The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, August 4, 2004

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--- weekly-spin-admin wrote:

 

> 4 Aug 2004 05:00:01 -0000

 

> The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, August 4, 2004

> weekly-spin-admin

>

> THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, August 4, 2004

>

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> (www.prwatch.org)

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> The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries

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> THIS WEEK'S NEWS

>

> 1. The Carbon PR Cycle

> 2. Who's Your Sugar Daddy?

> 3. Race, Elections and the Media

> 4. Painting Happy Faces on Black Boxes

> 5. Heal Thyself!

> 6. Mine, All Mine

> 7. Al Qaeda at the DNC

> 8. Triumph of the Trivial

> 9. Crossed Wires and Banana Republicans

> 10. A Match Made... Well, Somewhere

> 11. Riddle of the Sphinx

> 12. One Straight Shooter

> 13. Can Monsanto's Raider Vanquish Nader?

> 14. PR: Making Words Obscure Actions

> 15. Convention 'Hospitality'

> 16. Iraq's War on Unwarranted Criticism

> 17. They Blacklist, You Decide

>

----

>

> 1. THE CARBON PR CYCLE

> http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/84/carbon.html#WB

> " Organized by the World Bank, the International

> Emissions Trading

> Association and Koelnmesse (Cologne Trade Fair),

> Carbon Expo was

> supposed to be 'the Coming of Age of the Global

> Carbon Market,' "

> reports Chris Lang. At a journalists' workshop,

> World Bank

> Communications Advisor Sergio Jellinek said the

> Bank wanted to help

> journalists " in terms of getting the story right.

> You set the tone

> of the debate. It's a debate we want to be

> involved in, " he

> stressed. " Carbon emission trading, a vehicle for

> development. Is

> this a story that's worth telling? I think it is. "

> SOURCE: World Rainforest Movement Bulletin

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091567777

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091567777

>

> 2. WHO'S YOUR SUGAR DADDY?

>

http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=218037 & site=3

> " A grassroots PR effort that included giving away

> American flags

> for the Fourth of July has helped Donald Trump win

> the right to

> build a new casino in Orange County, an

> economically depressed area

> in Indiana, " reports PR Week. Competition for the

> casino license

> was fierce; Indianapolis PR firm MZD promoted

> Trump as experienced

> and caring. Trump " pledged to give $5 million each

> to refurbish two

> local resort hotels. " MZD offered " to replace

> [businesses' and

> families'] worn-out American flags with new ones.

> One citizen at a

> public meeting mentioned [the free flags] as a

> sign that Trump

> truly cared. "

> SOURCE: PR Week (sub. req'd), August 2, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091419202

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091419202

>

> 3. RACE, ELECTIONS AND THE MEDIA

>

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/weeklyView.cfm?articlenumber=1562

> " Gaining access to the Republican National

> Convention has become a

> tortuous struggle for a slew of local ethnic

> publications, " reports

> a New York City weekly. In Arizona, a Bush-Cheney

> organizer

> " insisted on knowing the race of a ... journalist

> assigned to

> photograph Vice President Dick Cheney, " saying the

> information was

> needed " to distinguish her from someone else who

> might have the

> same name " - which seems unlikely, since her name

> is Mamta Popat.

> In New Mexico, " Democrats who signed up to hear

> [Cheney] speak ...

> were refused tickets unless they signed a pledge

> to endorse

> President Bush. " One media analysis company

> estimates that, with

> Iraq coverage dominating the news, " 67 percent of

> stories on Bush

> were negative, while only 36 percent were negative

> for Kerry. "

> SOURCE: City Limits, August 2, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091419201

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091419201

>

> 4. PAINTING HAPPY FACES ON BLACK BOXES

> http://alternet.org/election04/19423/

> " It's amazing how far the reputation of electronic

> voting has

> fallen, " writes Center for Media and Democracy

> researcher Diane

> Farsetta. On November 9, 2000, one company

> bragged, " If Florida had

> used an e-voting system, we'd know the winner

> already. " But over

> the past few years, as " expert critiques of and

> troubling incidents

> with e-voting systems multiplied to the point of

> attracting major

> media attention, " the multi-industry group

> Information Technology

> Association of America " urged e-voting companies

> to unite under a

> public relations banner. " A longer version of this

> article ran in

> the Center's quarterly journal, PR Watch.

