Franklin Foer has written a lengthy and unflattering profile of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, less than a week after an editors' note in her newspaper criticized some of her Iraq-related reporting. Foer identifies former Executive Editor Howell Raines as the key enabler for some of her shoddiest work. He refers to Miller's "seemingly bottomless ambition," and her "pair of big feet that would stomp on colleagues in her way and even crunch a few bystanders," but many of the most critical comments come from Miller's colleagues at the paper. Some reporters at the Times claim they have told their editors they will never share a byline with her. "She considers us to be her minions," says one. Foer also explains how the neoconservatives got Miller to publish their propaganda: "While Miller might not have intended to march in lockstep with these hawks, she was caught up in an almost irresistible cycle. Because she kept printing the neocon party line, the neocons kept coming to her with huge stories and great quotes, constantly expanding her access."

Secret documents reveal that British-American Tobacco has spent millions of pounds funding university research to back the controversial theory of "genetic predisposition," which argues that some people are more susceptible to lung cancer than others because they have "bad genes." The environmental group Gene Watch has obtained internal memos from BAT showing that research into "bad genes" was by far BAT's largest area of university funding in the early 1990s. "In conjunction with the anti-smoking group Ash, GeneWatch is preparing to publish a list of UK scientists who have received BAT funding but not declared it in their research papers, something which opens them up to the accusation that they failed to declare a conflict of interest," reports Jamie Doward. Ash and GeneWatch are also preparing to release a major new collection of tobacco industry documents.

"Message discipline" seems to be breaking down within the Bush administration, notes David Sanger: "For months now, the same administration whose members once prided themselves on never contradicting one another in public has been riven by conflicting pronouncements. Senior officials keep missing opportunities to keep their signals straight, prompting cases of vicious backbiting that one senior member of Mr. Bush's national security staff said with disgust the other day 'make us sound like Democrats.' Reporters who spent the first two-thirds of Mr. Bush's term looking for any crack between the tight-lipped members of the administration suddenly feel as if they have stepped into an amusement park, with different hawkers openly selling disparate policies, explanations and critiques. ... Many think it is a casualty of Iraq: When the occupation turned south, the backbiting and second-guessing were inevitable. ... Another theory is that while the president is thinking about his second term, many of those in his cabinet are thinking about getting out."

The New York Times, which published a mea culpa on May 26 for its flawed reporting that helped promote war fever against Iraq, has now published a second, harder-hitting self-criticism by Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent. "The failure was not individual, but institutional," Okrent writes. "War requires an extra standard of care, not a lesser one. But in The Times's WMD coverage, readers encountered some rather breathless stories built on unsubstantiated 'revelations' that, in many instances, were the anonymity-cloaked assertions of people with vested interests. Times reporters broke many stories before and after the war - but when the stories themselves later broke apart, in many instances Times readers never found out. ... Other stories pushed Pentagon assertions so aggressively you could almost sense epaulets sprouting on the shoulders of editors. ... The aggressive journalism that I long for, and that the paper owes both its readers and its own self-respect, would reveal not just the tactics of those who promoted the WMD stories, but how The Times itself was used to further their cunning campaign."

The Publicity Club of Chicago, a PR industry trade association, has given its "Platinum Trumpet" award to Sarah Sarosi of the Burson-Marsteller PR firm, which worked on behalf of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association in the U.S. and "responded immediately when a Canadian case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (or 'Mad Cow' disease) was diagnosed."

"The War on Terrorism has come home," warns Will Potter. "FBI agents rounded up seven American political activists ... and the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey" announced "'terrorists' have been indicted." The seven are charged under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 1992 and could face up to three years in prison and $250,000 fines. The activists are with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, which uses "demonstrations, phone and email blockades, and ... aggressive rhetoric to pressure companies to cut ties" with Huntingdon Life Science, an animal testing lab that's "been exposed multiple times for violating animal welfare laws." On May 26, the Greenpeace environmental group marked the anniversary of the French government's 1985 bombing of their Rainbow Warrior boat, as it protested French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. The sunken ship is now an artificial reef in New Zealand's Matauri Bay.

Bush-Cheney campaign chair Marc Racicot announced "the formation of a natural resources coalition ... to counter environmental groups' grass-roots effort to turn out anti-Bush voters" in Oregon, a swing state. "We believe President Bush has a very strong environmental record," said Racicot. The Superior Lumber Company president heads the coalition, which "includes several other people connected with the state's forestry industry as well as business people and legislators." Bush-Cheney's Oregon volunteer director, a pesticide industry lobbyist, said Bush's environmental policies have "given these people hope." But Greenpeace, an environmental group, is establishing a "forest rescue station" in southern Oregon. "This whole area is emblematic of some of the most important ancient forests left on public lands. This area is representative of the Bush rollback of environmental policies," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Celia Alario.

