Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert switching from a hydrogen car to his SUV

The Raw Story reports that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert just couldn't wait to get back into his SUV after a photo op and short ride in a hydrogen car. After expressing their outrage at skyrocketing gas prices, Hastert and several congressional colleagues left the Washington DC gas station to return to the Hill, which was just blocks away. But instead of finishing the trip in the hydrogen car or, dare we say, walking the rest of the way, Hastert made a quick pit stop to hop into his SUV. The Associated Press, which caught the Speaker mid-switch, reported that he was not the only one to change vehicles, but did not name other names.

Weber Shandwick Worldwide, one of the world's largest PR firms, has announced a significant expansion into Eastern and Central Europe. It has opened new offices in Poland, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and added affiliate offices in Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Shandwick's partner in these efforts is McCann WorldGroup, which is, along with Shandwick, a subsidiary of the InterPublic Group. This is in addition to their existing presence in Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Russia, and Ukraine. "We have expanded our reach across Europe to better serve our clients through increased collaboration and the sharing of best practices," said Harris Diamond, chief executive officer of Weber Shandwick. "For international clients, this expansion offers a broader geographic footprint covering areas where they see growth opportunities. And local clients in these markets will now have access to one of the world's leading communications networks."

"[New Hampshire] GOP Gubernatorial candidate Jim Coburn is facing an uphill battle. He's a one-term state rep. trying to unseat a Governor with high poll numbers and plenty of resources. That said, Jim Coburn is not working alone. Since late march, the former high-tech entrepreneur's campaign has been run by Meridian Communications, the PR firm that ... is also assisting New York Governor George Pataki as he explores a Presidential bid. But Meridian's co-founder, former TV-news reporter Jack Heath, does more than just advise candidates and companies on how to get good press. He also gives them press on his daily radio talk show. ... The Center for Media and Democracy's John Stauber says such conduct raises basic questions about the content of all of Heath's broadcasts, calling it 'very dishonest and less than ethical.' " After New Hampshire Public Radio broke this story, it was picked up by the Associated Press and the Boston Globe.

Do you think it's easy flacking for an unpopular lame duck president who has mired the nation in an unnecessary and brutal war that is draining the treasury and has turned world opinion against the United States? What PR guy could possibly be persuaded to take this job? Tony Snow, former talk show host and commentator for Fox News.

"Chernobyl has not taught anything to anyone," Viktor Bryukhanov, the former director of the infamous nuclear power plant, told a Russian magazine. Twenty years after the disaster, Bryukhanov said plant employees had made mistakes, but "official investigations into the cause of the disaster had been a whitewash designed to exonerate the nuclear industry." Nature magazine noted that "arguments over the death toll of Chernobyl are as politically charged as ever." In addition to politics, "uncertainty about the health effects of low doses of radiation" also complicates assessments. Death toll estimates range from 4,000 to 100,000 people. In the U.S., the Nuclear Energy Institute marked the Chernobyl anniversary by unveiling a new pro-nuclear PR campaign, headed by Hill & Knowlton.

"Corporate and food-industry lobbyists are stepping up their public-relations push for a controversial bill that would replace state food-safety laws with a federal labeling standard," reports The Hill. More than 140 companies and associations are lobbying for the National Uniformity for Food Act, including Nestle, the Business Roundtable, National Association of Manufacturers, American Beverage Association, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Opponents say the Act would gut state-level public health measures; 39 state attorneys general "slammed it as a danger to consumers." One lobbyist from Patton Boggs told reporters, "Opponents have grossly mischaracterized the effects of the bill." A Grocery Manufacturers of America spokesperson said, "States that have science to justify what they are doing have nothing to fear in this legislation." Supporters in the food industry hope "to avoid the cost burden of tailoring marketing and production" to state specifications.

The New York-based media analysis, education and advocacy organization Women in Media & News (WIMN) recently launched "WIMN's Voices," which it calls "the only women's media monitoring group blog." More than 50 women reporters, academics and activists are contributing to the blog, including Carolyn Byerly on media policy, Jean Kilbourne on advertising, Makani Themba Nixon on race, Laura Flanders on current events and the Center for Media and Democracy's Diane Farsetta on public relations.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which acquires products and services on behalf of federal agencies, is "actively soliciting proposals from PR firms to be added to its list of pre-qualified contractors," reports O'Dwyer's. Currently, 171 PR firms are registered with GSA, "from the largest firms like Ketchum or Edelman to mid-sized and smaller shops." GSA says there is the "potential for tremendous sales growth" in government purchases of PR and marketing services. Estimated government spending on "public relations services" in 2006 totals nearly $4.8 million. PR firms also compete for non-PR contracts, such as those involving integrated marketing and advertising. The government has allocated $82 million and $25 million, respectively, for work in those fields in 2006.

