"After learning that researchers for two studies it published this year didn't reveal financial ties to the maker of heart-surgery equipment that they evaluated favorably," the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery decided to go beyond publishing corrections that "reveal the financial ties of the researchers to AtriCure Inc." The American Association of Thoracic Surgery, which owns the journal, said they will impose "tougher sanctions" when authors don't disclose ties, including barring "individuals and their institutions from publishing in the journal for 'some period of time.'" As links between researchers and industry increase, medical journals are trying "to really improve disclosure and to really improve independence," said Dr. Kevin Schulman. The Journal of the American Medical Association gives "extra scrutiny" to authors who previously failed to disclose relationships. The New England Journal of Medicine handles conflicts on "a case-by-case basis."

After students at two Canadian universities, McMaster and the University of Guelph, voted down campus exclusivity deals with Coca-Cola, "the world's largest soft-drink company has launched a counter-offensive in hopes of heading off further boycotts." In December, Coke reps visited McMaster and the University of British Columbia. One Coke PR coordinator stressed that "these boycotts are actually affecting workers in the local area" and said allegations that the company is complicit in human rights violations in Colombia are false. Coke's PR manager in Colombia, Pablo Largacha Escallon, also took part in the Canadian tour. "There is a humanitarian crisis in Colombia, but [student activists] have made it a Coca-Cola-centric thing when it's a Colombia-centric thing," he said. Coke has also "recently hired a labour-relations director and plans to issue a human-rights policy next year." Twenty North American campuses are now "Coke free," but "hundreds more could follow suit soon in England."

Wall Street Journal editorial board member Bret Stephens writes that U.S. assistance to Pakistan following the devastating October 8 earthquake is "one of America's most significant hearts-and-minds successes so far in the Muslim world. ... The Chinook has become America's new emblem in Pakistan, a byword for salvation in an area where until recently the U.S. was widely and fanatically detested." But the secretary general of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, "the highest Islamic authority in the world's most populous Muslim nation," said U.S. aid following last year's tsunami has not improved America's standing there. "The Muslim perception is very much dependent on American foreign policy in the Muslim world, not only in Aceh but also in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan," he told AFP. The director of a Sri Lankan think tank agreed, but faulted Washington. "There was no visible campaign to carry [initial praise from aid efforts] forward," he said.

A groundbreaking public health study by Chinese doctor Zhang JianDong in 1987 was used by U.S. regulatory agencies "as evidence that a form of" the chemical chromium "might cause cancer." Ten years later, "a 'clarification and further analysis' published under his name in a U.S. medical journal said there was no cancer link to chromium." But "Dr. Zhang didn't write the clarification" - it was "conceived, drafted, edited and submitted to medical journals by" ChemRisk, a firm hired by PG&E, "a utility company being sued for alleged chromium pollution" by California residents. ChemRisk was previously paid $7 million to help "save industry hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs for chromium pollution in New Jersey." ChemRisk claims Dr. Zhang signed off on the "clarification," but records show the final version was not translated into Chinese for his review. Dr. Zhang died in 1999, but his son said, "It's impossible that he would have overthrown" his earlier work linking chromium and cancer.

"The military has paid money to try to place favorable coverage on television stations in three Iraqi cities." The military gave one station "about $35,000 in equipment," is "building a new facility for $300,000," and pays $1000 to $2400 a month "for a weekly program that focuses positively on U.S. efforts." An Army National Guard commander confirmed his officers "suggest" stories for the weekly program and review it, before it is aired. The payments are not disclosed to viewers. At least two bloggers have been embedded with U.S. military units; Michael Yon with the Army in Mosul and Bill Roggio (who was credentialed by the American Enterprise Institute) with the Marines in Anbar province. Insurgent propaganda has included "rifle-toting guerrillas" in Ramadi telling reporters "to publish accounts claiming the city had been taken over," and "erroneous tips from insurgents to reporters," including video purporting to be of a December 3 attack in Fallujah.

Iraqi voters may not agree on much, but 99.5 percent of them agreed not to vote for Ahmed Chalabi in the country's December 15 election. Once hailed by U.S. neoconservatives as the "George Washington of Iraq," Chalabi's humiliating defeat at the polls makes him something of an embarrasment now. "The election results in Iraq may present Chalabi’s ardent U.S. supporters with a quandary: Chalabi, as well as other losing candidates, is alleging fraud in the election, even though the Bush administration hailed the vote as a historic step for democracy in Iraq," reports Aram Roston.

