Media Matters caught Sean Hannity on Tuesday blaming the "anti-war left" for protesting at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq. In reality, the protesters were members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in Topeka, Kansas, which claims that terrorism and other disasters are divine retribution against America for the "sin" of tolerating homosexuality. WBC members, who held signs saying "God blew up the troops" and "Thank God for dead soldiers," also have a website called GodHatesAmerica.com, where the rhetoric of America's religious right sounds ominously like the rhetoric of Al Qaeda: "The American army is a fag army! ... WBC rejoices every time the Lord God in His vengeance kills or maims an American soldier with an Improvised Explosive Device."

Multiple opinion polls show that President Bush's approval rating has reached its lowest point ever. Gallup pegs him at 40% approval and 56% disapproval. Gallup's analysis finds other bad news for the White House. "Some observers had argued that Bush's approval rating cannot go too much lower as long as Republicans remain robust in their support," says Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport. "Well, we are seeing some signs of slight erosion in the support for the president even among his base in the Republicans." Gallup also compared Bush's current standings against the ratings for the six other U.S. presidents who have served two terms since World War II. "Only one of the six presidents in the late summer of the year after they were relected was lower than Bush's current 40% rating, and that was Richard Nixon. ... Of course, at that point he was beset by the woes of Watergate." In addition to rising oil prices and dissatisfaction with Bush's domestic policies, the war on Iraq is taking its toll, as nearly two-thirds of Americans now feel the war has made them less safe from terrorism.

"Two weeks after The Washington Post pulled its co-sponsorship of a controversial Pentagon-organized march to commemorate Sept. 11, The Washington Times has offered to take its place," reports Editor & Publisher. The Washington Times' offer of free advertising is "a very reasonable thing to do in terms of public service," said general manager and vice-president Dick Amberg. Defense Department officials "have not responded to the offer, and it is unclear if it will be accepted." In explaining its decision to pull out of the America Supports You "Freedom Walk," which includes a concert by Clint Black, the country musician who wrote the pro-war song "Iraq and I Roll," The Washington Post said its policy is to "avoid activities that might lead readers to question the objectivity of The Post's news coverage."

"UK ministers have been accused of spending British aid money on a public relations campaign to promote water privatisation in Sierra Leone," reports BBC News. Vicky Cann, of the organization World Development Movement, criticized the British Department for International Development (DfID), saying, "In the poorest country of the world, which is still recovering from a decade long bitter civil war, DfID is not only going to pay international consultants to advise on how to privatise water ... but they will also pay for a propaganda campaign to run alongside it to counter public resistance." The eight firms under consideration for the contract include Adam Smith International, "a consultancy arm of the free-market thinktank," and PricewaterhouseCoopers, reports the Guardian. In May, a similar water privatization scheme in Tanzania that DfID paid Adam Smith International £273,000 to promote collapsed "after the contractor, Biwater, was asked to leave by the government."

Tired of being picked on by religious media watchdog groups, big media is fighting back with its own advocacy group. NBC Universal, Viacom and News Corp. have launched the group TV Watch to "advocate parental controls and oppose government intervention" into TV programming, the Dallas Morning News reports. TV Watch, "an unusual mix of corporations, creative types and conservative, free-market proponents," will go head-to-head with Brent Bozell's conservative Parents Television Council. Several media companies, Americans for Tax Reform and the Creative Coalition have provided seed money for TV Watch, whose executive director, Jim Dyke, is a former communications director for the Republican National Committee.

"Soda industry touts school ban to quiet obesity critics," reads the PR Week headline on a story outlining the soft-drink industry's latest defensive move in response to national concerns about childhood obesity. PR giant Porter Novelli is working with the American Beverage Association to promote the trade group's recently announced school vending policy. The voluntary code recommends some limits on the sale of sugary carbonated beverages in schools, but still allows for sales of juices and sports drinks. According to PR Week, Porter Novelli "will assist [ABA] in talking about the new policy with educators, parents, legislators, regulators, and other groups interested in school nutrition issues." The group has already run full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today publicizing its new policy. Porter Novelli also worked on developing the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid.

"Republican lobbyists including Ed Gillespie, the party's former national chairman, and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, are seeking to raise money for a public relations-campaign of as much as $3 million" to support President Bush's immigration plan. The firm Quinn Gillespie Associates "is working with the White House" to build a coalition of business and Congressional leaders, called "Americans for Border and Economic Security." The coalition will use "earned and paid media as well as grassroots communications" to emphasize the economic benefits of immigrant workers, reported PR Week. But "some of America's biggest companies" aren't supporting the campaign, because the details of Bush's plan are unknown. A Wal-Mart lobbyist said, "We are still uncertain what the policy is that the group will advocate for. Will it be only whatever the White House wants, or will it be independent policy goals formed by the members of the group?"

