Kevin McCauley at O'Dwyers PR Daily writes that despite video news release producers' hopes that the debate over fake news "would just blow away," it has become a "crisis" for the industry. "A simple solution," he suggests, is labeling VNRs. "A corporate or government credit on video material wouldn't matter much to today's TV watchers, especially younger ones who are bombarded with advertising," he wrote. Kevin Foley, the president of KEF Media Associates, responded that labeling is already "done by every responsible company in this business." However, two weeks ago Doug Simon of D S Simon Productions explained that there is a world of difference between labeling the opening frame that news producers see and labeling each VNR frame that viewers see. In tracking the use of his company's VNRs, Simon said, "Fewer than 10 percent of the pieces we get back have some sort of identification."

Radio behemoth Clear Channel Communications created the position of Chief Communications Officer and named their Senior Vice-President of Corporate Communications, Lisa Dollinger, to the post. The position includes "corporate communications and branding, reputation and issues management ... media relations, consumer viral marketing, strategic sponsorships," but will focus on internal communications. Two years ago, Dollinger joined the company to battle negative media coverage. "We had to clear the decks and let the media know they couldn't repeat inaccuracies about the company," she said. About Clear Channel's sponsorship of rallies in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, Dollinger said the events were "not intended to be pro-military," but "more of a thank you to the troops."

In a Fox News interview, Laurence Moskowitz, the CEO and President of Medialink Worldwide, defended video news releases (VNRs). "If the government doesn't use VNR as a tool, I believe they would be negligent," he said. Medialink is the largest global producer of VNRs. Moskowitz estimated that some 4,000 VNRs are produced by corporate and government sources each year. Bob Priddy, the chair of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, said airing VNRs without the sponsor being identified breaks the Association's code of ethics. "If people take canned material, whether it's from a government agency or anywhere else, and they don't tell their audience who or where it is coming from, they are lying to their consumer," he told Fox.

The former manager of Fleishman-Hillard's (F-H) Los Angeles office Douglas R. Dowie is suing the PR company for sacking him from his $370,000 a year job over the overbilling of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP). "When it got real hot politically, Fleishman, instead of standing by him and protecting him, they just threw him to the wolves," Dowie's attorney, Michael Faber, said. City officials have disputed $4.2 million of F-H billings between 1998 and 2004 under the $24 million DWP contract. The lawsuit states that in a conference call with Dowie after the controversy erupted, a F-H official said that someday "we'll all be singing 'Happy Days are Here Again'," reports the Los Angeles Times.

After Hill & Knowlton contacted community newspaper editors on behalf of Wal-Mart Stores informing them "Wal-Mart representatives were available for interviews," Mike Buffington, the president of the National Newspaper Association (NMA), let fly. "So why is it that community newspapers in America are good enough to help you fend off critics with free PR, but we're not good enough for your paid advertising? You can't have it both ways," Buffington wrote to Wal-Mart. In a column in the NMA newsletter Publishers Auxiliary, Buffington, who is also a publisher of community papers in Georgia, complained that a side-effect of Wal-Mart undercutting local small business was that "advertising dollars disappear from community newspapers." The Business Ledger notes that Buffington's comments have attracted some criticism for implying "a 'you pay or we don’t cover you' attitude."

"If viewers were confused before, they'll certainly have a hard time discerning news updates from mini-informercials now," writes Joe Mandese, on how Medialink Worldwide is "morphing" news and public relations. Medialink "says 'branded journalism' is the best way to advertise in a splintered market. Instead of sending out video news releases in hopes that stations and cable networks will air them, PR firms are actually creating the newscast, then buying spots on networks the way a Madison Avenue (advertising) firm would." Moreover, "secured VNR buys are much more cost-effective than conventional ad buys," and have "built-in controls that unpaid PR tactics lack, including the ability to target specific demographics and to conduct a post-buy analysis of audience delivery."