"A high-caliber, multinational and multifunctional team" is how Yahoo's Stephen Davis, senior manager of international PR, describes their new PR firm, Porter Novelli. Given Yahoo's recent record in China, the "high-caliber" metaphor may ring especially true for three Chinese internet users whose addresses are now c/o China Department of Prisons. Yahoo announced the new PR relationship in a mid-April email. A few days later, Reporters Without Borders, a U.S. government-supported nonprofit, announced that Jiang Lijun is the third Chinese activist whose identity was provided to the authorities by Yahoo's Chinese subsidiaries, alongside Shi Tao and Li Zhi. "Little by little we are piecing together the evidence...that Yahoo! is implicated in the arrest of most of the people that we have been defending," according to the Reporters Without Borders statement.

In its "PR Toolbox" section, PR Week addresses how to market "to the growing Hispanic population." The answer: radio. "There are now approximately 700 Spanish-language radio stations in the U.S." And, according to Rise Birnbaum of the broadcast PR firm Zcomm, "Spanish-language stations are even more receptive than general-market ones" to audio news releases and radio media tours. In a separate article, PR Week further examines Hispanic marketing. Porter Novelli's Fernando Figueredo says, "It wasn't really the 2000 census, it was 2002 that all of a sudden we were the number one ethnic minority. ... Over the past two years, we've seen a lot more attention to the market," including by "many of the major companies." But "in the advertising world they're only spending 2% of the total buy even though [Hispanics account] for 14% of the market. In the PR world ... it's probably less than 2% of the total PR buy."

From an NEI ad

With help from the PR firm Hill & Knowlton, the industry group Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) launched the "Clean and Safe Energy Coalition." NEI is fully funding the group and paying its spokespeople, former Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman (who now heads the lobbying firm Whitman Strategy Group) and Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore (who now heads the PR firm Greenspirit Strategies). NEI's Steve Kerekes said the new group will allow NEI to provide "a unifying platform that supporters of nuclear energy can add their voices to." The group was launched two days before the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Like NEI, the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition says that "nuclear power is clean, emitting none of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming," and "new nuclear plants could provide the 50 percent boost in energy supplies the government projects are needed by 2025 without cramping lifestyles."

Management Analysis Technologies, a small Virginia-based marketing and consulting firm owned by a Vietnam veteran, won "a competitive review to advise the Office of the Chief of the Army Reserve on its strategic communications," reports O'Dwyer's. The contract is worth $510,000 a year and involves "internal and external communications efforts targeting soldiers, families, the public, and Congressional audiences" on the Army Reserve's "vision of the future." Specific responsibilities include "researching, writing, editing and reviewing executive-level communications like speeches and Congressional testimony, as well as development of external PR and evaluation and support of existing programs like the Reserve's Ambassador Program." Additionally, the firm will "find and book media opportunities for Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. James Helmly." The PR firms Lincoln Group and CorpComm Group were among those submitting unsuccessful proposals for the Army Reserve contract.

"White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday he is stepping down, while President Bush's top presidential adviser Karl Rove is giving up his policy portfolio," reports FOX News and Associated Press. McClellan will leave the White House in two to three weeks. One possible replacement for him is FOX News radio host Tony Snow, who previously wrote speeches for President George H. W. Bush. Other people who have "been approached about the position" include former Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke and former Coalition Provisional Authority spokesperson in Iraq Dan Senor. Rove's portfolio change has been called a "demotion." A "senior administration official" said that "Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections."

"A group of former Clinton administration officials not fully satisfied with the Democratic National Committee's outreach to the Hispanic community are participating in a soon-to-be launched multimillion-dollar effort to brand the Democratic party among Hispanic residents," reports Alexander Bolton. "Liberal activists and Democratic strategists" see the recent, large immigration rights rallies as "an opportunity to roll back President Bush's close to 40 percent support among Hispanics in 2004." The New Democrat Network, which formed a "Hispanic Stragegy Center" (HSC), People for the American Way, and the Service Employees International Union are involved in the effort. HSC's goal is "to help incubate groups ... that could help Hispanic residents become more politically active." Maria Echaveste, a member of HSC's advisory board, said that the Democratic Party's Hispanic outreach is "within the context of each state's plan." That concerns her, as "state parties have been an obstacle to real inclusion of minority groups."

