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is emailed free each Wednesday to subscribers.
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. Former FCC General Counsel: Fake TV News Must Be Disclosed
2. Election 2006: Scandal-Plagued Rep. William Jefferson Keeps Seat
3. Promises Made: The Democratic Congressional Agenda
4. The Last Three Contested House Races: Texas, Louisiana, and (of course) Florida
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Front Groups Lobbying Spurs Thoughts of Non-Profit Reform
2. Government Scientist Pleads Guilty to Accepting Pfizer Fees
3. Buzz Marketers Told to Disclose
4. Chilean Dictator Pinochet Lied Through His Eyes
5. Important Information Shelved as Federal Libraries Close
6. Was Epidemiologist Doll a Monsanto Puppet?
7. Iraq Study Group Suggests Accurate Counting of Iraqi Deaths
8. Detailed Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Rare, Publicity-Driven
9. PR Adviser Pleads Guilty To Insider Trading Charges
10. Outsourcing Journalism
11. It's the Little Things
12. "Equal Protection" Suit: A Tired Last Gasp for Tobacco Industry Allies in Nevada
13. A Euro for Your Thoughts
14. Edelman Flacks for Big Oil
15. Doctors Seek Ban on Junk Food Ads
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. FORMER FCC GENERAL COUNSEL: FAKE TV NEWS MUST BE DISCLOSED
by Diane Farsetta
"Congress and the courts have stressed that as fiduciaries given the
free use of the public airwaves, broadcasters are obligated to
operate in the public interest. Flagrantly deceptive practices are
inconsistent with that obligation and can find no sanction in the
First Amendment."
Those words were written by Henry Geller, a former general
counsel of the Federal Communications Commission and assistant
secretary of commerce for communications and information. Today, the
StarTribune in Minneapolis/St. Paul published an op/ed that Geller
and I co-authored. The piece (copied below) describes why full
disclosure of video news releases (VNRs) is both vital to the public
interest and supported by legal precedent.
If you think the public should be told where its news really
comes from, you can still support VNR disclosure, via the online
action hosted by our colleagues at Free Press.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5545
2. ELECTION 2006: SCANDAL-PLAGUED REP. WILLIAM JEFFERSON KEEPS SEAT
by Elliott Fullmer
On Saturday, Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) defeated Democratic
challenger Karen Carter in a runoff election, 57%-43%, to keep his
seat in Louisiana's 2nd District. Jefferson is currently being
investigated by the FBI for allegedly accepting a bribe from the
owner of iGate Inc. to arrange deals for the high-tech company in
Nigeria and several other African countries. Federal authorities
videotaped him taking $100,000 in alleged bribe money, and $90,000
of it was later found in a freezer in his Washington D.C. apartment
during an FBI raid in May. The Justice Department is also looking
into "at least seven other schemes in which Jefferson sought things
of value in return for his official acts." The ongoing investigation
led House Democrats to remove Jefferson from the influential Ways
and Means Committee earlier this year, and the Louisiana Democratic
Party to endorse Carter in the election.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5533
3. PROMISES MADE: THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL AGENDA
by Conor Kenny
Guest blogger: Congresspedia intern Tim Malacarne
The Democratic Party's return to majority status in both the
House and Senate for the 110th Congress means that, for the first
time since 1994, Democrats have the unfettered ability to set the
congressional agenda. During the run up to the election, Senate
Democratic leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) tempted voters with an ambitious package of
prospective legislation. Now that they are soon to assume control,
let's take a look at what is most likely to fill their plate at the
beginning of the 110th Congress:
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5529
4. THE LAST THREE CONTESTED HOUSE RACES: TEXAS, LOUISIANA, AND (OF COURSE) FLORIDA
by Conor Kenny
A month after election day we're finally down to just three
contested House races:
* Louisiana-2nd District: Scandal-plagued incumbent Democratic
Rep. William Jefferson will defend his seat against Democratic
challenger Karen Carter in a runoff on Saturday.
* Texas-23rd District: Incumbent Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla
faces off against former Democratic Rep. Ciro Rodriguez in a runoff
on December 12th. Bonilla fell just short of obtaining the 50
percent he needed to win on November 7th after a judge threw out the
congressional district in place during the primary, ordering the
general election open to all comers. The district had been drawn
under a plan orchestrated by former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) in 2003
and was ruled to violate the voting rights of Latinos.
* Florida-13th District: Republican Vern Buchanan has been
certified the winner of Rep. Katherine Harris's open seat with a 369
vote margin over Democrat Christine Jennings. However, voting
irregularities, including 18,000 missing votes, were rife during the
election and Jennings and several organizations have filed suit to
challenge the results. They are seeking a new election because the
electronic voting machines used in the district have no paper trail.