Saying "he was seduced 'with a bacon-wrapped cheeseburger'," Florida millionaire Jody Gorran filed a lawsuit against Atkins Nutritionals and the estate of the late Dr. Atkins. Gorran required surgery to open a 99 percent blocked coronary artery after following the high-fat, high-protein Atkins diet for two years. In addition to $28,000 in damages, Gorran is "seeking an injunction to prevent [Atkins Nutritionals] from selling their products, books, or having their website without a warning, because they know one-third of the people on the diet will have what Atkins referred to as 'less favorable cholesterol'." The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which Atkins Nutritionals called an "extremist animal rights vegan group," is assisting with the lawsuit. Atkins Nutritionals called the suit a "scare tactic ... designed to convince the American public to stop eating animal protein of any sort."

"The Homeland Security Department was surprised by the announcement Wednesday by Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller that a terrorist attack was increasingly likely in the coming months," reports Newsday. But Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge called the threats "not the most disturbing that I have personally seen." Homeland Security officials believe the intelligence behind the warning "was not new or specific enough to merit an announcement," according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal attributes this contradiction to "turf battles that have emerged since Homeland Security was created... one year ago." The San Francisco Chronicle notes: "with an election five months away and polls showing President Bush's approval ratings slipping... there was rampant speculation that politics had prompted the announcement."

"Despite ongoing financial woes, Air America Radio appears to have garnered a significant audience during its first month on the air, particularly among the younger listeners sought by advertisers," reports John Cook. "An analysis of recently released figures from Arbitron, the radio ratings service, showed that in New York Air America beat Rush Limbaugh's station among 25-to-54-year-olds during the period that Limbaugh and Al Franken, the host of the flagship show 'The O'Franken Factor,' go head-to-head. In Chicago, even though the network was available for only 28 days in April, Air America increased the average share of 25-to-54-year-old listeners on WNTD-950 AM from a 0.1 percent share in February to a 2 percent share in April."

After being arrested by Israeli secret service agents "on suspicion of having arranged a television interview with Mordechai Vanunu in violation of state gagging orders," British journalist Peter Hounam was released today. Hounam was in Israel working on a BBC documentary about Vanunu, a former nuclear technician turned whistleblower. In 1986, Hounam's reporting "helped to reveal Israel's nuclear secrets," after Vanunu came forward with weapons programs information. Vanunu, who was recently released after serving an 18 year prison sentence, called the reporter's detention "a farce"; one Israeli opposition legislator called it "dangerous for democracy." Reporters Without Borders stated: "This arrest and the blackout that followed it are serious violations of press freedom."

In a May 11 memo obtained by the Associated Press, the head of the Army's Installation Management Activity command, Major General Anders Aadland, announced that the Army will "take additional risk in environmental programs; terminate environmental contracts and delay all non-statutory enforcement actions" until after October, the start of the 2005 fiscal year. AP reports that commanders were also told to "implement these actions now and ensure resources are best used to support the war effort." Jeff Ruch, who heads the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, noted, "the Pentagon is now the planet's most prolific and persistent polluter" and said the memo authorized the "pollution of American soil, when it saves money."

Eric Boehlert, citing Media Matters for America observations, writes: "Between March 15 and April 29 'Limbaugh used the term "femi-Nazis" eight times; he suggested that women want to be sexually harassed; he repeatedly equated Democrats with terrorists'... Is it appropriate for a military audience to be repeatedly beamed these messages?" At issue is the hour of Rush Limbaugh's right-wing radio talk show aired daily on taxpayer-funded American Forces Radio, which broadcasts "stereo audio services to over 1,000 outlets in more than 175 countries and U.S. territories, and on board U.S. Navy ships." Given that "overseas military ballots were an important element" of the 2000 election, Boehlert writes: "The influence of what amounts to propaganda beamed daily to U.S. troops must be considered a domestic political factor of no small consequence."

The Pentagon is worried. "The rapid proliferation of digital cameras, phonecams and wireless gadgets among soldiers and military contractors," according to Wired News, has Pentagon officials "telling commanders in the field to strictly monitor the use of consumer wireless technology through Directive 8100.2," which allows only devices with "strong authentication and encryption technologies." In addition, "Defense Department lawyers may be reviewing how the spread of consumer digital-imaging technology ... affects the military's obligation to abide by a Geneva Convention article against holding prisoners up to public ridicule." Noting that "the first impulse of government is to put a lid on information about itself, even when the public has a right to know," Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page suggests digital cameras be given to all servicemembers.

