"Local TV news operations hungry for free content have intersected with brand brokers looking for product placement opportunities," writes Advertising Age. The segments "typically come in the form of four-minute lifestyle segments that are dedicated to one brand and feature a brand's spokesperson chatting with the show's host and delivering the product's message to viewers. Third-party endorsements may also appear, as well as follow-up information about a product on a station's Web site. The marketer controls how its brand will be presented, who the spokesperson will be, signage, scripting and what the segments will look like." While many shows "still offer non-bought space," more TV producers are "adopting a pay-for-play model that could increase the time period's revenue for a station from between 50% and 100%. Stations -- especially those owned by Gannett in markets such as Atlanta, Denver, Cleveland, Phoenix, Sacramento and Minneapolis -- are now charging ... $2,500 a pop."

Image from a McDonald's video news release featuring Destiny's Child

On January 19, McDonald's Senior Director for Corporate Social Responsibility, Bob Langert, posted the first entry on the company blog "Open for Discussion." Langert wrote, "The purpose of this blog" is "to open our doors to corporate social responsibility (CSR) at McDonald's - to share what we're doing and learn what you think." His second post highlights McDonald's long-standing "partnership with Conservation International." Unlikely topics of future postings include the infamous McLibel trial; McDonald's lobbying against a California proposal to require large employers to provide health benefits; and McDonald's establishing the questionable "Socially Accountable Farm Employer" program instead of negotiating farmworker rights with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

The United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) barred the U.S.-based International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) from taking part in "WHO activities setting microbiological or chemical standards for food and water." The decision followed warnings from health, environmental and union groups, including the Environmental Working Group and Natural Resources Defense Council, that WHO risked "scientific credibility and may be compromising public health by partnering with ILSI." That's because 60 percent of ILSI's budget comes from "hundreds of chemical, food and drug companies." ILSI's corporate funders include Coca-Cola, DuPont, ExxonMobil, Merck, Monsanto, McDonald's and Pfizer. ILSI director Suzanne Harris countered, "We are not a back door for industry. ... We're not trying to sell anything."

The success of Hamas in the Palestinian elections is the latest election result to temper earlier claims by pundits that a spin-off benefit of the invasion of Iraq would be the flowering of Western-friendly Middle East democracies. Numerous columnists pondered on what they dubbed the "Arab spring." "So what happened to the Arab spring? This time last year, as we faced the prospect of a series of elections in the Middle East, many commentators hit their keyboards to welcome the Arab spring - about 160 of them, according to one news database," writes Paul McGeough in the Sydney Morning Herald. "But it seems that with the results in we don't like the term any more - only 23 mentions in the past six months. Funny that."

"The Internet may be new, but not the issue of whether an American corporation should do business with bad people," writes Richard Cohen. He argues that the claims of Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Yahoo and other tech companies that they are assisting the Chinese government's attempts to censor information online because they must "comply with local laws" ring false. "The law in China is what the Chinese leaders say it is," Cohen counters. The Washington Post reports that Google, in agreeing to block "objectionable" content from searches on its Chinese portal, has joined the list of shame. Chinese authorities have also shut down the China Youth Daily publication Freezing Point, after it "criticized the history textbooks used in Chinese middle schools." According to Reuters, the BBC's Farsi-language news website has been blocked by Iranian authorities.

The U.S. Army is looking for "guiding PR" for its biometrics operations in Virginia and West Virginia. "Biometrics encompasses technology like iris, face and hand scanning and voice recognition, along with traditional fingerprint identification, usually for security applications. The science has been implemented in the 'Global War on Terrorism' by the Pentagon, which is building a large database of known and suspected terrorists," explains O'Dwyer's. A dozen firms have applied for the Army biometrics account, including the Lincoln Group, Hill & Knowlton and Fleishman-Hillard. CRT/tanaka, Public Strategies Inc., APCO Worldwide and Strat@comm are also being considered. The account will last five years and be worth $5 to 10 million.

The PR firm Weber Shandwick's new multicultural practice, called the Axis Agency, just hired its first senior vice-president of African-American and urban marketing. Kevin Hooks, the new hire, used to handle the Procter & Gamble, Motorola and Bacardi accounts for UPP Entertainment & Marketing. He's also "planning an effort for Pfizer to launch in June," reports PR Week. Axis Agency president Armando Azarloza said, "There's a huge void out there today when it comes to knowing the African-American and urban markets." Axis also has a senior vice-president of Hispanic marketing, Anita Alban-Gastelum. PR Week also reports that the retail giant Target "is seeking an African-American agency of record. ... Target plans a Black History Month initiative in February, as well as a partnership with singer Mary J. Blige."