We're going to put this one in Buchanan's column for now, but I
wouldn't count Jennings out yet.
In the meantime, we're going to retire the "Wiki the Vote"
graphic off the front page, but you can find all of our coverage of
the 2006 elections under the "Quick Links" heading at the top of the
Congresspedia home page.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5525
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. FRONT GROUPS LOBBYING SPURS THOUGHTS OF NON-PROFIT REFORM
www.sptimes.com/2006/12/11/Worldandnation/Groups_hide_behind_ta.shtml
Citing instances of where groups like Citizens Against Government
Waste and Americans for Tax Reform have accepted corporate funding
to lobby for their donor's causes, journalist Bill Adair explores
whether greater disclosure by non-profit groups is warranted.
Between them the two groups have taken money from the tobacco
industry, helped avocado growers and assisted in Jack Abramoff's
lobbying efforts. The incoming Democratic Party chair of the Senate
Finance Committee, Max Baucus has flagged the need for change:
"Nonprofits should not function as de facto lobbying firms." Current
federal laws he said are "simply too murky." Frances Hill, a law
professor at the University of Miami agrees. "It seems to me we have
to find a way to increase the disclosure of the contributors. I'm
not talking about every church in America disclosing who gives money
to their collection plate. But there's got to be a way to show who
gives big chunks of money," she said.
SOURCE: St Petersburg Times, December 11, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5543
2. GOVERNMENT SCIENTIST PLEADS GUILTY TO ACCEPTING PFIZER FEES
www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-md.ethics09dec09,0,4347273.story?track=mostemailedlink
The chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch of the National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Pearson Sunderland III, has
pleaded guilty to accepting approximately $300,000 in undisclosed
fees and expenses from Pfizer between 1997 and 2004. The NIMH is a
part of the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health (NIH),
which conducts and funds medical research projects. NIH staff are
permitted to earn external income, subject to disclosure and
approval from ethics watchdogs. Matthew Dolan reports that "in late
1997, representatives of Pfizer approached Sunderland about his
agency joining a scientific collaboration" on indicators for
Alzheimer's disease. Sunderland is only one of 44 NIH scientists
that have had undisclosed financial deals with drug companies.
However, he is one of the few to face charges with most either
disciplined or retired from the agency. Sunderland's lawyer, Robert
F. Muse, claimed that many NIH staff viewed disclosure forms as "a
bureaucratic nuisance."
SOURCE: Baltimore Sun, December 9, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5541
3. BUZZ MARKETERS TOLD TO DISCLOSE
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101389.html
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission directed "companies engaging in
word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote
products to their peers," to "disclose those relationships."
Otherwise, it could be deceptive marketing, as people are more
likely to trust product endorsers "based on their assumed
independence from the marketer," according to the FTC. While the FTC
will examine potentially deceptive word-of-mouth marketing on a
case-by-case basis, the agency rejected a request from the watchdog
group Commercial Alert to review industry practices. The head of the
Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) called the FTC's
decision "an endorsement of the industry's efforts to police
itself." Advertising Age reports that the FTC ruling "could lead to
increased spending" on word-of-mouth marketing. O'Dwyer's PR Daily
calls the ruling a victory for WOMMA, which had "urged the FTC to
note the difference between buzz marketing, which it supports and
promotes, and stealth marketing, which it opposes."
SOURCE: Washington Post, December 12, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5540
4. CHILEAN DICTATOR PINOCHET LIED THROUGH HIS EYES
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061211/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/obit_pinochet
General Augusto Pinochet, 91, died on December 10, 2006, after
nearly a decade of fighting prosecution on charges of gross
violations of human rights. The charges stemmed from murders,
tortures and disappearances of thousands of Chilean and other
opponents during his 1974-1990 rule. In one of the general's most
enduring images, he posed for a photograph in which he set a stark,
sinister image behind sunglasses after a coup against the elected
president Salvador Allende. In an interview for a 1999 biography, he
explained the pose that obscured his eyes: "It was a way of telling
things. Lies are discovered through the eyes, and I lied often."
SOURCE: Associated Press, December 11, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5538
5. IMPORTANT INFORMATION SHELVED AS FEDERAL LIBRARIES CLOSE
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-libraries8dec08,0,474100.story?