Declaring "it is past time" to shine "the bright light of hindsight ... on ourselves," The New York Times assessed its pre-war and early invasion Iraq coverage as "in most cases ... an accurate reflection of the state of our knowledge at the time." The Times acknowledges there were "a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been." Editor & Publisher writes that the Times' mea culpa "does not ... go nearly far enough and is buried on Page A10," and calls it "nothing less than a primer on how not to do journalism, particularly if you are an enormously influential newspaper with a costly invasion of another nation at stake." Times editors reassured staff that their Iraq coverage assessment "is not an attempt to find a scapegoat or blame reporters."

"Notwithstanding their stated aversion to 'big government,' now that they have become the government [right wing Republicans] have not hesitated to expand its powers in precisely those areas that are most threatening to individual freedoms ... . The likelihood that those powers will be abused has increased, moreover, as the conservative movement accuses its ideological adversaries of 'treason,' 'terrorism' and 'un-Americanism;' threatening long-standing traditions of tolerance and diversity. ... In sum, the direction in which forces in the GOP are moving looks - at times absurdly, at times ominously - similar to the 'banana republics' of Latin America: nations dominated by narrow corporate elites, which use the pretext of national security to violate the rights of their citizens." [This is an excerpt of our new book Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing is Turning America into a One-Party State, now in thousands of bookstores. Please buy a copy and also help us to publicize the book by emailing this excerpt to your family, friends and co-workers. All proceeds from Banana Republicans support the research and education work of our non-profit Center for Media and Democracy.]

How is Bush-Cheney '04 like a marketing campaign? "In 2000, Mr. Bush shattered fund-raising records... by recruiting supporters to join a program called the Pioneers, fund-raisers who pledged to raise at least $100,000. This year, the campaign is broadening its reach by going for both higher-end and lower-end targets, just as marketers launch new products to capture different slices of the market." These include "Rangers" (who raise $200,000), "Super Rangers" ($300,000), and "Mavericks" ($50,000), younger donors "heretofore dismissed as being insufficiently rich or politically active." Since the Federal Election Commission decided not to regulate groups separate from but aligned with political parties, the GOP is establishing "527 groups" to counter liberal 527s like MoveOn.org or The Media Fund, with the help of PR pro Craig Shirley, original "Pioneer" James Francis, Jr., and direct mail specialist Tom Synhorst.

"As food companies look for ways to cash in on the nation's obsession with healthy eating, an increasing number are copying marketing tactics that long have been used by the pharmaceuticals industry: They are pitching their products directly to doctors. The hope is that doctors will start recommending specific foods - and even brand names - to patients," reports the Wall Street Journal. Fruit juice makers, meat and seafood suppliers, and large companies like Pepsi and General Mills are "pitching" MDs, with some even "rewarding doctors for recommending their products." The Revival Soy snack company "has sales representatives visit doctors' offices to drop off samples ... [and] pamphlets encouraging doctors to 'pseudo-prescribe Revival.'" Patients aren't the only target audience. "Physicians employed by food companies are presenting information at medical conferences," the Journal reports.

Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism launched a new website, "to encourage watchdog reporting by drawing on authorities in various fields to suggest questions for the press to ask," according to the press release announcing NiemanWatchdog.org. In an introductory commentary, website editor Barry Sussman writes: "Targeted, insightful questions are typically more difficult for public officials, candidates and others in public life to dodge, mislead or even lie about." Among the questions already on the website are: "Aren't hair-trigger nuclear missiles a target for terrorists?"; "Abu Ghraib aside; where is the reporting on U.S. prisons?"; and "What's the progress with 'leave no child behind?'."

A leaked internal British Foreign Office memo warns: "Heavy-handed U.S. military tactics in Fallujah and Najaf ... have fuelled both Sunni and [Shia] opposition to the coalition and lost us much public support outside Iraq." Moreover, "the scandal of the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib has sapped the moral authority of the coalition inside Iraq and internationally." News of the memo comes as Members of Parliament are "calling on Tony Blair to distance London from Washington" and just after Newsweek reported on the "military friction" from the "'doctrinally' different approaches" of British and U.S. forces in Iraq. One thing's clear: "the UK will boycott the upcoming trial of Saddam [Hussein] if there is any risk of the former dictator being put to death."

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press' recent survey of nearly 550 national and local media workers finds journalists "unhappy with the way things are going in their profession these days." The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz writes, "Two-thirds of national media staffers, and 57 percent of the locals, believe that profit pressures are seriously hurting news coverage. Nearly half of national journalists say the press is too timid." In fact, 55 percent of national press felt that the media's treatment of George Bush was not critical enough. In a perhaps-related finding, "national news media ... express considerably less confidence in the political judgment of the American public than they did five years ago."

