PR Watch, First Quarter 1996, Volume 3, No. 1

Flack Attack

Public Relations

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

PR executive Jack Mongoven has a new name for the leftist/environmentalist conspiracy that threatens to destroy civilization as we know it. He calls it the "Precautionary Principle."

"The Precautionary Principle holds that a manufacturer must prove that its product does no harm, before it can be marketed," Mongoven wrote in the March 1995 issue of Eco-logic, an anti-environmentalist newsletter. "Activists want to use this weapon to control the behavior of other Americans . . . [to] revolutionize American thinking about regulation, constitutional law, and government's role in society."

Apocalypse Cow: U.S. Denials Deepen Mad Cow Danger

Mad Cow Disease

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

For seven years the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the multi-billion dollar animal livestock industry have cooperated in a PR cover-up of huge health risks to animals and people in the United States.

For 10 years, even preceding the British outbreak of Mad Cow Disease, the USDA has had scientific evidence that a version of the disease exists in U.S. cattle. Yet government and industry have failed even at this late date to ban the practice of "cow cannibalism" which created the fatal epidemic now spreading in Britain from cows to people. The practice has been banned in Britain for years, but continues in the U.S. and is in fact more widespread here than in any other country.

USDA's PR Strategy

USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) 1991 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Public Relations

The following extracts are from a government PR strategy document for handling the Mad Cow Disease problem in the United State. The document was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act investigation.

With BSE there are two issues where agriculture is vulnerable to media scrutiny. These are the practice of feeding rendered ruminant products to ruminants and the risk to human health.

A Decade of Denial: Chronology of the Mad Cow Cover-Up

Mad Cow Disease

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

1985

Dr. Richard F. Marsh, a TSE expert and researcher at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, investigates a Wisconsin mink herd wiped out by a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) disease picked up from their feed--"downer" dairy cattle. He notifies colleagues of the apparent presence in dairy cows of a TSE agent, publishes peer-reviewed papers and launches a decade of continuing research.

Rendering: the "Invisible Industry" Gets a Green Facelift

Mad Cow Disease

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

The U.S. Department of Agriculture calls "rendering" a process of heat-treating fat, bone, offal and related material derived from the carcasses of livestock, poultry, fish and used cooking fats and oils. Renderers call themselves "the invisible industry" and are thankful that most people remain blissfully unaware of their existence.

Each year, at hundreds of plants in the U.S., more than 12.5 million tons of dead animals, fat and meat waste are melted down, most of it to become protein supplements fed to pets, chickens, cows, sheep and other animals, the rest to make products ranging from gelatin to cosmetics.

PR Watch Reviews BSE-related Resources on the Internet

Reporting in PR Watch

USDA's Mad Cow PR Coverup: The 1st Quarter 1996 issue of PR Watch reviews a decade of efforts by the British and U.S.

Confidence Game: Burson-Marsteller's PR Plan for Silicone Breast Implants

Science Under Pressure: Dow-Funded Studies Say 'No Problem!'

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

Breast implant makers and plastic surgeons have spent vastly more money on PR, attorneys, and lobbying than the women who are suing them for damages. Thanks to PR, the industry has achieved a remarkable reversal, persuading large sectors of the news media that it is the victim of politics, greed and "junk science."

New York Times reporter Gina Kolata has typified the trend, penning stories such as "Implant Lawsuits Create a Medical Rush to Cash In," which portrays the 400,000 women who have joined a class-action lawsuit against the industry as greedy opportunists goaded on by slick attorneys. Similar stories have appeared on 60 Minutes and PBS-TV's Frontline.