"Across the country, half a dozen federal libraries are closed or
closing," including several run by the Environmental Protection
Agency. The EPA libraries helped "toxicologists assess health
effects of pesticides and chemicals," and "federal investigators
track sources of fish kills and identify companies responsible." The
EPA's compliance office warned that the closures "could weaken
efforts to enforce environmental laws." Regarding the Chicago EPA
library's closing, one activist who conducted research there while
campaigning against a proposed sludge incinerator said, "If I had
known ... I would have chained myself to the bookcase." Also closing
are libraries run by the General Services Administration, with
information on "real estate, telecommunications and government
finance," and by the Energy Department, with "literature for
government scientists and contractors." "Officials say the cutbacks
have been driven by tight budgets, declining patronage and rising
demand for online services." Critics "fear that some publications
will never be digitized because of copyright restrictions or cost,"
and say the loss of knowledgeable reference librarians will greatly
hamper research efforts.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5536
6. WAS EPIDEMIOLOGIST DOLL A MONSANTO PUPPET?
www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1967385,00.html
"Sir Richard Doll, the celebrated epidemiologist who established
that smoking causes lung cancer, was receiving a consultancy fee of
$1,500 a day in the mid-1980s from Monsanto," reports The Guardian.
"While he was being paid by Monsanto, Sir Richard wrote to a royal
Australian commission investigating the potential cancer-causing
properties of Agent Orange, made by Monsanto and used by the US in
the Vietnam war. Sir Richard said there was no evidence that the
chemical caused cancer." Monsanto confirmed that Sir Richard worked
for the company as recently as 2000, as "an expert witness for
Solutia," a Monsanto spin-off. Sir Richard "was also paid a 15,000
fee by the Chemical Manufacturers Association and ... Dow Chemicals
and ICI, for a review that largely cleared vinyl chloride, used in
plastics, of any link with cancers apart from liver cancer -- a
conclusion with which the World Health Organization disagrees."
Colleagues defended the late Sir Richard, saying that he received
the fees when "it was not automatic for potential conflicts of
interest to be declared in scientific papers," and that he donated
the money to Green College, Oxford.
SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), December 8, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5535
7. IRAQ STUDY GROUP SUGGESTS ACCURATE COUNTING OF IRAQI DEATHS
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003493869
The Iraq Study Group's report states, "There is significant
underreporting of the violence in Iraq" by the U.S. military. The
too-high "standard for recording attacks acts as a filter to keep
events out of reports and databases," as well as news stories,
according to Editor & Publisher. Examples of unreported attacks
include "a roadside bomb or a rocket or mortar attacks that doesn't
hurt U.S. personnel" and a "sectarian attack" by an unknown group.
In addition, "a murder of an Iraqi is not necessarily counted as an
attack." On one day in July 2006, only 93 violent acts were
officially recorded, when some 1,100 actually occurred, according to
the report. "Good policy is difficult to make when information is
systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy
with policy goals," it concludes. One recommendation is to
"institute immediate changes in the collection of data about
violence and the sources of violence in Iraq to provide a more
accurate picture of events on the ground."
SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, December 6, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5534
8. DETAILED CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS RARE, PUBLICITY-DRIVEN
www.csmonitor.com/2006/1204/p25s01-wmgn.htm
Only a small proportion of annual corporate social responsibility
(CSR) reports -- perhaps 15 to 20 percent -- provide "very thorough"
accounts of real ethical problems faced by companies. Even that
measure comes from within the CSR report industry, in interviews
with writers Andrew Brengle of KLD Research & Analytics and Jeff
Erikson of SustainAbility Inc. The two consultants point to Nike as
a company that faced such bad ongoing publicity that it revamped its
reports to provide concrete details and increased reporting on labor
abuses. (Brengle has been a voluntary reviewer of Nike's reporting.)
But more typical, they say, are companies like Hess Corp., an energy
company, which described chemical spill problems in a recent report
but omitted a federal bribery probe stemming from international
operations. "It's more of a hard sell to get a company that isn't a
household name, that is more able to hide in the weeds, to produce a
sophisticated and in-depth report because they don't have that
public pressure," said Brengle. Recent studies by the Ethical
Trading Action Group and Oxfam/Hong Kong to improve global labor
rights reporting can be viewed, respectively, here and here.
SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, December 4, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5521
9. PR ADVISER PLEADS GUILTY TO INSIDER TRADING CHARGES
www.smh.com.au/news/national/pr-chief-guilty-of-inside-trading/2006/11/28/1164476204771.html
Margot Mackay, a former PR consultant to the gambling company
Aristocrat, has pleaded guilty to three charges of insider trading.
Mackay, who headed her own company Margot McKay and Associates, used
family members to buy almost $150,000 in shares ahead of
announcements to the stock exchange that she wrote herself. Kate
McClymont reports that McKay "was hired by Aristocrat in 2003 to
clean up its corporate image after a series of scandals involving
some of its senior executives." Mackay was prosecuted after
Aristocrat reported her share-trading to the Australian Securities
and Investments Commission.