A study of newspaper ads for 17 top university medical centers found they "employ some of the same advertising techniques doctors often criticize drug companies for -- concealing risks and playing on fear, vanity and other emotions to attract patients." Of the 122 ads examined, 62% used emotional appeals and one-third "used slogans focusing on technology, fostering a misperception that high-tech medicine is always better." Twenty-one ads promoted specific services, including one proclaiming, "We do Botox!" Spokespeople for some of the medical centers involved stressed advertising's educational value and said review processes ensured their ads were responsible. Hospitals began advertising 20 years ago, as managed care increased competition among hospitals.

The industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America has launched "its most aggressive counterattack," on a proposed California ballot initiative to provide cheaper prescription drugs to low-income residents. The industry has raised "an unprecedented $8.6 million," even though the initiative does not yet have "enough signatures to qualify it for the next election." PhRMA's Jan Faiks called the initiative "a very bad precedent" that poses "a serious threat to the health and welfare of the pharmaceutical industry." PhRMA is also "threatening retaliatory initiatives aimed at trial lawyers and unions," groups the industry fears will support the initiative. One measure "would slash trial lawyers' contingency fees," while another "would require public employee unions to obtain members' permission before spending their dues on political activities."

Florida freelance television reporter Mike Vasilinda's public relations firm "has earned more than $100,000 over the past four years through contracts with Gov. Jeb Bush's office, the Secretary of State, the Department of Education and other government entities that are routinely part of Vasilinda's stories," while those stories aired on CNN and Florida NBC affiliates. Mike Vasilinda Productions has also worked on political campaigns. Vasilinda rejected comparisons to Armstrong Williams, "because he has not personally promoted any government programs or appeared in any of the videos his business produced." Journalism professor Bob Steele said the arrangement "certainly raises some red flags."

Why do local TV news stations use fake video news releases? Political science professor Marion Just and Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism surveyed stations and found that the audience for TV news is shrinking, while "the companies that own these stations have generally continued to expect high earnings, usually profit margins in excess of 40 percent. To meet those demands, most stations have added programming, usually without adding resources. ... From 1998 to 2002, a study of 33,911 television reports found, the percentage of 'feed' material from third-party sources rose to 23 percent of all reports from 14 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of stories that included a local correspondent fell to 43 percent from 62 percent. ... So we don't have to search far to discover why the Bush administration has succeeded so well in getting its news releases on the air. The public companies that own TV stations are so intent on increasing their stock price and pleasing their shareholders that they are squeezing the news out of the news business."

Jay Rosen posts "a unanimous resolution passed by the Boston University Journalism Faculty and circulated to other J-Schools by Bob Zelnick, the former ABC News correspondent" and self-described conservative. The resolution condemns "the use of 'phony' reporters hired by the government to perform in (video news releases) where their affiliation with government is unstated," urges "the Administration to identify and cease other practices with respect to VNRs that run a substantial risk of misleading the public," and condemns "the deliberate use by television news outlets of material ... without clear identification of its origin." Zelnick says such practices strike "at the core of journalistic integrity." Even PR Week reported on the "Stop Fake News" petition drive launched by the Center for Media and Democracy and Free Press, although one VNR producer said "it would not have any long-term effect."

"The Army expects to miss its recruiting goals this month and next, and is working on a revised sales pitch appealing to the patriotism of parents," according to Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey. The "patriotism to parents" pitch might be made "through a new advertising campaign." Harvey "is also encouraging more members of Congress, as well as senior Army leaders and Army boosters, to spend time in local communities touting the benefits of military service." In addition, the Army has boosted its number of recruiters by one-third and is offering larger sign-up bonuses, while the National Guard and Reserve raised the maximum recruit age from 34 to 39.

The Government Accountability Office "said yesterday that they will investigate whether the Department of Health and Human Services violated that law by awarding a $21,500 contract to commentator and marriage advocate Maggie Gallagher." The GAO is currently looking into the legality of similar payments from the Department of Education to pundit Armstrong Williams. Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg, who requested the GAO inquiry along with Senator Kennedy, said "the Bush propaganda mill has violated the trust of the American people."

