"This was a 10-year campaign to shape the science to fit the industry's agenda rather than shape the regulation to fit the science," Professor David Michaels said of industry attempts to avoid lower exposure limits for hexavalent chromium. In 2004, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed reducing the exposure limit set in 1943 more than fifty-fold. Michaels and other researchers "obtained internal documents through an industry foundation's bankruptcy proceedings that showed the industry representatives were aware in 2002 of an elevated cancer risk." They found that a study commissioned by the industry group Chrome Coalition, and carried out by ENVIRON, manipulated data to hide increased cancer risks at all but the highest exposure levels. Some 380,000 U.S. workers are exposed to chromium. An executive at the company Elementis Chromium denied an "orchestrated effort to hide anything," but said the data "may have not been handled well." OSHA finally set the new chromium exposure limit at one-tenth the old limit.

Photo from U.S. Maritime Administration

Even as the United Arab Emirates-owned company DP World (Dubai Ports World) requested a 45-day "further review of its deal to buy management rights to terminals at major U.S. ports," it's building a massive public relations team to support the $6.8 billion deal. To "tamp down Congressional criticism," DP World hired the firm Clark & Weinstock, according to O'Dwyer's. The firm's Vin Weber, a former Republican Congressman, will head the account. (PR Week is reporting that firm partner Davis Weinstock said they "represent the embassy of the United Arab Emirates," not DP World.) DP World has also retained the Albright Group, which is headed by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Alston & Bird, which counts former Senator Bob Dole among its lobbyists; and the Downey McGrath Group, which is headed by former Congressmen Tom Downey and Ray McGrath. Downey "is a good friend of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who has been spearheading opposition" to the ports deal. DP World's lead PR firm is the Britain-based Bell Pottinger.

In April 2005, "a breakthrough in television advertising debuted without fanfare" -- a new technology that allows product placements to be digitally added, after scenes are filmed. The technology, called Digital Brand Integration (DBI), was developed by Marathon Ventures, as part of "an unprecedented marketing deal with CBS." DBI has added brands like Kellogg's to the sitcom "Yes, Dear," and StarKist and Chevrolet to "CSI" and "How I Met Your Mother." Marathon "expects to unveil a new pact soon with the Fox network," reports Reuters. But "virtual product placement" dates back to at least 1999, when "images of several brands, including Coca-Cola and Blockbuster video, were digitally spliced into an episode of the now-defunct drama 'Seven Days.'" "According to Nielsen Media Research, network placements in prime time last year numbered 108,261, up more than 30 percent from 2004."

A Maldives news service criticizes the 'New Maldives' project launched by President Gayoom in October 2005 as "nothing more than an image make-over for an unpopular and authoritarian regime." The editorial notes that the opposition political party, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), has highlighted contradictions between the government's words and actions, including "government rhetoric over judicial reform while MDP Chairperson Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) is refused a fair trial" and "assertions over press freedom, while the Police Chief harasses foreign-based journalists." For several years, the PR firm Hill and Knowlton has promoted tourism to the Maldives, on behalf of the government. Hill and Knowlton plays a "seemingly central role" in the 'New Maldives' project and "remain [a] close advisor to the 'reform ministers'," according to the editorial.

"Controversy over LNG [liquid natural gas] terminals is growing as demand soars," reports the Boston Globe. There are four proposals for new LNG terminals in Massachusetts -- and one has its own astroturf group. The Coalition for an LNG Solution, which describes itself as "a grass-roots neighborhood organization," supports new LNG terminals on Boston Harbor islands. But the phone number for the coalition "is a line to Regan Communications, a powerful public relations firm that has been hired by AES Corp. of Arlington, Va., the company that wants to build the Boston Harbor terminal on Outer Brewster Island." An AES spokesperson referred calls to Regan, saying the firm does "grass-roots and community organizing, and we rely on them to respond to questions and coordinate those activities." One Boston-area activist, John Vitagliano, has addressed neighborhood associations on behalf of the coalition. Vitagliano said "he receives no compensation" from Regan or AES.