U.S. soldiers distribute the Arabic/English newspaper Baghdad Now

"When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on Rush Limbaugh's talk radio show" recently, he made several remarks "on the subject of press coverage in Iraq" that have mostly escaped notice, writes Editor and Publisher. Rumsfeld said that "the terrorists, Zarqawi and bin Laden and Zawahiri, those people have media committees. They are actively out there trying to manipulate the press in the United States. ... They're much better at (laughing) managing those kinds of things than we are." He also said, "There have been far fewer journalists who have stepped up to become embedded" with military units in Iraq. One reporter told Rumsfeld that the perception was that embedded journalists "were really part of the problem." Rumsfeld commented, "I think that's an inexcusable thought."

Working with Ogilvy PR, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) launched its "Essential2" PR campaign last year, "to reposition the $550 billion industry as not only imperative, but advantageous to all aspects of modern life." Essential2 includes "national cable TV spots, print ads, and a policymaker education program." PR Week profiles the campaign's outreach to chemical company employees. ACC named "campaign coordinators at each of its 129 member companies" and provided them with "articles on topics ranging from chemistry's role in preventing house fires to keeping NASCAR drivers safe." ACC also designed an online "employee ambassador" kit with tips on "how to discuss the benefits of chemistry, write educational letters to the editor, contact government officials, and generate school and community group speaking opportunities." ACC members include Dow Corning, Bayer, DuPont and Carus Chemical, which hosted an employee ice cream social where "ACC's MTV-style motivational video screened as entertainment."

Karen Hughes

The U.S. State Department's Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy, Karen Hughes, has "launched a campaign to make her government simpatico" to Latin America. Last month, Hughes visited Brazil, Panama, El Salvador, Chile and Colombia. She wants to make U.S. aid in the region "more visible and higher profile." Latin American countries are receiving "more money for student and youth exchange programs, as part of a worldwide effort to bring young people into the United States." Hughes explained, "I'm focused particularly on young people and those who influence them." Other changes include adding eight regional public diplomacy officers, "to write up press releases, manage cultural and student exchanges and attend speaking events," and using the State Department's "rapid-response unit" to help ambassadors respond to breaking news. A recent poll found "three out of every five Latin Americans distrust the United States."

"Product placement has become commonplace in movies and TV shows. Now it's coming to comic books -- in part because the industry's two giants, DC and Marvel, are promoting some of their titles as places to reach one of Madison Avenue's most elusive audiences: guys in their 20s," reports Brian Steinberg. DC Comics' new miniseries, called "Rush City," will have "visible promotional support from General Motors Corp.'s Pontiac." The series' hero will drive a Pontiac Solstice. Marvel Entertainment "has begun putting the 'swoosh' logo from Nike Inc. in the scenes of some of its titles, such as 'New X-Men.' So far, the emblem has appeared on a car door and on a character's T-shirt." Marvel also signed a deal with DaimlerChrysler, in which the new Dodge Caliber may be featured in their comic books' cityscapes, "on billboards, T-shirts or signs over the next four to eight months."

U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a frequent proponent of legislation protecting children, is now taking on a formidable opponent: the snack industry. Matthew Chayes reports that Harkin has introduced legislation that would tighten the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) definition for "foods of minimal nutritional value." Sen. Harkin wants USDA guidelines to limit saturated fat, trans fat, added sugar and other bad stuff in schools, instead of filtering foods by their nutrients. Aside from advocating voluntary guidlines, industry groups like the Center for Consumer Freedom say the problem isn't the food, it's the kids and parents. Industry consultant Lisa Katic told the Tribune, "The industry's not going to support a bill that's not showing results." She added that children need more pushups, not less fat or sugar. Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, told the New York Times that he fears "that the food industry, with the soft drink industry taking the lead, will work its hardest to weaken or kill this act."