At "the first presidential conference on the environment in 40 years," opening on August 29 in St. Louis, Bush administration officials will promote "cooperative conservation." Jim Connaughton of the White House Council on Environmental Quality says "cooperative conservation" supports local, private conservation while reducing "some of the expansive machinery of government that can sometimes get in the way." Examples include a partnership between the Nature Conservancy and the Pentagon. Nature Conservancy president Steven McCormick calls it "a tremendous opportunity," since "there are more endangered species on military facilities than on any other federal lands." This year, for the first time ever, Congress appropriated $12.5 million for similar environmental-military partnerships. Environmental Defense lawyer Michael Bean warns the initiative will "de-emphasize the regulations." The Natural Resources Defense Council's Wesley Warren dismisses "cooperative conservation" as "just another name for voluntary partnership. ... It's not enough."

The scandal around indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and PR executive Michael Scanlon now includes former Deputy Interior Secretary-turned-consultant J. Steven Griles and his friend Italia Federici, who heads the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. Emails from late 2002 show Abramoff and Federici urged Griles to block a proposed casino that would compete with Abramoff's client's casino. Abramoff wrote Federici, "This is the casino we discussed with Steve and he said that it would not happen. ... The way to stop it is for Interior to say they are not satisfied with the environmental impact report." Months later, the project was stalled for just that reason. In 2003, Abramoff reportedly said "he was trying to arrange for his firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP, to hire" Griles. A federal task force is investigating potential violations, including that Griles might have been negotiating "for a job while being involved in decisions affecting the potential employer."

In a two-part series on Australian corporate PR, an investment banker explained that investor relations campaigns are carefully planned. "At morning conference calls, there's always a lot of talk on which journalist is a softer touch and who will be more favourably disposed and who has particular relationships with the other side," an investment banker said. The spokesman for one large corporation explained that they used external PR consultants for "media management of senior commentators. These guys talk to commentators about 10 projects a night and it is not necessarily evident who they are working for ... The use of an independent third party allows you to manage that relationship better or get a discussion going to ease the tension. The consultants say it in their own language and it doesn't sound like spin from the company," he told Jennifer Hewett for the second article.

An application by a New Zealand government-owned coal mining company, Solid Energy, for $NZ379,342 in witness costs and legal expenses against two environmental groups has been dismissed. Forest and Bird and the Buller Conservation Group (BCG) had argued before the Environment Court against approval for a new open-cut coal mine. While the Court approved the project, it dismissed the company's costs claim. Forest and Bird's Regional Conservation Officer, Eugenie Sage, said the company "was trying to punish Forest and Bird and BCG for daring to oppose the mine. This was clearly a strategic law suit against public participation SLAPP." Meanwhile, the conservative opposition National Party has promised to restart the logging of rainforests on public land if it wins office in the mid-September general election. A contributing factor to the National Party losing office in 1999 were revelations of a covert PR campaign by Shandwick for the government owned logging company, Timberlands.

Kenneth Clarke, a British Conservative Party leadership aspirant, is resisting calls to resign as non-executive deputy chairman of British American Tobacco (BAT) and chair of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee. Clarke's supporters have suggested he would resign the roles only if elected leader. The Observer reports that a BAT document from 2000 states "the process [of CSR] will not only help BAT achieve a position of recognised responsibility, but also provide 'air cover' from criticism while improvements are being made." Writing in the Guardian, George Monbiot argues that while not suggesting that Clarke had done anything illegal or in breach of the criminal code, he shouldn't be able to duck responsibility for BAT activities. "It seems to me that in a fair world - a world in which human life was valued by our legislators - he would not now be contemplating the leadership of Her Majesty's opposition. He would be behind bars," Monbiot wrote.

"Diebold Election Systems (DES) has hired Ogilvy PR to burnish the company's image and the benefits of electronic voting in California," reports PR Week. The state decertified one of DES' e-voting machines last year, and now the company wants to ensure that their "story is told" and that voters "understand the technology," said Ogilvy's Michael Law, who heads DES' California work. Ogilvy is researching public perceptions of DES and developing messages "about the ease of electronic voting, particularly for voters who do not speak English, as well as for handicapped voters." O'Dwyer's reports that DES' California PR is part of a national campaign headed by former Democratic National Committee chair Joe Andrew. Andrew has been praised for his "grassroots organizing" and "golden rolodex" of CEOs and labor leaders. Other PR firms DES has employed include Public Strategies and Compliance Research Group.