Newly released classified documents show that the Pentagon was aware that military propaganda targeting international audiences would be able to reach the American public. The 74-page "Information Operations Roadmap" explains that "information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa." The Smith-Mundt Act, however, prohibits the U.S. government from propagandizing Americans. But the Pentagon argued that "the distinction between foreign and domestic audiences becomes more a question of USG [U.S. government] intent rather than information dissemination practices." The Los Angeles Times reports that the "secret U.S. military program that pays Iraqi newspapers to publish articles favorable to the American mission appears to violate" the "Roadmap," which was signed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "It's clearly a violation based on the language used in the Rumsfeld document," a Pentagon official told the Times.

Steven Milloy holds forth about nuclear waste for Fox News.

"Over the past year, there have been several instances of political columnists shilling for the Bush administration," notes Paul Thacker, naming Armstrong Williams and Doug Bandow. "But the trend in paid-for-punditry seems to have spread to the world of science journalism as well." Thacker noted Michael Fumento's undisclosed grant from Monsanto, and Fox News columnist Steven Milloy's long-term, close relationships with corporations, including ExxonMobil and Philip Morris. As the Center for Media & Democracy has written, Steven Milloy is one of the "usual suspects" in fronting for corporate interests, writing columns questioning global warming, clear air regulations and the dangers of secondhand smoke. "But, whereas Scripps Howard fired Fumento and apologized to its readers, Fox News continues to look the other way as Milloy accepts corporate handouts," Thacker writes. Fox's Paul Schur told Thacker, "Fox News is unaware of Milloy's connection with Philip Morris." Steve Milloy began his PR front group career with The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition organizing stunts like their science writing award to the New York Times science reporter Gina Kolata.

As "part of an effort to jump-start the nuclear-power industry," the Bush administration is proposing "a $250 million initiative to reprocess spent nuclear fuel." The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership proposal would allow General Electric and other U.S. companies to sell developing countries "reactors and nuclear fuel on the condition that the U.S. would take back the spent fuel for reprocessing." An Argonne National Laboratory official said a new reprocessing method "would reduce the nation's eventual need for more nuclear-waste storage by 'a factor of more than 100.'" Waste storage is perhaps the nuclear industry's biggest political, environmental and safety problem. The Nuclear Energy Institute just hired Hill & Knowlton to promote Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a waste site. In Britain, where a "national debate" on nuclear power is taking place, officials "have dodged the decision of where to put [reactor waste] for 30 years," reports the Independent.

"In a controversial bid to revive the romance of a habit that's costly, potentially deadly and increasingly on the social fringes, R.J. Reynolds" is launching "a new premium-priced line of smokes" that's only available at "an upscale smoking lounge in a trendy Chicago neighborhood. The lounge has fresh tobacco and a tobacconist who will hand-roll a pack of cigarettes in any of nine flavors." The "exclusivity of the brand ... is creating a buzz," writes AdAge. "And, perhaps a new way of bringing a much-maligned product to market." The creative director at RJR's ad agency, Gyro Worldwide, said the campaign will "create romance." The idea came from company research suggesting "a sizeable group of adult smokers" wanted a "'super-tier' brand" of cigarettes. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' president warned, "The most effective marketing campaigns to kids are those that make cigarettes a part of looking like a successful, virulent young adult."

The PR firm NovoMedia "has launched a radio news release service that will focus on the African American market," reports PR Week. NovoMedia president David Henry "said in doing work for the Hispanic market, he recognized a need for the same types of services in the African American market." African Americans have $723 billion in buying power, and 90 percent of Black adults listen to the radio on a weekly basis, according to market research. Henry believes "most corporations are behind the ball in reaching out to" African Americans. He called radio the perfect way to target them, since "the African American market is going to be looking at a lot of the same television shows as everyone," while certain radio programs "have a predominantly African American audience and topics that are obviously germane to the audience." Fake radio news, or audio news releases, have not attracted the level of scrutiny that their TV cousins, video news releases, have.