> Subscribe today and be

> among the first to read future exposes!

> SOURCE: AlterNet, August 2, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1091419200

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091419200

>

> 5. HEAL THYSELF!

>

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7460/247?etoc

> Just 13 percent of Americans think pharmaceutical

> companies are

> " generally honest and trustworthy, " according to a

> recent survey.

> " Public confidence in drug companies has plunged

> harder and faster

> than for any other industry, " putting them " on a

> par with tobacco,

> oil and [HMOs]. " With medical journals not

> identifying drug study

> authors' " relevant conflicts of interest, "

> Schering-Plough pleading

> guilty to defrauding Medicaid, Bristol-Myers

> Squibb settling

> charges of financial improprieties, and

> GlaxoSmithKline withholding

> information about its antidepressants' usefulness

> for adolescents,

> it's not too hard to understand the survey

> results.

> SOURCE: British Medical Journal, July 31, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091246400

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091246400

>

> 6. MINE, ALL MINE

>

http://www.montanaforum.com/modules.php?op=modload & name=News & file=article & sid=58\

0 & mode=thread & order=0 & thold=0

> Montana's citizen-passed ban on cyanide leach

> mining may be

> repealed in a November initiative supported by the

> group Miners,

> Merchants and Montanans for Jobs and Economic

> Opportunity. The

> group receives almost all of its funding from

> Colorado's Canyon

> Resources Corp. - which may explain a

> " little-known part " of the

> initiative " that would restore mining rights that

> any company or

> person had when the cyanide method was banned in

> 1998. " Initiative

> opponents, concerned at the environmental effects

> of cyanide

> mining, have formed a " Save the Blackfoot " group,

> whose board

> consists " largely of southwestern Montana

> residents, some of them

> Blackfoot River users. "

> SOURCE: Associated Press, July 30, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091160003

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091160003

>

> 7. AL QAEDA AT THE DNC

>

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/07/30/queda_came.html

> Journalism professor Jay Rosen, who attended the

> Democratic

> national convention, says the " great overlooked

> story in all the

> reporting " was the heightened security situation.

> " It was in your

> face, nonstop, in thousands of ways inside what

> was called, in

> military terms, The Perimeter, " Rosen writes. " It

> came lunging at

> you as you approached the site and enveloped all

> when you were on

> site. You could have your credentials checked

> twenty times on a

> single trip from the ground floor to your seats.

> ... It was telling

> us that we live in a different world than the last

> time there was a

> political convention. ... What was all this

> security about? And who

> authored it? Ultimately, Al Queda did. ... Al

> Queda also came to

> the convention. "

> SOURCE: PressThink, July 30, 2004

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091160002

>

> 8. TRIUMPH OF THE TRIVIAL

>

http://nytimes.com/2004/07/30/opinion/30krugman.html?hp

> New York Times' columnist Paul Krugman looks into

> why Americans

> haven't heard much about John Kerry's proposal to

> extend health

> insurance to lower- and middle-income families.

> After " reading 60

> days' worth " of transcripts from major cable and

> broadcast TV

> networks Krugman writes, " Never mind the details -

> I couldn't even

> find a clear statement that Mr. Kerry wants to

> roll back recent

> high-income tax cuts and use the money to cover

> most of the

> uninsured. When reports mentioned the Kerry plan

> at all, it was

> usually horse race analysis - how it's playing,

> not what's in it.

> On the other hand, everyone knows that Teresa

> Heinz Kerry told

> someone to 'shove it,' though even there, the

> context was missing. "

> Krugman continues, " Somewhere along the line, TV

> news stopped

> reporting on candidates' policies, and turned

> instead to trivia

> that supposedly reveal their personalities. We

> hear about Mr.

> Kerry's haircuts, not his health care proposals.

> We hear about

> George Bush's brush-cutting, not his environmental

> policies. ... In

> short, the triumph of the trivial is not a trivial

> matter. The

> failure of TV news to inform the public about the

> policy proposals

> of this year's presidential candidates is, in its

> own way, as

> serious a journalistic betrayal as the failure to

> raise questions

> about the rush to invade Iraq. "

> SOURCE: New York Times, July 30, 2004

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091160001

>

> 9. CROSSED WIRES AND BANANA REPUBLICANS

>

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-florida30jul30,1,4532416.story?coll=la-h\

eadlines-technology

> Florida's Republicans are getting mixed signals

> about November.