In its annual list of the most endangered U.S. historic places, the National Trust for Historic Preservation included the entire state of Vermont, "because of plans for several new Wal-Mart Supercenters across the state." Trust president Richard Moe explained, "Vermont is uniquely a state of small towns, and many of these downtowns would be decimated," by plans to quadruple Wal-Mart's presence in the state "to at least 1.3 million square feet in seven new stores." Dismissing the Trust's characterization, Wal-Mart's community affairs manager Mia Marsten said, "We are asking for and getting local input" on the new stores. The Trust encourages Vermonters to "persuade Wal-Mart and other large retailers to adapt the way they do business so as to enhance existing communities."

The Denver Post reports that one "hallmark" of the Bush administration is a rapidly spinning revolving door. There are "more than 100 high-level officials ... who [now] govern industries they once represented as lobbyists, lawyers or company advocates. ... In at least 20 cases, those former industry advocates have helped their agencies write, shape or push for policy shifts that benefit their former industries." These include "a former meat-industry lobbyist who helps decide how meat is labeled; a former drug-company lobbyist who influences prescription-drug policies; a former energy lobbyist who, while still accepting payments for bringing clients into his old lobbying firm, helps determine how much of the West those former clients can use for oil and gas drilling."

"EPA decisions now have a consistent pattern: disregard for inconvenient facts, a tilt toward industry, and a penchant for secrecy," said longtime Environmental Protection Agency official Eric Schaeffer, who quit the agency in protest in 2002. He was responding to a new decision to exempt wood products plants from controls on emissions of formaldehyde, a chemical linked to cancer and leukemia. In making the decision, the EPA "relied on a risk assessment generated by a chemical industry-funded think tank, and a novel legal approach recommended by a timber industry lawyer. The regulation was ushered through the agency by senior officials with previous ties to the timber and chemical industries," reports the Los Angeles Times.

The Department of Agriculture ruled that the U.S. Forest Service did not violate federal law when it paid $90,000 to PR firm OneWorld Communications to promote increased logging in California's Sierra Nevada forests. The "Forests with a Future" campaign claimed that today's forests have denser tree growth than in the past, and that increased logging is needed to reduce wildfire threats. The department's general counsel wrote, "The Forest Service seems to be explaining and defending its policies and responding to arguments against those activities - a legitimate activity." Two members of Congress had questioned whether the PR firm contract violated a federal ban on public funds going "to pay a publicity expert."

The Boston Globe reports that the Democratic National Convention Host Committee's message has changed over the past month, from "Celebrate Boston" to "Let's Work Around It." "The desire to make the convention a community celebration is rubbing up against security precautions ordered for the first political convention since the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks," the Globe writes. Protest restrictions at both the Boston Democratic and New York Republican conventions are raising concerns. An American Civil Liberties Union senior staff counsel remarked, "It's a false premise to say protest equals terrorists or a security risk." But security - and the desire "to avoid the sort of image fallout sustained from riots at Chicago's 1968 Democratic convention and from the activist free-for-all at Seattle's 1999 World Trade Organization meeting" - is driving the restrictions.

Marcela Sanchez reports, "The Bush administration is stepping up the pressure on [Venezuelan] President Hugo Chavez. State Department officials say they are talking with U.S. editorial writers, hoping to send a clear message to Chavez through the press: let the recall referendum happen or face the consequences." An anonymous senior State Department official told Washington Post editors and reporters that Chavez supporters' challenges to the presidential recall effort are "a consolidation of a dictatorship." Sanchez writes that future U.S. action "will be shaped by ... the anti-Castro focus of top policy makers and commercial and big business interests. ... The demise of the referendum would obviously be bad news for Venezuela. But any U.S. unilateral intervention would be worse news."

In a rare "directed verdict" issued less than three days into the trial, the environmental group Greenpeace was found not guilty of the 19th century crime of "sailor mongering." A Miami federal judge found that activists who boarded a ship six miles from the Port of Miami-Dade did not break the 1872 law, which requires the ship be "about to arrive." The ship was carrying some 70 tons of mahogany from the Brazilian rain forest. One lawyer remarked that the case brought against Greenpeace by the U.S. Department of Justice "must be woefully inadequate." Greenpeace director John Passacantando called the ruling "a victory for the American tradition of peaceful protest" but warned the case "showed the extent to which the government will go to criminalize free speech."

"In dawn raids today, American troops surrounded Ahmed Chalabi's headquarters and home in Baghdad, put a gun to his head, arrested two of his aides, and seized documents," Andrew Cockburn writes. "Only five months ago, Chalabi was a guest of honor sitting right behind Laura Bush at the State of the Union. What brought about this astonishing fall from grace of the man who helped provide the faked intelligence that justified last year's war?" According to Newsweek, "Bush administration officials say the latest intelligence indicates [Chalabi] may have been supplying the Iranians with information on U.S. security operations in Iraq that could 'get people killed.'" Chalabi later said the U.S. must leave Iraq: "Let my people go. ... It is time for the Iraqi people to run their affairs."

