"The Labor Department worked for more than a year to maintain secrecy for studies that were critical of working conditions in Central America," reports the Associated Press. The department hired a contractor to study the likely effect of the Central America Free Trade Agreement, now before Congress. But the contractor, the International Labor Rights Fund, concluded that "labor laws on the books in Central America are not sufficient to deter employers from violations." The Labor Department ordered the report removed from the contractor's website, sequestered paper copies and forbade discussions of it with outsiders. The department also launched "a pre-emptive campaign to undercut the study's conclusions," disseminating talking points that called the report "unsubstantiated" and filled with "biased attacks, not the facts." The department and "an independent evaluator" concluded that the contractor "failed to meet the academic rigor expected."

George W. Bush's Tuesday night national address reflected "a purposeful strategy based on extensive study of public opinion about how to maintain support for a costly and problem-plagued military mission," the Washington Post's Peter Baker and Dan Balz write. The White House consulted the work of Duke University political scientists Peter D. Feaver and Christopher F. Gelpi, who study public opinion during wartime. "The most important single factor in determining public support for a war is the perception that the mission will succeed," Gelpi told the Post. Feaver recently joined the National Security Council, as "special adviser for strategic planning and institutional reform." He questions "the widespread view that public opinion turned sour on the Vietnam War because of mounting casualties that were beamed into living rooms every night. Instead, Bush advisers have concluded that public opinion shifted after opinion leaders signaled that they no longer believed the United States could win," the Post writes.

"Mainstream media is the term often used to describe the collective group of big TV, radio and newspapers in the United States," Project Censored's Peter Phillips writes. "However, mainstream media no longer produce news for the mainstream population - nor should we consider the media as plural. Instead it is more accurate to speak of big media in the US today as the corporate media and to use the term in the singular tense - as it refers to the singular monolithic top-down power structure of self-interested news giants." Research carried out by Phillips and a team at Sonoma State University finds that "only 118 people comprise the membership on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. ... These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate boards of 288 national and international corporations."

The New York Times' Frank Rich warns that Sesame Street's Big Bird is the "ornithological equivalent of a red herring." The right's latest assault on public broadcasting is "far more insidious and ingenious" than that seen under Newt Gingrich a decade ago. "The intent is not to kill off PBS and NPR but to castrate them by quietly annexing their news and public affairs operations to the larger state propaganda machine that the Bush White House has been steadily constructing at taxpayers' expense. If you liked the fake government news videos that ended up on local stations - or thrilled to the 'journalism' of Armstrong Williams and other columnists who were covertly paid to promote administration policies - you'll love the brave new world this crowd envisions for public TV and radio," Rich writes. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Kenneth Tomlinson has had a "long career as a professional propagandist," including currently heading the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal body that oversees Voice of America, Radio Sawa, and Al Hurra. "That the administration's foremost propagandist would also be chairman of the board of CPB, the very organization meant to shield public broadcasting from government interference, is astonishing," Rich writes.

The K Street Project - a Republican efforts to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire only Republicans to top positions - now has its own website: www.kstreetproject.com. "The site, open to all, contains news about who was hired in lobby shops, corporate offices and trade associations. It also will carry job postings and a rundown of the political giving patterns of people who are seeking or have taken lobbying jobs. That's the kind of information that lawmakers such as Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) have been sharing privately for years with colleagues and corporate lobbyists of their choice. Now it's out in the open," the Washington Post's Jeffrey H. Birnbaum writes.

When is a video news release in danger of looking or sounding like a commercial? "A VNR is aired on the news at the discretion of news personnel," Amy Goldwert Eskridge of AGE Productions told PR Week. "So it's important to produce a story that looks and sounds like it was done by the station." The trade publication's PR Toolbox advises potential VNR sponsors, "VNR script should focus on information TV news viewers can use, with a subtle mention of your product as a solution to a problem. ... Avoid anything that looks or sounds staged or over-produced, [Eskridge] says. An experienced VNR producer knows the techniques of getting a newsy shot and can conduct an interview that results in natural-sounding sound bites that impart your key message, while still appearing spontaneous."