A U.S. Agency for International Development program in the Palestinian territories put $2 million towards a series of "small, popular projects and events," such as computer donations, a soccer tournament, and free food and water at border crossings, prior to the January 25 elections. The program "bears no evidence of U.S. involvement," and a newspaper ad campaign (also funded by the U.S.) gives credit to the Palestinian Authority, "which the public closely identifies with Fatah." A program report said the goal was "a constant stream of announcements and public outreach about positive happenings ... in the critical week before the elections." U.S. officials are concerned that the governing Fatah party will lose parliamentary seats to Hamas. "We are not favoring any particular party," said USAID's regional mission director. "But we do not support parties that are on the terrorism list." A Hamas leader called for an investigation, while other Palestinian politicians criticized the program. "Let us do our elections entirely on our own," said Mustafa Barghouti. "This effort was completely counterproductive."

White House photo

"While rarely do politicians follow academic insights, evidently the Bush administration is heeding research pioneered at the RAND Corp. showing that results and success buoy public attitudes and staunch declining support," write author Richard Sobel and media professor David Nelson. "President Bush now speaks of victory more often. ... Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld criticizes the media for focusing on the negative, particularly casualties." However, they caution, "a public relations campaign" to "sell an unpopular war is unlikely to provide long-term staying power. A rule of thumb is that public perceptions of foreign policy initiatives respond about 80 percent to policy and 20 percent to presentation. And the Iraq policy and results appear not to be changing fundamentally enough to alter this equation."

In May 2003, then-deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz gave the go-ahead for a domestic intelligence gathering operation by the Defense Department, code-named TALON, under which "raw information" on "suspicious incidents" was given to U.S. Army analysts at the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA). One apparently "suspicious incident" consisted of street theatre, organized by peace activist Scott Parkin, outside the Houston headquarters of Halliburton. (In late 2005 Parkin was deported from Australia without explanation). A Pentagon memo, Michael Isikioff wrote, "shows that the deputy Defense secretary now acknowledges that some TALON reports may have contained information on U.S. citizens and groups that never should have been retained." A Pentagon official told Isikoff that the number of U.S. citizens spied on could be in the thousands.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's bid to pave the way for an expansion of the nuclear power industry through the 2006 Energy Review and its consultation document, Our Energy Challenge, has been hit by controversy over undisclosed corporate lobbying. The Scottish Sunday Herald reports that a cross-party parliamentary group on nuclear power "failed to declare the administrative support it receives from nuclear power firm British Energy." The group was also given presentations by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and the nuclear waste agency, Nirex. The cross-party group and its English counterpart, the Nuclear Energy APPG, also went on a trip, which was part-funded by the company, to a nuclear power station. NDA uses the PR firm Bell Pottinger Public Affairs, while Nirex is advised by Fleishman Hillard. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), which is responsible for decommissioning existing nuclear plants, has hired Grayling Political Strategy.

Doug Simon, the President and CEO of D S Simon Productions, a major producer of video news releases (VNRs), optimistically predicts that in 2006 "TV stations will more willingly disclose sources of outside video they use on air during news and other programs." Last year Simon said that "fewer than 10 percent" of his company's VNRs used by broadcasters had "some sort of identification" to viewers of their sponsors. Simon opposes mandatory disclosure of VNRs, preferring to leave the decision in the hands of broadcasters. He also predicts that in 2006 "the PR Industry will work together to improve the public’s view of our profession with minimal initial effect ... The key word above is 'initial.'"

A study published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, which concluded that taking painkillers could protect against oral cancer, has been exposed as being based entirely on fabricated data. "He faked everything: names, diagnosis, gender, weight, age, drug use. There is no real data whatsoever, just figures he made up himself. Every patient in this paper is a fake," Stein Vaaler, the director of strategy at the hospital, told the Guardian. There is no indication that the co-author of Dr. Jon Sudbo's October 2005 article knew the data was falsified. In recent years, leading medical journals have sought to ensure higher editorial standards, better disclosure of potential conflicts of interest and exclude ghostwritten articles. The Lancet's editor, Dr. Richard Horton, told the BBC that "the peer-review process is good at picking up poorly designed studies, but it is not designed to pick up fabricated research."