"The Meat Promotion Coalition has been formed in the office of Washington's top agriculture (public affairs) / lobby firm, Lesher & Russell," reports O'Dwyer's. Coalition members include Tyson Foods, Hormel Foods, Cargill, the National Catttlemen's Beef Association, National Pork Producers, American Meat Institute, National Meat Association, and American Farm Bureau Federation. The coalition is pushing for voluntary country-of-origin meat labeling, as opposed to the mandatory labeling called for by federal agriculture law, now slated to be implemented by 2006. Country-of-origin labeling, which industry groups claim would be costly, has received increased attention due to mad cow disease.

The Controller of Editorial Policy for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Stephen Whittle, has written to David Miller from the European PR watchdog group Spinwatch stating that the use of audio news supplied by the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), an agency funded by the UK Ministry of Defence, was "not ideal." Miller revealed the use of fake news by the BBC a little over a week ago. In response to Miller pointing out that the use of BFBS audio was a breach of BBC guidelines Whittle has pledged that the use of such material "will not happen again."

A lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court by three California unions seeks a ruling banning public funds from being used for the production of video news releases. VNRs produced by the Schwarzenegger administration have backed moves to remove workers' lunch break guarantees and opposed legislated nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. A California Health and Human Services Agency spokeswoman defended the use of VNRs. "There is no statutory prohibition against the use of public funds to produce video news releases. ... No court has expressly disapproved the expenditure of public funds for VNRs," she said.

Australian journalist Neil Chenoweth has revealed that Rupert Murdoch "sidestepped stamp duty of $A53 million [U.S.$41.3m] and capital gains tax of up to $A1.2 billion [U.S.$936m] by moving control of his ultimate family company, Kayarem, to the Caribbean and listing it on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSE) a week before News Corporation was reincorporated in the United States last November. Documents filed with the BSE show that listing Kayarem in the tax haven allowed the Murdoch family to obtain a tax benefit when it sold its controlling interest in the Queensland Press group to News Corp." In 2001, Chenoweth's book Virtual Murdoch was published in the UK and as Rupert Murdoch: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Media Wizard in the U.S. in November 2002.

At a conference on the future of nuclear power, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei "pointed to nuclear energy policy plans in China, Finland, the United States and possibly Poland as proof that nuclear power may be returning to vogue." U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said, "America hasn't ordered a new nuclear power plant since the 1970s and it's time to start building again." Recently released "internal Energy Department email messages" suggest that some work done "in preparation for seeking a license to open a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada" was falsified. A department spokesperson said the discovery was a positive sign of "quality-assurance procedures." Our next issue of PR Watch focuses on the nuclear industry - if you're not already subscribed, sign up today!

Government agencies "often don't return phone calls or provide relevant information" to the ethnic press, according to a survey by the Independent Press Association-New York. The association is a network of 115 "immigrant, African-American, and community newspapers." The most unhelpful federal agencies were the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Affairs, and the Department of Labor. Unhelpful New York City agencies included the police, fire department, mayor's office and Department of Education. The survey found that "timely delivery of information from government agencies" to ethnic media reporters occurs just half of the time.

Since President Bush entered office, there has been a 75% increase in the amount of government information classified as secret each year. "Yet an even more aggressive form of government information control has gone unenumerated and often unrecognized in the Bush era, as government agencies have restricted access to unclassified information in libraries, archives, Web sites, and official databases," writes Steven Aftergood, director of the project on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. "Once freely available, a growing number of these sources are now barred to the public as 'sensitive but unclassified' or 'for official use only.'" Examples of unclassified but unavailable information include the Defense Department's telephone directory, the National Archives' historical records, satellite orbital information, aeronautical maps, and environmental data.