The U.S. Defense Department's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program, "which developed technologies to predict terrorist attacks by mining government databases and the personal records of people in the United States," was not ended, as lawmakers directed in 2003, but merely moved and renamed. While "it is no secret that some parts of TIA lived on," the National Journal reports details of how TIA continued. Two key programs moved to the Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA), at the National Security Agency. One, a $19 million contract given to Hicks & Associates "to build the prototype system," was renamed "Basketball." The other is a $3.7 million contract given to SAIC, "to help analysts and policy makers anticipate and pre-empt terrorist attacks." That work, initially called "Genoa II," was renamed "Topsail." Whether these programs are still active is unclear. ARDA itself is being moved to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's office and renamed the "Disruptive Technology Office."

In a April 2003 pitch to DuPont, The Weinberg Group proposed a strategy to help defuse the growing controversy over the health impacts of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a compound used to make Teflon. Weinberg's Vice-President of Product Defense, P.Terrence Gaffney, said, "DuPont must shape the debate at all levels." One of his suggested strategies was to facilitate the "publication of papers and articles dispelling the alleged nexus between PFOA and teratogenicity as well as other claimed harm." (Teratogenicity is used to describe the damaging effects of an agent on a fetus.) Gaffney also proposed to "develop 'blue ribbon panels' of thought leaders on issues related to PFOA" and to "coordinate the publishing of white papers on PFOA, junk science and the limits of medical monitoring." DuPont confirmed to reporter Paul D. Thacker that they had hired the Weinberg Group to help with "scientific third party experts," probably on PFOA issues.

Prior to the October 2005 release of Paul Volcker's report on violations of the United Nations' Iraq oil-for-food program, the Australian wheat exporter AWB Limited hired the Washington DC lobbying firm The Cohen Group, which is headed by former U.S. defense secretary William S. Cohen. AWB paid approximately $A300 million in trucking fees on its wheat contracts to a Jordanian company, Alia, which owns no trucks. The funds were funnelled to Saddam Hussein's government, according to information given to an Australian government-appointed Royal Commission. Last week, AWB Middle East Marketing Manager Chris Whitwell mentioned The Cohen Group when asked about diary entries related to "develop[ing] a communications strategy." Whitwell said "Chalabi - link to Alia" referred to Ahmed Chalabi, as "he and Alia have some issues." Stanley McDermott, a partner in the law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, which has a "strategic alliance" with The Cohen Group, has also advised AWB.

Writing in the newsletter of the Minneapolis-based Wedge Co-op, Rodney North warns that the token use of fair trade certification can "prematurely undermine the public pressure for real change." North points to a web-based survey by U.K.-based Baby Milk Action, which asked supporters what they thought of the fair trade certification of Nestlé's Partners Blend coffee. Two-thirds of 500 survey respondents, of whom 79% are currently boycotting Nestlé, thought the certification meant the whole company had been audited for fair trade practices. "The truth is the Fair Trade certification system examines only the individual products bearing the seal, and not companies," he writes. North points out that fair trade coffee accounts for just 0.1% of Nestlé's annual coffee imports, and has no effect on numerous other commodities the company buys.

Spotted Owl Source: Sierra Club

The Executive Director of the Evergreen Foundation, James Peterson, argues in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that the decline of the spotted owl in the U.S. Pacific Northwest is not due to logging in old-growth forests. Peterson, who has been given a string of awards by various logging industry groups, referred to an unspecified "privately funded" study which "infers an inverse relationship between harvesting and owls." This, he argues, justifies "a long-term thinning program," an oblique reference to the Bush administration's Orwellian-sounding Healthy Forests Initiative, a program to log national forests. The Evergreen Foundation says it works to "restore public confidence in forestry." The foundation's website states that funders include logging and logging equipment companies, including Boise Cascade, Potlatch, Westvaco, Mead, Caterpillar and Timberjack. The foundation's logging industry funding, however, wasn't mentioned in Peterson's Wall Street Journal article.