"Susan Finston of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a conservative research group based in Texas, is just the sort of opinion maker coveted by the drug industry," writes Philip Shenon. "In an opinion article in The Financial Times on Oct. 25, she called for patent protection in poor countries for drugs and biotechnology products. In an article last month in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal, she called for efforts to block developing nations from violating patents on AIDS medicines and other drugs. Both articles identified her as a 'research associate' at the institute. Neither mentioned that, as recently as August, Ms. Finston was registered as a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry's trade group. Nor was there mention of her work this fall in creating the American Bioindustry Alliance, a group underwritten largely by drug companies."

"Earlier this month," writes Jennifer Washburn, "Sheffield University in Britain offered $252,000 to one of its senior medical professors, Aubrey Blumsohn. According to a copy of a proposed settlement released by Blumsohn, the university promised to pay him if he would agree to leave his post and not make 'any detrimental or derogatory statements' about Sheffield or its employees. For several years, Blumsohn had been complaining of scientific misconduct. His concerns primarily revolved around a $250,000 research contract between Sheffield and the Ohio-based Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. Blumsohn claimed that the company had denied him access to key data and then tried to ghostwrite his analysis of it." Worse still, the university acted as an enforcer for the company in its efforts to conceal data and manipulate research conclusions.

The Times Online reports, "The transformation of the geeky but ambitious Christian Martin Jozefowicz, who just a few years ago was growing up in a modest terraced house in Godalming, Surrey, to the charming, baby-faced multimillionaire Christian Bailey now rubbing shoulders with some of the most powerful figures in Washington - and who next year will probably face questions on Capitol Hill about his company - is one of the more extraordinary stories to have emerged from the Iraq war. This month it was revealed that Mr Bailey’s US company, the Lincoln Group, was the recipient of a Pentagon contract to help to fight the information war in Iraq. It then emerged that the company was paying Iraqi journalists to plant optimistic news 'stories' in Iraqi papers that had been written by the US military."

Japan recently lifted the ban it placed on U.S. beef after the 2003 discovery of mad cow disease in America. This prion disease has killed more than 150 people worldwide and is spread among cattle by feeding them slaughterhouse waste byproducts. Yet the U.S. livestock industry continues this lucrative practice, and the U.S. government refuses to institute food safety testing of beef. The New York Times quotes CMD's John Stauber, co-author of Mad Cow USA, saying, "From the standpoint of human and animal safety this is a disastrous decision by the Japanese. They have taken a huge step backward." The U.S. Meat Export Federation has launched a PR campaign to win back Japanese consumers, who surveys show do not trust U.S. beef. The campaign includes "advertisements, trade shows, town hall educational meetings and endorsements from Japanese who eat U.S. beef." For example, White Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi "credits power to launch his 1,000 career hits and score 14 home runs in his rookie season to U.S. beef."

"The U.S. State Department announced yesterday it was suspending publication of Hi Magazine, its glossy, monthly attempt to win the hearts and minds of young Arabs, part of a communications troika it established following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. ... The magazine had been derided by commentators in the Arab world as 'schlock'' or 'brainwashing'' and one had dubbed it the CIA's official publication. The decision to suspend publication was made by Karen Hughes, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy ... The U.S. government has been spending $4.5 million (U.S.) annually since July 2003, trying to bring its own particular take on American life to a target Arab demographic aged 18-35. Along with Al Hurra TV and Radio Sawa, Hi was a three-pronged $62 million (U.S.) annual effort to counter anti-Americanism in countries such as Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and others."

"Almost three-quarters of Americans think it was wrong for the Pentagon to pay Iraqi newspapers to publish news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows. USA TODAY reported earlier this month that the Pentagon plans to expand beyond Iraq an anti-terrorism public relations campaign that has included secret payments to Iraqi journalists and publications who printed stories favorable to the USA. ... The global program will be part of a five-year public relations campaign costing up to $300 million. The poll shows that most Americans don't approve of such programs. Of the 1,003 people surveyed Dec. 16-18, 72% said it would be inappropriate for the U.S. military to secretly pay Iraqi media to publish stories favorable to the USA. And almost two-thirds said such payments would bother them a 'fair amount' or a 'great deal.' " The Pentagon has used the Lincoln Group to plant fake news in Iraq.