Former Enron CEO Ken Lay, "the poster boy for how big guys can rip off suckers in the stock market," is back in the news as his trial date nears. According to Frank Rich, "The enduring legacy of Enron can be summed up in one word: propaganda. Here was a corporate house of cards whose business few could explain and whose source of profits was an utter mystery - and yet it thrived, unquestioned, for years." How? "Enron 'was fixated on its public relations campaigns.' It churned out slick PR videos as if it were a Hollywood studio. It browbeat the press (until a young Fortune reporter, Bethany McLean, asked one question too many)." Rich also writes about Susan Molinari, who "is invariably described as 'a former Republican Congresswoman' or a CNBC political analyst'" on news shows. But her current jobs are "C.E.O. of the Washington Group, Ketchum's lobbying firm, and president of Ketchum Public Affairs" - the same Ketchum responsible for Armstrong Williams and video news releases narrated by faux reporter Karen Ryan.

"We believe a court would find the 'style, tenor and timing' of the (video news release) to be 'promotional' in nature, thus triggering the requirement it be expressly authorized by statute," ruled the California state legislature's counsel, on a Schwarzenegger administration VNR. The undersecretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which produced the VNR to support changes in workers' break guarantees, earlier said that "the administration's lawyers concluded the videos were permissible." The Schwarzenegger administration made at least four VNRs without legislative authorization. In national news, the Federal Communications Commission has been asked by Senators John Kerry and Daniel Inouye (both Democrats) to investigate the broadcasting of government-funded VNRs.

Ongoing litigation to keep the U.S. border closed to Canadian beef and cattle, following three cases of mad cow disease there, has prompted renewed PR efforts. The Alberta Beef Producers hired Fleishman-Hillard, to help "reopen the U.S. market to Canadian beef." The Montana-based group R-CALF, which filed the lawsuit, "purchased a half-page advertisement in the Washington Post ... thanking the U.S. Senate for passing a resolution blocking the resumption of live cattle and full beef trade with Canada." And the Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food Ministry is helping "launch an aggressive marketing campaign to reclaim and expand markets for Canadian beef," part of the country's "Repositioning the Livestock Industry Strategy," launched last year.

"Many media outlets self-censored their reporting on Iraq," often out of fear of offending their audience, found a survey of more than 200 U.S. media personnel by American University's School of Communications. The "editing that went into content after it was gathered but before it was published" was significant. 15% of those reporting from Iraq said "they did not believe the final version" of their pieces, post-editing, "accurately represented the story." 20% of those reporting on Iraq from the U.S. "said material was edited for reasons other than basic style and length." One survey respondent wrote, "The real damage of war on the civilian population was uniformly omitted." In contrast, 92% said they had "no limits at all" on "the type of interviews conducted."

This weekend is the second anniversary of the U.S. attack on Iraq. The latest ABC News and Washington Post poll of public opinion shows that most Americans still believe, incorrectly of course, that Saddam's Iraq supported the 9/11 terrorists and had weapons of mass destruction. Interestingly, the poll's own analysis tries to downplay the significance of its findings, saying, "Most Americans favored overthrowing Saddam years earlier, long before al Qaeda became broadly known." Oh really? As we document in Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq, the war could never have been sold to the American people had ABC, the Washington Post, and the rest of the mainstream media done their job of exposing the false claims of the Bush administration. Instead, they echoed those claims and censored and ignored critics of the war.

Iraqex, the U.S.-owned "investment group set up to pursue business in Iraq," has changed its name to Lincoln Group, after its holding company, Lincoln Alliance Corporation. Lincoln Group has a $6 million, 3-year PR contract for the U.S.-led Multi-National Corps-Iraq, for which it "develops video, audio and print products to support MNC-I initiatives." It also publishes Iraq Business Journal, a "monthly publication on contract opportunities, life in Iraq and classifieds." The publication recently interviewed Grand Ayatolla Ali Al-Sistani, who said foreign investment is acceptable, as long as the investor is not with the "occupation forces" or taking "advantage of any instability." Lincoln Group is still looking for interns.

Afraid that their vote to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration might make Congress more likely to increase fuel efficiency standards, the automobile industry is "trying to polish its image." The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is claiming, in newspaper and radio ads, and on cleaning sponges given to Congressional staffers, that "cars are 99% cleaner than they used to be." (The Union of Concerned Scientists calls the Auto Alliance campaign "highly misleading.") An Auto Alliance spokesperson said increased fuel standards would be "very difficult to achieve," because of the popularity of large vehicles. "It's not what we manufacture; it's what consumers buy," she said.