"Nearly a fifth of the UK's top public companies are still failing to deliver comprehensive reports detailing the economic, environmental and social impact of their business," reports Andy Favell for The Independent. Analyses have found corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports from 18 of the British companies on the FTSE 100 Index to be inadequate. Nine of the "poor performers" are also listed on FTSE-4Good, which is geared towards socially responsible investment. Favell explains, "FTSE-4Good initially set the bar relatively low and listing requirements are lifted each year." He concludes, "It is common to hear both investors and [non-governmental organizations] levelling criticism at the standard of CSR reporting as a whole. ... With a significant number of the FTSE 100 still failing to satisfy on CSR reporting, and greenwash accusations against many others, are we really getting the information we deserve?"

"In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years." Since 1999, more than 50,000 once-declassified pages have been reclassified as secret. Intelligence historian Matthew Aid said some of the decades-old documents are "mundane, and some of it is outright ridiculous." The New York Times reports, "While some of the choices made by the security reviewers ... are baffling, others seem ... to cover up embarrassments, even if they occurred a half-century ago." The program, which has cost millions, is "shrouded in secrecy -- governed by a still-classified memorandum." An anonymous source told the Times that "the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency were major participants." Though there has been "a marked trend toward greater secrecy under the Bush administration," the reclassification program is reportedly driven by federal spy agencies. A coalition of historians has expressed concern about the program.

In "his most specific comments thus far about the information operations program," U.S. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told interviewer Charlie Rose that his reaction to reports that the Lincoln Group paid Iraqi newspapers to run Pentagon-written stories was, "Gee, that's not what we ought to be doing." Rumsfeld said "he had not been initially aware of the clandestine program, and ordered it shut down" after the Los Angeles Times report. However, "Army Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said during a Dec. 16 news conference -- more than two weeks after the existence of the operation was revealed -- that it had not been shut down." An anonymous source told the LA Times that "the program in Iraq was still active as of a week ago." In a separate talk, Rumsfeld said negative media coverage of the Iraq propaganda has a "chilling effect" on U.S. troops' "innovation" to win hearts and minds.

In October 2005 the American Journal of Preventive Medicine published an article by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis assessing the relative risks and benefits of changes in fish consumption. The U.S. Tuna Foundation, representing major tuna processors such as Bumble Bee, hailed the study and warned, "If Americans reduce their fish consumption out of confusion about mercury, there will be serious public health consequences." Now New York Times reporter Marian Burros reveals that the U.S. Tuna Foundation contributed the bulk of the $500,000 for the study. The journal article only disclosed as funders the National Food Processors Association Research Foundation, the Food Products Association, and a section of the National Fisheries Institute, a seafood lobby group. Joshua T. Cohen, lead author of the journal article, told Burros, "No one is hiding anything. ... It never occurred to me anyone would think National Food Processors Association was less industry than Bumble Bee tuna."

Kucinich addresses the United Nations

Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced a Resolution of Inquiry, demanding from the White House, Defense and State Departments "certain documents ... relating to any entity with which the U.S. has contracted for public relations purposes concerning Iraq." In a statement, the Congressman notes reports about the Rendon Group's and Lincoln Group's Iraq activities. Kucinich affirms the public's "right to know" about attempts "to manipulate the news, falsify intelligence or mislead the public." He adds, "Congress has a Constitutional responsibility to provide oversight." The House international relations committee must vote on the resolution by the end of February. The resolution comes after a Government Accountability Office report on federal media contracts, which lists $1.1 billion in Defense Department spending on PR, advertising and other media firms from fiscal year 2003 through mid-fiscal year 2005.