Working Families for Wal-Mart, a new nonprofit group "partly funded by the Bentonville-based retail giant," has "a mission to support Wal-Mart Stores Inc." and "famously wholesome singer Pat Boone" is a member. Working Families is getting media help from The Herald Group, a PR firm established by "three DC PR execs, including two Bush Administration officials," according to O'Dwyer's. The firm identified Bishop Ira Combs Jr. as Working Families' leader. Bishop Combs said, "Some friends I worked with on the 2004 Bush campaign phoned me and asked me if I knew about any good things Wal-Mart was doing in my community. I said Wal-Mart is supplying jobs that may not pay a union wage but they pay twice the minimum wage. They asked me if I would be part of this group." Another Working Families member, former Marine Captain Courtney Lynch, "estimated that her consulting firm got 7 percent of its revenue from Wal-Mart this year."

The New York Times notes that corporations including Ford, Exxon Mobil, BP, General Electric and Alcan "appear to be spending ever-bigger chunks of their advertising budgets to promote" what critics call greenwashing. New ad campaigns from WPP, Omnicom Group, and Interpublic Group tout corporate "environmental do-goodism." "Oil companies, under attack for reaping windfall profits from soaring fuel prices, are trying to position themselves as part of the solution to energy problems rather than the cause. Manufacturers of fuel-efficient automobiles, jet engines or other green products are recognizing that they can burnish their image even as they promote their products. And companies in all industries are trying to make socially conscious investors and customers comfortable about buying their products and shares."

Have you taken the Center for Media and Democracy's 2005 "Falsies Survey" yet? If not, please take a minute to do so today - the survey closes this Friday! We're relying on you to help us identify the people and players most responsible for polluting our information environment over the last year. Does Karen Hughes deserve a gold Falsies Award? What about Wal-Mart? Or video news releases? And if we've missed one of the worst spinners of 2005, you can also nominate people, industry groups, think tanks, PR firms, or other propagandists. We want to know what you think, so please vote today! We'll announce the winners of the 2005 Falsies Awards on January 2.

Following the U.S. House's passage of an immigration bill that would, among other things, extend walls along the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexico is fighting back. "Mexico ... will not allow a stupid thing like this wall," said its Foreign Relations Secretary. The Mexican government has hired Republican campaign consultant Rob Allyn who has long also been Mexico President Vincente Fox's campaign advisor. Rob Allyn and his Texas-based PR firm Allyn & Company is encouraging "U.S. church, community and business groups to oppose the proposal." O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports that Rob Allyn, "developed advertising for Bush's campaigns for governor and the presidency." The firm has also worked for Wal-Mart and XM Satellite Radio. The Mexican government hopes Allyn & Company will "improve its image and stem the immigration backlash."

After its protests "forced Taco Bell to pay tomato pickers a penny more per pound," the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) started "pressuring McDonald's for a similar agreement." Instead, McDonald's joined the "Socially Accountable Farm Employer (SAFE) voluntary certification program." Launched in November 2005, SAFE is run by board members of the industry group Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association and an association grantee, the Redlands Christian Migrant Association. SAFE is represented by CBR Public Relations, one of McDonald's PR firms, which specializes in "activist response management." Intertek, a firm that "already performs safety audits for McDonald's," will evaluate SAFE members' compliance. SAFE "does not include any input from workers," "does little to address low wages," and "does not guarantee workers overtime pay or the right to organize." A CIW organizer said McDonald's joined SAFE "to protect their public image in place of making a change in our lives."

"Clear Channel Communications Inc. radio stations in Madison, Wis., and Milwaukee" are naming their newsrooms after corporate sponsors. "Starting in January, the news on WIBA-AM in Madison will deliver its report from the Amcore Bank News Center. ... About two years ago, WISN-AM in Milwaukee introduced listeners to its newscast from the PyraMax Bank News Center." The sponsorships are not exclusive and "will not impose strictures on the broadcasts." But a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute said such arrangements create "the perception that the newsroom is for sale to the highest bidder." The Social of Professional Journalists' president asked, "How can you not wonder if a story about Amcore is told as tenaciously as a story about another bank might be?" The banks' news sponsorships come a year after revelations that 280 financial institutions used subsidiaries in other states to avoid paying Wisconsin state taxes.