> Governor Jeb Bush " has tried for months to

> persuade Florida voters

> touch-screen [electronic] voting machines are

> reliable. " But the

> state GOP party is circulating a flier that reads,

> in part, " The

> new electronic voting machines do not have a paper

> ballot to verify

> your vote in case of a recount. Make sure your

> vote counts. Order

> your absentee ballot today. " Meanwhile, Miami-Dade

> County elections

> officials are " very pleased " that they found a

> compact disk

> containing the votes cast on e-voting machines in

> the 2002

> gubernatorial primary; the information had been

> reported lost.

> SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, July 30, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091160000

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091160000

>

> 10. A MATCH MADE... WELL, SOMEWHERE

>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22128-2004Jul28.html

> " Citizens for a Sound Economy and Empower America

> have merged to

> form FreedomWorks, a grass-roots advocacy and

> political group to

> bolster their fight for 'lower taxes, less

> government and more

> economic freedom,' " reports Judy Sarasohn. The new

> group will be

> co-chaired by Dick Armey, C. Boyden Gray and Jack

> Kemp, with Matt

> Kibbe as president. Freedom Works is " intended, in

> part, to

> challenge political liberal groups such as

> MoveOn.org for voters

> this campaign season " and will engage in

> " lobbying, political

> fundraising and political activities, including

> voter education and

> get-out-the-vote efforts in key campaigns, "

> according to Armey.

> SOURCE: Washington Post, July 29, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091073601

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091073601

>

> 11. RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX

>

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109104875075676781,00.html?mod=health%5Fhs%5F\

policy%5Flegislation

> " The pyramid has crumbled, " said a food industry

> consultant. The

> U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for

> Nutrition Policy and

> Promotion hired the Porter Novelli PR firm to

> redesign the Food

> Pyramid, or, as one PR pro called it, the " Food

> Guidance System, so

> it's not prejudiced that it's going to be a

> pyramid. " Food is a

> $500 billion industry, so " everybody and their

> dog " is interested,

> said the Wheat Foods Council president. Concerned

> groups include

> the U.S. Potato Board, the Malaysian Palm Oil

> Board, Atkins

> Nutritionals and the National Cattlemen's Beef

> Association. The

> USDA will pay Porter Novelli at least $1.6 million

> over the next

> year, for the redesign, slogan, Internet work and

> educational

> materials, reports Adweek.

> SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1091073600

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1091073600

>

> 12. ONE STRAIGHT SHOOTER

>

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=\

1000589029

> Ohio's concealed carry law allows " only the media

> to find out the

> names of those obtaining such permits " for

> weapons. So Cleveland's

> newspaper, The Plain Dealer, published the " names,

> ages and home

> counties of the 3,000 residents who have taken out

> such permits,

> citing the public's right to know. " In response,

> Ohioans for

> Concealed Carry posted the newspaper editor's home

> address, phone

> number and other personal information on their

> website, along with

> a map to his house, saying, " The editor believes

> in open records. "

> The editor's home phone has received " a steady

> stream of phone

> calls, some of them obscene. "

> SOURCE: Editor and Publisher, July 28, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090987203

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090987203

>

> 13. CAN MONSANTO'S RAIDER VANQUISH NADER?

>

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001990673_nader28.html

> Toby Moffett is a well-connected Washington

> lobbyist employed at

> the Livingston Group, a powerful lobby firm begun

> by former

> Republican representative Robert Livingston. One

> of Moffett's close

> colleagues at Livingston is Lauri Fitz-Pegado who

> worked for the

> front group Citizens for a Free Kuwait. Moffett

> was previously a

> vice-president of Monsanto, the giant genetic

> engineering and

> pesticide company. In his youth Moffett worked for

> Ralph Nader and

> now as he did in 2000 he is trading on his

> " Nader's Raider " past to

> raise hefty contributions for a well-oiled attack

> campaign against

> Nader's run for the presidency. According to the

> Seattle Times,

> " anti-Nader groups have been organized for months.