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Congress yesterday to provide $75 million in emergency funding to step up pressure on the Iranian government." If granted, the request would increase to $85 million the 2006 budget "to promote political change inside Iran," up from $3.5 million last year. $50 million would be used to "significantly increase Farsi broadcasts into Iran, mainly satellite television broadcasting by the federal government and broadcasts of the U.S.-funded Radio Farda." Another $5 million "will be aimed at reaching the Iranian public through the Internet and building independent Farsi television and radio stations." $15 million "would go to Iranian labor groups, human rights activists and other groups, generally via ... groups such as the National Endowment for Democracy."

"The media's over-reliance on official sources, despite ... a long history of lying and manipulation by those sources," often makes the media "an instrument of U.S. foreign policy," writes Garry Leech. On February 12, Reuters and Spain's EFE reported "that leftist rebels belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had massacred six members of a family, including an 80-year-old woman. The entire story ... was based on the statements of a single Colombian government official." U.S. outlets, including the Houston Chronicle and ABC News, ran the story. But "it was later revealed that the FARC were not in fact responsible. ... The interior minister of the department of Antioquia ... acknowledged that following an initial investigation into the killings, 'The method of operation indicates [the perpetrators] to be paramilitaries.'" Only EFE ran a follow-up story. A United Nations report released the same week documented "an increase in extra-judicial killings by Colombian soldiers and police."

$10,000 bill, no longer printed

"U.S. corporations and interest groups spent a total of $1.16 billion to lobby Washington in the first half of 2005, setting a record." From January through June 2005, "corporations, trade associations, lawyers and unions spent about $6.5 million a day to lobby Congress and the Bush administration." Since 1999, lobbying spending has increased an average of 10 percent each year. But the first half of 2005 alone saw an eight percent increase over the previous six months. Top lobbyists were AARP ($27.8 million, "mainly to defeat the Social Security plan"), General Electric ($13.9 million, on the "asbestos-litigation overhaul and tax policy"), the United States Telecom Association ($11.4 million), U.S. Chamber of Commerce ($8.6 million, plus another $9.5 million through its Institute for Legal Reform), American Medical Association ($9.5 million), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. ($7.3 million) and Altria ($6.7 million).

In 2002, the British government "launched a little-known television propaganda service that seems to mimic the U.S. government's deceptive approach to fake news," writes David Miller. British Satellite News (BSN) is produced by the company World Television, which "also makes corporate videos and fake news clips for corporations such as GlaxoSmithKline, BP and Nestle." BSN reports are sent to more than 400 stations worldwide and used regularly by 185 stations, including those in Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia and "14 of the 17 Middle East countries." Miller notes a "suggested intro" to one BNS piece that reads, "This year is not the first time an outside power has sought to construct a modern, democratic, liberal state in Iraq. Britain tried to do the same in the 1920s." Miller writes, "In reality the 1920 occupation led immediately to a popular revolt that was ruthlessly suppressed. A puppet monarchy was imposed, which was neither 'modern' nor 'democratic.'"

In late January a comedian hosting the UK Pharmaceutical Marketing Society's Annual Advertising Awards ceremony joked that "twenty years ago it was all lap dancing and champagne for the doctors. These days you're lucky if you can give them a three-star hotel and a f***ing biro." Not so, it seems. Last Friday the British drug industry lobby group, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) announced that it had suspended Abbott Laboratories from membership for six months for breaching its self-regulatory marketing code. ABPI's media release didn't specify what activities had been complained about. However, buried in a 112-page report (pdf) it was revealed that in 2004 company representatives had taken dozens of hospital doctors greyhound racing, a senior manager had taken a health professional to a lap-dancing club and a senior manager provided senior hospital consultants with centre court tickets to watch tennis at Wimbledon.