High gas prices are drawing politicians' attention. "Democratic proposals range from a temporary halt in shipments to it to releasing a portion of the crude" oil in the 660 million barrel U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, for some price relief, Reuters reports. But George Bush told reporters, "We're at war. We face a tough and determined enemy on all fronts, and we must not put ourselves in a worse position in this war. And playing politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would do just that." Instead, he urged Congress to pass the stalled energy bill, which activists call "corporate welfare in the guise of a national energy policy." Last week, U.S. climate change negotiator Harlan Watson said that the Bush administration's climate change policy was misunderestimated: "We need to get our message out better."

Congress' investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, determined that video news releases (VNRs) touting the new Medicare law, which ran as news reports on some 40 stations, violated a ban on government funded "publicity and propaganda." The Hill notes, "VNRs are standard practice in the public-relations industry and local news reports often rely on them. ... However, the GAO said in its decision, 'our analysis of the proper use of appropriated funds is not based upon the norms in the public relations and media industry.'" O'Dwyer's PR Daily writes, "Video PR pros said many reports [of the Medicare VNR scandal] were off base or simply ignorant as to how TV news is produced ... [or] somewhat hypocritical, in that VNRs are simply video versions of written press releases, which are widely used."

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber will be truly going bananas in the weeks ahead touring with the Center's new book Banana Republicans. You can meet the authors speaking at bookstores in San Francisco, Berkeley, Menlo Park, Santa Rosa, Pasadena and Santa Monica, California; on the east coast in Boston, New York and DC; and, back in the midwest in Madison & Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The authors will also join with Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday June 18th for a 6-9pm fundraising reception launching our second decade.

"The United States government has decided to halt monthly $335,000 payments to the Iraqi National Congress, the group headed by Ahmad Chalabi," reports Richard A. Oppel, Jr. The INC, which has received at least $27 million in U.S. financing during the past four years, played a crucial role in the Bush administration's campaign to sell the war in Iraq. However, Oppel reports, "Internal reviews by the United States government have found that much of the information provided as part of the classified program before American forces invaded Iraq last year was useless, misleading or even fabricated." (Think of all the money they could have saved if they just read our book.)

"The U.S. government is a marketplace too rich to ignore," writes Jeffrey Birnbaum. "For the past few years, federal discretionary spending has grown by more than 10 percent a year... In particular, security spending has taken off." PR and lobby firms have certainly noticed: "Fleishman-Hillard Inc just opened a marketing department... Cassidy & Associates Inc has also beefed up what amounts to a sales force... And lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs LLP increasingly is applying its expertise to sell its clients' products directly to - or with the help of - Uncle Sam." Not to mention "one of the most experienced companies in the field," Jefferson Consulting Group, which has brokered major health care and pharmaceutical deals.

Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll has penned a blistering critique of "pseudo-journalism" in the United States: "All across America, there are offices that resemble newsrooms, and in those offices there are people who resemble journalists, but they are not engaged in journalism. ... You may have guessed by now that I'm talking about Fox News. I am, but I am also talking about a broad array of talk shows and websites that have taken on the trappings of journalism but, when studied closely, are not journalism at all."

Small, growing cities are trying to use their authority, "under California law... to assign themselves rights to the infrastructure that developers of new housing and commercial tracts," or greenfields, "install for electricity, natural gas and any other utility." Municipal officials believe they can provide electricity at lower rates while generating income for local governments. Electric companies, including Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, are responding by organizing anti-greenfield ballot initiatitves, using fake grassroots or "AstroTurf" groups like the "Citizens for the Right to Vote" in San Diego County and "Moreno Valley Residents for Responsible Utility Service." The Sacramento Bee reports: "The Edison Electric Institute... recently developed an industry handbook - 'New Public Power Takeovers: Strategic Resources for Defeating Municipalization' - outlining step-by-step how to 'nip the movement in the bud.'"

Next month, the U.S. will host the thirtieth G8 Summit, a meeting of the "leaders of the world's major industrial democracies," in Sea Island, Georgia. The setting is "in keeping with President Bush's emphasis on environmental quality" and "will showcase the complementary benefits of environmental stewardship and a strong economy," according to the Summit website. The Independent reports: "But the island - the most beautiful of the sub-tropical Golden Isles off the Georgia coast - is in one of the most polluted areas of the American South. Glynn County, which contains Sea Island... is home to 16 hazardous waste plants." The Summit website claims attempts are underway to "enhance the environmental assets." The Glynn County commissioner says there's been no environmental support: "Most of our stuff was for the police department."