In a review of the role of PR firms in corporate social responsibility programs, Lisa Roner writes that "many early efforts to communicate on corporate responsibility have been high on production value and low on substance." Citing examples such as Hill & Knowlton's role in the first Gulf War and the more recent overbilling controversy that engulfed Fleishman-Hillard over its contracts with a Los Angeles government agency, Roner argues that PR companies have image problems of their own. "It appears PR firms may have to clean up their own ethics, since many corporate buyers seem to believe that a messenger with internal issues of its own may not be best placed to deliver a credible message," she concludes.

During his speech in Salt Lake City on Mondy, President Bush for the first time mentioned the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq—a change in script that follows "months of painstakingly avoiding specific mention of the extent of American casualties in the war," notes Dan Froomkin. According to advisors, his gesture "was aimed in part at deflecting criticism that he is not sensitive to the sacrifices imposed by his policies."

Last month we noted that one of the obstacles facing U.S. military recruiters is "parents who are reluctant to see their kids enlist." Now the army is responding with an advertising campaign targeting parents directly with the slogan, "help them find their strength." Seth Stevenson analyzes the ads and their new slogan, in which "The Army has at last been repositioned as a finishing school. You've done the best you can, Mom and Dad, but it's time to let the service raise him right." Of course, the ads completely sidestep the possibility that their kids will get killed. "Most other ads paid for by the government have very different goals," Stevenson notes. "In PSAs about drugs, drunk driving, smoking, and teen sex, parents are unfailingly urged to shield their kids from danger. Here, they're being asked to throw their kids right in harm's way."

After months of trying, British climate researcher James Annan has finally found a couple of global warming skeptics willing to put their money where their mouths are. In November of last year, warming skeptic Richard Lindzen was quoted saying he'd be willing to bet that the earth's climate will be cooler in 20 years than it is today. When Annan contacted him, however, Lindzen would only agree to take the bet if Annan offered a 50-to-1 payout. Subsequent offers of a wager were also refused by Pat Michaels, Chip Knappenberger, Piers Corbyn, Myron Ebell, Zbigniew Jaworowski, Sherwood Idso and William Kininmonth. At long last, however, Annan has persuaded Russian solar physicists Galina Mashnich and Vladimir Bashkirtsev to take a $10,000 bet. "There isn't much money in climate science and I'm still looking for that gold watch at retirement," Annan says. "A pay-off would be a nice top-up to my pension."

A leading state-run newspaper in China has scrapped a controversial appraisal system in which reporters would get paid more if they pleased the Communist Party's central propaganda department. The plan prompted a rebellion by the paper's reporters, one of whom posted an open letter condemning it on the Internet. The rebellion also prompted the resignation of the paper's chief commentator, who felt "ashamed" after writing a fawning article praising Chinese President Hu Jintao. (This sort of plan might have better chances these days at Time magazine in the United States, whose war correspondent James Lacey has been begging the government to take steps that would "give the appearance of a state-controlled media.")

Thanks to Molly Ivins for mentioning our work in her recent column about "strategic lawsuits against public participation" (SLAPPs), in which corporations file harassment lawsuits to silence their critics. Ivins cites the experience of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, which "has already spent $10 million defending itself against a lawsuit filed by Isuzu Motors Ltd. because, eight years earlier, Consumer Reports rated the Isuzu Trooper 'not acceptable' for safety reasons. And the case has not yet reached trial. And that is the real menace of SLAPP suits. It's not that corporations win them, but that they cost critics so much money that the critics are silenced -- and so is everyone else who even thinks about raising some question about a corporate product or practice."

Following the revelation that British police gave out false information about the shooting of a terrorism suspect who turned out to be innocent, Simon Hattenstone urges greater skepticism about official police accounts. After the shooting of Brazilian student Jean Charles Menezes, police claimed that he had been wearing an unseasonably bulky, padded jacket that might be concealing a bomb, and that he ran from police and vaulted a ticket barrier at a subway station before being shot dead. But closed-circuit TV footage from the subway shows him "entering the station at a normal walking pace and even picking up a free copy of the Metro newspaper. He was wearing a denim jacket." Hattenstone lists a series of other incidents in which British police have given false information about suspects who died in their custody. "Few deaths at the hands of the police have been as clear-cut as that of Jean Charles de Menezes," Hattenstone writes. "None has been as high profile. But the subsequent police distortion is all too familiar."

