PR Watch: The Weekly Spin (July 6, 2005)
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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
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== 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+
Macken&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
%5Fmarketing%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_
publicity_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/AR2005062902
792.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

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