"Public satisfaction with national conditions has fallen to 33%, its lowest level in eight years, in the wake of revelations of prisoner abuse committed by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq," reports the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. "President Bush's overall job approval rating also has dropped into negative territory: 44% approve of his job performance, while 48% disapprove."

"A whistleblower who uncovered evidence that major drug companies sought to influence government officials has been removed from his job and placed on administrative leave," reports Jeanne Lenzer. "Allen Jones, an investigator at the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General (OIG), was escorted out of his workplace on 28 April and told 'not to appear on OIG property' after OIG officials accused him of talking to the press. ... His findings showed that the pharmaceutical company Janssen had paid honorariums to key state officials who held influence over the drugs prescribed in state-run prisons and mental hospitals."

"To promote America's Army: Overmatch, a free game created by the Army as a recruitment tool, a group of Army Special Forces personnel staged an urban tactical assault exercise outside the [Los Angeles] convention center" hosting the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3. The "helicopters, machine guns and face-painted soldiers leaping off tall buildings" startled and even "panicked" passersby. One retired Army major with the game project said: "This game is what we do in reality. We're the real deal." The Australian Financial Review reports on another trend visible at E3: video game product placement. "Such games provide an alternative channel as entertainment habits change. Television networks have already christened the decline in hours watched by males aged 18 to 24 the 'testosterone tune-out'... But games sales seem set on an upward curve."

Piers Morgan has been fired as editor of the Daily Mirror, and the British tabloid devoted its entire front page to an apology for publishing what turned out to be fake photos of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. In the U.S., the Boston Globe has apologized after printing a photograph in which images could be seen from a pornographic website that celebrated fake rapes of Iraqi women. (Unfortunately, the photos of abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib are all too real, and there are hundreds more that the public hasn't seen yet.)

During a speech to the Nuclear Energy Institute, U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans predicted: "The public will be more receptive" to new nuclear power plants "as we move into a period of higher energy bills." NEI quoted Evans as saying nuclear energy has "a big role to play in the expansion of freedom." "How are we going to lift up the economies around the world... without affordable, available, environmentally preferred and sound energy supplies? Nuclear power has just got to play a critical role," Evans claimed. In an interview, Evans said the Bush administration supported both "free trade" and "fair trade." The Times-Picayune reports: "When asked to elaborate... Evans said the administration basically holds free-trade principles but uses fair-trade tactics when the situation and the political realities call for it."

At least four governors "have pulled out of an agreement... that would bar giving preferences to local businesses or restricting outsourcing." U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick asked the governors "to comply with procurement provisions in pending bilateral and regional trade agreements... to give the U.S. trade office more bargaining power." Meanwhile, India's Tata Consultancy Services, the self-described "business process outsourcing" leader, hired PR firm Fleishman-Hillard "to boost its profile in the international marketplace." And "two of Madison Avenue's biggest advertising agencies" "outsourced" political campaign ads to India. The agencies used "carefully choreographed images and clever modes of delivery - including cellphones," reports the Wall Street Journal. "Professional spin-masters are new players in Indian elections, which traditionally have been won through grass-roots campaigns." It was "the first time Indian political parties... drew from corporate-branding strategies."

"Despite budget crunches, poor air quality, maintenance backlogs and other problems, the public is not likely to hear any bad news from staff of the National Park Service (NPS)," BushGreenwatch.org writes. "Park superintendents have received orders from the Bush Administration to follow a set of feel-good 'talking points' during any interaction with the media, according to internal e-mails obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and released yesterday." Park Service employees were told to call budget cuts "service-level adjustments." A day before eight of the nation's largest national parks were declared to be in violation of new standards for ozone pollution, NPS superintendents were given talking points on air quality in national parks.

We've reported in the past on OhMyNews! -- an innovative, Korean-language online newspaper that has transformed journalism and Korea's traditionally conservative political culture by serving as an outlet for tens of thousands of "citizen journalists" teamed up with professional reporters and editors. Now there's a English-language "international version" of OhMyNews, featuring stories ranging from a look at the controversial impeachment trial of Korea's president to a first-person report from Fallujah. In an OhMy report on Korea's embrace of broadband Internet technology, Telecosm author George Gilder predicts that "Korea will kill TV!"

USA Today has become the first major U.S. newspaper to publish a call for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, with USA Today's founder Al Neuharth editorializing that the war is "the biggest military mess miscreated in the Oval Office and miscarried by the Pentagon in my 80-year lifetime." In addition, Neuharth advises President Bush to take a cue from Lyndon B. Johnson and announce that he will not run for re-election. In a separate interview with Editor and Publisher magazine, Neuharth explained that he is "just an old fighting infantryman, saying our troops don't have a real fighting chance."