Our groundbreaking exposé "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed" continues to make waves. Dan Price, co-author of the report with CMD's Diane Farsetta, was interviewed Sunday, April 16, by Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post on his CNN Reliable Sources program. Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein was also interviewed and pledged bipartisan action from the FCC. Dan Price is a CMD research consultant and novelist who has his own website. If you click here you can view on Dan's site his appearance on CNN' s Reliable Sources. It's some of the best news you will ever watch and yes, it is real. Our colleagues at Free Press have made it easy for you to contact the FCC to ask the agency to investigate this abuse of the public airwaves and to penalize stations that break the law by deceiving their audiences with undisclosed fake news. Act today, and ask five friends to do the same.

While "most other Republicans" are avoiding the phrase K Street Project, following lobbyist Jack Abramoff's January agreement to plead guilty to corruption charges, Grover Norquist is seeking to trademark it. Norquist's organization, Americans for Tax Reform, runs the project as what he describes as "an innocuous list of job openings for Washington lobbyists and a database of lobbyists' political ties and federal campaign contributions. The lists are circulated among high-level conservatives, with critics calling the efforts an improper 'whitelisting' and 'blacklisting' of potential hires," reports The Hill. Norquist says the K Street Project, which he founded in 1989, has been wrongly described as "a nefarious practice of Republican lawmakers pressuring groups to hire right-leaning employees." Trademarking the phrase will allow conservatives to "jealously guard the real phrasing" and to "sue anyone who says it wrong and make lots of money," explained Norquist.

In early April, "a public-service advertising campaign began ... encouraging Americans to show support for American troops." The San Francisco Chronicle asks, "Is it a genuine message of gratitude or poorly designed advocacy for the war in Iraq?" The non-profit Advertising Council designed the print, radio and online ads for the U.S. Defense Department. The spots direct people to the Department's "America Supports You" website. Some marketing professionals "said they believe the message crosses into partisan territory." The founder of Venables, Bell & Partners remarked, "I feel the war propaganda machine." Ad Council president Ellis Verdi rejected the criticism, saying, "What's important is that these are 18-year-old human beings, Americans, who are under stress." The Ad Council was formed in 1942, to increase support for World War II; its campaigns from that time include Rosie the Riveter and "Loose Lips Sink Ships."

Do you like being propagandized? If not, join the fight to stop fake news! As the Center for Media and Democracy reported last week, TV stations' use of corporate-funded video news releases is widespread and undisclosed. Our colleagues at Free Press have made it easy for you to contact the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on this important issue. Please join us in asking the FCC to investigate TV stations' abuse of the public airwaves, to clarify the disclosure requirements, and to penalize stations that break the law by deceiving their audience with undisclosed fake news. Act today, and ask five friends to do the same!

"Whichever company sponsors the trial produces the better antipsychotic drug," researchers concluded in an American Journal of Psychiatry article. Psychiatrist John Davis and colleagues "analyzed every publicly available trial funded by the pharmaceutical industry pitting five new antipsychotic drugs against one another." Not surprisingly, "nine in 10" trials claimed that "the best drug was the one made by the company funding the study." Often, the problem is not outright fabrication. Some industry-funded studies "use too low a dose of a competitor's drug, while others choose statistical techniques that show their drug in the best light." Davis estimated "that 90 percent of industry-sponsored studies that boast a prominent academic as the lead author are conducted by a company that later enlists a university researcher as the 'author.'" Davis told the Washington Post that in such cases, "the whole entire paper from start to finish is an advertisement."

The U.S. State Department and the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication are co-sponsoring a "Reinventing Public Diplomacy Through Games Competition, which seeks to improve America's reputation abroad," reports Wired magazine. "Contestants must employ the principles of 'public diplomacy' while cooking up a video-game concept from scratch or creating an original 'mod' of an existing massively multiplayer online game." USC professor Douglas Thomas said, "Public diplomacy must move away from a model that has been dominated by notions of propaganda, so we are looking to virtual worlds and games as a space where people can build something productive and focus on the experience of learning, interaction and play." The U.S. government is also "licensing the technology" behind the America's Army game, which cost $12 million to produce. New versions will stress "cultural awareness, negotiation skills and adaptive thinking," or help soldiers "anticipate and counter terrorist and insurgent tactics."

