== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. The Other Half of the Nuclear Industry’s Power Couple: Christine Todd Whitman
2. YouTube Wars – Freedom’s Watch vs. IVAW. Which is Real Grassroots, Which is a Front Group?
3. The Pro-War Lobby’s Latest Addition is Freedom’s Watch
== BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST ==
1. New Participatory Project: Help Expose the Attempts to Spin Wikipedia
== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. “Inside Spin” as Media Self-Defense
2. Fake Green Certification Backfires
3. University of California Praises Hill & Knowlton
4. My Bucks Are Beautiful to P&G
5. Eli Lilly of the Lakes
6. Whistleblowers Treated Like Terrorists
7. Criminal Silence on Climate Change
8. Exelon’s Nuclear Plant Is Excellent, Say Exelon-Funded Group, Study
9. Republican Lobby Firm BGR Undercuts Iraqi Leader al-Maliki
10. NPR Urged to Follow the Money on Nuclear Issues
11. A Spoonful of Distraction Helps the Drug Ads Sell More
12. Beyond Petroleum, But Still Big on Ammonia and Soot
13. Providing Information May Be Hazardous to Your Job
——————————————————————–
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. THE OTHER HALF OF THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY’S POWER COUPLE: CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN
by Diane Farsetta
“Was it wrong to try to get the city back on its feet as quickly
as possible?” an exasperated Christine Todd Whitman asked members of
Congress. The occasion was Whitman’s first appearance before the
House subcommittee investigating her handling of New York air
quality issues post-9/11, when she headed the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
“Absolutely not,” she continued. “Safety was first and
foremost, but we weren’t going to let the terrorists win.”
There are many critics of the EPA’s response to the
admittedly unprecedented attacks. In August 2003, the EPA’s own
inspector general reported that there was not “sufficient data and
analyses” to claim — as Whitman did on September 18, 2001 — that
New York’s air was “safe to breathe.” The inspector general also
found that EPA statements were confusing even to experienced
toxicologists, and may have contributed to low rates of respirator
use among Ground Zero workers. In February 2006, federal judge
Deborah Batts called Whitman’s statements post-9/11 “misleading” and
“conscience shocking.” In June 2007, the Government Accountability
Office identified serious, continuing problems with how Whitman’s
EPA addressed indoor contamination in lower Manhattan.
The issue is more than academic. Since 2001, some 70 percent
of Ground Zero workers — tens of thousands of people, many without
health insurance — have had respiratory problems, including chronic
illnesses, according to one medical study. Two deaths have been
linked to World Trade Center dust, and reports of rare cancers are
on the rise.
Yet in her Congressional testimony on June 25, 2007, Christie
Whitman dismissed criticisms of her former agency as
“misinformation, innuendo and outright falsehoods.” Presumably, the
nuclear power industry admires Whitman’s rhetorical chutzpah.
To read the rest of this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6370
2. YOUTUBE WARS – FREEDOM’S WATCH VS. IVAW. WHICH IS REAL GRASSROOTS, WHICH IS A FRONT GROUP?
by John Stauber
What’s the difference between a slick pro-war front group
exploiting Iraq veterans to pour gasoline on the fire in Iraq, and a
grassroots group of Iraq veterans leading the battle at home to end
Bush’s war of occupation?
Watch these YouTube videos and decide for yourself.
To read the rest of this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6372
3. THE PRO-WAR LOBBY’S LATEST ADDITION IS FREEDOM’S WATCH
by John Stauber
The business of pro-war propaganda is booming as “Freedom’s
Watch” joins Vets for Freedom, Move America Forward and other
pro-war advocates for a stepped up war in Iraq in line with the
Bush/Cheney Global War on Terror.
Ari Fleischer, former White House PR flack who jumped ship
into the private sector shortly after the 2003 US invasion, is the
public face and a founding board member of Freedom’s Watch, which is
being rolled out this week with emotional advertisements featuring
wounded veterans imploring Americans to keep the money flowing for
the occupation.
One such advertisement is up on YouTube. Once again the war
in Iraq is being falsely linked to and justified by the terror
attacks of 9/11, one of the Bush Administration’s Big Lies that was
was used to mislead America into war. In the Freedom’s Watch
advertisment on YouTube a war vet with prosthetic legs beseeches:
To read the rest of this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6371
== BE A CITIZEN JOURNALIST ==
1. NEW PARTICIPATORY PROJECT: HELP EXPOSE THE ATTEMPTS TO SPIN WIKIPEDIA
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6391
Two weeks ago we told you about the “Wikipedia Scanner” – a new
tool that scans the anonymous edits made to Wikipedia and can
identify those made from the computers at places like the CIA,
Wal-Mart and political campaign headquarters. The Wikipedia
community has done a solid job of rooting out the attempts to add
spin and misinformation to the encyclopedia, but at SourceWatch we
want to make sure those additions are preserved as part of these
companies’ and organizations’ permanent records. You join the
citizen journalists and CMD staff in this effort by taking the
Scanner for a spin and logging your results into SourceWatch. The
full details, instructions and tips are at this participatory
project’s homepage on SourceWatch – no technical expertise is
necessary.