This spring, a poll that found half of adult Americans have frequent sleeping problems was reported on "by virtually all of the country's major newspapers and television networks," as well as international media. "Lost in the somber warnings and survey results, however, was that the poll, the proclamations and the press kits that spread the information were paid for by sleeping pill manufacturers," reports the Sacramento Bee. Although the group that released the poll, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), receives more than half of its income from drug companies, only 17 of 84 newspaper stories "mentioned the foundation's pharmaceutical sponsors." And while the New York public relations firm Zeno Group was touting the NSF poll, it was also hyping the launch of a new sleeping pill, Lunesta. Zeno Group included "a pitch for coverage of the release of the Lunesta sleeping pill" in the NSF press packets announcing the poll results.

"For the bargain-basement price of $29,000, our publication could have been touted by the Hall of Fame quarterback in slots on CNBC and MSNBC," writes PR Week's Julia Hood, about Terry Bradshaw's "Winners Circle" and "Pick of the Week" TV segments. The segments praise companies for their "forward thinking and consistent principles," in what may seem like "a neutral third-party endorsement," but is actually "a paid placement that inconsistently identifies itself as such." The segments are produced by Broadcast News Corporation (BNC), which also pays to air them on MSNBC, CNBC and CNN Headline News. "We're doing this so we can tell a good story about companies," said one BNC producer. PR Week found that MSNBC either ran "a subtle disclaimer" or none at all marking the segments as paid commercial programming.

"President Bush has nominated as chief of enforcement for the Environmental Protection Agency a partner in a law firm defending W.R. Grace & Co. against criminal charges in a major environmental case," reports Andrew Schneider. "EPA employees were told late Thursday that Bush had nominated Granta Nakayama to lead the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. ... Nakayama, 46, a specialist in environmental law, is a full partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The law firm is defending Grace against multiple criminal charges alleging that the Columbia-based company and seven of its current or former executives knowingly put their workers and the public in danger through exposure to vermiculite ore contaminated with asbestos from the company's mine in Libby, Mont.," a case that one FBI agent has described as "one of the most significant criminal indictments for environmental crime in our history."

"For months, President Bush has struggled to maintain public support for the war in Iraq in the face of periodic setbacks on the battlefield," reports Doyle McManus. "Now he faces a second front in the battle for public opinion: charges that the administration is not telling the truth about how the war is going. ... Several recent polls have found that a majority of Americans now believe that the United States made a mistake in going to war in Iraq, and increasing numbers - but not a majority - said they want U.S. troops to be withdrawn immediately. 'What's interesting in this decline in support for the war is that it has sprung from the public itself,' said pollster Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center. 'It wasn't led by politicians or by an antiwar movement.'"

Over charges of partisanship, the board of directors for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting picked Patricia Harrison to become CPB's new president and CEO. Harrison, a former PR executive and past co-chair of the Republican National Committee, was embattled CPB chair Kenneth Tomlinson's top choice for the post. Harrison had been serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and had the been the interim Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs after the departures of Charlotte Beers and Margaret Tutwiler from the position often labeled the Propaganda Czar. O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports Harrison co-founded E. Bruce Harrison & Co. in 1973 with her husband, E. Bruce Harrison, a former PR director for the Chemical Manufacturers Association who now specializes in "environmental PR."

"By definition, uncertainties abound in our work; there's nothing to be done about that," writes David Michaels about scientists studying epidemiology and climate change. Michaels is a professor at George Washington University School of Public Health, working on occupational disease, and served as an assistant secretary of Energy between 1998 and 2001. "Our public health and environmental protection programs will not be effective if absolute proof is required before we act. The best available evidence must be sufficient. Otherwise, we'll sit on our hands and do nothing. Of course, this is often exactly what industry wants. That's why it has mastered the art of manufacturing uncertainty, of demanding often impossible proof over common-sense precaution in the realm of public health."

"Hoping to improve its image and boost sagging membership, the American Medical Association is launching a $60 million marketing campaign that includes heartstring-tugging ads that portray doctors as 'everyday heroes.'" The ads, which will be run nationally on television and radio and in magazines, "emphasize the nobility of the profession," explained an AMA marketing executive. One TV ad features "soaring music" and images of "a tiny premature baby grabbing a doctor's finger." Other campaign aspects include a logo redesign and "routine meetings with doctors around the country to hear what is on their minds." AMA's membership has dropped for the past five years.