Public relations "is coming of age" in India, writes Ramesh Narayan, the founder of an advertising agency in Mumbai. Its emergence has been accompanied by some shady practices, such as press confererences where reporters receive a "press kit which contained relevant material and a gift. ... Considerable time was spent in deciding what gift should be purchased. Journalists were tired of receiving pen sets and calculators. Textile companies would dole out suit lengths and saris. Others took the unimaginative route of handing out envelopes stuffed with money." And Narayan worries that an even worse trend is corrupting the news media: "operations where editorial space is officially sold to anyone who wants to buy it."

The Atrios blog caught a telling moment on "Hardball with Chris Matthews," during its recent interview with Melanie Morgan of Move America Forward, the right-wing outfit that recently sponsored a feel-good tour of Iraq. As Morgan squared off against Iraq war veteran Paul Rieckhoff of Operation Truth, Matthews admitted that some of his guests tell him different versions of the truth when the cameras are rolling than when the cameras are off: "What I keep doing here is asking people on and off camera who come on this program, high-ranking officers, enlisted, former officers. I get sometimes, not all the time, two different versions, the version they give me on the air and the version they give me the minute when we‘re off the air. The version they give me when we‘re on the air is gung-ho, we‘re doing the right thing, everything is moving along. The version they give me off the air is, Rumsfeld is crazy. There aren‘t enough troops over there. We‘re not taking this seriously enough, or, we shouldn‘t be there, sometimes."

"When Sears Portrait Studios wanted to lure new mothers, it didn't just order more ads of smiling babies or mail out big coupons," writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Instead, the company hired the Vandiver Group "to create a word-of-mouth marketing campaign in mid-2003." First, Vandiver identified "influentials" - people others look to for information or advice - who are mothers, using phone surveys. Survey questions included whether the moms engage in "influential" activities like writing letters to the editor or attending public meetings. Then panels of these "mom influentials" were asked "about proposed product changes, advertising and marketing strategies, other studios and what the company could do better. These conversations were designed to give insights into the company and spark the mothers to spread the word about Sears Portrait Studios. ... After the panels, the mothers received free portrait packages as a thank-you for their time."

Media Matters for America has news on the latest from Steven Milloy, the Cato Institute's self-proclaimed "debunker" of "junk science" and commentator for Fox News. They report that Milloy (who is not a scientist himself) recently self-published a deceptive "study" purporting to show that radiation levels at the U.S. Capitol Building were 65 times higher than the proposed standards for the federal government's planned high-level radioactive waste storage dump at Yucca Mountain. For our exposes on Milloy, see, for example, our article on "How Big Tobacco Created the Junkman" or our report on Milloy's unfounded claim that more asbestos at the World Trade Towers would have saved lives during the 9/11 terrorist attack. (And for a humorous take on the Milloys of the world, the Slashdot website recently featured a clever posting titled, "Can You Spot the Real Scientist?")

"Wal-Mart, America's largest retailer, prides itself on being a 'family-friendly' store, with smiley faces guiding stressed-out breadwinners to a land of low-cost, guilt-free consumption," writes Amy Schiller. But it has become "the self-appointed culture police by screening the music, books and magazines that many Americans will be able to access. ... Take, for example, Wal-Mart's refusal to sell Sheryl Crow's self-titled album in 1996, citing objections to a lyric that criticized Wal-Mart for selling handguns. ... The huge bestseller, America: the Book, featuring Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and the rest of the Daily Show crew, was banned from Wal-Mart in 2004." Wal-Mart also refused to carry Robert Greenwald's documentary, "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War." Even "something as potentially broadly appealing, positive, and utterly non-offensive as a T-shirt reading 'Someday a woman will be president' was pulled from the sales floor because 'the message goes against Wal-Mart family values.'"

"A survey released in July by the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Ball State University found that about 21 percent of journalists working in local TV were minorities, virtually unchanged from the year before. ... A study released in June by the John and James L. Knight Foundation found that 73 percent of the nation's 200 largest newspapers employ fewer minorities than they did at some year between 1990 and 2004," writes Eric Deggans. "Why does this matter? Because TV anchors and other journalists ... directly affect what gets on the air." Deggans points to what he calls "Endangered White Women Syndrome" - the glut of news coverage of missing white women, while people like Tamika Huston, a missing black South Carolina woman, are virtually "ignored by national media, despite a $30,000 reward and the efforts of an aunt who is a Miami-based public relations executive." (And another recent study found that "newsrooms with larger numbers of Asian American staffers did a better job of covering Asian American communities and issues.")