If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can
go to www.SourceWatch.org for more information.
SOURCE: SourceWatch Project:Tracking attempts to spin Wikipedia
== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. “INSIDE SPIN” AS MEDIA SELF-DEFENSE
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6392
In a review of SourceWatch editor Bob Burton’s new book, “Inside
Spin: The Dark Underbelly of the PR Industry,” New Zealand
investigative journalist Nicky Hager writes that “its hair-raising
stories help us see what is reasonable and what is harmful and
unethical.” Hager, who in 1999 co-authored “Secrets and Lies” with
Burton, notes that “although media and the public feel negative
towards PR, many of the tricks of the trade work anyway. PR
companies get away with manufacturing news, closing down unwanted
news, helping clients slide out of responsibility for wrong-doing,
causing trouble for or silencing their clients’ political and
commercial opponents, and generally manipulating events in their
clients’ favour.” The best antidote to PR spins, he writes, “is
understanding and recognising them when they occur.”
SOURCE: Sunday Star Times (New Zealand), August 26, 2007
2. FAKE GREEN CERTIFICATION BACKFIRES
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6390
The Australian supermarket company Woolworths has withdrawn a
range of tissue products after being outed by an anonymous blogger
for using a “Sustainable Forest Fibre” logo on products sourced from
a notorious Indonesian forestry company. In its most recent
corporate social responsibility report, Woolworths states that a
“key element of our ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR)
commitment is transparency.” The packaging on Woolworths’ “Select”
tissues claimed they were sourced “from a certified environmentally
managed company that is environmentally, socially and economically
responsible.” However, environmental groups had never heard of a
“Sustainable Forest Fibre” certification scheme. In a statement, NSW
Greens member of parliament John Kaye said consumers “should treat
such claims as greenwash and spin.” Following widespread reporting
of Asia Pulp and Paper’s track record in logging Indonesian
rainforests, Woolworths withdrew the product range.
SOURCE: Australian Associated Press, August 27, 2007
3. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRAISES HILL & KNOWLTON
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6388
The University of California (UC) has dismissed objections by the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) union to UC management’s hiring of Hill & Knowlton to spin
its labor record. UC’s Executive Director of Systemwide Labor
Relations, Howard J. Pripas, did not respond to the specific
concerns raised by AFSCME, such as H&K’s work for the tobacco
industry, instead praising the PR firm. “Hill & Knowlton,” Pripas
wrote, “is one of the most well-known and well respected firms in
the world.” After AFSCME went public with its concern, H&K’s
Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Mark Thorne,
wrote wrote to PR Week, stating that the firm has a policy “that we
will not provide services in any way related to tobacco, anywhere in
the world.” The UC hierarchy, on the other hand, is opposing a
policy that would ban the university from accepting tobacco industry
funding of research projects.
SOURCE: University of California letter (PDF), August 20, 2007
4. MY BUCKS ARE BEAUTIFUL TO P&G
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6387
The biggest U.S. advertiser, Procter & Gamble, is launching “a new
multibrand campaign called ‘My Black Is Beautiful,'” reports
Advertising Age. The brainchild of P&G multicultural marketing
director Najoh Tita Reid, the campaign seeks to “make all black
girls and women” feel beautiful, while forging “a closer
relationship between P&G brands and their black consumers.”
According to P&G research, “71% of black women feel they’re
portrayed worse than other women in media and advertising. Despite
that, they spend on average three times more than the general market
on beauty products.” In April 2007, P&G was a month away from
unveiling the campaign to employees when radio host Don Imus made
his infamous racist remarks. P&G’s Reid encouraged the company to
pull its ads from Imus’ show, in part to lay the groundwork for
“Black Is Beautiful.” Reid explained: “We said, ‘Let’s start grass
roots and work our way toward national advertising.’ … It’s more
authentic.” The still-evolving campaign will include grants from
P&G’s Always and Tampax, “booklets likely to be distributed by
Essence,” and “a series of community discussions,” organized in
conjunction with women’s groups.