"The monitoring of pesticide use in Florida has become make-believe. It is Disney-esque," said Alex Simons, a former environmental specialist for Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Simons said decisions were "politicized" and decided by officials "in close contact with [pesticide] companies." Tom Greenhalgh, a former water contamination investigator for Florida's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), blamed state officials "who basically worked for DuPont and the other chemical companies." Greenhalgh added, "There is a lot of ground water in Florida contaminated by pesticides," but "studies never get published." Another former DEP employee, Theodore McDowell, testified under oath that there were "100 or so" times he was asked to "make statements that [he] believed to be false," in order to downplay "environmental damage ... caused by chemicals." When a meeting was held to address growing concerns in late 1995 or early 1996, a deputy sheriff told the specialists their meeting was illegal, ending it.

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"This administration has engaged every possible agency, from the Pentagon to the (National Security Agency) to the F.B.I., to engage in spying on Americans," said an American Civil Liberties Union legal director. The ACLU released more than 2,300 pages of heavily censored FBI documents, on agency "surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief." The documents mention surveillance of an Indianapolis "Vegan Community Project," describe Catholic Workers as having a "semi-communistic ideology," and seek information on llama fur protests by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. An FBI spokesperson said the agency "does not target individuals or organizations ... based on their political beliefs." Earl Ofari Hutchinson wonders "why anyone is shocked that President Bush eavesdropped on Americans." Since its founding, the NSA has monitored "Muslim extremists, Communists, peace activists, black radicals, civil rights leaders, and drug peddlers," he writes.

"U.S. military officials in Iraq were fully aware that a Pentagon contractor regularly paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive stories about the war, and made it clear that none of the stories should be traced to the United States, according to several current and former employees of Lincoln Group," report Mark Mazzetti and Kevin Sack. Military officials have claimed that they didn't know what the Lincoln Group was up to, but leaked documents and company employees say otherwise. "In clandestine parlance, Lincoln Group was a 'cutout' - a third party - that would provide the military with plausible deniability," said a former Lincoln Group employee. "To attribute products to [the military] would defeat the entire purpose. Hence, no product by Lincoln Group ever said 'Made in the U.S.A.'" Another employee said that Lincoln's $20 million, two-month contract in Iraq had them doing work that was largely ineffective. "It's a total waste of money," said another former Lincoln employee. "Every Iraqi can read right through it."

Two opinion columnists and fellows at conservative think tanks have admitted to taking money from indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to write favorable columns about his clients. The Cato Institute's Doug Bandow, who had a syndicated column with Copley News Service, "accepted money from Abramoff for writing between 12 and 24 articles over a period of years, beginning in the mid '90s." Bandow resigned from Cato, and his column has been suspended. The Institute for Policy Innovation's Peter Ferrara also wrote "pay for play" columns for Abramoff, but, unlike Bandow, he isn't remorseful. "I've done it in the past, and I'll do it in the future," Ferrara said. Ferrara's boss also says the arrangement isn't "wrong or unethical." None of the columns contained any disclosure. BusinessWeek noted that the columns "provided a seemingly independent validation of the arguments the Abramoff team were using to try to sway Congressional action."

On December 15, the Illinois Supreme Court threw out a $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris and its parent company, Altria Group, saying they did not mislead consumers when advertising "light" cigarettes. The Chicago Tribune reports that Philip Morris' lawyers "contributed $16,800 to help elect a judge who cast a deciding vote" in the case. Judge Lloyd Karmeier "also received $1.2 million in campaign money from a group that filed an amicus brief supporting the cigarette-maker." The Illinois Chamber of Commerce, "which also filed an amicus brief in support of Philip Morris, contributed $269,338" to Karmeier's campaign. Yet Karmeier did not recuse himself. The court's press secretary said Karmeier "has tried to insulate himself from knowing the identities of campaign contributors and would not allow campaign contributions to have any effect on his ruling in this or any other case."

From army-technology.com

The U.S. Coalition Forces Land Component Command in Kuwait pulled the credentials of two embedded journalists from the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Virginia, reportedly for publishing a picture of a bullet-ridden Humvee parked in a Kuwaiti camp. Military officials said the picture violated embed rules, although "the journalists had been escorted by military personnel to a compound where the vehicles were located." The president of the organization Military Reporters and Editors protested the decision. "Our job is not to be stooges of the administration or the Pentagon and be complicit in their attempt to manage the news," he said. "We are here to tell our readers about the war." The group plans to urge the Pentagon to review its embed rules next year.