The Sacramento-based public relations firm run by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief fundraiser "is representing a local developer who, while working to block a bill at the Capitol, has agreed to help host a fundraising dinner on the governor's behalf." It's the fourth time that clients of fundraiser Marty Wilson's firm, Wilson-Miller Communications "have had bills or other business pending with the state." (The firm also works closely with Manning Selvage & Lee.) The developer, the Gidaro Group, "will contribute in the $25,000 range" for Schwarzenegger's ballot measures. State assemblywoman Lois Wolk, who introduced the bill Gidaro opposes, said, "The combination of lobbyists, public relations and political consultancy all under one roof is a growing phenomenon, and it raises a lot of ethical questions." It's also bipartisan; a lead fundraiser for former governor Gray Davis "built a multimillion-dollar lobbying business in Sacramento after Davis took office."

"The first salvo in a broader public-relations counterattack by beverage companies to help the industry reverse its tarnished image" is voluntary restrictions on drink sales in schools. The guidelines, which will be touted "in full-page ads in several national newspapers," suggest that new school contracts remove carbonated soft drinks from elementary schools and remove sugary drinks from middle schools during school hours. All beverages will continue to be sold in high schools. Susan Neely, "the creator of the 'Harry and Louise' ads that helped torpedo President Clinton's health-care plan in the early 1990s," now heads the industry group American Beverage Association. She's leading the "multimillion-dollar advertising and PR campaign to show that the beverage industry derives a substantial portion of its sales and growth from healthier beverages." Neely explained, "You have to have an industry voice."

The Washington Post "is withdrawing its offer of free advertising for an organized event by the Defense Department," after its sponsorship drew criticism from peace groups and the Newspaper Guild, which represents 1,400 Post employees. The Pentagon's America Supports You "Freedom Walk" will take place on September 11 and include a concert by Clint Black, a country musician who the Guild noted is best known for his "war-glorifying song 'Iraq and I Roll.'" Instead, the Post "will make a donation directly to the Pentagon Memorial Fund," for "a two-acre contemplation park in honor of the 184 people who died" at the Pentagon in 2001. Other media organizations, including WTOP Radio Network, ABC/WJLA-TV Channel 7 and News Channel 8, are continuing their Freedom Walk sponsorship. "If we were to find out that it was meant to be a political event, we couldn't support it," said Stan Melton of WJLA and News Channel 8.

The Australian forestry company Gunns has suffered another setback in its lawsuit seeking A$6.8 million in damages against 20 environmentalists and environmental groups. In the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bernard Bongiono directed the company pay most of the defendants costs incurred to date. In a refiled claim Gunns alleges that campaigning by the Gunns 20 constituted a "conspiracy" to damage its business. Former journalist turned Gunns "brand manager", Sarah Dent, declined to comment "because it's before the courts." One of the defendants, Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown, told ABC Radio's AM program that the third version of the writ included "a claim there that I and others were conspiring against Gunns at a meeting in Cygnet. In fact it was an evening's entertainment with Dolly Putin and the Kazakhstan Kowgirls. It was a cabaret that was on that night. There was absolutely nothing other than a fundraiser occurring."

"The story of Kenneth Tomlinson's efforts to impose his right-tilting version of 'balance' on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has incited national controversy. But while that tale is well-known, Tomlinson's malign influence on another respected media institution, the Voice of America (VOA), has received far less attention," Art Levine writes for The American Prospect. "What's happened at the VOA -- which the longtime Karl Rove ally Tomlinson oversees as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) -- has done considerable damage to the value and credibility of international broadcasting. According to interviews with current and former VOA staffers and e-mails obtained by The American Prospect, under Tomlinson's watch, VOA administrators have pressed the agency's journalists to report pro-White House spin and too often directed them to downplay hard-hitting news in favor of puffery."

"After the London bombings," reports Bob Chaundy, the British government "is looking at whether so-called 'preachers of hate' can be charged with treason. The last person to be executed for high treason, nearly 60 years ago, was the infamous Nazi propagandist Lord Haw-Haw." Chaundy profiles Lord Haw-Haw (real name William Joyce), whose program, "Germany Calling," was listened to by "an estimated third of the British nation during World War II. "Listeners would be treated to such absurd doses of Nazi propaganda that it became a huge joke and, therefore, compulsive listening."