Online volunteers are "using collaborative wiki software to expedite the process of perusing thousands of pages of complex documents related to detainees held by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba." On dKosopedia, a wiki associated with the liberal group blog Daily Kos, some 80 people have signed up, "each taking responsibility for a specific set of documents and for publicly posting the results of their review." The 4,000 pages of documents were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act request. Clay Shirky, a professor in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, said the effort is "changing the way leverage is applied. The historical dilemma of democracies is that it's very hard to get large groups organized. So, paradoxically, the more widely distributed an opinion is, the harder it is to turn its adherents into an interest group."

Lobbying is a thriving business these days. The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 and "amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent," the Washington Post reports. "The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts say: rapid growth in government, Republican control of both the White House and Congress, and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits." According to the Post, political historians see this as a problem for U.S. democracy. "The growth of lobbying makes even worse than it is already the balance between those with resources and those without resources," Allan Cigler, a political scientist at the University of Kansas, told the Post.

"To mark the 60th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day," London's National Archives launched an online exhibit of "250 images created for Britain's Ministry of Information during the Second World War - images intended to 'inform and inspire' the nation, as well as influence overseas opinions." The Art of War exhibit's propaganda section "breaks its material into 'Home Front' (featuring such themes as warnings against 'careless talk'), 'Allied Unity,' 'The Fighting Forces,' 'Personalities' (including a complimentary portrait of the temporarily 'rehabilitated' Josef Stalin), and 'Production - Salvage.'" Images in the last section address "such timeless subjects as littering" and give "the helpful advice that, 'a single chop bone, weighing 2oz, could supply two rounds of ammunition for RAF Hurricane guns.'"

In "the first time a president has stepped inside a nuclear plant since Jimmy Carter rushed to Three Mile Island in 1979 to calm public fears," George Bush visited Maryland's Calvert Cliffs plant to promote "a new era of nuclear power." Part of the president's plan is to subsidize new plants. "Three consortiums of utilities are getting $539 million in taxpayer subsidies ... to seek nuclear construction licenses." The Senate energy bill would provide a further $10.1 billion to the nuclear industry, according to Public Citizen. Another sign of nuclear resurgence, writes the Los Angeles Times, is decreased opportunities for public input. "Under the old system, a nuclear utility first had to apply for a construction license and then seek a separate operating license after completing the plant. It gave protesters two chances to tie up a utility. Now, a single license is granted at the beginning."

There is a growing concern that occupational- and environmental-health research is in crisis. With funding for this type of research a low priority at government agencies, researchers have had to turn to industry for information and money. "Critics of industry-sponsored research argue that even the most forthright agreements between researcher and industry carry risks of bias in results or interpretation that benefit the sponsors," the Chronicle of Higher Education writes. "Even under the best of circumstances, there's some understanding that future funding depends at least in part on the results you find this time," Anthony Robbins, a professor of public health and family medicine at Tufts University and a former director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, told the Chronicle. But industry's influence doesn't stop at funding issues. "Industry has found it worthwhile to challenge all of the studies that suggest there might be a link between some exposure and some kind of disease or illness," Robbins told the Chronicle. "Industry is in the business of manufacturing uncertainty."

The American Civil Liberties Union has issued a new report which charges that the Bush administration is using the war on terror as a pretext to tighten restrictions on information. It states that the administration "has sought to impose growing restrictions on the free flow of scientific information, unreasonable barriers on the use of scientific materials and increased monitoring of and restrictions on foreign university students. ... The government is seeking to graft the values of security agencies - secrecy, control and confinement of information - onto the world of science, where information must be uncontrolled, open to all and distributed as broadly as possible."

Last week, Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell vetoed "what would have been the nation's strongest school-based nutrition law," writes Michele Simon. "With one stroke of the pen, she put to rest an extremely contentious three-year battle to rid Connecticut schools of soda and junk food. Similar scenarios are being played out in state capitals all over the nation, where high-paid lobbyists of multi-national corporations such as Coca-Cola are swooping in to foil the efforts of local nutrition advocates, educators. With rising rates of childhood obesity and diabetes, state legislatures have become a major battleground over the sale of junk food in public schools."

Bill Berkowitz reports on the latest activities of David Horowitz, the former Marxist turned right-wing ranter who is now campaigning for an "Academic Bill of Rights" that could, if passed, require university biology professors to teach "alternatives" to the theory of evolution and would allow students to sue their professors if they feel the professors are not sufficiently respectful of their views. "For a biologist for whom evolution is no more a theory than is the law of gravity, to have to present 'alternative' religiously-oriented or inspired views would be contrary to his very understanding of the scientific method," responds a Florida professor who opposes the bill. "That would be comparable to Galileo being forced to recant his scientific observations that the earth revolved around the sun, and not the opposite as ordained by the Church."