"McDonald's marketing generals have convened a war council and are hatching a strategy to combat a new attack," reports Advertising Age. The "threat" they face is journalist and author Eric Schlosser. A movie based on Schlosser's 2001 best-seller "Fast Food Nation" comes out later this year, as will his new book, which is aimed at younger readers, "Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food." McDonald's is "worried about a backlash," reports AdAge. The fast food giant has "told franchisees that its communications will play up the company's menu variety, new products, and community involvement to remind consumers of the chain's more admirable activities." The company is also involving "public relations, marketing, legal and advertising and PR agencies" in an "action plan to combat the obesity and trust issues that the Schlosser projects could raise to another level." Schlosser told AdAge that he's also "been attacked by people from the National Restaurant Association and the Center for Consumer Freedom."

NASA is touting a more accessible public information policy after acknowledging that a political appointee in its public information department attempted to silence one of the agency’s experts on climate change. The new policy clarifies the right of NASA experts and others to express their own opinions on policies without political vetting. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin says that the new policy will ensure that “(s)cientific and technical information concerning agency programs and projects will be accurate and unfiltered.” Washington D.C. watchdog OMBWatch isn’t so sure, stating that the new policy “sets the right tone” but “remains too vague and contains too many loopholes to fully function as a vehicle for public disclosure.” The policy does appear to resolve the original tempest: NASA physicist and climate expert James Hansen won’t be stopped from expressing his views to National Public Radio that the government isn’t acting aggressively enough to address global warming. The New York Times reported in January that a 26-year-old Bush appointee, George Deutsch, had blocked Hansen’s interview. Deutsch left the agency soon thereafter.

Greenpeace got IRS’s green light for continued nonprofit tax status last month after an audit, but the whodunit continues, especially in the business press. Did the Exxon Mobil-funded Public Interest Watch (PIW) draw in IRS? Does the trail lead to secretive spinmasters Dezenhall Resources, which, reports Eamon Javers, helped create PIW in 2002 with the express purpose of challenging Greenpeace’s tax status? Before Business Week, the Wall Street Journal ran a front page piece pointing the finger at PIW, and noting that $120,000 of PIW’s 2003-2004 budget came from Exxon Mobil, historically Greenpeace’s biggest target. Business Week now answers the mystery of PIW’s braintrust: “two of PIW’s three founding board members are former Dezenhall employees: James McCarthy and Christopher Meyers.” Whoever done it, IRS concluded in its March, 2006 letter that Greenpeace did suffer from nine deficiencies in its activites, including unspecified illegal acts. According to the Journal, IRS allowed Greenpeace to maintain its tax exempt status because the illegal activities “weren’t Greenpeace’s primary purpose.”

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Inflating the importance of Abu Musab al Zarqawi as a leader of the Iraqi rebellion is the object of a US goverment propaganda plan, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. According to Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways." Al Zarqawi's role in the insurgency is being heralded in Iraq through leaflets, radio and TV broadcasts, and postings on the internet. While the program is purportedly aimed at an Iraqi audience, it has also bled back into the US media market, in part thanks to an intentional leak to an American journalist, Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter based in Baghdad. In a briefing prepared for Army General George W. Casey, Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, the "home audience" is identified as one of the six major targets of the war information.

Who's behind your news? Without disclosure, you just don't know if the report you're watching about a corporation was secretly funded by and produced for that corporation.

That's what the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) found in our groundbreaking exposé, "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed." This multi-media report is the culmination of an intensive, ten month investigation by CMD. It provides the most extensive account to date of how corporate-funded video news releases -- fake TV news -- are routinely aired, without disclosure, as though they were independent news reports.

Learn which TV stations we caught and watch footage of the VNRs we tracked, plus see how TV newscasts incorporated them and/or related satellite media tour "interviews," by reading our online report, here: http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/execsummary

And then tell the Federal Communications Commission that fake news must stop, by taking part in a joint CMD / Free Press action, here: http://action.freepress.net/campaign/fakenews

The thrill of winning Wimbledon, second only to being featured in McDonald's advertising.

Celebrity spokemodels are out, and burger-munching everypeople are in under the golden arches. By visiting McDonald's Global Casting Call website, fast food lovers from anywhere in the world can submit a photo and short essay in any of 16 languages. The competition will undoubtedly be fierce, with applicants being judged on the written and visual submissions that best capture the "I'm lovin' it" spirit with themes of "inspiration, passion and fun." It's a cheap ad campaign for McDonald's. Winners will be flown, with a friend, to London for a photo shoot, and will be housed and fed at the expense of McDonald's, but no mention is made of actual pay. Being featured on McDonald's packaging will have to be reward enough. Venus Williams would probably say that it is. She is quoted in a McDonald's press release as saying “Even though I’ve won major tennis tournaments, been on television, radio and numerous magazine covers, seeing my picture on McDonald’s packaging was one of the coolest and most exciting moments of my life – I literally beamed when I saw it.”