SOURCE: Advertising Age, August 27, 2007
5. ELI LILLY OF THE LAKES
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6386
To “cut costs and reduce questionable prescriptions,” 20 U.S.
states contract with Comprehensive NeuroScience (CNS). CNS
“identifies doctors who are prescribing psychiatric drugs outside of
recommended guidelines. … The states then send warning letters to
doctors.” In Minnesota, the CNS contract is funded by the drug
company Eli Lilly. Lilly makes the “top-selling antipsychotic drug”
Zyprexa. Minnesota spent $28 million on Zyprexa for poor and
disabled residents in 2005. Unlike other states, Minnesota does not
require prior authorization for antipsychotic drugs, a practice that
Lilly opposes. “In fact,” reports the Pioneer Press, “none of the
states with Lilly partnerships use prior authorization to manage
antipsychotic drugs. … Wisconsin had a contract with Lilly last
year, when the state’s Medicaid agency placed antipsychotic drugs,
including Zyprexa, on the prior authorization list. State officials
were informed shortly thereafter that Lilly was canceling the
program.” Minnesota also requires “dose optimization” — often
resulting in less profit for drug manufacturers — for other
antipsychotic medications, but not for Zyprexa.
SOURCE: Pioneer Press (St Paul, MN), August 20, 2007
6. WHISTLEBLOWERS TREATED LIKE TERRORISTS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6385
“One after another, the men and women who have stepped forward to
report corruption in the massive effort to rebuild Iraq have been
vilified, fired and demoted. Or worse,” reports Deborah Hastings.
For reporting illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance and a
colleague say they were subjected to physical and mental
interrogation tactics “reserved for terrorists and so-called enemy
combatants.” At least $8.8 billion of the $30 billion allocated by
Congress for reconstruction in Iraq has disappeared according to a
government audit (with some of it going to insurgents).
Nevertheless, whistleblowers who call attention to fraud are being
“destroyed,” according to William Weaver, an advisor to the National
Security Whistleblowers Coalition. “Sometimes people ask me, ‘Should
I do this?’ And my answer is no. If they’re married, they’ll lose
their family. They will lose their jobs. They will lose everything,”
Weaver said. Whistleblowers have been fired or demoted, shunned by
colleagues, and denied government support in whistleblower lawsuits
filed against contracting firms.
SOURCE: Associated Press, August 26, 2007
7. CRIMINAL SILENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6384
According to a recent ruling by federal judge Saundra Brown
Armstrong, the Bush administration broke the law by failing to
present the latest scientific research about global warming to
Congress and the public. The ruling comes in response to a 2006
lawsuit filed by three environmental organizations who charged that
the Bush administration violated the Global Change Research Act of
1990 by refusing to produce the National Assessment of Climate
Change Impacts on the United States, which the White House is
required to produce every four years. The last report was completed
by the Clinton Administration in October 2000 and warned of severe
climate change impacts to some regions of the United States.
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, August 21, 2007
8. EXELON’S NUCLEAR PLANT IS EXCELLENT, SAY EXELON-FUNDED GROUP, STUDY
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6383
“Two lobbyists with lengthy resumes in New Jersey government set
up a conference call with the media last week to announce the
formation of the New Jersey Affordable, Clean, Reliable Energy
Coalition (NJ ACRE), notes an Asbury Park Press editorial. The
coalition will “advocate for nuclear energy and, more specifically,
a 20-year license extension for the aging Oyster Creek plant” in
Lacey, N.J. However, “the lobbyists neglected to point out they are
being paid by Exelon Corp., Oyster Creek’s owner. There also was no
mention of that fact on the coalition’s Web site until a news story
about their being front men for Exelon appeared in Friday’s Asbury
Park Press.” Since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission “is expected to
reach a decision on relicensing by January,” reasons the paper,
“much of the lobbyists’ energy will be directed at the
decision-makers themselves.” Judging by a press release, one of NJ
ACRE’s arguments is that “the loss of Oyster Creek and the need to
replace its electricity in the face of steadily rising demand would
cause significant economic hardship.” The release says shutting down
Oyster Creek would cost $190 million in increased energy prices and
$126 million in lost “economic activity,” citing a study funded by
Exelon.
SOURCE: Asbury Park Press (New Jersey), August 23, 2007
9. REPUBLICAN LOBBY FIRM BGR UNDERCUTS IRAQI LEADER AL-MALIKI
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6377
“Republican lobbyists with close ties to
the Bush administration are aiding and supporting the efforts of an
Iraqi opposition leader who is calling for the ouster of Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki,” reports IraqSlogger. On behalf of former
prime minister Ayad Allawi, the firm Barbour, Griffith and Rogers
purchased the website domain Allawi-for-Iraq.com and sent “hundreds
of email messages in Allawi’s name” to Congressional staffers and
others in Washington. The emails included copies of a Washington
Post op/ed by Allawi in which he wrote “there will be no lasting
political reconcilitation under Maliki’s sectarian regime” and
“Maliki has squandered Iraq’s credibility in Arab politics, and he
cannot restore it.” The firm’s international president, Robert
Blackwill, was Bush’s Presidential Envoy to Iraq in 2004, when
Allawi was in power. Barbour Griffith, and Rogers also works for the
Kurdistan Regional Government.