Matthew Stannard reports that the "nightmare video of an American civilian captured in Iraq being decapitated by his captors was anything but a random act of terrorism, experts say -- it was a press release, carefully designed for a global audience." Its purpose was recruit new terrorists and to frighten Americans, especially nongovernmental groups and civilian contractors working in Iraq who provide a sizable armed "auxiliary" to the U.S. military and the Coalition Provisional Authority. "The reason this video was made was an attempt to destroy that auxiliary, " said Juan Cole, a professor of Middle East history at the University of Michigan. "It's not going to scare the U.S. troops out of the country, and it's not going to get rid of the CPA. But there are a lot of NGOs and contractors that are going to decide this is not the time to be doing business in Iraq." Brigitte Nacos, adjunct professor of political science at Columbia University in New York, said the media also needed to recognize that terrorists were using them to get their message across. "Terrorism, as I see it, is communications," she said. "Without the media communicating what they want to say, terrorism doesn't really make sense. "

"Few would debate that the U.S.-led coalition needs some potent PR in Iraq," writes Clayton Collins. But one architect of the post-9/11 Brand America campaign called the large, ongoing, U.S.-funded PR campaign "to sell democracy" in Iraq "mission impossible." Nevertheless, the British PR company Bell Pottinger, along with its Iraqi and Dubai partner firms, continues to run TV ads in Iraq, to highlight "milestones and accomplishments." The Air Force major overseeing the PR campaign said the goal is to "promote discussion among Iraqis about their future and how they can get involved." In one ad, "an elderly Iraqi man sits at a desk, carefully folding pieces of paper that suggest ballots. 'I choose to live in peace,' says a voice-over... 'I choose justice and stability... I, an Iraqi, choose one Iraq.'"

How should the U.S. handle torture allegations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba? The Army may use video games. The America's Army game, which is currently used "to train and recruit soldiers... could also be modified to include lessons on prisoner treatment." Reuters reports: "The PC-based game... is frequently updated with new missions." PR pros have advice for the Bush administration: "They need to... make the argument that in a country like America, we acknowledge these issues and seek to resolve them," said the chair of Weber Shandwick, the world's largest PR firm. Burson-Marsteller's crisis management director suggested: "The administration already missed the opportunity to tell its own news. So I would be looking for a step to take that would be aggressive, high-profile and perhaps even unexpected."

Adam Clymer, formerly the New York Times Washington correspondent, is now the political director for the National Annenberg Election Survey. He writes in an editorial column that "Americans like to say they are not influenced by campaign commercials, but then many people plainly believe the attack ads that President Bush and John Kerry are hurling at each other. Even people who say they learn nothing from the advertisements believe the claims made in them, the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey shows. At the same time, people are remarkably unfamiliar with the candidates' true positions - the stuff that hasn't been advertised much." This presidential election year TV advertising is more pervasive and probably more decisive than ever. Under the new rules in the post McCain-Feingold environment, it's not just fat-cat Republicans saturating the radio airwaves and the boob-tube. Using so-called 527 committees, wealthy Democratic contributors and new online groups are raising hundreds of millions for presidential campaign TV advertising. Viewer beware.

PR Watchers Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber have finished writing their fifth book, Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning America Into a One-Party State. It won't be in bookstores until late May, but you can order it now online. You can also find chapter summaries and an excerpt from the book on our new Banana Republicans website. Plus, we've created a section on the Disinfopedia where you can add your own analysis, research and insights regarding the ideas in the book.

"BKSH & Assocs., Burson-Marsteller's lobbying wing, is representing Radio Sedaye Iran (Radio Voice of Iran), the Beverly Hills-based network that advocates regime change in Iran," reports O'Dwyers. Former BKSH clients include Ahmad Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress. In fact, BKSH staff for the Iranian account include the former INC/ Chalabi account head and the senior advisor to the 2000 Republican National Convention. While Radio Sedaye Iran says a U.S. invasion of Iran would "raise an enormous stink in the Moslem world," it says "the danger of Islamic radicals in Iran getting nuclear weapons is too great to ignore." The conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute also works with Radio Sedaye Iran, in what London's Financial Times called "a new step in the efforts of the U.S. right to influence regime change in the Islamic republic."

In response to a study finding "diminishing foreign regard for American culture and politics, a new organization of marketing and advertising corporations is preparing to raise an initial $1 million to combat anti-Americanism abroad." The Business for Diplomatic Action nonprofit organization plans to launch a website "where corporations could exchange information to 'help them be good citizens of a country vs. bad tourists' and that would offer free classes to teach foreign children English and technology." Other plans include "an in-depth category- and brand-specific global study," and encouraging "media companies to produce shows that better represented how Americans really live... along with U.S. shows that made Americans more aware of other cultures."