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, November 29, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5532
10. OUTSOURCING JOURNALISM
www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/19/business/outsource.php
As newspapers seek to cut costs in the face of sagging circulation
and advertising pressures, some have started to ship jobs overseas
to places like India. "More than two years ago, Reuters, the
financial news service, opened a new center in Bangalore," reports
Doreen Carvajal. "The 340 employees, including an editorial team of
13 local journalists, was deployed to write about corporate earnings
and broker research on U.S. companies. Since then, the Reuters staff
at the center has grown to about 1,600, with 100 journalists working
on U.S. stories." Other publications are using the services of
Hi-Tech Export, an Indian company with some 700 employees that
offers proofreading, copy-editing and writing services to companies
in the United States, France and Britain.
SOURCE: International Herald Tribune, November 17, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5531
11. IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS
kdpaine.blogs.com/kdpaines_pr_m/2006/12/let_me_get_this.html
"Walmart used to annoy me with its horrible labor practices,
draconian rules, and blatant manipulation of the media, but now it's
gone past annoyance to bafflement," writes marketing consultant K.D.
Paine. "The latest was the firing of their VP of Marketing because
she allegedly went for rides in an Aston Martin and accepted dinners
from Agencies pitching their business. ... Their message is: we're
all about ethics. Which might be believable for a nanosecond, except
that the agency behind the biggest ethics scandal to hit the
blogosphere in awhile (and presumably the PR person who okay-ed
those fake blogs) are still happily employed." Michael Deaver, a
former chief of staff for President Reagan, is now helping to
oversee the Wal-Mart account as a vice chairman at the Edelman PR
firm.
SOURCE: KD Paine's PR Measurement Blog, December 8, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5530
12. "EQUAL PROTECTION" SUIT: A TIRED LAST GASP FOR TOBACCO INDUSTRY ALLIES IN NEVADA
www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/dec/05/120510459.html
The tobacco industry's buddies in the bar and gambling businesses
are at it again, suing to try and stop Nevada's new smoke-free law,
which voters approved November 7 by a margin of 54% to 46%. The law
bans smoking in bars that serve meals, slot machine sections of
grocery and convenience stores, in video arcades, shopping malls,
schools and day-care centers. Bar and casino owners are claiming the
law is unconstitutional, and saying that it will hurt their
businesses, while offering no proof that it has. A peer-reviewed
study published in Tobacco Control journal in 2003 conclusively
linked the tobacco industry to most of these lawsuits. The industry
and its allies typically lose these "equal protection" suits, which
are stimulated by the tobacco industry to undermine enforcement and
long-term implementation of smoke-free laws.
SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun, December 5, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5528
13. A EURO FOR YOUR THOUGHTS
www.corporateeurope.org/ThinkTankSurvey2006.html
A new survey undertaken by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
finds that most think tanks in the European Union fail to disclose
their funding sources, which is also kept secret by the large
corporations that provide much of their financial support. A
particularly problematic example is that of ExxonMobil, which
"continues to fuel the work of climate skeptic think tanks and lobby
groups in North America and Europe," while keeping much of its
funding for these groups secret.
SOURCE: Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), December 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5527
14. EDELMAN FLACKS FOR BIG OIL
nationaljournal.com/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+NJMAG+7-njmagtoc+1184833-DBSCORE+256+1+1157+F+11+20+1+PD%2f12%2f02%2f2006%2d%3e12
"With congressional Democrats readying probes into oil companies'
profits and eyeing legislation aimed at curbing global warming, the
American Petroleum Institute and its K Street allies are looking to
assemble a $100 million war chest to rally policy makers and public
opinion to their side," reports Peter Stone. "The image and
education effort, much of which will be coordinated by the PR firm
Edelman, will include expensive television, radio, and print ads,
tours of oil patch facilities for lawmakers and opinion elites, and
financial contributions to sympathetic think tanks and
industry-friendly organizations." API has also been using the
services of Wirthlin Worldwide, headed by former Ronald Reagan
pollster Richard Wirthlin, as it scrambles "to salvage a reputation
suffering amid high gasoline prices and concern about fossil-fuel
dependence."
SOURCE: National Journal (reg req'd), December 1, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5524
15. DOCTORS SEEK BAN ON JUNK FOOD ADS
www.smh.com.au/news/science/us-doctors-seek-ban-on-junk-food-ads/2006/12/06/1165081020356.html
The American Academy of Pediatrics has become the latest
organisation to call for a ban on the advertising of junk food
during children's television programs. "Healthy foods are advertised
less than 3 per cent of the time," noted Donald Shifrin, the
chairman of the committee that produced the new policy, which calls
for the removal of junk food ads during children's programs, along
with restrictions on ads for tobacco, alcohol and drugs for erectile
dysfunction.