The Lincoln Group, which planted Pentagon-written stories in Iraqi newspapers, won U.S. military contracts "after claiming to have partnerships with major media and advertising companies, former government officials with extensive Middle East experience, and ex-military officers with background in intelligence and psychological warfare," reports the New York Times. "But some of those companies and individuals say their associations were fleeting. ... 'They appear very professional on the surface, then you dig a little deeper and you find that they are pretty amateurish,'" said former Marine officer and former Lincoln "strategic adviser" Jason Santamaria. Lincoln had short-lived partnerships with The Rendon Group and the New York ad firm Della Femina Rothschild Jeary and Partners. Lincoln also told U.S. Special Operations Command that it worked with the ad conglomerate Omnicom Group, but an Omnicom spokesperson said, "We're not aware of any relationship with Lincoln Group." Lincoln continues to bid for U.S. government contracts.

"In September, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes ... took 16 reporters on her first trip to the Mideast," Al Kamen writes. "We all know how well that trip turned out. So this time, Hughes, heading later this week for Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Germany, has reduced the media contingent ... to zero." Hughes did grant an interview to Time magazine, in which she described the State Department's new media monitoring unit. In addition to live Arab TV broadcasts, she says, "We have a young man who's watching the blogs, the Web chats." Hughes also describes public diplomacy plans around the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament: "We're going to have our embassies very involved in inviting kids to come watch the games this summer."

From a school exercise

A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that the tobacco industry "recruited and managed an international network of more than 80 scientific and medical experts in Europe, Asia and elsewhere in a bid to avoid regulations on secondhand smoke." In 1991 alone, the industry spent $3.3 million (2.8 m Euros) on the program, according to company documents. The program's goal was "to influence policy makers, media and the public" by having industry consultants attend conferences, present papers and lobby, all while hiding or obscuring the tobacco industry's role. The program began in 1987. By 1991, "every member of the organising committee of an international conference on indoor air quality in Bangkok ... was a tobacco industry consultant." And, "as of early 2004, no document has been located indicating that the program has been terminated."

Reporter Tim Harper notes the Bush administration's shift from "War on Terror" to "The Long War." Communications professor Christopher Simpson explains, "The War on Terror brand had gone sour." Moreover, "if it is a Long War," then expanded executive powers "will be needed not just this year, but next year and for decades." Harper writes, "Although the first use of the term 'Long War' is credited in 2004 to Gen. John Abizaid ... it really had its public coming-out Jan. 31 in the U.S. president's State of the Union address." The new name is also used in the Pentagon's Quadrennial Policy Review. Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations says the administration doesn't "want this to be defined as a conventional war where the entire burden will fall on the military and they will be expected to win quickly." Heritage Foundation fellow James Carafano, who co-authored the 2005 book "Winning The Long War," says the Pentagon considered "The Protracted War," but "'protracted' is a five-dollar word."

The nonpartisan investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), released a report on the media contracts of seven agencies -- Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs. (These departments "account for nearly all the obligated federal dollars for public relations and advertising activities in fiscal year 2003.") The departments self-reported on 343 media contracts, worth $1.62 billion, from fiscal year 2003 through the second quarter of 2005. The Defense Department spent the most on media contracts, at $1.1 billion. Fifty-four contracts, worth $197 million, were with public relations firms. Fourteen contracts, worth $1.2 million, involved video news releases, for the Census Bureau, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Transportation Safety Administration, National Park Service, and U.S. Mint. The top recipients of federal media contracts were Leo Burnett, Campbell-Ewald, GSD&M, J. Walter Thompson, Frankel & Company, and Ketchum.

On February 13, full-page advertisements in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, along with a media stunt involving a dinosaur, announced a new union-bashing front group called Center for Union Facts. Who is behind the ad and their UnionFacts.com website? Nothing in the advertisements or the webpage mentions Rick Berman, but -- Bingo! -- that's who owns the website domain name. Rick Berman is a right-wing lobbyist who has built a lucrative career establishing industry-funded front groups including FishScam.com, the Center for Consumer Freedom, the Employment Policies Institute, the Employment Roundtable and ActivistCash.com. Berman specializes in personal attacks, smear tactics and playing loose with the facts. He has raised millions of dollars from tobacco, booze, biotech, fast food, grocery and other businesses eager to pay Berman to do their dirty work. Another Berman connection to the Center for Union Facts is Sarah Longwell, the group's PR contact, who has also worked for Berman's Employment Policies Institute.