British public relations consultant Liz Harrop, who specializes in "public awareness activity for human rights campaigning organisations and humanitarian projects," has written a report that analyzes the relationship between war propaganda and human rights, focusing on the U.S. and British governments in relation to the Iraqi rabbit hole. "States wage war in the name of peace and democracy," she writes. "Yet war propaganda can violate human rights and undermine the democratic principles it seeks to champion. Despite this it is rarely acknowledged, by the media, governments, or even anti-war campaigners, that war propaganda is illegal under international human rights law. ... As a point of optimism, although war propaganda diminishes human rights, so respect for human rights can diminish the effects of war propaganda. Accurate and timely human rights investigations can dispel the propaganda and rumours which fan the flames of conflict."

At a preview of Hyundai's new Sonata sedan last week the company's local boss, Bong Gou Lee, announced a special offer for Australian motoring journalists in attendance: "Half price for journalists, tonight only." Sydney Morning Herald reporter Tony Davis, who was not present, confirmed that "several journalists gave credit card numbers and specified models and colours on a deal that would have saved more than $A17,000 and delivered a new car at below cost." After Davis began making inquiries Lee withdrew the offer. Hyundai's spokesman, Richard Power, said the offer was a joke. One anonymous journalist told Davis "there's no way people joke about things like that and take names and colours ... I bought one. Plenty of people did." Hyundai now insist that journalists would only be eligible for the "conventional six-month long-term evaluation" loan of a car.

The British journalist George Monbiot warns the dangers of the upcoming G8 summit in Scotland are not that the public protests will be dangerous, "but that they will be far too polite. Let me be more precise. The danger is that we will follow the agenda set by Bono and Bob Geldof." While Monbiot acknowledges the pair are "genuinely committed to the cause of poverty reduction" and have raised money and awareness in support of it, Monbiot points to the singers' response to the G7 finance ministers' debt-relief package for the world's poorest countries. "Anyone with a grasp of development politics who had read and understood the ministers' statement could see that the conditions it contains - enforced liberalisation and privatisation - are as onerous as the debts it relieves. But Bob Geldof praised it as 'a victory for the millions of people in the campaigns around the world' and Bono pronounced it 'a little piece of history'. Like many of those who have been trying to highlight the harm done by such conditions - especially the African campaigners I know - I feel betrayed by these statements. Bono and Geldof have made our job more difficult," Monbiot writes.

SpinWatch's Eveline Lubbers recently read Karen S. Miller's 1999 book The Voice of Business, Hill & Knowlton and Postwar Public Relations. While Hill & Knowlton's work for the tobacco industry in the fifties has been covered by PR Watch and others, the PR firm's earlier work for the steel industry is not as widely known. Miller, who teaches PR and media history at the University of Georgia, documents that H&K "took part in preparation for testimony before a congressional committee investigating the industry’s record of suppression of labor’s civil rights in June 1936. This subcommittee of the Senate and Labor Committee, chaired by Robert La Follette, exposed four antiunion practices which had frustrated labor organization for decades: espionage, industrial munitions, strikebreaking, and private police," Lubbers writes. "The committee revealed that Hill and Knowlton sponsored antiunion messages appearing in the news media. George Sokolsky, a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune and periodicals such as the Atlantic Monthly received $28,599 from H&K from June 1936 to February 1938, chiefly for consultation to the American Iron and Steel Institute. When writing against the steelworkers union, the articles failed to mention his connection to H&K or the Institute."

" The PR exploitation of drought and hunger in Zambia shows that for the [genetically modified (GM) food] lobby there are no limits, even when it involves rewriting history and manufacturing crimes against humanity," GM Watch's Jonathan Matthews writes. In 2002, Zambia sparked a firestorm when it refused to accept U.S. donations of GM corn to offset a looming famine. The Zambia government had concerns about the safety of GM foods. Industry-friendly experts, the U.S. State Department and U.S. trade officials began savaging the Zambian government and the environmental movement. For example, the Hudson Institute's Alex Avery attacked Dr. Charles Benbrook, a former Executive Director of the Board on Agriculture for the US National Academy of Sciences, for having the "blood of the starvation victims" on his hands. "Benbrook's crime had been to tell the Zambian scientists during their fact-finding mission that there was no shortage of non-GM foods which could be offered to Zambia and that, 'To a large extent, this ‘crisis' has been manufactured ... by those looking for a new source of traction in the evolving global debate over agricultural biotechnology,'" Matthews writes.