"Throughout the six-month trial that led to Richard Scrushy's acquittal in the $2.7 billion fraud at HealthSouth Corp., a small, influential newspaper consistently printed articles sympathetic to the ... fired CEO." The author of those stories, Audry Lewis, now says "she was secretly working on behalf of Scrushy, who she says paid her $11,000 through a public relations firm," The Lewis Group. Audry Lewis wrote the articles, "sent unedited copies" to Scrushy and the PR firm's Jesse Lewis, and Lewis placed the stories in The Birmingham Times, where his son is editor. Audry Lewis and Rev. Herman Henderson "now say Scrushy owes them $150,000 for the newspaper stories and other public relations work, including getting black pastors to attend the trial in a bid to sway the mostly black jury." The prosecutor, Alice Martin, said, "If you want to pay someone to write favorable stories and can get a paper to print them, I don't know of any law it violates."

Public relations "is an increasingly vital marketing tool," writes The Economist, "especially as traditional forms of advertising struggle to catch consumers' attention." Overall spending on PR in the United States is growing, reaching "some $3.7 billion last year, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a New York investment firm that specialises in media. It forecasts PR spending will grow by almost 9% a year. This is faster than the overall market for advertising and marketing, now worth a colossal $475 billion and growing at 6.7% a year." With media fragmentation increasing the need for content, "crisply written or well-produced PR material can more easily get an airing. ... Some branches of journalism have come to depend on a drip-feed of information and products from the PR industry."

Lincoln Group, the Pentagon contractor recently outed for planting stories in Iraqi newspapers, is boosting its own PR efforts. The firm hired Bill Dixon, "a veteran PR executive," as its new director of media relations. Dixon previously headed media relations for "the powerful DC-area investment ban Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group," and has also managed PR for Google and The Motley Fool. He's also worked on political campaigns, "in D.C., Wisconsin, Colorado, California and Virginia."

Alisa Harrison, who went from being the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's executive director of public relations to being the U.S. Department of Agriculture's press secretary and director of communications, is returning to the corporate world. She's joining the PR firm APCO Worldwide as a vice president, providing "strategic counsel in developing and implementing media and public affairs programs," according to the Holmes Report. Harrison was the USDA's PR point person on mad cow disease, when it was first discovered in the United States in 2003.

In a statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the New Orleans-based mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold confirmed that it has "received informal inquiries from governmental agencies" about revelations by the New York Times that the company paid almost $20 million to Indonesian military officers and units between 1998 and 2004. The military benefactors were stationed near the massive Freeport mine in Indonesia's Papua province. The late December Times report also detailed the environmental consequences of the company's dumping mine tailings into a nearby river system. In a letter to the editor, Freeport President and CEO Richard C. Adkerson defended the company's operations and stressed its commitment to corporate social responsibility. However, he did not comment on Freeport's work with Indonesian military intelligence officers to monitor the email and phone calls of environmental activists.

Hill & Knowlton (H&K) has won a $8 million account with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) to promote "broad policymaker and decision-maker support for nuclear energy broadly and specifically for the Yucca Mountain project." (Yucca Mountain in Nevada has been designated by the U.S. government as the national nuclear waste dump). The Holmes Report states that H&K "will work alongside WPP sister company Penn Schoen & Berland, which will handle research and polling for the NEI, which represents utilities and nuclear technology companies." The NEI contract will include developing "a national coalition that would 'activate and expand on' existing nuclear energy supporters, engaging employees, shareholders, academics, health experts, and environmental organizations; 'pre-empting and offsetting' criticism from opponents." Hill & Knowlton declined to comment on their NEI work. Unsucessful bidders for the account were Burson-Marsteller and Dittus Communications.

"The 'green' advertising wave is on, as companies from Ford to General Electric to BP blitz the airwaves with concern for a clean planet," the International Herald Tribune reports. "Advocacy groups and politicians are now challenging those corporate assertions." For example, in a recent ad Ford claims it is "dramatically ramping up its commitment" to more environmentally friendly cars. "Left unstated in Ford's recent ads: In 2003, the No. 2 U.S. automaker after General Motors, dropped its promise to increase average fuel efficiency on its sport utility fleet. In 2004, the company joined other automakers in suing to block a California law that would limit emissions of gases linked to global warming. And even if Ford meets its goals, low-emission hybrids by 2010 would make up less than 4 percent of the company's fleet," the IHT reports. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, called some of Ford's claims "questionable," telling the IHT, "They're definitely exploiting the fashion of environmentally friendly vehicles."