Nigerian author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa

"In a bid to underline its 'green' credentials, Shell is currently sending a fleet of Volkswagen Golfs in [Around the World in 80 Days' protagonist Phileas] Fogg's footsteps, on an expedition 'around the world in 50 fill-ups'," reports The Independent. The goal is "to win a place in the Guinness Book of Records for circumnavigating the globe in the most fuel-efficient manner possible," using "Shell's specially customized vehicles." However, unlike Fogg, Shell's journey will avoid Africa. Guy Adams writes, "Shell has a - shall we say? - dodgy record in those parts, as a result of its ongoing operations in Nigeria." Environmental, social and human rights concerns - including the 1995 murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa - have resulted in Shell boycotts. Shell spokespeople have called Nigeria the company's "worst public relations nightmare," according to the Multinational Monitor. But the company insists that its "strange itinerary" is simply due to "difficulties taking all the cars through customs" in Africa.

"The lack of transparency in politics in general and in media in particular is huge in this country," said the director of the government-supported Peruvian organization Citizen Participation. "Like everywhere else in the world, the big owners of communication chains aren't absolutely neutral or transparent. They respond to certain interests." So the Carter Center, Canadian Foundation for the Americas and the University of Calgary have customized for Peru "mapping software to overlay the location of newspapers, radio and TV stations with demographic data," including voting records, income and education level. The interactive website was also used for last month's parliamentary elections in Canada. The project's goals are "to support campaign-finance reform and democracy-building efforts." The website is not geared towards average citizens, but "for political watchdog groups to spot trends in radio and TV coverage of candidates."

Felix Gillette criticizes a story by Gina Kolata on a major study examining a low-fat diet for postmenopausal women and finding little positive impact. Gillette says Gina Kolata's article in the New York Times hyped the study: "[T]he warnings about the potential shortcomings of the study were surrounded by quotes from doctors pumping up the study's 'Holy Geez!' index." Gillette compliments other reporters, saying "perhaps the best article of the bunch was penned by one of the skeptics quoted in Kolata's story," low fat diet proponent Dr. Dean Ornish. On Newsweek's web site Ornish "provided a clear and nuanced take on the study. 'The real lesson of the Women's Health Initiative study is this: if you don't change much, you don't improve much. Small changes in diet don't have much effect on preventing heart disease and cancer in those at high risk. Fat is only part of the story. What we include in our diets is at least as important as what we exclude.' Ditto for good journalism -- what a paper such as the Times chooses to include on its front page is at least as important as what it excludes. On this one, we recommend a little less Kolata in the diet, and a few more caveats."

The PR firm Burson-Marsteller's lobbying unit, BKSH & Associates, "has added the Republic of Iraq to its client roster," reports O'Dwyer's. "The Washington, DC-based firm had worked for the [U.S.-funded] Iraqi National Congress opposition group during the reign of Saddam Hussein." Burson-Marsteller has already "helped the deputy military attache do outreach to key media outlets," including the Wall Street Journal and CNN, and has contacted the U.S. State Department and National Security Council on behalf of the Iraqi Embassy. The firm's Iraq contract also includes setting up editorial board meetings, placing op/ed pieces, and strengthening "ties with organizations like the American Enterprise Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Council on Foreign Relations and Business Council for International Understanding."

Unilever's advertising firm, the Publicis Groupe agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), and the production company Radical Media are behind a new MTV show. "The Gamekillers" is both "a scripted reality show" and "the first major marketing push behind the new Axe Dry antiperspirant stick." This foray into "branded entertainment" will not directly feature the Unilever product, but the show's characters, "visual look and typography will be tied to the brand when they appear in an ad campaign that breaks a week after the show makes its debut," on February 6. BBH's Kevin Roddy said, "The whole show is about making a brand statement without mentioning the brand." Unilever covered production costs, while "MTV brought air time and marketing support."