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), December 7, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5523
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
SHARE US WITH A FRIEND (OR FIFTY FRIENDS)
Who do you know who might want to receive "The Weekly Spin"? Help
us grow our subscriber list! Just forward this message to people
you know, encouraging them to sign up at this link:
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS WEEK'S NEWS
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. Former FCC General Counsel: Fake TV News Must Be Disclosed
2. Election 2006: Scandal-Plagued Rep. William Jefferson Keeps Seat
3. Promises Made: The Democratic Congressional Agenda
4. The Last Three Contested House Races: Texas, Louisiana, and (of course) Florida
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. Front Groups Lobbying Spurs Thoughts of Non-Profit Reform
2. Government Scientist Pleads Guilty to Accepting Pfizer Fees
3. Buzz Marketers Told to Disclose
4. Chilean Dictator Pinochet Lied Through His Eyes
5. Important Information Shelved as Federal Libraries Close
6. Was Epidemiologist Doll a Monsanto Puppet?
7. Iraq Study Group Suggests Accurate Counting of Iraqi Deaths
8. Detailed Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Rare, Publicity-Driven
9. PR Adviser Pleads Guilty To Insider Trading Charges
10. Outsourcing Journalism
11. It's the Little Things
12. "Equal Protection" Suit: A Tired Last Gasp for Tobacco Industry Allies in Nevada
13. A Euro for Your Thoughts
14. Edelman Flacks for Big Oil
15. Doctors Seek Ban on Junk Food Ads
--------------------------------------------------------------------
== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. FORMER FCC GENERAL COUNSEL: FAKE TV NEWS MUST BE DISCLOSED
by Diane Farsetta
"Congress and the courts have stressed that as fiduciaries given the
free use of the public airwaves, broadcasters are obligated to
operate in the public interest. Flagrantly deceptive practices are
inconsistent with that obligation and can find no sanction in the
First Amendment."
Those words were written by Henry Geller, a former general
counsel of the Federal Communications Commission and assistant
secretary of commerce for communications and information. Today, the
StarTribune in Minneapolis/St. Paul published an op/ed that Geller
and I co-authored. The piece (copied below) describes why full
disclosure of video news releases (VNRs) is both vital to the public
interest and supported by legal precedent.
If you think the public should be told where its news really
comes from, you can still support VNR disclosure, via the online
action hosted by our colleagues at Free Press.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5545
2. ELECTION 2006: SCANDAL-PLAGUED REP. WILLIAM JEFFERSON KEEPS SEAT
by Elliott Fullmer
On Saturday, Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) defeated Democratic
challenger Karen Carter in a runoff election, 57%-43%, to keep his
seat in Louisiana's 2nd District. Jefferson is currently being
investigated by the FBI for allegedly accepting a bribe from the
owner of iGate Inc. to arrange deals for the high-tech company in
Nigeria and several other African countries. Federal authorities
videotaped him taking $100,000 in alleged bribe money, and $90,000
of it was later found in a freezer in his Washington D.C. apartment
during an FBI raid in May. The Justice Department is also looking
into "at least seven other schemes in which Jefferson sought things
of value in return for his official acts." The ongoing investigation
led House Democrats to remove Jefferson from the influential Ways
and Means Committee earlier this year, and the Louisiana Democratic
Party to endorse Carter in the election.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5533
3. PROMISES MADE: THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL AGENDA
by Conor Kenny
Guest blogger: Congresspedia intern Tim Malacarne
The Democratic Party's return to majority status in both the
House and Senate for the 110th Congress means that, for the first
time since 1994, Democrats have the unfettered ability to set the
congressional agenda. During the run up to the election, Senate
Democratic leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) tempted voters with an ambitious package of
prospective legislation. Now that they are soon to assume control,
let's take a look at what is most likely to fill their plate at the
beginning of the 110th Congress:
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5529
4. THE LAST THREE CONTESTED HOUSE RACES: TEXAS, LOUISIANA, AND (OF COURSE) FLORIDA
by Conor Kenny
A month after election day we're finally down to just three
contested House races:
* Louisiana-2nd District: Scandal-plagued incumbent Democratic
Rep. William Jefferson will defend his seat against Democratic
challenger Karen Carter in a runoff on Saturday.
* Texas-23rd District: Incumbent Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla
faces off against former Democratic Rep. Ciro Rodriguez in a runoff
on December 12th. Bonilla fell just short of obtaining the 50
percent he needed to win on November 7th after a judge threw out the
congressional district in place during the primary, ordering the
general election open to all comers. The district had been drawn
under a plan orchestrated by former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) in 2003
and was ruled to violate the voting rights of Latinos.
* Florida-13th District: Republican Vern Buchanan has been
certified the winner of Rep. Katherine Harris's open seat with a 369
vote margin over Democrat Christine Jennings. However, voting
irregularities, including 18,000 missing votes, were rife during the
election and Jennings and several organizations have filed suit to
challenge the results. They are seeking a new election because the
electronic voting machines used in the district have no paper trail.