SOURCE: IraqSlogger, August 23, 2007
10. NPR URGED TO FOLLOW THE MONEY ON NUCLEAR ISSUES
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6376
During an August 15 news segment on nuclear power, why did
National Public Radio’s John Ydstie say “many environmentalists …
who began their careers opposed to nuclear power … are now
reconsidering nuclear power in the face of global warming”? In an
alert, the media watchdog group FAIR notes that Ydstie only
mentioned one by name: Stewart Brand. But Brand — like fellow
nuclear boosters Patrick Moore and Christine Todd Whitman, who
consult for the Nuclear Energy Institute — has financial ties to
the nuclear industry. Brand’s Global Business Network includes
“more than a dozen corporations and governmental agencies involved
in the production or promotion of nuclear energy.” FAIR also found
that NPR itself has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from
nuclear companies Constellation Energy and Sempra Energy, between
1993 and 2005. FAIR is calling on NPR to accurately represent the
consensus view of leading environmental groups: that “nuclear power,
with its huge safety, security and cost issues, is not the solution
to climate change.”
SOURCE: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, August 22, 2007
11. A SPOONFUL OF DISTRACTION HELPS THE DRUG ADS SELL MORE
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6375
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will study whether
direct-to-consumer drug ads “distract consumers from carefully
considering and encoding risk information,” reports AP. The agency
will look at “how images used in ads affect consumers” and “how text
on the screen can focus or divert attention from audio warnings.”
The FDA is concerned that “relaxing, upbeat images” and “text
directing viewers to company Web sites or magazine advertisements”
may detract from “important audio about side effects.” FDA
monitoring of drug ads has drastically decreased, according to a new
study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The agency issued 21
citations in 2006, compared to 142 sent in 1997. During that time,
drug industry spending on direct-to-consumer ads increased 330
percent, to $29.9 billion in 2005, according to the study. The
industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
defends drug ads as educational, and promotes voluntary ad
guidelines in an attempt to avoid more stringent or active
regulation.
SOURCE: Associated Press, August 21, 2007
12. BEYOND PETROLEUM, BUT STILL BIG ON AMMONIA AND SOOT
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6374
The oil and energy company BP recently
received “a permit from the state of Indiana to dump more toxic
discharges from its Whiting, Ind., refinery into Lake Michigan,”
reports Advertising Age. The permit, “which allows BP to dump 54%
more ammonia and 35% more suspended solids” in the Great Lake, has
“enraged” Chicago officials. Chicago’s chief environmental officer
remarked, “We’d like to have [BP] live up to their advertising.”
BP’s rebranding as “Beyond Petroleum” has sought to associate the
company with environmentally friendly initiatives. AdAge calls BP’s
move “the cardinal sin of touting an environmentally conscious image
in marketing — the central focus of BP’s advertising for the past
several years — and failing to live up to the message.” A company
spokesman said BP had “started advertising in regional newspapers
… to clear up misconceptions about the issue.” BP later said it
would not increase its Lake Michigan dumping. Then, the Chicago
Tribune reported that BP had requested and received an exemption
from stricter soot emission limits.
SOURCE: Advertising Age, August 20, 2007
13. PROVIDING INFORMATION MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR JOB
http://www.prwatch.org/node/6373
Is there an attempt “to flush out would-be whistle-blowers” at the
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which “focuses
on how pollution and other toxins in the environment contribute to
disease”? Managers at the North Carolina institute recently
“distributed ‘record of congressional inquiry’ forms to employees,”
asking “for details of each telephone call from the offices of
members of the House or Senate, including on the information
sought,” reports the Associated Press. “Their distribution came in
the midst of multiple and ongoing investigations by Congress,”
including by Sen. Charles Grassley’s (R-Iowa) staff. Grassley wrote
to National Institutes of Health director Dr. Elias Zerhouni about
the “curious” timing of the forms. NIH whistle-blowers have informed
Grassley’s staff of previous management communications that “left
them with the impression that there would be retaliation if it was
discovered they had provided information to among others,
congressional investigations,” the Senator’s letter states.
SOURCE: Associated Press, August 20, 2007
——————————————————————–
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 subscribers.
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
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