Propaganda can be unintentionally funny, says Geoff Davis, who has put together a database of news stories from North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Launched in May, Davis's database boasts of having nearly every KCNA article since December 1996 -- "over 50 megabytes of hard-core Stalinist propaganda ... each article written in the unique and indelible style of the KCNA." The articles are laced with rhetoric calling the regime's enemies "imperialist ogres," "class enemies," "human scum" and "political dwarves." On the lighter side, a recent KCNA report celebrated a film festival featuring documentaries with titles such as "The Leader Is the Great Father of Our People," and "The Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il Gives On-site Guidance to the Work of Different Fields."

"It was intended as a picturesque public relations triumph," writes Carla Marinucci: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger backed by a blaring soundtrack of 'Takin' It to the Streets,' striding alongside an army of neon-clad street workers to tackle a 'critical' transportation problem—a San Jose pothole. But the photo op took more than a little doing, government documents show—a flurry of anxious e-mails from city officials, dozens of hours of planning on city time and considerable angst over details like location, location, location. ... Critics say the May 26 event, paid in part with money from a tax-exempt committee called the California Recovery Team, illustrates the increasingly blurred lines between Governor Schwarzenegger and Candidate Schwarzenegger." Marinucci quotes our own Sheldon Rampton, who points out that "the bottom line is transparency. There's an ethical problem any time people engage in politics ... without the public knowing who's funding the effort."

Media Matters for America, the liberal watchdog group, says conservative media are spreading "a lie" about Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who has become a vocal anti-war protester. Beginning with the Drudge Report and continuing with pundits including Michelle Malkin and Bill O'Reilly, the right-wing echo chamber has been claiming that Sheehan "dramatically changed her account" of a meeting she had with Bush in June 2004. In fact, their claim is based on selective omissions and quotations out of context from the original report about their meeting that appeared in Sheehan's hometown paper. Specifically, Drudge left out the parts from the original story in which the Sheehans criticized Bush and the war. "We don't think there has been a dramatic turnaround," states the hometown paper in its response to Drudge's charges. "Clearly, Cindy Sheehan's outrage was festering even then. ... In ensuing months, she has grown more focused, more determined, more aggressive. ... We invite readers to revisit the story - in context - on our Web site and decide for themselves."

Following the release of the industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's (PhRMA's) suggested drug advertising guidelines, Pfizer pledged not to "directly promote any new product" for six months and "to target only adult audiences" with Viagra TV ads. Pfizer also said it would create more "disease-awareness ads," which do not mention particular drugs. "By featuring educational rather than product messages," disease-awareness ads "may ease the concerns of regulators and consumers" while boosting prescriptions, wrote the Wall Street Journal. Marketing executive Stuart Klein said Pfizer's strategy is "improving the perception of direct-to-consumer advertising." PR Week reported that Vioxx manufacturer Merck is launching its first "corporate image campaign," using the PR firm Burson-Marsteller. The campaign will "promote the company's heritage" and highlight its "drug-assistance programs." Merck's Len Tacconi said the campaign is "not self-serving in any way." GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer and PhRMA have similar "image-enhancing initiatives."

"Vested interests are working harder than ever to achieve their goals in state capitols and state agencies across the country," reports the Center for Public Integrity. The organization's review of 2004 lobbying activities found that nearly $953 million was spent "attempting to influence state legislators and executive branch officials" in the 42 states that track such spending. Twenty-five states saw an increase in lobbying expenditures. State-level lobbying has grown to the point where there are now, on average, "five lobbyists and almost $130,000 in expenditures per state legislator." Several states did boost their oversight of lobbying last year, by strengthening registration and disclosure requirements, establishing a "cooling-off period" for former lawmakers planning to become lobbyists, or restricting lobbyists' gifts to public officials.

The Republican Party-associated PR firm Russo Marsh and Rogers (RM&R) has been busy in Iraq, promoting Move America Forward's recent "Truth Tour" of right-wing radio hosts there and preparing a campaign for the Kurdish Regional Government. RM&R principal Joe Wierzbicki told journalist Bill Berkowitz that his firm's Kurdish campaign "will thank the American people for supporting the war in Iraq, and encourage Americans to visit and invest in the Kurdish region." Wierzbicki said RM&R is "not advocating an independent Kurdistan," but "the Kurds would like the rest of the country to look at the Kurdish region and see it as a model" for Iraq. The Kurdish campaign will likely be a short-term effort, including television and print ads, that will start in late summer or early fall. "It's important to recognize that the Kurds are not hostile to the West," Wierzbicki added.