> But the efforts

> have taken 'a huge move' recently in fund raising,

> research and a

> detailed attack plan, Moffett said. 'This guy

> [Nader] is still a

> huge threat,' he said. 'We're just not going to

> make the same

> mistake we made in 2000.' ... A memo given to

> potential supporters

> said Moffett's group, United Progressives for

> Victory, will do

> research, community organizing, media outreach and

> Internet

> marketing aimed at weakening Nader's standing.

> Last night, Nader

> called it a smear campaign and said, 'It's the

> Democrats'

> undemocratic attempt' to quash third-party

> candidates. "

> SOURCE: Seattle Times, Wednesday, July 28, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090987202

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090987202

>

> 14. PR: MAKING WORDS OBSCURE ACTIONS

>

http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0728apco_indonesia.htm

> The international PR firm APCO Worldwide " is

> spreading the word

> that Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim

> nation, is a

> staunch U.S. ally committed to combating

> terrorism. " APCO signed a

> six-month agreement with Indonesia's Ministry of

> Communication and

> Information " to promote positive U.S./Indonesia

> ties, " including a

> high-level delegation to Washington DC, after

> Indonesia's

> presidential run-off election in September. Yet

> " Indonesian police

> ... dropped plans to charge militant cleric Abu

> Bakar Baasyir with

> involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings following a

> court ruling last

> week that curbed the use of a tough antiterrorism

> law, " reports the

> Wall Street Journal.

> SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, July 28, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090987201

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090987201

>

> 15. CONVENTION 'HOSPITALITY'

>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19546-2004Jul27.html

> Candidates, delegates, protesters and media aren't

> the only folks

> attending the Democratic and Republican

> conventions this summer.

> Lobbyists, by the thousands, are doing " what

> amounts to the only

> real work going on at the convention - the nonstop

> currying of

> favor of elected officials by the most powerful

> interests in the

> country, " the Washington Post writes. Representing

> their

> well-heeled clients, lobbyists are hosting

> hundreds of events at

> the conventions hoping to make connections that

> will pay off for

> them in the future. Sen. Richard J. Durbin

> (D-Ill.), played down

> the $19,000 luncheon given in his honor by the

> Chicago Board

> Options Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade and

> the Chicago

> Mercantile Exchange. Durbin, an original

> co-sponsor of the

> McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, called the

> luncheon an

> extension of his " day-to-day contact with business

> from my state. "

> " It's hospitality at the convention, and I think

> that's part of the

> experience, " he told the Post.

> SOURCE: Washington Post, July 28, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090987200

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090987200

>

> 16. IRAQ'S WAR ON UNWARRANTED CRITICISM

>

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory & c=Sto\

ryFT & cid=1087374001384

> " In a difficult security situation, we need to

> fight the terrorists

> by all means, and one of the main means is the

> media. We need them

> all to co-operate, even the private sector. It's

> for national

> security, " said Ibrahim Janabi, a former Iraqi

> intelligence officer

> who Prime Minister Iyad Allawi just appointed as

> the head of the

> new Higher Media Commission. The Commission, which

> will be housed

> in the old Information Ministry building, will

> " impose restrictions

> on print and broadcast media. " Janabi said the

> restrictions would

> include " unwarranted criticism of the prime

> minister. "

> SOURCE: Financial Times (UK), July 27, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090900801

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090900801

>

> 17. THEY BLACKLIST, YOU DECIDE

> http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=25615

> " All PR people pitch stories to reporters, but Fox

> is unusually

> forceful ... and active in letting reporters know

> when it is

> unhappy, " writes Alex Ben Block. " Among the

> hundreds of reporters

> with whom the [Fox News Channel] publicists

> regularly deal, some

> have written things that are deemed so offensive

> that Fox just

> stops talking to them. " The " blacklisted " include

> an Associated

> Press reporter who wrote an article about Paula

> Zahn leaving Fox

> for CNN and a Baltimore Sun reporter who, in late

> 2001, " noted that

> Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera was not actually

> at the scene of a

> battle [in Afghanistan], as he had described. "

> SOURCE: TV Week, July 25, 2004

> More web links related to this story are available

> at:

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1090728000

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

>

>

http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1090728000

>

>

>

----

>

> The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers

> at the

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