Washington, DC lobbyist Rick Berman must have a new client. Recently his front group, the Center for Consumer Freedom, launched a new website called FishScam.com along with a multimedia PR blitz including billboard and radio ads decrying the "hype" about health hazards of mercury in fish. "It's really extraordinary and extremely irresponsible," says Consumers Union director of food policy Jean Halloran. "Many people have educated themselves about this issue, but I'm concerned that less-educated women who don't realize he is industry-funded will take his advice."

"The Pentagon has been criticized for not winning the 'hearts-and-minds' war overseas, as a recent Defense Science Board report [pdf] contends. So, in my view, what the Pentagon did in reaction to these criticisms was to 'outsource' the handling of public opinion in Iraq to private firms, to show Congress and other critics that the military was 'doing something' about the 'foreign opinion problem.' The result: a PR disaster, both domestically and internationally, which has backfired against the U.S. and its armed forces," former State Department employee John H. Brown told Press Action, responding to a question on the effectiveness and legitimacy of Pentagon contracts with the Lincoln Group and the Rendon Group. "I think what the American public is increasingly discovering is that the current administration sees foreign policy as just one more way to mold American domestic opinion."

Testimony in Rhode Island's case against four companies that produced and sold lead-based paint - Atlantic Richfield, Millennium Holdings, NL Industries and Sherwin Williams - detailed how they "continued to use children in advertisements ... years after medical literature and industry documents made clear that lead was a threat to children's health." Columbia University science and public health professor David Rosner said the companies "engaged in a wide promotion of the use of toys and children's furniture" to sell their paint. The campaigns included hand puppets and coloring books from Dutch Boy (now NL Industries); ads promoting Millennium Holdings paint for nurseries and playrooms, "because of the normal wear and tear of activity"; and White Lead Promotion, an extensive joint campaign from NL and Sherwin Williams, that promoted "the use of lead-based paints in schools" and in homes.

Reuters reports that British Prime Minister "Tony Blair's eldest son Euan is to gain work experience with financial public relations company Finsbury." Finsbury, which is owned by the WPP advertising firm, offers "corporate strategic advice, UK and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, investor relations and crisis management." Clients include Vodafone, BSkyB and J Sainsbury. Euan Blair will also spend three months interning with "Republican staff in the U.S. House of Representatives."

"Take a step back and get the science right first, writes a special correspondent," is the teaser for a 920-word feature on climate change in The Australian's Inquirer section. "The public and political debate has tended to be dominated by the convenient but highly political argument that blames industry and industrial activity for its emissions of carbon dioxide," the correspondent complained, echoing the arguments of climate change skeptics. Who was this "special correspondent" to The Australian, the national newspaper of Rupert Murdoch's News Limited? The footer disclosed only that "the correspondent is employed by a resources lobby." Why an opinion column was not on the opinion pages, but in a section normally reserved for features by real journalists, went unexplained. Nor was it explained why a newspaper printed an entire article by an anonymous contributor, when it won't print anonymous letters to the editor.

"Scripps Howard News Service announced Jan. 13 that it's severing its business relationship with columnist Michael Fumento, who's also a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. The move comes after inquiries from BusinessWeek Online about payments Fumento received from agribusiness giant Monsanto -- a frequent subject of praise in Fumento's opinion columns and a book." Scripps Howard general manager Peter Copeland said Fumento "did not tell SHNS editors, and therefore we did not tell our readers, that in 1999 Hudson received a $60,000 grant from Monsanto." The grant was for Fumento's book BioEvolution. Fumento called himself "extremely pro-biotech" and said he told Monsanto about the book, "The biotech industry is going to look really good, and you should contribute." Fumento said his recent columns, including a January 5 piece praising new Monsanto products, were not "quid pro quo." He added, "I think there's a statute of limitations on that."

 

"A Congressional investigation of the money that drug companies give as supposed educational grants has found that the payments are growing rapidly and are sometimes steered by marketing executives to doctors and groups who push unapproved uses of drugs." In 2004, 23 drug companies spent $1.47 billion on educational grants, a 20 percent increase from 2003. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is "seeking more information" from the companies "about their use of educational grants." Senator Grassley said, "It's hard to see how you could call some of these grants 'educational.'" Companies are only allowed to market drugs for approved uses, though doctors can prescribe drugs for "off-label" uses. Off-label uses may account for up to half of all U.S. prescriptions. The industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America pointed to its "comprehensive voluntary guidelines ... that are designed to help keep marketing practices ethical."

Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's media clients included the Magazine Publishers Association (MPA) and Primedia. For MPA, Abramoff "and an unidentified Congressional aide worked to stave off an increase in postal rates - a significant benefit for an industry that depends on the postal service," reported the New York Times. In 2000, MPA contributed $25,000 to "Toward Tradition," a group Abramoff allegedly used to funnel money. Primedia employed Abramoff and associate Tony Rudy from 1999 through 2003, to lobby for Channel One. "Although it is not clear what Mr. Abramoff's firm did for Channel One, the network has faced a number of legislative threats," reports AdAge, including proposed "regulations to limit how marketers reach students. Channel One also derived much of its ad revenue from government agencies, including the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and military recruitment efforts." A Primedia spokesman said Abramoff's Channel One work "did not include any effort to secure government agency advertising."

"The nuclear, pharmaceutical and drinks industries are funding and even writing policy reports in the name of influential all-party groups (APG)" in British Parliament, reports The Times. There are almost 300 APG groups, and "two thirds are now being assisted by special interest groups," often "investigating controversial policies in which they have a commercial interest." Examples include the All-Party Parliamentary Nuclear Group, administered by Miranda Kirschel of the Nuclear Industry Association, a trade group representing more than 100 nuclear companies; and the All-Party Pharmacy Group, which "admitted that lobbyists working on behalf of the pharmacy industry wrote the reports on behalf of the group." The Pharmacy APG had listed the PR and lobbying firm Luther Pendragon as a source of "administrative support," without identifying the ultimate client, as is required by law.

Bringing "together politicians and academics on different ends of the political spectrum to participate in forums on health policy," with the goal of reforming "the nation's healthcare system" sounds like a good idea. But the organizer is the drug company Pfizer, through its public affairs agency, Spectrum Science Communications. The "Ceasefire on Healthcare" town meetings are funded by Pfizer and American University, and have featured Senator Hillary Clinton and former Congressman Newt Gingrich. "The thrust of the campaign ... is to make incremental changes," said Spectrum Science's Claire Barnard. C-Span is covering the town meetings, which started in June 2005 and have been held at the Brookings Institution, Heritage Foundation and National Press Club.

Photo by Sgt. Mark S. Rickert

"We are in a new and very challenging communications environment out there and we tend to focus our efforts to ensuring that the combatant commander has all of the capabilities that he needs to accomplish his missions," a "senior defense official" told Reuters. The military's investigation of its own activities, via the Lincoln Group, to pay Iraqi journalists and plant Pentagon-written stories in Iraqi newspapers "is almost complete." But Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq, "has thus far not ordered any halt to the media payments." The anonymous official said that part of the Pentagon's next Quadrennial Defense Review, which will be submitted to the White House and Congress in February, will be a "strategic communications" plan. "Developing clear guidance for communicating with the public at home and abroad is a key issue" for the Pentagon this year, Reuters reported.

From 1990 to 2005, General Electric spent more than $122 million on public relations, lobbying and legal efforts, "to fight demands that it clean up three contaminated polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) sites," reports O'Dwyer's. The three sites are "a 200-mile stretch of the Hudson River (the nation's biggest Superfund site), Housatonic River (Pittsfield, MA) and a transformer facility (Rome, GA)." GE's disclosure comes after a decade of pressure from the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment, a coalition of Roman Catholic groups that filed shareholder resolutions requesting the information. Coalition director Patricia Daly said the money could "have gone a long, long way in cleaning up the problem," had it not been "wasted on PR, lobbying and courtroom delaying tactics." The Environmental Protection Agency ordered GE to clean up the Hudson in 2002. GE now says it will reimburse the EPA $110 million for "past cost and future oversight delays," and clean up the site.

The PR firm Ruder Finn has landed an account with the U.S. Tuna Foundation to counter public concerns about mercury in canned tuna. The director of media relations at Ruder Finn, Nancy Glick, told PR Week that the foundation was working "aggressively" to defuse the issue and is working with public officials "who feel very strongly that we have to stop scaring the public." Following a three-part series in the Chicago Tribune in December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would investigate the issue. Since March 2004, the Turtle Island Restoration Network have posted an online mercury in seafood calculator and lobbied for more stringent FDA testing. PR Week reports, "Ruder Finn is also working with the University of Maryland (UM) to promote realmercuryfacts.org, which responds to consumer confusion about mercury."