We're going to put this one in Buchanan's column for now, but I
wouldn't count Jennings out yet.
In the meantime, we're going to retire the "Wiki the Vote"
graphic off the front page, but you can find all of our coverage of
the 2006 elections under the "Quick Links" heading at the top of the
Congresspedia home page.
For the rest of this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5525
== SPIN OF THE DAY ==
1. FRONT GROUPS LOBBYING SPURS THOUGHTS OF NON-PROFIT REFORM
www.sptimes.com/2006/12/11/Worldandnation/Groups_hide_behind_ta.shtml
Citing instances of where groups like Citizens Against Government
Waste and Americans for Tax Reform have accepted corporate funding
to lobby for their donor's causes, journalist Bill Adair explores
whether greater disclosure by non-profit groups is warranted.
Between them the two groups have taken money from the tobacco
industry, helped avocado growers and assisted in Jack Abramoff's
lobbying efforts. The incoming Democratic Party chair of the Senate
Finance Committee, Max Baucus has flagged the need for change:
"Nonprofits should not function as de facto lobbying firms." Current
federal laws he said are "simply too murky." Frances Hill, a law
professor at the University of Miami agrees. "It seems to me we have
to find a way to increase the disclosure of the contributors. I'm
not talking about every church in America disclosing who gives money
to their collection plate. But there's got to be a way to show who
gives big chunks of money," she said.
SOURCE: St Petersburg Times, December 11, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5543
2. GOVERNMENT SCIENTIST PLEADS GUILTY TO ACCEPTING PFIZER FEES
www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-md.ethics09dec09,0,4347273.story?track=mostemailedlink
The chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch of the National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Pearson Sunderland III, has
pleaded guilty to accepting approximately $300,000 in undisclosed
fees and expenses from Pfizer between 1997 and 2004. The NIMH is a
part of the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health (NIH),
which conducts and funds medical research projects. NIH staff are
permitted to earn external income, subject to disclosure and
approval from ethics watchdogs. Matthew Dolan reports that "in late
1997, representatives of Pfizer approached Sunderland about his
agency joining a scientific collaboration" on indicators for
Alzheimer's disease. Sunderland is only one of 44 NIH scientists
that have had undisclosed financial deals with drug companies.
However, he is one of the few to face charges with most either
disciplined or retired from the agency. Sunderland's lawyer, Robert
F. Muse, claimed that many NIH staff viewed disclosure forms as "a
bureaucratic nuisance."
SOURCE: Baltimore Sun, December 9, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5541
3. BUZZ MARKETERS TOLD TO DISCLOSE
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101389.html
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission directed "companies engaging in
word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote
products to their peers," to "disclose those relationships."
Otherwise, it could be deceptive marketing, as people are more
likely to trust product endorsers "based on their assumed
independence from the marketer," according to the FTC. While the FTC
will examine potentially deceptive word-of-mouth marketing on a
case-by-case basis, the agency rejected a request from the watchdog
group Commercial Alert to review industry practices. The head of the
Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) called the FTC's
decision "an endorsement of the industry's efforts to police
itself." Advertising Age reports that the FTC ruling "could lead to
increased spending" on word-of-mouth marketing. O'Dwyer's PR Daily
calls the ruling a victory for WOMMA, which had "urged the FTC to
note the difference between buzz marketing, which it supports and
promotes, and stealth marketing, which it opposes."
SOURCE: Washington Post, December 12, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5540
4. CHILEAN DICTATOR PINOCHET LIED THROUGH HIS EYES
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061211/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/obit_pinochet
General Augusto Pinochet, 91, died on December 10, 2006, after
nearly a decade of fighting prosecution on charges of gross
violations of human rights. The charges stemmed from murders,
tortures and disappearances of thousands of Chilean and other
opponents during his 1974-1990 rule. In one of the general's most
enduring images, he posed for a photograph in which he set a stark,
sinister image behind sunglasses after a coup against the elected
president Salvador Allende. In an interview for a 1999 biography, he
explained the pose that obscured his eyes: "It was a way of telling
things. Lies are discovered through the eyes, and I lied often."
SOURCE: Associated Press, December 11, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5538
5. IMPORTANT INFORMATION SHELVED AS FEDERAL LIBRARIES CLOSE
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-libraries8dec08,0,474100.story?