Mining giant BHP-Billiton's proposed acquisition of WMC Resources, a major uranium mining company, poses no problem for the global ethical investment fund Sustainable Asset Management (SAM). While some ethical funds avoid both BHP-Billiton shares, following the Ok Tedi environmental disaster in Papua New Guinea, and WMC shares, due to its uranium project, SAM holds both. SAM's research manager, Francis Grey, explained that while they don't agree with uranium or nuclear power, company projects owned before 1994 do not affect SAM's "ethical" rating system. "We have an expression of BS, meaning before sustainability, a time when it was a different world and they did all sorts of different things," he said. A few years ago, SAM angered tobacco control activists by including British American Tobacco in their "ethical" fund index.

After last Sunday's New York Times article on video news releases, Richard Edelman, the president and CEO of the PR company Edelman, wrote that the PR industry can expect more criticisms. "Why am I so sure of this? In part, because we have allowed our profession to be increasing defined as complicit in a cover-up, as willing shills who let money overwhelm our judgment and moral compass. We are accused of foisting government propaganda on the American people, in direct violation of the law," he wrote. Among his suggestions were that the "reporter" in VNRs ask "a few difficult questions." "How about identifying the former reporter as such, or including a note to viewers on-screen that the VNR came from the US Government?" he suggested. As for corporate VNRs, Edelman remained mute.

"We believe FDA is overstating industry's compliance with the animal feed ban and understating the potential risk of (mad cow disease) for U.S. cattle in its reports to Congress and the American people," the Government Accountability Office concluded, in a report on the Food and Drug Administration's management of what government press releases refer to as the "firewall feed ban." The feed ban is "the most important U.S. safeguard against mad cow disease." The GAO report also took issue with FDA's claim of 99% industry compliance with the ban. That figure is "based on inspections of only about 570 firms," "does not include all serious violations," and counts as "compliant" firms "that lacked written procedures to prevent" ban violations, states the report.

"The University of Colorado's governing Board of Regents has retained a $350-per-hour public relations consultant," to deal "with the fallout from a football recruiting scandal and the ongoing saga surrounding controversial professor Ward Churchill." The consultant is Christopher Simpson, a former Washington Times reporter and press secretary to Senator Strom Thurmond. Simpson said he will work to get attention "back focused on the tremendous attributes" of the university. The new hire is in addition to "a contract with local public relations firm GBSM," and "the combined salaries of several people on the university's staff who handle public relations," including two associate vice-presidents paid $150,000 each.

In response to Sunday's New York Times expose, White House press secretary Scott McClellan called government-produced video news releases "an informational tool." Their source, he said, is "very clear to the TV stations." The head of Medialink, one of the largest VNR companies, said "the government's use of VNRs dates back to the Eisenhower presidency," adding that the Times "failed to report on the long history of such government education programs." In a letter to the Times, the president of West Glen Communications wrote, "Newspapers don't reveal that much of the news they print originates from press releases supplied by corporate communications departments, PR agencies, college sports information offices and staffs of mayors and legislators." O'Dwyer's summed up VNR producers' reactions as saying the Times piece was "old" and "politics-ridden."

The Project for Excellence in Journalism's "State of the News Media 2005" concludes that U.S. media coverage of Iraq was balanced, that campaign coverage favored John Kerry, and that Fox was "the most one-sided of all major news outlets." On Iraq, 25% of 2,000 stories analyzed were negative and 20% were positive. "Fox News Channel was twice as likely to be positive than negative, while CNN and MSNBC were evenhanded." A "more limited analysis of campaign coverage found that Bush received more negative, and less positive, coverage than Kerry," perhaps due to setbacks in Iraq and Bush's incumbent status. Also, "with the exception of Republicans who prefer Fox News," American's don't seek out news sources that reinforce their beliefs.

