being wooed by GM, said on air that “GM cars and trucks have never
been better.” A GM spokeswoman retorted, “We’ve been very
transparent. … We think this is a good way to build relationships
… and to get the word out about our great vehicles.” Other radio
hosts being courted by GM include Bill O’Reilly, Laura Schlessinger,
Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Hannity, Ed Schultz, Bill Press and Ryan
Seacrest. GM previously offered free trips to student journalists
and funds many video news releases.
SOURCE: Bloomberg News, August 18, 2007
2. BIG-SPENDING DRUG INDUSTRY DEFENDERS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6366
The lead U.S. drug industry lobby group, the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), spent $10.7 million
in the first six months of 2007 lobbying the U.S. government. (In
the preceding six-month period, PhRMA spent $8.8 million.)
Associated Press reports that PhRMA’S latest lobbying report,
required under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, states that the
group lobbied Congress, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the
Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies on
“issues related to Medicare, patent reform, international trade and
drug fees, importation and safety.” Billy Tauzin, a former
Republican member of the House of Representatives from Louisiana
turned PhRMA chief executive, is one of the group’s registered
lobbyists.
SOURCE: Associated Press, August 17, 2007
3. WHEN DRUG INDUSTRY FLACKS ATTACK
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6363
Following Dr. Steven Nissen’s publication of a study warning that
“GlaxoSmithKline’s diabetes drug Avandia increased the risk of heart
attacks by 43% and death from cardiovascular events by possibly
64%,” he was publicly pilloried. “More than one story from
ostensibly different sources” derisively referred to him as “St
Steven,” the “Patron Saint of Drug Safety,” and “Saint Steven the
Pure,” reports Evelyn Pringle. Among the attackers was FDA spokesman
Douglas Arbesfeld. Arbesfeld previously worked at the PR firm
Manning Selvage & Lee (MS&L), helping Glaxo and other “healthcare
clients maximize internet-relations.” Former FDA Deputy Commissioner
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who ridiculed Nissen in a Wall Street Journal
editorial, also consulted for pharmaceutical companies at MS&L. Two
more FDA alums, Peter Pitts and Robert Goldberg, mocked Nissen in a
Washington Times piece. Pitts is the senior vice-president for
global health affairs at MS&L. Goldberg doesn’t have ties to the PR
firm, but serves with Pitts as an officer of the Center for Medicine
in the Public Interest, which Pringle describes as a “nest of
ex-moles who served the industry in one capacity or another in the
Bush Administration’s FDA.” It’s a project of the Pacific Research
Institute, a corporate-funded think tank.
SOURCE: CounterPunch, August 15, 2007
4. EDELMAN REPS DIEBOLD’S NOT-SO-AMICABLE SPLIT
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6362
The PR firm Edelman “is handling the recasting of Diebold Election
Systems to Premier Election Solutions,” following the parent
company’s failure to sell its e-voting subsidiary. PES “will have
its own management team and board of directors,” and is based in
Allen, Texas, while Diebold headquarters are in Ohio. Diebold blamed
the lack of buyers on “rapidly evolving political uncertainties and
controversies surrounding … electronic voting systems.” Diebold
also lowered its e-voting revenue expectations by $120 million,
according to Crain’s Cleveland Business. A Diebold spokesman
“acknowledged that the highly charged attention paid to the
subsidiary … has been a distraction to Diebold.” The parent
company now hopes to “concentrate on its core ATM and security
segments.”
SOURCE: O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (sub req’d), August 17, 2007
5. SPINNING WIKIPEDIA
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6360
“Editing your own entry on Wikipedia is usually the province
of vain celebrities keen for some good PR,” writes Bobbie Johnson.
“But a new website has uncovered dozens of companies that
have been editing the site in order to improve their public image.
The Wikipedia Scanner, which trawls the backwaters of the popular
online encyclopaedia, has unearthed a catalogue of organisations
massaging entries, including the CIA and the Labour party. … But
the biggest culprit that the Scanner claims to have discovered is
Diebold, a supplier of e-voting machines, which it says has made
huge alterations to entries about its involvement in the
controversial ‘hanging chad’ election in the US in 2000.”
SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), August 15, 2007
6. BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE $3 MILLION FOR “STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION”?
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6359
The U.S. Defense Department’s budget request for fiscal year 2008
includes $3 million for “strategic communication and integration,”
the Pentagon’s attempts to “understand and engage” key audiences
worldwide, through “coordinated information, themes, plans, programs
and actions synchronized with other elements of national power.”
But, just before Congress’ summer recess, the House Appropriations
Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee denied the funds. The
House committee objected to what it called an “unsupported program
initiation,” while the Senate committee expressed concern that
blending public diplomacy, public affairs and information operations
“could compromise the integrity of each of these functions.” Public
affairs and public diplomacy communications are supposed to be
truthful, while information operations includes psychological
operations, or attempts to cause “dissidence and disaffection”
within enemy ranks. Debate on the funding bill will continue after
Labor Day.
SOURCE: FCW.com, August 14, 2007
7. AMERICAN LEGION AND VFW LAUNCH PRO-WAR LOBBY & PR CAMPAIGNS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6358
The Boston Globe reports “the American Legion and the Veterans of
Foreign Wars, the nation’s oldest and most influential veterans’
organizations, have broken their relative silence on the merits of
the Iraq war, joining some of the staunchest war supporters to lobby
Congress and the public… Both organizations, which the White
House has aggressively courted” are “recruiting members to argue for
the surge strategy at town hall meetings, and have made their
leaders available to the national media to declare that victory is
still within reach. … ‘They have been speaking out more strongly
than in the past,’ said Pete Hegseth, an Iraq veteran who heads Vets
for Freedom, which supports the surge.” Clifford D. May, president
of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank “that
helps coordinate pro-war groups” told the Globe, ‘we need to work
very hard to educate both members of Congress and the general
public.’ ” May is also active in Committee on the Present Danger,
the Project for the New American Century, and was the Republican
National Committee’s Director of Communications. SourceWatch now
contains a new article on the pro-war lobby.
SOURCE: Boston Globe, August 16, 2007
8. PETRAEUS AS PUPPET
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6355
In recent months, President Bush has deflected questions
about progress in Iraq with statements like, “I’m going to wait
for … David Petraeus to come back and give us the report on
what he sees.” According to a report in the Los Angeles Times,
however, “administration officials” said that the expected September
report from General Petraeus “would actually be written by the White
House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.”
Blogger Markos Moulitsas comments, “Let me predict the future. The
report: ‘Success!’ The interpetation: ‘Smashing success!'”
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2007
9. JOURNALISM’S NEW ECONOMICS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6354
As newspapers continue shrinking, Julian Friedland worries about
how journalism will handle the “conflict of interest between
pleasing the bottom line” versus “upholding its mission to educate
the public by publishing a steady stream of hard-hitting
investigative reports.” As investigative journalism has been
“eviscerated” by declining budgets, the “very best news sources in
the country” are either family-owned newspapers like the New York
Times or Washington Post, or publicly-funded media, such as the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “Media represent an essential
service like education and infrastructure. As such, media need to be
protected from the corrupting influence of private interest, which
has finally grown so massive as to exert a crushing grip on
journalistic independence,” Friedland argues. “If we look to Europe
we can see media independence there is protected by public funds.
Take the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is mostly
funded by taxes, permitting it to hold every corporation and
government’s feet to the fire. In France, two out of the three major
networks receive no more than 40 percent of their operational funds
from ads. … It’s high time we start putting a lot more money where
our mouth is.”
SOURCE: Denver Post, August 15, 2007
——————————————————————–
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