Durham, North Carolina's local ABC television affiliate "has been staging fire, foul weather and other news events across Durham this week, shooting advertisements for its news operations that not only put its Eyewitness News team at contrived scenes but also have taxpayers footing the bill for on-duty firefighters and other emergency workers to give the ads a realistic flair." The city fire chief said the ads weren't "a waste of taxpayers' money," because the spots are "promoting what the Fire Department does," using "air time the city doesn't have to pay for." He added, "If we needed them for a call, we could have called them and they would have been out of there fast." A University of North Carolina journalism professor asked, "If the president can do it, why can't the local news station?" He added, "From an advertising view, people stage all sorts of stuff."

"More than ever, Americans do not trust business or the people who run it," reports Claudia H. Deutsch. "Pollsters, researchers, even many corporate chiefs themselves say that business is under attack by a majority of the public, which believes that executives are bent on destroying the environment, cooking the books and lining their own pockets." Deutsch cites polls from Roper and Harris, in which 72 percent of respondents feel that wrongdoing is widespread in industry, only 2 percent regard the executives of large companies as "very trustworthy," and 90 percent say big companies have too much influence on government.

"It’s no secret that Moscow has an image problem. When Russian President Vladimir Putin makes headlines, it’s usually for jailing a businessman or cracking down on dissent," writes Julian Evans. Convinced that its image problem is due to anti-Russian "Western media bias," the Kremlin is trying to curry favor with foreign correspondents and has built its own English-language TV channel, Russia Today. "With a staff of 300 journalists, including around 70 imported from abroad, the channel will offer 'global news from a Russian perspective,'" Evans writes. "The Kremlin has spent $30 million setting it up and has attracted foreign journalists to Moscow with salaries starting at $60,000 a year. But the imported journalists are, in many cases, fresh out of journalism school, know not a word of Russian, and lack basic knowledge of Russian politics or history. For many of them, the experience is a bit of a laugh, a gap year at the Kremlin’s expense. There is already some tension between them and the Russian employees, who know 10 times as much about Russia, and are paid salaries half as big."

Seven months after the "Rendon Group was hired to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai with media relations in early 2004," both Karzai and then-U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad were "ready to get rid of Rendon." They complained that the secretive PR firm was being paid too much - $1.4 million - for "not enough work." Yet Rendon won a second U.S.-funded contract worth $3.9 million, to "create a media team for Afghan anti-drug programs." The goal was "to train five Afghan press officers ... but it trained only three, and one has left her job." U.S. Embassy officials estimated that the work done "could have been performed for about $200,000." That contract expired in October, but Rendon is reportedly under consideration for a new multimillion-dollar, "three-year deal to work on counternarcotics public relations" in Afghanistan. Rendon's supporters say the firm "did an excellent job in a tough circumstance."

"Many of the articles that appear in scientific journals under the byline of prominent academics are actually written by ghostwriters in the pay of drug companies." Used by doctors "to guide their care of patients," these "seemingly objective articles ... are often part of a marketing campaign." The New England Journal of Medicine recently revealed that a 2000 article on Vioxx "omitted information about heart attacks among patients taking the drug. ... The deletions were made by someone working from a Merck computer." A 1999 "publications strategy" prepared for Pfizer by a WPP Group agency listed 81 proposed articles, promoting Zoloft for everything from "panic disorder to pedophilia." One physiologist hired by Elsevier's Excerpta Medica says she was asked to "slant" a 2002 paper in favor of a Johnson & Johnson drug. Many journals ask for disclosure, but say their ability to weed out ghostwriters is limited. "I don't give lie-detector tests," said the Journal of the American Medical Association's chief editor.

The only licensed U.S. anthrax vaccine maker, BioPort, turned government contracts into "a gold mine," with help from the "right lobbyists and public relations professionals," writes Bob Evans. In 2002, following questions about vaccine safety and its financial practices, BioPort nearly quadrupled spending on lobbyists (from $30,000 to $110,000) and hired Ruder Finn and Fleishman-Hillard, "high-powered public relations firms staffed by many former government officials." The company began "sponsoring 'public education seminars' and studies." In September 2002, a report released by "bioterrorism experts" encouraged the government "to purchase millions of doses of BioPort's product." Evans says the report was actually "written by either BioPort or its public relations agent." BioPort also pays $40,000 a year to upkeep a website that "says it's sponsored by the Partnership for Anthrax Vaccination Education" and touts BioPort's product. This year, BioPort won "a $122.7 million contract" with the Department of Health and Human Services, with more funding under negotiation.