Sam Walton just might be spinning in his grave. He was said to detest public relations, preferring to let Wal-Mart products and services speak for themselves. Under the new regime, PR has taken on a special urgency, with company officials locking into a political campaign-like "war room" mentality to respond to critics of its labor and big box store siting strategies. Now comes word that the company is looking for "triage" and "emergency response" talent in its next key hires. Michael Barbaro reported that the executive search firm Crowe-Innes & Associates has been engaged to help find a director of media relations who can manage a "crisis communications program" and "triage" such crises "in rapid response mode." Hours of work: up to "24/7" according to the posting, which was released to the Times by one of Wal-Mart's biggest critics, Wal-Mart Watch. A second job posting seeks a candidate who can address "high profile political activities" and "operate successfully in a campaign mode." Wal-Mart does not seem to worry about low prices when it comes to high level PR: In November, 2005, the Times reported that the company had hired the Edelman public relations firm, including ex-advisers from the camps of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and John Kerry.

Common Cause has produced a report, titled "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing," which describes some of the astroturf front groups that have been created by the cable, telephone and internet industry to lobby for legislation favorable to corporate interests. Groups such as Consumers for Cable Choice, FreedomWorks, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, the American Legislative Exchange Council, New Millennium Research Council, Frontiers of Freedom, Keep It Local NJ, Internet Innovation Alliance and MyWireless.org "accept subsidies or grants from corporate interests to lobby or produce research when they normally might not, but too often fail to disclose the connection between their policy positions and their bank accounts. ... These sorts of campaigns are dangerous for our democracy. They deliberately mislead citizens, and they deliberately mislead our lawmakers, who are already charged with the difficult task of making sense of complex telecommunications policies."

Political campaigns in the United States are using the internet as never before, reports Adam Nagourney. Unfortunately, some of the new technologies are being deployed in service of the same old dirty politics as ever, including attack ads and stealth campaigns: "Those include Podcasts featuring a daily downloaded message from a candidate and so-called viral attack videos, designed to trigger peer-to-peer distribution by e-mail chains, without being associated with any candidate or campaign." Nagourney notes that campaigns are also "studying popular Internet social networks, like Friendster and Facebook, as ways to reaching groups of potential supporters with similar political views or cultural interests."

The trial of Douglas R. Dowie and John Stodder, two former executives with the PR firm Fleishman-Hillard (F-H) executives, commences this week over allegations that they overbilled the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power by approximately $325,000. Dowie and Stodder have pleaded not guilty. Dowie is also suing F-H alleging that he was sacked, the Los Angeles Times reports, in a bid to conceal a "larger scandal involving the laundering of illegal campaign contributions to Los Angeles politicians." F-H rejects the claim.

Ron Campbell, a lobbyist from SPS Consultants, successfully ran Mexican avocado growers campaign in 2004 to expand access to the U.S. market. To overcome opposition from Californian avocado growers Campbell gave Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) $100,000 to generate a 'grassroots' lobbying campaign to support his clients. "California has 6,000 growers. We went to CAGW and said, "We need at least 6,000 or 7,000 comments to counter that," Campbell told the St. Petersburg Times. It is just one of a number of campaigns that CAGW has run to benefit its donors. Bill Adair reports that CAGW took at least $245,000 from tobacco companies "while urging the federal government not to regulate tobacco and to drop a lawsuit against the industry". CAGW was also funded by Diageo North America, "a major liquor company, and wrote letters to Congress opposing government regulation of flavored malt beverages, which Diageo makes."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy that precludes employees from accepting trips paid for by companies the agency regulates is easily side-stepped. Alexander Cohen reports that non-profit groups that "draw their members, their boards and even some of their funding from medical and pharmaceutical-related companies" paid for roughly one-third of the 3,600 sponsored trips received by hundreds of FDA employees since 1999. "The sponsor of the most trips was the Drug Information Association, which footed the bill for more than 600 trips taken by FDA employees," Cohen reports. Employees of The Weinberg Group, a PR company which boasts that it helps to defend clients "products in the courts and the media", have close ties to the DIA. One of its employees delivered a presentation to last years DIA annual meeting titled "FDA Enforcement: What You Need to Know to Avoid or Respond to the FDA."