"While Abramoff, DeLay and Randy Cunningham dominate the headlines," the Alexander Strategy Group (ASG) "deserves to be heavily scrutinized for its role in each of those scandals and others not yet on the mainstream radar," reports Jeremy Scahill. "Recently, ASG was on the cutting edge of one of the fastest-growing industries ... private security," working for Blackwater USA and an image-boosting industry coalition, the International Peace Operations Association. ASG's clients also included Republican fundraiser and "Bush Pioneer" Brent Wilkes, whose companies have collected "some $90 million in military contracts" over the past decade. Previous to hiring ASG, Wilkes retained Patrick McSwain, Duke Cunningham's former chief of staff, as a lobbyist. McSwain went on to found another "high-powered GOP lobbying firm," Northpoint Strategies, whose clients included the Carlyle Group and Titan Corporation ("of Abu Ghraib fame"). Scahill concludes that such connections speak "volumes to how far and wide these investigations should extend."

The U.S. Senate's "long war over the proposed asbestos-litigation trust fund has given the lobbying industry its biggest contracts and busiest revolving door, bringing a virtual army of ex-leadership aides back to their former bosses' doorsteps." Fortune 500 companies with "more than $75 million in liability to injured workers" have retained 20 firms to promote the bill, in addition to their in-house lobbyists and the National Association of Manufacturers. The Asbestos Study Group, a business coalition, has a $23 million contract with the Democratic lobbying firm Swidler Berlin (and also worked with the now-defunct Republican firm Alexander Strategy Group). Mark Tipps, "former chief of staff and longtime adviser to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist," is lobbying for the bill at Akin Gump. Lobbying against the bill are Patton Boggs, for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, and Fleishman-Hillard, for the Coalition for Asbestos Reform, "a group of smaller businesses."

It's "the most aggressive example yet in a growing trend of marketers utilizing broadband video downloading to bypass traditional TV outlets," writes Joe Mandese. During the ABC network's Super Bowl coverage, Anheuser-Busch debuted "Bud TV," a "direct-to-consumer network ... offering viewers the opportunity to download advertising, programming and branded entertainment content directly to their computers, iPods and other devices." Bud TV is run by Maven Networks, which previously ran a "limited channel" for PepsiCo's Mountain Dew. General Motors is readying similar efforts for Chevrolet trucks. The PR firm Medialink Worldwide recently "announced the creation of its own direct-to-consumer distribution channel with the release of a new VNR (video news release) for General Motors' Buick division featuring golf superstar Tiger Woods." Medialink CEO Larry Moskowitz calls the approach "narrative marketing," and says it gives "marketers more control over their messages than relying on traditional TV news department gatekeepers."

After enjoying the largest profits of any company, ever, in 2005, Exxon Mobil has the resources -- and the need -- for expanded PR. The new campaign will "educate consumers and media about the inner workings of the oil industry, and the costs of producing, shipping, and refining crude," reports PR Week. It will include "PR, advertising, and media tours," as well as opinion pieces and meetings with editorial boards, including with regional and local media. Exxon will also give its "Energy Outlook" talk "at college campuses, high schools, and to academics." According to PR Week, "while Exxon works with a number of PR firms, including Weber Shandwick," the new campaign is "entirely in-house." After earning a record-breaking $36.1 billion last year, Exxon wants to avoid backlash from consumers angry about high gas prices and weaken support for the Windfall Profits Tax proposals before Congress.