"Across the country, half a dozen federal libraries are closed or
closing," including several run by the Environmental Protection
Agency. The EPA libraries helped "toxicologists assess health
effects of pesticides and chemicals," and "federal investigators
track sources of fish kills and identify companies responsible." The
EPA's compliance office warned that the closures "could weaken
efforts to enforce environmental laws." Regarding the Chicago EPA
library's closing, one activist who conducted research there while
campaigning against a proposed sludge incinerator said, "If I had
known ... I would have chained myself to the bookcase." Also closing
are libraries run by the General Services Administration, with
information on "real estate, telecommunications and government
finance," and by the Energy Department, with "literature for
government scientists and contractors." "Officials say the cutbacks
have been driven by tight budgets, declining patronage and rising
demand for online services." Critics "fear that some publications
will never be digitized because of copyright restrictions or cost,"
and say the loss of knowledgeable reference librarians will greatly
hamper research efforts.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5536
6. WAS EPIDEMIOLOGIST DOLL A MONSANTO PUPPET?
www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1967385,00.html
"Sir Richard Doll, the celebrated epidemiologist who established
that smoking causes lung cancer, was receiving a consultancy fee of
$1,500 a day in the mid-1980s from Monsanto," reports The Guardian.
"While he was being paid by Monsanto, Sir Richard wrote to a royal
Australian commission investigating the potential cancer-causing
properties of Agent Orange, made by Monsanto and used by the US in
the Vietnam war. Sir Richard said there was no evidence that the
chemical caused cancer." Monsanto confirmed that Sir Richard worked
for the company as recently as 2000, as "an expert witness for
Solutia," a Monsanto spin-off. Sir Richard "was also paid a 15,000
fee by the Chemical Manufacturers Association and ... Dow Chemicals
and ICI, for a review that largely cleared vinyl chloride, used in
plastics, of any link with cancers apart from liver cancer -- a
conclusion with which the World Health Organization disagrees."
Colleagues defended the late Sir Richard, saying that he received
the fees when "it was not automatic for potential conflicts of
interest to be declared in scientific papers," and that he donated
the money to Green College, Oxford.
SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), December 8, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5535
7. IRAQ STUDY GROUP SUGGESTS ACCURATE COUNTING OF IRAQI DEATHS
www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003493869
The Iraq Study Group's report states, "There is significant
underreporting of the violence in Iraq" by the U.S. military. The
too-high "standard for recording attacks acts as a filter to keep
events out of reports and databases," as well as news stories,
according to Editor & Publisher. Examples of unreported attacks
include "a roadside bomb or a rocket or mortar attacks that doesn't
hurt U.S. personnel" and a "sectarian attack" by an unknown group.
In addition, "a murder of an Iraqi is not necessarily counted as an
attack." On one day in July 2006, only 93 violent acts were
officially recorded, when some 1,100 actually occurred, according to
the report. "Good policy is difficult to make when information is
systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy
with policy goals," it concludes. One recommendation is to
"institute immediate changes in the collection of data about
violence and the sources of violence in Iraq to provide a more
accurate picture of events on the ground."
SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, December 6, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5534
8. DETAILED CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS RARE, PUBLICITY-DRIVEN
www.csmonitor.com/2006/1204/p25s01-wmgn.htm
Only a small proportion of annual corporate social responsibility
(CSR) reports -- perhaps 15 to 20 percent -- provide "very thorough"
accounts of real ethical problems faced by companies. Even that
measure comes from within the CSR report industry, in interviews
with writers Andrew Brengle of KLD Research & Analytics and Jeff
Erikson of SustainAbility Inc. The two consultants point to Nike as
a company that faced such bad ongoing publicity that it revamped its
reports to provide concrete details and increased reporting on labor
abuses. (Brengle has been a voluntary reviewer of Nike's reporting.)
But more typical, they say, are companies like Hess Corp., an energy
company, which described chemical spill problems in a recent report
but omitted a federal bribery probe stemming from international
operations. "It's more of a hard sell to get a company that isn't a
household name, that is more able to hide in the weeds, to produce a
sophisticated and in-depth report because they don't have that
public pressure," said Brengle. Recent studies by the Ethical
Trading Action Group and Oxfam/Hong Kong to improve global labor
rights reporting can be viewed, respectively, here and here.
SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, December 4, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5521
9. PR ADVISER PLEADS GUILTY TO INSIDER TRADING CHARGES
www.smh.com.au/news/national/pr-chief-guilty-of-inside-trading/2006/11/28/1164476204771.html
Margot Mackay, a former PR consultant to the gambling company
Aristocrat, has pleaded guilty to three charges of insider trading.
Mackay, who headed her own company Margot McKay and Associates, used
family members to buy almost $150,000 in shares ahead of
announcements to the stock exchange that she wrote herself. Kate
McClymont reports that McKay "was hired by Aristocrat in 2003 to
clean up its corporate image after a series of scandals involving
some of its senior executives." Mackay was prosecuted after
Aristocrat reported her share-trading to the Australian Securities
and Investments Commission.