Despite securing up to $13 billion in federal subsidies in the recently passed energy bill, according to estimates by Public Citizen, the nuclear industry continues its PR offensive. The major industry group Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is "soliciting help from PR agencies to assist in removing all major legislative and regulatory impediments to a nuclear renaissance," reports PR Week. The major goal of the 14 month, $8 million campaign is "to bolster public support for the development of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain" in Nevada. The campaign will include outreach to "sympathetic groups, including selected members of the academic, public health, and environmental communities." Some eight PR firms, including Ogilvy, Burson-Marsteller and Dittus Communications, are interested in working on the campaign. NEI will select a firm by August 15.

Kent Bye's "Echo Chamber Project" is attempting a new type of citizen journalism: an "open source, investigative documentary about the how the television news media became an uncritical echo chamber to the Executive Branch leading up to the war in Iraq." By "open source," Bye means that he is sharing both the transcripts and footage from his documentary with anyone who wants to use it or remix it with other footage as they see fit. He is also trying to "develop more sophisticated techniques for citizen journalism," including new software tools that will enable other collaborative efforts. A preliminary video of the Echo Chamber Project is available on OurMedia.org, a non-profit initiative that provides free storage space and bandwidth to anyone with videos, audio files, text files, or software that they'd like to share with the world.

Three years from now, Beijing will host the Olympic games, giving the "Chinese superpower-in-the-making" an opportunity to "present a progressive, urbane and open face to a world increasingly nervous about its growing might," writes Catherine Armitage. However, the Beijing Olympics organizing committee (BOCOG) isn't taking phone calls from reporters, for fear that they might get a call from the outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong. "The problem with telephone interviews is that we can't identify the person on the line, which media he represents and whether he is a journalist or not," explained BOCOG spokesman Jiang Xiaoyu. "For example the Falun Gong cult is illegal in China but they have their own journalists." BOCOG is planning to hire a leading international PR firm to help manage media coverage of the Olympics. "Hill and Knowlton, Weber Shandwick and Burson-Marsteller are rumoured to be those in contention," Armitage writes.

We first wrote about the PR campaign to market sewage sludge as fertilizer in our 1995 book, Toxic Sludge is Good For Your. Now Florida Power and Light, the operator of a Florida nuclear plant, "appears to have shipped radioactive waste to ordinary landfills, municipal sewage treatment plants and some unknown locations in the 1970's and early 80's," reports the New York Times. "The contaminants were then hauled away with sludge. ... A state document quoted by the plaintiffs says that some contaminated material was transported to a 'cow pasture.' Another state document refers to daily sludge being 'removed by Portolet to unknown site.' The company has concealed the shipments from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to the lawsuits."

"On the issue of the Iraq War, the disconnect between the Washington, D.C. Democratic Party establishment and political reality in America is growing by the day," writes David Sirota. "Case in point is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's attitude towards the tremendous special election run by Paul Hackett in the staunchly Republican Cincinnati suburbs." Hackett, an Iraq war veteran who sharply criticized Bush's decision to go to war, came close to winning in a district where Republicans traditionally win huge majorities. "Ultimately, the anti-war position defined his candidacy, and was the clear reason he was able to do so well in such a Republican district," Sirota writes. "Incredibly, however, in a memo sent to all Democratic House Members about what Democrats should learn from the Hackett race, the DCCC makes not one mention of the Iraq War and its effect on the election. Not one. It is as if the party is going out of its way to deny the importance of Democrats taking a strong position against the war." Democrats will continue to lose elections, he argues, if they "basically ignore almost every serious issue, whether it be the war or economic issues. ... Not only is the D.C. Democratic Establishment removed from the concerns of ordinary Americans, it actually goes out of its way to deny the existence of the messages that actually make campaigns successful."

