If you turn on the TV these days, it's nearly impossible to not see someone spinning a story. Children and young adults are not exempt from the reach of perception managers. In this back-to-school issue of PR Watch, we examine a few examples of classroom PR.

On college and university campuses this fall, students may find themselves being asked to join in a fight for "intellectual diversity" that is being spearheaded by the group Students for Academic Freedom. What may not be readily apparent to students, however, is that SAF is closely associated with the neo-conservative crusader David Horowitz, and the quest for "intellectual diversity" is a deceptively named campaign to place restrictions on instructors who are perceived as being too liberal. Ithaca College senior Molly Riordan, who interned with the Center over the summer, reports on Horowitz's Students for Academic Freedom and their Academic Bill of Rights.

by Molly Riordan

David Horowitz is battling to save higher education from ideological corruption. Or so he'd have us believe. As a Berkeley student at the start of the 60s, he became a leader of the "New Left" movement, sympathizing with the Black Panthers and speaking out against the Vietnam War. Today, as one of the right's most outspoken neo-conservatives, Horowitz claims to be equally concerned about oppressed voices on college campuses.

To illustrate his point, Horowitz has repeatedly told the story of a student at the University of Northern Colorado who, he says, contacted him after she was forced to "Explain why George Bush is a war criminal" on a criminology exam. The student suspected that her professor punished her with an unfair grade because of her political beliefs. When the student answered the question by writing about how Saddam Hussein was a war criminal, she said she received an "F." This incident, Horowitz claimed, demonstrated the extent of "leftist indoctrination" on campuses and demonstrated why he was campaigning for "academic freedom."

by Diane Farsetta

Sometimes even the slickest public relations effort doesn't improve a person's or an institution's image. Think of the U.S. State Department's $15 million "Shared Values" ad campaign, which failed to assuage anti-American sentiment in Muslim countries.

More commonly, PR campaigns enjoy partial successes. That appears to be the case with the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC, formerly called the School of the Americas or SOA), a Defense Department facility at Fort Benning, near Columbus, Ga. While media coverage and Congressional attitudes haven't improved appreciably since WHINSEC launched a major PR effort three years ago, the Institute has achieved a partial détente with some academic figures and human rights organizations.

by Sheldon Rampton

Years of writing about public relations and propaganda has probably made me a bit jaded, but I was amazed nevertheless when I visited "America's Army," an online video game website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). In its quest to find recruits, the military has literally turned war into entertainment.

"America's Army" offers a range of games that kids can download or play online. Although the games are violent, with plenty of opportunities to shoot and blow things up, they avoid graphic images of death or other ugliness of war, offering instead a sanitized, Tom Clancy version of fantasy combat. One game, Overmatch, promises "a contest in which one opponent is distinctly superior . . . with specialized skills and superior technology . . . OVERMATCH: few soldiers, certain victory." (This is more or less the same overconfident message that helped lead us into Iraq.)

by Laura Miller

The American Beverage Association scored PR points in August when it unveiled a new voluntary "school vending policy." The trade association for soft drink manufacturers says it is encouraging beverage producers and school districts to provide "lower-calorie and/or nutritious beverages" to schools and limit the availability of soft drinks in schools. ABA's announcement snagged positive news stories across the country, but public health advocates questioned the group's commitment to preventing childhood obesity.

"It's ironic that ABA would choose to make this announcement at the National Conference of State Legislatures meeting, since its members lobby against any state bills to get sodas out of schools," said Michele Simon, director of the Center for Informed Food Choices. According to a release authored by Simon and Susan Linn, a member of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, in the past year, soft drink lobbyists successfully killed or watered down bills restricting soft drink sales in schools in Connecticut, Arizona, Kentucky and New Mexico.

CMD’s John Stauber (left) speaks in St. Paul, Minn., to international media outside a U.S. Department of Agriculture event with livestock industry lobbyists on mad cow risks in the United States. The next day the USDA revealed that mad cow disease had been confirmed in Texas, launching CMD into the media spotlight again on this issue.

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is at the forefront of identifying manipulative and deceptive PR and propaganda. Here are just a few examples of recent media appearances of the Center and its staff:

• Australian blogger Antony Lowenstein cites SourceWatch Editor Bob Burton's June 6 post, "Pfizer's Fickle Philanthropy." Lowenstein writes in his June 10 entry "Warm and fuzzy drugs," "PR Watch's Bob Burton debunks the 'generosity' of drug companies in the wake of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami."
• The New York Times' Melanie Warner cites the work of the Center in her June 12 article "Striking Back at the Food Police," which profiles the industry funded Center for Consumer Freedom. "According to documents [the Center for Media and Democracy] say were obtained from a former Consumer Freedom staff member, corporate contributors to the group as of 2002 included Coca-Cola, Wendy's and Tyson Foods, each of which gave $200,000. Cargill gave $100,000, according to the documents, and Outback Steakhouse gave $164,600."