Liu Xu, a staffer with Burson-Marsteller in China, told a reporter that in mid-April he only managed a few hours sleep a night while he helped Colgate reassure Chinese government agencies on the safety of using the suspected human carcinogen triclosan in toothpaste. Reporting for ''China Business Daily'' on the growth of the PR industry in China, Liu Jie noted that Colgate were not alone in calling on international PR firms for their crisis management skills. "Similar cases have involved Lipton, of Unilever; SKII, of P&G; and Nestle. Their contracted PR companies, such as Profuture, Hill & Knowlton and Ketchum Newscan, have played major roles in combating the crises," Liu Jie notes. In March this year a delegation from the Public Relations Society of America met with China International Public Relations Association and offered suggestions to help China's emerging PR industry "in terms of legislation, self-discipline and talent training."

"Don't you love local TV news stories about critical topics like Supernanny, The Apprentice or Survivor?" Cause Communications' Jason Salzman asks in his Rocky Mountain News column. Salzman lists several examples of stories produced by Denver's local TV news programs and finds that most of the stories focused on entertainment programming run by the stations' respective networks. "I think what's more obvious is that journalists at local outlets should give their news judgment an extreme makeover and drop most entertainment news tie- ins," Salzman writes. "[I]f the local TV outlets insist on broadcasting 'news' about entertainment programming, they should inform viewers when they have a financial interest in the success of the show mentioned. Without proper disclosure, these local stories should be seen by viewers as advertisements embedded in the newscasts. I can't decide whether to call them 'advernewsments' or 'newsvertisements.'"

"Eight out of 10 viewers would not be turned off if news programs always disclosed the source of third-party video--i.e., video news releases," Broadcasting and Cable writes about a recent poll by VNR distributor D S Simon Productions. Out of a phone poll of 1000 respondents, 42 percent say they would be even more likely to watch a program that disclosed video sources. "If news directors or TV producers fear using or disclosing third-party video to viewers, the survey indicates that disclosing the source of footage could actually boost ratings, not threaten them," said Doug Simon, who supports labeling on a voluntary basis. VNR producers and distributors are currently trying to head off new regulations that may require mandatory labeling of their products. Join the Center for Media and Democracy and Free Press in our campaign to expose VNRs and other kinds of fake news. Visit our "No Fake News!" web page for more information.

"A new draft communique on climate change for next month's Group of Eight summit has removed plans to fund research" on clean energy technologies. Other edits "put into question top scientists' warnings that global warming is already under way," by removing references to current weather changes and marking such phrases as "our world is warming" for possible deletion. The new draft also "explicitly endorses the use of 'zero-carbon' nuclear power." In contrast, the May 3rd draft of the document endorsed "ambitious targets and timetables" for reducing carbon emissions from buildings. The editing (reminiscent of former White House staff Philip Cooney's work) bodes ill for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has "pledged to put the fight against climate change at the heart of Britain's year-long presidency of the G8." The Washington Post and the Observer (UK) have also reported on U.S. pressure to weaken the G-8 climate plan.

One candidate in Iran's presidential election, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, "has done more than the others to market his particular presidential brand," writes Tehran-based design consultant Tori Egherman. The Rafsanjani campaign, in a move "particularly unconventional for post-revolutionary Iran," has employed as guerrilla marketers "Iran's hip youth." The young, unpaid campaigners "wrap themselves in Hashemi stickers, tape his poster on their backs, celebrate soccer success in his name." Even referring to the candidate as "Hashemi" breaks convention, writes Egherman. "In a country where wives often call their husbands by formal names like Engineer (Mondandes) or Mister (Agha) and young girls are often called Young Ma'am (Dokhtar Khanum), the use of a name other than the surname is more than familiar: it is intimate." Another candidate, Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, is reaching out to young voters with "casual and stylish clothes, chic glasses and sponsors such as Efes Zero Alcohol beer."