Former White House counselor and Bush campaign advisor Karen Hughes "will take over the Bush administration's troubled public diplomacy effort intended to burnish the U.S. image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world." The Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs position at the State Department, previously held by Margaret Tutwiler and Charlotte Beers, uses "exchange programs, foreign language media and other initiatives ... to promote American values" while "combating negative images." Hughes will be assisted by Dina Powell, the current White House Chief of Personnel and "an American of Egyptian descent who speaks fluent Arabic."

"We have our very own fake journalists operating in the UK," writes David Miller of Europe's SpinWatch. Miller cites the British Forces Broadcasting Service, whose reports have been aired by the BBC. BFBS is run by the Services Sound and Vision Corporation, an entity "fully funded by the Ministry of Defence," which brags about its "considerable contribution" to the armed forces' morale. BBC Scotland insiders, Miller writes, "are livid" about the BFBS pieces, calling them "an audio press release for the Army." Other members of the British "network of propaganda agencies" are the London Press Service, run by Intelfax for the government's Foreign Office, and British Satellite News, run by the international communications company World Television.

New York Times reporters David Barstow and Robin Stein have written a lengthy report on the use of video news releases as covert propaganda. "Under the Bush administration," they write, "the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies ... have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role." VNRs are produced for the government by private contractors and the State Department's Office of Broadcasting Services, the Agriculture Department's Broadcast Media and Technology Center, and the Defense Department's Pentagon Channel, among others. We've been criticizing VNRs used as propaganda for more than a decade. For example, our 1995 book Toxic Sludge Is Good For You described how VNRs were used to sell the first Bush administration's Persian Gulf war. It's nice to see the Times starting to notice.

The Lebanese American Council for Democracy, the "group that played a key role in the passage of the Syrian Accountability Act," retained 5W Public Relations for "strategic counsel and media relations." The group's goal is "to gain support from U.S. political leaders and United Nations officials to pressure Syria to withdraw its troops." The group is reportedly "closely aligned with Michel Aoun, the former Prime Minister who was ousted by the Syrians" in 1990. The 5W firm is "preparing daily briefing sheets for the media to respond to current events." The Syrian Accountability Act, passed in 2003, "imposed sanctions on Syria for occupying Lebanon."

In California, more video news releases produced by the Schwarzenegger administration have been identified. The VNRs tout administration proposals to reduce nursing staff levels in hospitals, to make teachers' pay merit-based, to make tenure more stringent, to lower prescription drug prices, and to end mandatory employee rest breaks. Schwarzenegger's spokesperson called the VNRs "just a press release in video form." But the VNRs push controversial proposals, as opposed to those by the Gray Davis administration, which explained new driver's licenses or celebrated Labor Day. PR Week reports that California "has launched an effort to make VNR production easier for all government departments," by hiring a multimedia communications specialist.

A new round of global television advertisements developed for McDonald’s by the Leo Burnett advertising agency, Chicago columnist Lewis Lazare writes, are "pushing too hard to position itself as a health-conscious company, a claim that comes off a bit disingenuous." Across the Pacific, New Zealand Minister for Health and former dental nurse Annette King was busy dismissing the suggestion that having Ronald McDonald’s clown face painted on vans that deliver dental services to remote communities was helping McDonald’s marketing and advertising plans.

Visiting professor of public health epidemiology at Oxford University, Klim McPherson, notes that while the British government has criticized estimates that put the number of Iraqi casualties of the war at 100,000, a defence ministry group has been slow to produce a better estimate. "Electorates, in Iraq and elsewhere, have a right to know. To procrastinate further for no good reason is to devalue public health processes, not to mention Iraqi lives. As public health professionals we need to know the health costs," he wrote.

The global warming "denial lobby" is targeting Britain, reports the Observer, and it has U.S. connections. "The UK-based Scientific Alliance, which organised the meeting of skeptics in London last month, recently published a joint report with America's George C. Marshall Institute, a think-tank which has received donations from Exxon. ... Exxon has also contributed $50,000 to the International Policy Network, headquartered in London. Key personnel at the IPN have connections with the Institute of Economic Affairs, Britain's leading conservative think-tank, as well as the Competitive Enterprise Institute in the U.S., whose global warming expert is Myron Ebell, President Bush's climate adviser."

