PR Watch, Second Quarter 2000, Volume 7, No. 2

Download PR Watch, Second Quarter 2000, Volume 7, No. 2

Flack Attack

Many of you have called during the last couple of months wondering why you haven't received a recent issue of PR Watch. The reason this issue is so late is that we have been busy wrapping up a new book, soon to be published by Penguin/Putnam. Titled Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future, it provides an indepth look at many of the themes explored in our earlier book, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. We will provide you with ordering information as soon as it is available.

Targeting Children: Industry's Campaign to Redefine Environmental Education

by John F. Borowski

Florida's Orange County Convention Center is big. Big enough to hold the Sears Tower if you laid it on its side. So big you could walk ten miles and never leave the cement behemoth. Its electric bill is $325,000 per month.

This hulking structure in Orlando seemed appropriate for the carnival-like setting of the National Science Teachers Convention, held April 6-9, 2000. It was the largest gathering of educators in the nation: more than 14,000 science teachers and hundreds of exhibitors passing out armloads of pamphlets, packets, books, stickers, posters, and other educational goodies. But though there were a handful of conservation groups at the event, those of us sitting at the Native Forest Council booth were clearly in the minority.

Will CFA Save GM Foods?

Democratic party heavyweight Carol Tucker Foreman has left her lucrative job as a lobbyist and returned to the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) as director of its newly formed Food Policy Institute.

Catching Flack: A Canadian PR Man Spills the Beans

The public relations industry does not brook criticism lightly, as we discovered for the umpteenth time in June of this year when an interview with PR Watch founder John Stauber appeared on MediaChannel, a website that analyzes the global news and entertainment media.

When members of the PR industry learned that the interview was scheduled to run, their "crisis management" forces swung into action.

Confessions of a Spin Doctor

by Eric Sparling

I owe you an apology. I've lied, cheated and swindled. Yeah, I know. You've done that, too, but I did it professionally. I spent this past year working in a public relations agency.

Let me boil it down for you.

Further Adventures of a Public Relations Turncoat

by Eric Sparling

I was cynical about public relations right from the start. During one of my college PR classes, I was in charge of printing T-shirts for a pub crawl. I came up with the slogan, "We're friendly because we're paid to be." My classmates loved it. The head instructor thought it was a gross misrepresentation of the industry.

Survey Shows Most PR People Still Won't Admit Lying

"The cardinal rule in public relations, as enunciated by the Public Relations Society of America and followed by every self-respecting public relations practitioner is 'never lie,' " says Fraser P. Seitel, editor of the PRSA's monthly magazine, the Public Relations Strategist.Outside the public relations industry itself, however, many people regard PR as a synonym for spin, insincerity and deception.

Facts Not Fear Wants to Make the World Safe for Styrofoam

Book Review by John Stauber

Michael Sanera and Jane S.

Cool vs. Old School: Public Relations Faces the Information Age

by Dustin Beilke

Judging by the 1999 annual conference of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), non-profit public interest groups can look forward to some good news and some bad news in the bold new cyber future.

Titled "Surfing the Information Tidal Wave,"the conference was held October 24-26 at the Hilton Hotel in Anaheim, California.