The Federal Communications Commission added a web page outlining the restrictions against pay-for-broadcast arrangements and explaining how individuals can report suspected payola. The move happened as "the agency comes under growing pressure to investigate stealth product promotions on television and radio shows," notes the Los Angeles Times. FCC Commissioner Adelstein compared the effort to a Neighborhood Watch program and said, "The American people have a right to know who is promoting a product, policy or message to them." FCC Chair Martin pointed out that complaints are necessary to launch an investigation. Although the last FCC enforcement on payola was five years ago, recent news reports have exposed pundits receiving funds from the Bush administration and consumer "experts" promoting the products of companies that have paid them.

As PR Watch previously reported, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Broadcast Media and Technology Center seems to be pushing the controversial Central American trade agreement CAFTA in its audio and video news releases. BMTC "has churned out three dozen radio and television news segments since the first of the year" that "promote" CAFTA, writes the Chicago Tribune. In one radio segment, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says that voting against CAFTA is "voting against our producers." Senators Akaka and Landrieu sent a letter to Johanns expressing concern that "many listeners in rural America may believe these releases are objective news reports, rather than political statements ... intended to advance a specific trade agenda." A USDA spokesperson defended BMTC's work, saying, "They are reports about what the secretary of agriculture has said."

"In 1938, Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of 'The War of the Worlds' caused thousands of people to panic, believing they were listening to a genuine newscast of a Martian invasion of New Jersey," writes Katie Sweeney for Public Relations Tactics, the trade publication of the Public Relations Society of America. "Later, many expressed outrage, with some even calling for the government to regulate broadcasters to prevent such confusion from happening again." Something similar is happening, she argues, with regard to public outrage over video news releases (VNRs) and satellite media tours (SMTs), two PR techniques that plant fake news on television. Due to public protests (including our own No Fake News campaign), "stations may be soon forced to label all VNR material that comes from the federal government."

ExxonMobil has confirmed that it has hired Philip A. Cooney, the former chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality who resigned last week after it was revealed that his editing of government scientists reports downplayed the significance of climate change. An Exxon Mobil spokesman declined to provide details of Cooney's new job, which he starts in autumn. Deputy spokeswoman for the White House, Dana Perino, told the New York Times "Phil Cooney did a great job and we appreciate his public service and the work that he did, and we wish him well in the private sector."

"The U.S. Special Operations Command has hired three firms to produce newspaper stories, television broadcasts and Web sites to spread American propaganda overseas." The contract may run $100 million over the next five years. The work was likely outsourced because there are "only one active-duty and two reserve psyops units remaining" in the U.S. military. The lucky firms are Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), SYColeman and Lincoln Group. SAIC previously ran the Iraqi Media Network, but "was criticized for problems and exorbitant costs." SYColeman "created the Army's Web site honoring the only Medal of Honor winner so far from the Iraq war." Lincoln Group, formerly known as Iraqex, has done PR work for the Multi-National Corps-Iraq. The firms will produce "print articles, video and audio broadcasts, Internet sites and novelty items, like T-shirts and bumper stickers, for foreign audiences. Video products will include newscasts, hour-long TV shows and commercials."

Philip A. Cooney, a former American Petroleum Institute lobbyist turned chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, has resigned two days after Rick S. Piltz, a former senior associate in the Climate Change Science Program, blew the whistle on the editing of scientific reports on climate change. White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told Reuters that Cooney's resignation was unrelated to the the New York Times report on Piltz's damaging revelations. Cooney, she claimed, had "long been considering his options following four years of service in the administration ... He had accumulated four weeks of leave and decided to resign and take the summer off to spend time with his family." A Minneapolis Star-Tribune editorial noted that while much of the coverage had focused on Cooeny's editing efforts "less attention has settled on his collaboration with Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in making these revisions."

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's MediaWatch program has revealed that Estradot, an estrogen patch for women made by drug industry giant Novartis, has been promoted in Australia by a fake news package including a press release, a video news release (VNR) and an audio news release (ANR). The VNR was used without attribution by Channel 7 News. MediaWatch presenter, Liz Jackson, reported that "on radio it was everywhere, over and over again, using only the medical experts the PR company provided." Potential side effects, Jackson reported, were "almost completely ignored by the media, except when one of the company's experts raised it herself to dismiss lingering concerns." MediaWatch did not disclose which PR firm produced and/or distributed the fake news package.

Last week, President Bush said, "Federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted." But independent analyses contradict those numbers. The Washington Post reports that their analysis of Justice Department records showed that "39 people - not 200, as officials have implied - were convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security." The Post found "no demonstrated connection to terrorism or terrorist groups for 180" of those charged in conjunction with post-9/11 terror investigations. "A large number of people appear to have been swept into U.S. counterterrorism investigations by chance ... and have remained classified as terrorism defendants years after being cleared of connections to extremist groups," wrote the Post. The paper's findings are similar to earlier New York University and Syracuse University studies.