David Earnshaw, the Managing Director of the Brussels office of Burson-Marsteller subsidiary BKSH & Associates, has rejected calls for stricter regulation of European Union lobbyists preferring self-regulation instead. "If you regulate strictly, the people who get hurt are the little people -- the people who do not have a voice -- not the people who can bend the rules," he told the Washington Times. BKSH clients have included GE, Yukos Oil, Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress.

When is a terrorist not a terrorist? When is a "reform" a reform? New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent mulls some of the ways that language is used to spin perceptions in modern politics. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, he says, "may yield the most linguistically volatile issues confronting Times editors, but I've encountered a ferocious tug-of-war between advocates of each of the following as well: Genital mutilation vs. genital cutting ('would you call ritual male circumcision "genital mutilation"?'). Liberal vs. moderate ('you're simply trying to make liberalism look reasonable and inoffensive' as in calling Michael Bloomberg a 'moderate Republican'). Abuse vs. torture ('if the Abu Ghraib victims had been American soldiers,' The Times 'would have described it as torture'). Partial birth vs. intact dilation and extraction (the use of the former demonstrates that The Times 'has embraced the terminology of anti-abortion forces'). 'Iraqi forces' vs. 'American-backed forces' ('aren't the Sunni insurgents Iraqis?'). Don't get me started on 'insurgents,' much less homeless vs. vagrant, affirmative action vs. racial preferences, or loophole vs. tax incentive." And, he adds, "Hijacking the language proves especially pernicious when government officials deodorize their programs with near-Orwellian euphemism. (If Orwell were writing 'Politics and the English Language' today, he'd need a telephone book to contain his 'catalog of swindles and perversions.') The Bush administration has been especially good at this; just count the number of times self-anointing phrases like 'Patriot Act,' 'Clear Skies Act' or 'No Child Left Behind Act' appear in The Times, at each appearance sounding as wholesome as a hymn."

Reportedly hoping to land "a nice local technology story," a partner in the Washington DC area firm Rock Creek Creative "issued a news release touting the company's role in (Ukraine's) Orange Revolution." Instead, Russian media "seized on Rock Creek's release as proof that the United States had meddled in the Ukrainian presidential election." The firm later backpedaled, saying it had been hired by the nonprofit Global Fairness Initiative just "to develop a Web site and strategy for a February 2004 conference in Kiev called 'Ukraine in Europe and the World.'" The incident, which "embarrassed the Yushchenko regime," was "a catastrophe," said Global Fairness Institute's director.

Speaking as the co-chair of FreedomWorks on CNBC last December, Dick Armey "spoke glowingly of 'Rx Outreach,' a national mail order program for low-income people that had just been launched by Express Scripts." FreedomWorks was "working with Express Scripts' public relations firm," Fleishman-Hillard, at the time, and "issued a press release praising Rx Outreach" the following week. Now, "Express Scripts says it plans to donate money to Armey's group." As a result, some are questioning "FreedomWorks' tax-exempt status because it appears that the group was a 'mouthpiece' for hire." The incident "highlights the often ambiguous role that some Washington think tanks and nonprofit groups play in political advocacy and their often-undisclosed connections to those who would benefit."

University of California-Davis nutritionist Lindsay Allen says reporters "hyped" her concerns, when she was quoted at the February meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science as saying, "It's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans." Allen says strict vegetarian diets are unethical, unless "missing nutrients" are added "through supplements or fortified foods." Allen's research with Kenyan children found that their development improved when their nutrient-deficient diets were supplemented with meat or milk. Her research was partially funded by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and its publication supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization, Land O'Lakes, Heifer International, and Pond Dynamics and Aquaculture-CRSP.