In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said product placement "is permissible, so long as it is disclosed," but that the FCC "could be more aggressive in monitoring the material that goes out. ... But given that we are not set up as an investigatory agency, we're going to rely heavily on outsiders to provide us information." While some broadcasters have "enhanced their disclosure" of product placement arrangements voluntarily, sometimes "it is virtually impossible for the average viewer to see because it is so small and passes by so quickly during the closing credits," Adelstein said. "We do have requirements about the size and length of disclosure for political advertising. I don't see why we shouldn't have the same for any advertising that needs to be disclosed. The current regulations require full and fair disclosure, but we have never spelled out what that means."

An NEI ad from its "clean air" campaign

"The nation's nuclear-power industry is set to roll out a multiyear advertising campaign to build public support for a generation of new plants," reports the Wall Street Journal. The ad campaign, run by the PR firm Hill & Knowlton for the industry group Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), promotes a "nuclear renaissance." NEI's Scott Peterson said the goal is to "build a broader base of bipartisan support, both in Washington and across the country." Last week, NEI selected Alex Flint as its new head lobbyist. Flint will remain at his current job, as the majority staff director of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, until joining NEI in April 2006. O'Dwyer's reports that Weber Shandwick is promoting British Nuclear Fuels' move to sell Westinghouse Electric to Japan's Toshiba for $5.4 billion. U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez had lobbied British officials in favor of General Electric's bid for Westinghouse.

"One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally," Knight-Ridder's Kevin Hall reports. "What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025." In his State of the Union address, Bush spelled it out: "America is addicted to oil." Why did Bush call to "break this addication" to Middle East oil when he didn't really mean it? "[O]ne administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that 'every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands," Hall writes, adding, "The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him in trouble."

Middle East expert and author Stephen Zunes dissected some of George W. Bush's "simplistic formulations" made during the State of the Union (SOTU) address. Bush stated, "there is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure. Hindsight alone is not wisdom. And second-guessing is not a strategy." Zunes countered, "Recognizing that the [Iraq] war is probably unwinnable is not defeatism. It is realism. Aiming for an unachievable military 'success' is not responsible. It is a folly of tragic proportions. And insisting the Bush administration be held accountable for the lies, the negligence, and the tragic blunders which have resulted from this ongoing tragedy is a patriotic duty."

The Lincoln Group, the PR firm charged with placing U.S. friendly stories in the Iraqi press, has recently created a new staff position: director of media relations. The firm, which was one of three defense contractors awarded a $300 million Pentagon contract to help out with winning the information war, apparently needed help burnishing its own image. According to PR Week, the Lincoln Group's new hire Bill Dixon will be responsible for "telling more positive stories about the agency's work to a cynical press. When asked if his hiring was based on negative external events, Dixon said, via e-mail, that it had more to do with the agency's growth than any other factors." "Trying to place good stories about their work with deeply skeptical US journalists will take more than a fistful of dinars," former White House global communications director Tucker Eskew told PR Week, adding, "Successfully repositioning this firm will require a new openness, some happy-warrior determination, and light-touch persistence [not] ham-fisted flackery."

When Citizens Against Unfair Health Care Taxes called Californians warning that a proposed state tax on Botox might lead to new taxes on other drugs, the group failed to disclose that it had been created by a PR firm working for Allergan Inc., the maker of Botox, according to the Sacramento Bee. The astroturf group was the work of Direct Impact, "a Virginia-based affiliate of global public relations giant Burston-Marsteller Inc., specializes in developing what its Web site calls 'grassroots communication marketing campaigns,'" the Bee's Andrew McIntosh writes. "The company had signed on with Irvine-based Allergan to quarterback a $400,000 lobbying effort aimed at convincing California consumers and state officials that Botox cosmetic products should not be hit by a state Board of Equalization sales tax." Among the deceptive features of Citizens Against Unfair Health Care Taxes campaign was the group's website - www.stophealthcaretaxes.com - which is registered to an employee of Burston-Marsteller's New York office. Neither Allergan's nor Burston-Marsteller's ties to the group, however, are disclosed on the website, McIntosh reports.