"BP's reputation as one of the world's most environmentally progressive energy companies is on the line," writes the Independent. That's because BP refused to support mandatory carbon dioxide emissions limits in the energy bill, as proposed by U.S. Senator Bingaman. The energy bill will be debated by the Senate this week. BP is also "unlikely" to support Senators McCain's and Lieberman's proposal to mandate greenhouse gas reductions. "Instead, BP said it supported a third alternative from Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, which requires companies only to try to cut emissions with the promise of tax breaks." The company called the Hagel proposal "achievable," claiming the other plans "would not achieve the ultimate goal of reducing global warming." In response, Clean Air Watch called BP guilty of "greenwashing on epic proportions."

"I didn't realize how powerful the drug companies thought they were," said health policy professor Lisa Bero, regarding Merck's campaign to silence a prominent physician critical of their painkiller Vioxx. According to documents obtained by NPR, Merck first approached Stanford University's Dr. Gurkirpal Singh in 1998. The drug company paid Singh up to $2,500 for each talk he gave to other physicians about Vioxx. But when Singh became concerned about a 2000 study suggesting Vioxx increased the risk of heart attacks, the relationship turned sour. Merck tracked Singh's public comments on Vioxx, eventually contacting his bosses at Stanford and hinting "there would be repercussions ... if Singh's statements didn't stop." Merck provides significant research funding to Stanford, a common arrangement between drug companies and universities.

GlaxoSmithKline is undertaking yet another effort to improve its reputation - "an extensive state-by-state media blitz." Michael Pucci, GSK's vice-president of "external advocacy," told PR Week that local reporters were easier for the drug company to deal with. "These folks are hungry for news," he said. "They'll print everything we say ... without the political spin." GSK hired two PR firms for the campaign, but is not naming them. The media work "parallels grassroots outreach" that GSK began last year, sending "sales representatives to deliver its message in front of the religious, fraternal, and other community groups to which they belong." GSK also launched the plaintalkaboutmeds.com website with WebMD, "to address issues ranging from the cost of developing drugs to patient assistance programs."

A former Fleishman-Hillard executive, Steven Sugerman, will plead guilty to participating in a plan to overbill the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Sugerman, who now runs the Sugerman Communications Group, has also agreed to testify against his former F-H boss, Douglas R. Dowie, who has entered a not guilty plea. Dowie is also suing F-H for wrongful dismissal. In April 2005 F-H acknowledged overbilling the city of Los Angeles and agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle its lawsuit.

"The new drug safety board established by the Food and Drug Administration to restore confidence in the nation's drug supply will actually set back efforts to improve the safety of the medications Americans take and will not make it any easier to take dangerous drugs off the market," the Washington Post reports. FDA safety officer David Graham criticized the Drug Safety Oversight Board (DSB) for being "severely biased in favor of industry." He told the Post, "Ironically, drug safety in the U.S. is worse off today than it was in November." Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to the FDA critical of the agency's decision that the DSB will have private deliberations, requesting improved transparency and accountability and for the FDA to "explain in detail how it will ensure that the DSB is truly independent and objective."

In a lengthy memo Rick S. Piltz, a former senior associate in the Climate Change Science Program, revealed that U.S. government climate research reports had been edited by a White House official, Philip A. Cooney, to emphasize doubts about climate change. According to Piltz's memo Cooney, a former "climate team leader" and lobbyist with the American Petroleum Institute, changed one 2002 document to "create an enhanced sense of scientific uncertainty about climate change and its implications." In March this year Piltz resigned and subsequently contacted the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization. A white House spokeswoman, Michele St. Martin, told the New York Times that Cooney would not be available to speak to reporters. "He's not a cleared spokesman," she said. Myron Ebell from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a corporate-funded think tank, defended the editing as necessary for "consistency."

