Fwd: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, January 28, 2004

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28 Jan 2004 06:00:00 -0000

 

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The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, January 28, 2004

 

THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, January 28, 2004

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sponsored by PR WATCH (www.prwatch.org)

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The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to

further information about current public relations campaigns.

It is emailed free each Wednesday to rs.

 

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THIS WEEK'S NEWS

 

1. USDA Hides Behind the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis

2. Bush Administration Protects Chemical Industy

3. Mad Cow is Good for Industry Front Groups

4. B-M's Biotech Front Group Exposed in the UK

 

6. Drug Researcher Continues To Challenge Industry Claims

 

8. US Obesity Expands PR Budgets

9. 'Corporate Social Resposibility' Masks Corporate Damage

10. Auto Industry Front Group Gets New Head

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1. USDA HIDES BEHIND THE HARVARD CENTER FOR RISK ANALYSIS

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/107520811917\

0910.xml

" When Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman met a House panel last week

to defend her response to mad cow disease, she cited a Harvard

University study concluding the risk to public health is minimal.

.... The Harvard study, released two years ago, has become a

universal defense for Bush administration officials as they have

responded to the first cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in

Canada and then in the United States. But in their rush to embrace

'sound science,' Veneman and others at times mischaracterized the

study's purpose, recommendations or conclusions, according to a

review by The Oregonian. " The USDA paid the Harvard Center for Risk

Analysis $800,000 to produce a computer modeling study designed to

deny and downplay mad cow risks in the US. Far from being an

academic institution, the Harvard Center is an industry-funded

front group specializing in producing risk assessments that favor

its Fortune 500 supporters. Director George Gray is on the board of

the industry-funded right-wing Foundation for Research and the

Environment (FREE), and he and the Center's David Reopik recently

penned a piece for FREE ridiculing concerns over mad cow disease.

SOURCE: Oregonian, January 27, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1075179600

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1075179600

 

2. BUSH ADMINISTRATION PROTECTS CHEMICAL INDUSTY

http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000035.php

" Last year the Bush Administration encouraged American chemical

companies to lobby against European efforts to strengthen the

regulation of thousands of chemicals contained in household,

industrial and personal products, " BushGreenWash.org writes. " When

the chemical industry was slow to respond, Administration officials

took it upon themselves to launch 'an unusually aggressive

campaign' to pressure the European Union into watering down its

comprehensive reform efforts. Documents uncovered by the

Environmental Health Fund, using the Freedom of Information Act,

showed the U.S. State and Commerce departments, Environmental

Protection Agency and office of the U.S. Trade Representative,

formed an alliance with Dow Chemical Co. and others to ward off

regulations they feared would raise the cost of doing business in

Europe. " Meanwhile, the environmental group Earthjustice recently

filed suit against the Bush Administration, asserting that it had

allowed a special task force from the chemical industry to lobby

secretly and illegally inside the EPA. According to internal

documents obtained through FOIA, the chemical industry is seeking

to cut U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries biologists

out of the oversight process that determines whether or not a

pesticide is safe for wildlife.

SOURCE: BushGreenWash.org, January 26, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1075093201

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1075093201

 

3. MAD COW IS GOOD FOR INDUSTRY FRONT GROUPS

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=102-01262004

Corporate-funded think tanks and food industry front groups are

rushing into the debate over mad cow disease. This Wednesday,

January 28th, the George C. Marshall Institute is hosting a

presentation by Harvard Center for Risk Analysis director George

Gray, hyping him as " the nation's foremost mad cow expert, "

although his expertise is in getting money from government agencies

and Fortune 500 companies to produce risk studies that favor their

positions. Along with the Harvard Center and the Marshall

Institute, other groups receiving industry funding and fronting for

them on mad cow disease include Elizabeth Whelan's American Council

on Science and Health; father and son combo Dennis and Alex Avery

of the Hudson Institute; self-named 'Junkman' Steve Milloy of the

Cato Institute; and tobacco, booze and fat-food lobbyist Richard

Berman and his latest enterprise the Center for Consumer Freedom.

Late today, in a major victory for our work here at the Center for

Media & Democracy, the Food and Drug Administration agreed with us

and banned cattle blood as feed for US cattle. UPI quotes Mad Cow

USA co-author John Stauber as saying " The steps announced today ...

still fall far short of what is needed. The United States should

follow the lead of the EU nations by banning all feeding of

slaughterhouse waste to livestock, and testing millions of U.S.

cattle for mad cow disease. "

SOURCE: US Newswire Press Release, January 26, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1075093200

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1075093200

 