As the toll mounts from U.S. political scandals, think tanks have provided new homes to some of the fallen. The Hudson Institute has appointed I. Lewis Scooter Libby as "a senior adviser." In October 2005, Libby resigned from his position as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, after being indicted on five counts including obstruction of justice. "Libby will focus on issues relating to the War on Terror and the future of Asia. He also will offer research guidance and will advise the institute in strategic planning," the think tank stated. In December 2005, Doug Bandow resigned from both his role at the Cato Institute and as syndicated columnist with Copley News Service, after revelations that he had accepted payments from lobbyist Jack Abramoff. On January 1, Bandow started as vice president of policy at Citizen Outreach, a group that favours "limited-government public policies."

"The U.S. Army has hired Manning Selvage & Lee to do outreach to pro-military bloggers," the managing director of Hass MS&L, the firm's Detroit office that focuses on "new media" and the automotive industry, told O'Dwyer's. "The blogs are viewed as a way to distribute 'good news' about Iraq." At least four bloggers have received an email from Hass MS&L, according to the Washington Post. "The Army believes that military blogs are a valuable medium for reaching out to soldiers," the email explains. "To that end, the Army plans to offer you and selected bloggers exclusive editorial content." Blogger Donald Sensing accepted the offer, saying, "I spent long enough in Army Public Affairs to know when I'm being fed baloney. ... I predict the [Washington] Post and others of the dinosaur media will ... say we are biased, as if they are not. ... I am biased, I freely admit."

The Alexander Strategy Group lobbying firm "will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay." ASG owner Ed Buckham said, "Reports in the press have made it difficult to continue as a lobbying/political entity." ASG lobbyist -- and former DeLay staffer and Abramoff associate -- Tony Rudy may leave the firm before it closes. "The end of DeLay's leadership role was a major blow," wrote the Washington Post. "Former DeLay associates have said that ASG and Buckham were key gatekeepers for DeLay with outsiders including lobbyists and their corporate clients." ASG's clients include Microsoft and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. "The 12 lobbyists who now work at ASG -- other than Rudy and Buckham -- intend to start a successor firm and intend to keep as many of the clients as possible."

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's lobbying firm has at least two new clients. Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) hired the Ashcroft Group "to help secure the U.S. government's approval to sell a weapons system to the South Korean Air Force." Since their early-warning radar system uses U.S. military technology, IAI must "secure approval from the Department of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls" for the sale. The Hill notes, "Israel has come under criticism from the U.S. government for selling arms to countries hostile to the United States, such as China and South Africa." O'Dwyer's reports that the France-based company LTU Technologies also hired the Ashcroft Group, "to land homeland security contracts." LTU products perform "content-based search, retrieval and classification of images and videos" and also monitor email.

 

U.S. troops in Baghdad "blasted their way into the home of an Iraqi journalist" working with British media outlets on an investigation of "claims that tens of millions of dollars worth of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been misused or misappropriated." The troops fired into the room where Dr. Ali Fadhil, an award-winning journalist, and his family were sleeping, then hooded and detained him for a few hours. The troops also took videotapes related to the documentary, which have not yet been returned. Callum Macrae, the director of the documentary, called "the timing and the nature" of the raid "extremely disturbing," as it came days after they explained the project to U.S. authorities. "We need a convincing assurance from the American authorities that this terrifying experience was not harassment and a crude attempt to discourage Ali's investigation," said Macrae.

Dr. Michael Borgas, the staff association president at CSIRO, the Australian government-funded science agency, harshly criticized the agency's censorious approach to journalists. "A business model, or even the appearance of a compliant, unquestioning propaganda-driven organisation, is not an acceptable strategy for CSIRO," he wrote. After Dr. Peter Pockley published articles critical of CSIRO management in Australasian Science, CSIRO banned interviews with him. (The ban lasted for eleven months, until June 2005.) Pockley says public attacks on Australasian Science were "orchestrated" by Donna Staunton, CSIRO's Executive Director of Communications and a former tobacco industry lobbyist. Borgas wrote that CSIRO staff association members "cannot comprehend why reasonable requests for information have become such an issue, even in the context of critical articles in Australasian Science. ... Science needs to be open to full and transparent scrutiny and often has to deal with conflict and dispute." Neither CSIRO nor Staunton responded to the Australian Financial Review's request for comment.