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, November 29, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5532
10. OUTSOURCING JOURNALISM
www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/19/business/outsource.php
As newspapers seek to cut costs in the face of sagging circulation
and advertising pressures, some have started to ship jobs overseas
to places like India. "More than two years ago, Reuters, the
financial news service, opened a new center in Bangalore," reports
Doreen Carvajal. "The 340 employees, including an editorial team of
13 local journalists, was deployed to write about corporate earnings
and broker research on U.S. companies. Since then, the Reuters staff
at the center has grown to about 1,600, with 100 journalists working
on U.S. stories." Other publications are using the services of
Hi-Tech Export, an Indian company with some 700 employees that
offers proofreading, copy-editing and writing services to companies
in the United States, France and Britain.
SOURCE: International Herald Tribune, November 17, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5531
11. IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS
kdpaine.blogs.com/kdpaines_pr_m/2006/12/let_me_get_this.html
"Walmart used to annoy me with its horrible labor practices,
draconian rules, and blatant manipulation of the media, but now it's
gone past annoyance to bafflement," writes marketing consultant K.D.
Paine. "The latest was the firing of their VP of Marketing because
she allegedly went for rides in an Aston Martin and accepted dinners
from Agencies pitching their business. ... Their message is: we're
all about ethics. Which might be believable for a nanosecond, except
that the agency behind the biggest ethics scandal to hit the
blogosphere in awhile (and presumably the PR person who okay-ed
those fake blogs) are still happily employed." Michael Deaver, a
former chief of staff for President Reagan, is now helping to
oversee the Wal-Mart account as a vice chairman at the Edelman PR
firm.
SOURCE: KD Paine's PR Measurement Blog, December 8, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5530
12. "EQUAL PROTECTION" SUIT: A TIRED LAST GASP FOR TOBACCO INDUSTRY ALLIES IN NEVADA
www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/dec/05/120510459.html
The tobacco industry's buddies in the bar and gambling businesses
are at it again, suing to try and stop Nevada's new smoke-free law,
which voters approved November 7 by a margin of 54% to 46%. The law
bans smoking in bars that serve meals, slot machine sections of
grocery and convenience stores, in video arcades, shopping malls,
schools and day-care centers. Bar and casino owners are claiming the
law is unconstitutional, and saying that it will hurt their
businesses, while offering no proof that it has. A peer-reviewed
study published in Tobacco Control journal in 2003 conclusively
linked the tobacco industry to most of these lawsuits. The industry
and its allies typically lose these "equal protection" suits, which
are stimulated by the tobacco industry to undermine enforcement and
long-term implementation of smoke-free laws.
SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun, December 5, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5528
13. A EURO FOR YOUR THOUGHTS
www.corporateeurope.org/ThinkTankSurvey2006.html
A new survey undertaken by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
finds that most think tanks in the European Union fail to disclose
their funding sources, which is also kept secret by the large
corporations that provide much of their financial support. A
particularly problematic example is that of ExxonMobil, which
"continues to fuel the work of climate skeptic think tanks and lobby
groups in North America and Europe," while keeping much of its
funding for these groups secret.
SOURCE: Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), December 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5527
14. EDELMAN FLACKS FOR BIG OIL
nationaljournal.com/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+NJMAG+7-njmagtoc+1184833-DBSCORE+256+1+1157+F+11+20+1+PD%2f12%2f02%2f2006%2d%3e12
"With congressional Democrats readying probes into oil companies'
profits and eyeing legislation aimed at curbing global warming, the
American Petroleum Institute and its K Street allies are looking to
assemble a $100 million war chest to rally policy makers and public
opinion to their side," reports Peter Stone. "The image and
education effort, much of which will be coordinated by the PR firm
Edelman, will include expensive television, radio, and print ads,
tours of oil patch facilities for lawmakers and opinion elites, and
financial contributions to sympathetic think tanks and
industry-friendly organizations." API has also been using the
services of Wirthlin Worldwide, headed by former Ronald Reagan
pollster Richard Wirthlin, as it scrambles "to salvage a reputation
suffering amid high gasoline prices and concern about fossil-fuel
dependence."
SOURCE: National Journal (reg req'd), December 1, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5524
15. DOCTORS SEEK BAN ON JUNK FOOD ADS
www.smh.com.au/news/science/us-doctors-seek-ban-on-junk-food-ads/2006/12/06/1165081020356.html
The American Academy of Pediatrics has become the latest
organisation to call for a ban on the advertising of junk food
during children's television programs. "Healthy foods are advertised
less than 3 per cent of the time," noted Donald Shifrin, the
chairman of the committee that produced the new policy, which calls
for the removal of junk food ads during children's programs, along
with restrictions on ads for tobacco, alcohol and drugs for erectile
dysfunction.
SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), December 7, 2006
For more information or to comment on this story, visit:
www.prwatch.org/node/5523
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