The Legal PR Bulletin has posted an article by Richard S. Levick of Levick Strategic Communications on how companies can defend themselves against online critics, titled "A Virtual Omnipresent Enemy." Levick warns: "It is only a matter of time before blogs become commonplace weapons allowing well-organized adversaries to both disseminate and preserve shrewder anti-corporate messages. One recent blog, for example, attacks a plan by FedEx to build a hub at the Piedmont Triad Airport in Guilford County, North Carolina. Guilford County is a sprawling community that cannot easily convene town meetings to debate development projects. The blog is a natural substitute. ... The FedEx experience is illustrative for a larger reason as well. NGOs have often been marginalized as radicals. But because blogs are pure stealth warfare, people who might never choose to ally themselves with activists are more susceptible to their messages." And "NGOs are but one possible adversary. Labor unions and plaintiffs’ counsel are others. ... Tactically, blogs pose far greater threats than any other kind of online attack."

Corporations have begun hiring bloggers to put out their messages and to promote products, writes Mary Jacobs. Examples: "Stonyfield Farm Inc., a dairy products maker in Londonderry, N.H., hired a corporate blogger to write company-hosted blogs on nutrition and health as well as organic farming. Microsoft Corp. plans to hire bloggers to generate excitement about an upcoming product release. Electronic Data Systems Corp. of Plano last week launched its "Next Big Thing" blog at www.eds.com/blogs to discuss the future of technology." And Hill & Knowlton, one of the world's largest PR firms, is encouraging its employees all to blog—after they pass a quiz. Question #1: "Why do you want to blog?" is multiple choice, with the following options for answers: a) Get promoted; b) Get noticed; c) Get fired; d) Get headhunted; e) All of the above; f) None of the above; g) I don't know.

The Washington Post has produced an impressive special report, "e-Qaeda," which shows how al Qaeda and allied groups are using the Internet to recruit more fighters, spread their message and train their followers to commit acts of terror. The site includes samples of terrorist manuals and screenshots of jihadist web sites. It includes an interview with Evan Kohlmann, an expert in jihadists' use of the web. Kohlmann says security analysts who study cyberterrorism have been "going at this all wrong. We've been talking about these guys taking out air traffic control towers or sabotaging computer systems that control sewer systems. That's not what they're doing. They're using this in order to win the propaganda war."

"Scores of the US's richest people have pledged $1 million or more towards a new attempt to reinvigorate the American left and counter the powerful Republican political machine," writes David Teather. "The money will be funnelled through an organisation called the Democracy Alliance which, according to a report in the Washington Post, will help fund a network of thinktanks and advocacy groups seeking to halt the shift to the cultural and political right." Democratic strategist Rob Stein, who organized the effort, thinks "there is a big imbalance in the amount of cash that goes into left and rightwing thinktanks. Over the past two years, he said, think tanks pushing the conservative agenda had received $295 million, while leftwing institutions were given just $75 million."

The chairman of ExxonMobil, Lee R. Raymond, has announced that he will retire at the end of the year. Kert Davies, research director at Greenpeace U.S.A. told the New York Times that "there is a spectrum of corporate behavior on global warming and Exxon is the epitome of denial and deception. Raymond is unrepentant on global warming and has boxed himself so far in that corner that there's no going back for him." Many conservative groups such as think tanks like the Pacific Research Institute and Frontiers of Freedom will be hoping for little policy change under Raymond's replacement, Rex W. Tillerson, who is currently the company's president. In 2004 ExxonMobil gave $6.4 million from its "public information and policy research" program to groups, many of which promote the views of climate change sceptics.

Mediaweek reports that new voluntary guidelines issued by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) on Direct-to-consumer advertising "contain few requirements that will add to marketers' ethical and legal burdens in creating drug ads." The guidelines, it reports "do little to go beyond a press release PhRMA issued on July 21, which merely 'encouraged' the industry to better target its audience". Nor do they contain any penalty or enforcement provisions. According to the Wall Street Journal, PhRMA's attempt to pre-empt a review of the ads by the Food and Drug Aministration seems doomed to fail. In June former Republican congressmen and now PhRMA president Billy Tauzin told Brandweek that he opposed prohibiting companies from some forms of promotion as "we're in a free speech area…to me that's a human rights abuse" if the rules were to prohibit companies from certain types of communications, he said.

This week George W. Bush spoke at annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council which serves as a meeting point for conservative legislators. Bush praised ALEC because of its "results-oriented nature". The role of government, Bush said, "is to create an environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish, in which dreamers can be -- realize big dreams". ALEC is funded by some conservative "dreamers" including the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and corporations such as ExxonMobil. In his speech Bush said he was working to promote "personal accounts" for Social Security as well as "safe, clean nuclear power" and the "wise" burning of coal "so that we can protect our environment."