After a lengthy review, the U.S. Army awarded the contract for its five year, $1.35 billion recruitment campaign to the McCann Erickson advertising agency, with the Weber Shandwick firm leading "the PR piece." Both are new to the account; the Army's previous agencies were Leo Burnett and Manning Selvage & Lee. Weber Shandwick's Jack Leslie said the Army acount "is one of the most important assignments we've ever had" and will involve their "offices across the country" in a "highly integrated" marketing effort. The Army contract includes "advertising, direct marketing, promotions, events, and internet efforts." The Army's current focus on "parents and other influencers" of potential recruits, appealing to their "patriotism and sense of duty," will likely continue, as will use of the "Army of One" slogan developed by Leo Burnett.

"The media center in Fayetteville, N.C., would be the envy of any global communications company," writes Jeff Gerth. "In state of the art studios, producers prepare the daily mix of music and news for the group's radio stations or spots for friendly television outlets. Writers putting out newspapers and magazines in Baghdad and Kabul converse via teleconferences. Mobile trailers with high-tech gear are parked outside, ready for the next crisis. ... The center is not part of a news organization, but a military operation, and those writers and producers are soldiers. The 1,200-strong psychological operations unit based at Fort Bragg turns out what its officers call 'truthful messages' to support the United States government's objectives, though its commander acknowledges that those stories are one-sided and their American sponsorship is hidden." Gerth discusses the relationships between the U.S. military and private companies like the Rendon Group and Lincoln Group. He also provides previously unreported details about Jeffrey B. Jones, "a former Army colonel who ran the Fort Bragg psychological operations group, to coordinate the new information war."

Republican congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham recently resigned after pleading guilty to graft and tearfully admitting that he took $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors, prompting an interesting question from Joshua Micah Marshall: "How did Duke Cunningham manage to get so far entangled in an ethics mess that he had to plead guilty to federal charges of accepting bribes without anyone referring his case to the House ethics committee? Think about that for a second. With all that came out about Cunningham over the last six months and not one Democrat even filed a complaint against him, let alone any Republicans?" Melanie Sloan provides the answer: "Since 1998, there has been an ethics 'truce' in the House of Representatives, under the terms of which no member will file an ethics complaint against another member. Because outsiders are prohibited from filing complaints with the House ethics committee, this has effectively shut down the ethics process."

Between November 30 and December 6, "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. placed full-page advertisements in 336 Midwestern newspapers." Wal-Mart's move "comes as the retailer repositions itself on several fronts - particularly community relations." Wal-Mart's lack of local advertising means that "if one local grocery store goes out, a community newspaper loses at a minimum one or two full-page ads or inserts a week," said the director of the National Newspaper Association (NNA). Mona Williams, Wal-Mart's PR head, said the company "would consider incorporating the local papers into our overall ad strategy" if "there is a significant return" on their trial run. Williams said local ads may "generate good will." In early 2005, Wal-Mart ran ads in major metropolitan papers while "a public relations firm approach[ed] local papers, hoping to place news stories on Wal-Mart's views." NNA protested, saying local papers "are all but invisible to Wal-Mart - unless the company is looking for some free PR."

Join the Center for Media and Democracy's John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton in Madison, Wisc., on December 15 for a talk on corporate PR and its cost to democracy. Stauber and Rampton will speak following a preformance of Walmartopia, a new musical comedy by Catherine Capellaro and Andrew Rohn, the creators of Temp Slave, the musical. "Walmartopia—a future so horrible, it must be stopped! ... When Vicki, a struggling Wal-Mart employee, speaks out about the company’s working conditions, she finds herself jettisoned into 2035, where she faces the ultimate nightmare: an America run entirely by the Wal-Mart empire." For more information, visit the Walmartopia webpage.

"A U.S. investigation into allegations that the American military is buying positive coverage in the Iraqi media has expanded to examine a press club founded and financed by the U.S. Army," reports USA Today. The Baghdad Press Club was created in 2004, "to promote progress amid the violence and chaos of Iraq." A military spokesperson said "members are not required nor asked to write favorably" about the United States. According to a reporter at the U.S.-funded television station Alhurra, "press club members were invited to cover U.S.-led reconstruction efforts, such as restored sewage plants and newly-opened schools." Print reporters were paid $25 for each story, or $45 if the piece included photos, while television reporters were paid $50 per story. A Lincoln Group spokesperson said the firm "was not involved with the Baghdad Press Club."