4. B-M'S BIOTECH FRONT GROUP EXPOSED IN THE UK

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1130785,00.html

" Few could question the sentiment behind the campaign: a fight

against cervical cancer. A clutch of famous women, including Liz

Hurley, Caprice and Carol Vorderman, signed up to support a crusade

to introduce a new NHS screening test that could save the lives of

thousands of women. The campaign is due to reach the House of

Commons on Wednesday, when MPs will be lobbied on the issue. But an

Observer investigation has uncovered how the celebrities have been

duped into supporting a sophisticated lobbying campaign secretly

orchestrated from Brussels by one of the world's largest public

relations firms, Burson-Marsteller. Celebrities contacted by The

Observer said they had no knowledge of the lobby group. ... The

company, whose headquarters are in New York, has conducted a

clandestine lobbying campaign on behalf of Digene, the US biotech

firm that would make hundreds of millions of pounds if the tests

were introduced in the UK and elsewhere. The idea was to set up a

'grass roots' group of celebrities and other high-profile women

that would appear to be an independent body and pressure Ministers

to introduce the new screening tests. "

SOURCE: The Observer, January 25, 2004

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1075006800

 

 

6. DRUG RESEARCHER CONTINUES TO CHALLENGE INDUSTRY CLAIMS

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7433/187-c?etoc

A Canadian professor of pediatrics and medicine vows to continue

speaking out on the risk of a drug used to treat thalassemia, a

hereditary blood disorder. Dr. Nancy Olivieri lost her attempt to

get her research on the harmful side effects of deferiprone looked

at by the committee for proprietary and medicinal products (CPMP)

that regulates drugs in Europe. " This ruling guarantees that only a

drug company attempting to sell a drug will control the content of

the scientific data submitted or not submitted to the European

CPMP, " she said. " It no longer matters whether drug companies tell

the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, because it's

unchallengeable now. " PR Watch First Quarter 2003 reported on

Olivieri's fight for academic freedom when the drug company that

funded her research blocked her from making her findings public.

SOURCE: BMJ.com, January 24, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074920400

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074920400

 

8. US OBESITY EXPANDS PR BUDGETS

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/7765780.htm

" The United States spent $75.1 billion last year on medical

expenses, such as drugs, doctor visits and hospitalizations,

related to obesity, according to a study published this month in

the journal Obesity Research, " the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

The study, financed by the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, found that taxpayers paid half of the bill through

Medicare and Medicaid programs. Obesity-related health problems

added up to 5.7 percent of the nation's total medical expenses,

according to the report. America's expanding waistline has meant

more fast food and soft drink dollars being spent on PR. " New

York-area McDonald's have kicked off a PR campaign designed to

increase sales by telling customers how various McDonald's offering

cans fit into their favorite diets, " PR Week reports. The industry

front group Center for Consumer Freedom, which got $200,000 from

Coca-Cola in 2001, wrote in an newspaper op-ed that opposition to

soda machines in schools is " fueled by junk science and media

frenzy " and that it is a " wild claim that soda consumption causes

childhood obesity. "

SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer, January 22, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074747600

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074747600

 

9. 'CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPOSIBILITY' MASKS CORPORATE DAMAGE

http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/news/media/pressrel/040121p.htm

As the international business elite meet behind high fences in

Davos, Switzerland, an international relief organization says

corporate claims of good deeds often hide companies' efforts to

undermine regulations and to elude responsibility for harm already

done. " The image of companies working hard to make the world a

better place is too often just that -- a carefully manufactured

image, " Christian Aid says in its new report, " Behind the mask: the

real face of corporate social responsibility. " The study targets

" the burgeoning industry known as corporate social responsibility

-- or CSR -- which is now seen as a vital tool in promoting and

improving the public image of some of the world's largest companies

and corporations. " The report examines campaigns carried out by

Shell, British American Tobacco and Coca Cola. " Some of those

shouting the loudest about their corporate virtues are also among

those inflicting continuing damage on communities where they work

-- particularly poor communities, " said Andrew Pendleton, senior

policy officer at Christian Aid and author of the report.

SOURCE: Christian Aid, January 21, 2004

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074661201

 

10. AUTO INDUSTRY FRONT GROUP GETS NEW HEAD

http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0121mccahill.htm

" Barry McCahill, a longtime transportation PR and public affairs

exec, has taken over as president of the Sport Utility Vehicle

Owners of America, a lobbying group which claims to represent the

24 million SUV owners in the U.S., " O'Dwyer's PR Daily Reports.

" Jason Vines, former managing director of Strat@comm and ex-head of

PR at Ford, left the post in December to return to DaimlerChrysler,

where he began his career. McCahill is a senior consultant to

Strat@comm and the group's communications director is a principal

and founder at the firm. McCahill was a longtime spokesman for the

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and was on the team

that put together its talking crash-test dummies and 'Friends Don't

Let Friends Drive Drunk' campaigns. "

SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, January 21, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2004.html#1074661200

To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1074661200

 

 

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