In Iraq, "the various factions seem to want everyone - including the press - to choose sides," writes Columbia Journalism Review. "The Arab media are finding themselves increasingly reliant on secondhand accounts and official reports from Washington and Baghdad," especially after Iraq's Media High Commission and interim government barred Al Jazeera, and Al Arabiya reduced their Iraq presence, due to increasing violence. Threats or missiles have shaken the Azzaman, Al-Itijah al-Akhar, and Al Mada newspapers. And "eighteen of the twenty-three journalists killed in Iraq last year - and all of the sixteen slain media-support workers - were Arabs or Kurds."

The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism will give its first ever Dean's Medal for Public Service to Daniel Edelman, the founder and chair of "the largest independent public relations firm in the world." The award "honors extraordinary lifetime achievement" by alumni, "for their contributions to society through professional accomplishments and civic involvement." While Daniel Edelman has contributed to many community groups, his firm's questionable work includes NGO "engagement," anti-estate tax front group, Microsoft anti-litigation, and pro-tobacco campaigns.

"The State Department is looking for 'appropriate opportunities' to spend money inside and outside Iran," to "foster opposition" as part of "a more confrontational democratization effort." The Los Angeles Times writes, "The United States is already spending $14.7 million a year to broadcast Persian-language radio and television programs into Iran." The broadcasts include Voice of America TV and radio and Radio Farda, "which aims to lure a youthful audience with hard news and popular music." The Bush administration is seeking a $5.7 million funding increase for Iranian broadcasts in 2006.

Doug Ireland notes that, due to a legal decision, the Federal Election Commission is beginning to extend the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 to the Internet. Republican commissioner Bradley Smith says one issue they've "argued over, debated, wrestled with, is how to value assistance to a campaign." Major questions include, "If someone sets up a homepage and links to their favorite politician, is that a contribution?" and "Do we give bloggers the press exemption?" Smith warns, "I think grassroots Internet activity is in danger. The impact would affect email lists. ... It's going to be bizarre."

"Under the draconian conditions of the USA Patriot Act," reports the Guardian, "the FBI can use covert surveillance of 'terrorists' without the necessity of getting a judicial warrant." Last year, the FBI identified "animal rights extremists and eco-terrorism" as "a domestic terrorism investigative priority," concerning even mainstream environmental groups. In 2003, an FBI Special Operations Group investigating a California Hummer and SUV arson attack raided an innocent young activists' home. He said, "They weren't looking for bombs or explosives. ... They went for everyone's computers and phone address books. A couple of days later, they started calling people."

"The Department of Homeland Security has tapped Ogilvy PR to provide real journalists for its biennial mock terrorist exercise," reports PR Week. (An earlier Spin noted the TOPOFF 3 exercise.) Ogilvy "will pick six journalists to cover the simulated attack," for what DHS is calling the Virtual News Network. Other activities will occur in Britain. Ogilvy has assisted with the TOPOFF exercises since 2000. Although participating journalists "cannot currently be accredited to a news organization," media ethicists have questioned government payments to reporters.

"The U.S. Army is adjusting its marketing pitch to minorities as the war in Iraq hurts recruiting efforts among Hispanics and, especially, African-Americans," reports Advertising Age. Leo Burnett is the Army's lead marketing agency, with Cartel Creativo doing Hispanic, and Muse Cordero Chen & Partners and Vital Marketing Group doing African-American, outreach. The Army will "maintain a minority presence in general-market advertising, craft minority-specific messages," and "focus Spanish-language messages at parents and 'influencers.'" Political science professor Peter Feaver expressed skepticism, saying, "If the problem is Iraq, there's not much in the short run that the Army recruiters can do."

The Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, a nonprofit organization founded by Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Grover Norquist, has been subpoenaed by "an interagency criminal task force investigating former lobbyist Jack Abramoff." Abramoff and associates are being investigated for "their dealings with Indian tribes." CREA received significant contributions from tribes represented by Abramoff, as a quid pro quo for help with "the tribes' lobbying of the Interior Department," according to anonymous sources. CREA is a "staunch supporter of the Bush administration's environmental policies," and has been called a "greenscam" by Republicans for Environmental Protection, for taking mining, logging, chemical and coal industry money.

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