Following President Bush's announcement of his immigration reform plan (which includes more Border Patrol agents, added technology such as drone planes, more detention facilities, and a "temporary worker program"), the Coalition for the Future American Worker (CFAW) launched an ad campaign calling for a harsher approach. The CFAW ads "feature U.S. workers who attribute wage depression and job displacement in their communities to the influx of illegal immigrants," challenging Bush's "contention that foreign workers are only taking jobs Americans won't do." CFAW members include the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Information Technology Professionals Association of America, and American Engineering Association. On the other side, the PR firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates is working with the White House to build "a coalition among business leaders and lawmakers," called Americans for Border and Economic Security, in support of the Bush proposal.

"Nazi worship is very problematic but the public relations dilemma can be solved very simply," Margaret Kimberley writes. "Leave out any mention of hate, racism, Hitler and holocaust denial." Kimberley points to Prussian Blue, 13 year-old blonde twin sisters who sing songs celebrating Adolf Hitler and Rudolph Hess. Teen People magazine planned to do an article on them, agreeing "not to mention the words Hitler, hate or supremacist. ... Teen People promised to speak of the family only as supporters of 'white pride.'" Ultimately, the story was pulled and a "junior employee" blamed for poor judgment. Kimberley also faults ABC News for giving the twins "free publicity and compar[ing] them to the over exposed but harmless Olsen twins." Instead, Kimberley suggests U.S. journalists should cover an almost totally ignored 2003 incident where "white supremacists near Tyler, Texas were discovered with 500,000 rounds of ammunition, bomb making equipment, canisters of cyanide and a KKK calling card."

Britain's Independent reports on a "detailed and disturbing strategy document" authored by a U.S.-based Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) official that seeks "to destroy Europe's support for the Kyoto treaty on climate change." CEI's Chris Horner, also a senior figure in the "Cooler Heads Coalition," is "a veteran campaigner against Kyoto." CEI has received "almost $1.5m from ExxonMobil." Horner's plan "seeks to draw together major international companies, academics, think-tanks, commentators, journalists and lobbyists from across Europe," under the name "European Sound Climate Policy Coalition." The coalition, Horner suggested, would be based in Brussels and have "anti-Kyoto position papers, expert spokesmen, detailed advice and networking" devoted to undermining the accord. He pitched the plan to Ford Europe, Lufthansa and German utility company RWE; the document says that Lufthansa, Exxon and Ford "have already indicated their interest." Asked by the Independent whether a U.S. lobbyist funded in part by oil companies should be targeting European companies, Horner replied, "Everybody else does."

"One of the most surprising things I discovered during my brief business career was the existence of the PR industry, lurking like a huge, quiet submarine beneath the news," writes computer programmer and author Paul Graham. Graham discusses how to detect PR-generated "buzz." For example, a spate of stories - in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and U.S. News & World Report, among others - declared that men's business suits are making a fashion comeback. "If you search for the obvious phrases, you turn up several efforts over the years to place stories about the return of the suit," Graham says. "Trend articles like this are almost always the work of PR firms. Once you know how to read them, it's straightforward to figure out who the client is. With trend stories, PR firms usually line up one or more 'experts' to talk about the industry. ... When you get to the end of the experts, look for the client. And bingo, there it is: The Men's Wearhouse."

"We can't any more argue whether food advertising is related to children's diets. It is," said Ellen Wartella, a co-author of the Institute of Medicine report reviewing "123 scientific research studies spanning 30 years on the effects of marketing food to children." The report concluded that "strong evidence" links TV ads to childhood obesity, and recommended that well-known cartoon characters not be used to sell "low-nutrient and high-calorie" foods. Marketing to children is a $11 billion industry. The American Advertising Federation responded that companies are already "promoting healthier products and active lifestyles for children." Commercial Alert called on Congress to "expel junk food from public schools, require disclosure of product placement ... and eliminate the federal tax deduction for food advertising to children." The New York Times reports that Center for Science in the Public Interest, with "veterans of successful tobacco litigation," will file a lawsuit in Massachusetts to "ban sales of sugary beverages in schools."