"As some troops have discovered," writes Richard Leiby, "... you can serve in both Afghanistan and Iraq and end up with a medal recognizing just one war. It's known in military-speak as the GWOT (rhymes with 'fought') medal, for the Global War on Terrorism." According to Pentagon spokesperson Jim Turner, "The GWOT medals tie today's global war to yesterday's global war, i.e. WWII. We are fighting across the globe and shall be for a long time." When asked "whether a 'political agenda' might lurk behind a medal lumping Operation Iraqi Freedom with the battle against al Qaeda," Defense Secretary Rumsfeld replied, "Not that I can even imagine, no. This department is not involved with politics."

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued an order instructing its inspectors in Texas, where federal mad cow disease testing policies recently were violated, not to talk about the cattle disorder with outside parties," reports Steve Mitchell. The order, sent by email from the USDA's Dallas office, instructed that "all BSE inquiries MUST be directed to Congressional Public Affairs" office in Washington DC. The email was sent the day after news broke that a Texas cow displaying signs of a neurological disorder was not tested for mad cow disease. According to anonymous sources, an Austin-based government official ordered that the cow not be tested, in contradiction of official USDA policy. Consumer advocates and a USDA veterinarian say the Texas case "is not an isolated incident."

As area residents and activists prepared to participate in a public hearing on DuPont Titanium Technologies' request to increase polluting activities at its plant outside Pass Christian, Mississippi, they had no idea they'd have a long wait before getting a turn to speak. "When they realized a handful of prominent supporters - including economic development directors, chamber boosters, bankers and several plant employees - had reserved the first hour and a half of floor time, the hundreds of concerned residents grew livid," reports Greg Harman. The company's supporters tied up the hearing with lengthy orations about the company's contributions to local schools and civic programs. The speeches, Harman notes, "served one purpose, intended or otherwise: Barely a breath of the very-present dissent hit the television newscast that night or the next day's newspaper."

Low-carb diets, the demise of the McDonald's Supersize menu, and even mad cow disease have hurt the market for potatoes, so spud growers are fighting back. "The National Potato Promotion Board (NPPB) recently launched a $4.5 million campaign that mixes print advertising, public relations and partnerships with weight-loss groups to educate consumers about the healthy benefits of potatoes," reports the Associated Press. According to NPPB president Tim O'Connor, "There's nothing anyone can do about McDonald's deciding to eliminate its Supersize. ... But addressing the bottom line with consumers about the positive attributes that potatoes contribute to their daily diet is really critical to increasing consumers' consumption." Plans include hiring fitness maven Denise Austin as a spokeswoman and getting her to put recipes featuring potatoes in her future books. (No word yet on whether Dan Quayle has been approached.)

Salon.com has published an excerpt from former right-wing journalist David Brock's new book, The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy. In an accompanying interview, Brock talks about how the conservative media "sets a climate and helps set parameters and helps form impressions. ... One significant problem is that people are in denial about the impact of conservatives in the press. They dismiss something as one story and don't think it will snowball. Liberals don't think these people matter; they think they're crackpots. They may well be crackpots, but they matter. There may be a slow learning curve about understanding that."

U.S. prisoners of war during the first Gulf War "are criticizing the Bush administration for fighting their compensation claims while planning to compensate the Iraqi victims of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison," reports The Hill. They're responding to Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld's remarks last week to the Senate Armed Services Committee that he's "seeking a way to provide appropriate compensation to those [Iraqi] detainees... one way or another." The former U.S. POWs won a $1 billion settlement against the former Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. But the Bush administration has appealed the ruling, saying it "wants to avoid draining funds from the new Iraqi government... the money is needed to help rebuild the country."

Chrysler "is recalling more than 326,000 pickup trucks and Durango sport utility vehicles because of two potential safety problems," reports Reuters. Meanwhile, Hummer sales were down 21 percent in April, possibly due in part to "rising gasoline prices." General Motors is responding by "offering discounted financing on its Hummer H2, the icon of the market for supersize sport-utility vehicles," according to the Wall Street Journal. GM is also offering dealer incentives "to move out bloated inventories of its Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade big SUVs." Declaring, "It's time we started taxing the sins of the 21st century," one Texas lawmaker proposed taxing major air polluters, including "power plants, SUV owners and coal-burning industries." The proposal was made during an emergency legislative session on school funding.

As the anti-fast food documentary "Super Size Me" hits theaters, McDonald's is fighting back. "We're responding aggressively because the film is a gross misrepresentation," said a company spokesperson. Helping defend McDonald's are "global nutritionist" Cathy Kapica and the corporate-funded