Department of Justice lawyers prosecuting major tobacco companies on racketeering charges have sought only $10 billion for a five-year smoking cessation program. In earlier expert testimony the campaign had been costed at $130 billion over 25 years. The Los Angeles Times reports that a source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision to seek a cut-price penalty was "forced on the tobacco team by higher-level, politically appointed officials of the Justice Department," including Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum. Before working for the DOJ McCallum was a partner in the law firm Alston & Bird, which had worked for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. Democrats Henry Waxman and Martin Meehan have written to the DOJ Inspector, General Glenn A. Fine, seeking an investigation into the allegations. The DOJ's "approach to tobacco litigation should be based on the facts of the case and not political favors to the tobacco industry," they wrote.

In a joint meeting in Washington, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair brushed off a recently revealed British memo from July 2002 that said "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" to remove Saddam Hussein "through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and W.M.D." or weapons of mass destruction. "There's nothing farther from the truth," Bush said in his first public comments about the so-called Downing Street memo the New York Times reports. While Bush and Blair continue to insist that at the time they had every reason to believe intelligence indicating Hussein had stockpiles of deadly weapons, there is much evidence showing that others in the intelligence community and government were not convinced and issued warnings against some sources of the WMD intelligence. The Washington Post's Walter Pincus reports, "a close reading of the recent 600-page report by the president's commission on intelligence, and the previous report by the Senate panel, shows that as war approached, many U.S. intelligence analysts were internally questioning almost every major piece of prewar intelligence about Hussein's alleged weapons programs."

The Army is looking for full-service marketing and PR agencies to submit proposals for an $800 million, five-year recruitment push. PR Week reports the contract would include "everything from advertising to promotional and publicity programs, internet campaigns, event marketing, and media relations." Leo Burnett Worldwide has overseen earlier the Army recruitment efforts. in May, the Army's recruiting commander Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle said the the advertising campaign would be geared to potential recruits, as well as to influencers. Meanwhile, the Army faces a recruiting crisis, falling short of it's goals. Conservative columnist Robert Novak noted, "[T]he focus at the Defense Department has been on the excesses of desperate recruiters, 37 of whom reflected their frustration in trying to meet quotas by going AWOL over the last 2-1/2 years."

The final courtroom hearing in U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) long-running racketeering case against major tobacco companies - including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco - is scheduled for this Thursday. "Despite the industry's dismal reputation, it is eager to avoid the stigma of a racketeering verdict — which would be the first such judicial finding against a major industry," the Los Angeles Times reports. When Bill Clinton gave the go-ahead for the DOJ case in 1999 BSMG WorldWide was hired by Philip Morris to hose down potentially adverse reporting. Across the Atlantic, the Independent reports that four top German public health experts were "funded for years by the German Association of Cigarette Manufacturers, mainly via innocuous-sounding medical foundations in an attempt by the industry to play down the dangers of smoking."

The drug company Merck is launching a $20 million, 6-month advertising campaign with the slogan "Merck. Where patients come first." The campaign, which was created by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, will include television ads showing "cute children reacting in charming confusion to requests to define 'measles,' 'mumps' and 'chicken pox.' 'Most kids today don't have a clue about diseases adults remember, thanks to Merck's scientists,' a female announcer says." Other ads will tout Merck programs offering reduced-price or free drugs to some people. Ogilvy & Mather's Michael Guarini said it's "simply not the case" that Merck's campaign is a response to the Vioxx scandal. In fact, work on the campaign began two years ago. While acknowledging Merck's and other drug companies' image problems, Guarini said, "it's always good to engage in dialogue, to make sure the public has true, balanced accurate information."

On a recent episode, a character on NBC's "Law & Order" who was investigating the murder of a federal judge said, "Maybe we should put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." In response, the Free Enterprise Fund (which "advocates limited government and 'pro-growth' economic policies") worked with their PR firm, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, to challenge the "witch-hunt to discredit Tom DeLay and the agenda he represents," in the words of FEF vice-president Lawrence Hunter. They had 450 T-shirts made, with DeLay's picture on the front and the words "Who's afraid of ['Law & Order' executive producer] Dick Wolf?" on the back. Shirley & Banister then organized a June 2 rally of T-shirt-clad DeLay supporters on Washington DC's Capitol Hill and promoted it to the media. Fox News, CNN and Roll Call covered the rally.

A study used to determine "safe" levels of the rocket-fuel chemical perchlorate in drinking water is coming under increasing scrutiny. Perchlorate "can impair thyroid function and result in neurological impairment of fetuses and babies, metabolic disorders and other problems." The study - funded with $310,250 from perchlorate manufacturers and users Lockheed Martin, Kerr-McGee, Aerojet and Boeing, and submitted on behalf of the