The head of Germany's federal intelligence agency (Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND), August Hanning, "admitted that several journalists, scientists and public figures had been spied on by the German secret services between 1993 and 1998. ... More recently, Cicero magazine and German daily Der Speigel have complained about surveillance and harassment," following their exposes on terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi and plutonium trafficking, respectively. The BND's Hanning said, "I take this very seriously and will follow up on it." The spying was centered on investigative journalist Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, who authored a book on the BND. "Family, colleagues and other journlists who came to interview him about the book were followed by agents from the BND." An anonymous BND source said, "The measures were first taken to discover which 'traitors' had supplied information on how our services operate."

"Despite the time-worn diplomatic formula of quiet airport greetings by often-dour foreign ministers," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been welcomed by a falconer (with bird) in Kyrgyzstan, a sumo wrestling champion in Japan, and athlete Nadia Comaneci in Romania. Rice's "rock star status ... has been one result of a deliberate strategy," writes the New York Times. Jim Wilkinson, one of Rice's senior aides, organizes her "image-making events," "serves as a gatekeeper" for people "who want to see her," and "is constantly looking out for image-making opportunities." The resulting buzz has fueled speculation that Rice will run for president in 2008, though she denies any "interest in running." One result of this focus on image is that Rice's appearances have been "skewed towards broadcast media. In October and November she gave 22 interviews to television and radio stations and only 3 to newspapers and magazines."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told international studies students he thought the media focused too much on the bad news in Iraq. "His criticism of the press, a theme to which Mr. Rumsfeld returns frequently in public and private statements, came only a few days after the Pentagon acknowledged that it had paid Iraqi newspapers to publish news articles that presented a positive view of developments in Iraq. That disclosure 'has been pounded in the media, Mr. Rumsfeld said. 'We don't know what the facts are yet,'" The New York Times reports. "[Rumsfeld] said blame for the propaganda program might rest with the Lincoln Group, the Washington-based public relations company that worked on the program under contract." He said that the question is whether the contractor was "implementing the policy properly."

Due to a proposed rewriting of the nation's environmental right-to-know law, thousands of communities stand to lose access to information on toxic chemicals that are released into their neighborhoods. The Bush administration wants to gut the national Toxics Release Inventory, which for the past two decades has reported "which industrial plants emit the most toxic substances, whether their emissions are increasing and what compounds may be contaminating their air and water," according to the Los Angeles Times. The public interest group OMB Watch has a Resource Center for concerned groups and individuals to learn more about the program.

How's holiday shopping? Dale Dougherty analyzes "how news is made" by examining a press release from the National Retail Federation and showing how "sloppiness and lazy thinking coupled with a herd mentality, most especially in business journalism" turned it into "a headline, a sound-bite, and eventually a story." The NRF's claim that shoppers spent $28 billion during Thanksgiving weekend was treated as factual by reporters, even though it was "based on a fairly small sample of people and questionable methodology." Dougherty found hundreds of news stories that used the NRF's numbers. "It really is as though reporters attended the same lecture and took down the same notes," he observes. "The funny thing is that this same news is made every year in the same way as reliably as the turkey at Thanksgiving. The Internet allows us to see how news is made, as though we were walking through a factory tour, and we can compare the very similar results of a mass production system. Turns out the news can be as fake as a department store Santa."

"The State Department has been using political litmus tests to screen private American citizens before they can be sent overseas to represent the United States, weeding out critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, according to department officials and internal e-mails," Knight-Ridder reports. "The practices appear to be the latest examples of the Bush administration's efforts to tightly control information, maintain 'message discipline' and promote news about the United States and its policies." President Bush's confidante Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes oversees the effort, which is part of a larger campaign to boost international opinion of the United States.

"Fenton Communications is promoting Venezuela's discounted oil program for disadvantaged families in Massachusetts, New York and maybe Maine," reports O'Dwyer's. The left-leaning PR firm "promoted the Nov. 22 press event held in the home of a low-income North Quincy, Mass., couple that featured [Democratic Congressman William] Delahunt and Venezuela's Ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez." Venezuela says the offer is a "simple act of generosity to help people in Massachusetts weather the combined economic storms of Katrina, Rita and the global oil shortage." The Wall Street Journal decried the arrangement as "lobbying" for "Venezuelan tyrant" Hugo Chavez. On December 1, full-page ads promoting the arrangement appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post and Houston Chronicle. In Venezuela, the main opposition parties say they will