Remixed War Propaganda by Micah Ian Wright

"Propaganda is a part of war," writes Matthias Gebauer from Israel. "Vast armies of public relations workers develop an emotionally charged image meant to provide media and public support for the conflict's architects." And, "it's hard to criticize Israel for wanting to see victims of Hezbollah rockets ... in the media. ... Still, Israel's support and supervision of foreign journalists seems downright excessive. ... When covering other crisis regions, German reporters often have to make an effort to be extra nice and polite and have to search out interviewees and contacts themselves. Not here. In Israel, reporters are on an all-inclusive package trip -- and are well looked after." One of many recent emails to reporters from the Israeli government's press office offered interviewees on 11 topics related to military operations in Lebanon. "There's no need to go anywhere," Gebauer adds, quoting an Israeli press officer as saying, "The contacts can be reached by phone. It's better to do it that way, especially for the radio."

Pakistan hired the firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates, to promote the country to U.S. audiences as a "reliable and attractive member of the global economic community." One goal of the $616,000-per-year deal is to secure a "more robust bilateral relationship with the U.S. based on trade and security," according to the contract. In related news, Saudi Arabia paid the firm Qorvis Communications a whopping $3.6 million over six months, for work around Ambassador Prince Turki Al-Faisal's U.S. "listening tour." Qorvis secured editorial board meetings for the Ambassador with the Los Angeles Times, CNN and New York Times, as part of its "extensive media relations" for the kingdom.

For years, a group of fans and antisweatshop advocates has called on the Pittsburgh Pirates to source their souvenirs from factories that ensure fair labor conditions. The Big League response has been something of a greaseball: Major League Baseball (MLB) is "proud of the accomplishments of our licensees [who] provide gainful employment to tens of thousands of people" under "what we understand to be" full compliance with labor laws, wrote Ethan Orlinsky, general counsel MLB Properties (MLBP). He wrote that MLBP didn't use sweatshops. Shortly before the MLB All-Star game media arrived in Pittsburgh in mid-July, however, the Pittsburg Post-Gazette ran an editorial calling for "a genuine attempt at enforcement" of fair labor conditions. The editorial pointed out that 14-year-old Bangladeshis working 12-hour shifts without overtime pay could be "legally" making Pittsburgh's T-shirts. Orlinsky modified his pitch a bit, inviting the local group, led by activist Tim Stevens, to submit their concerns and said MLBP would "consider them." The Pittsburgh coalition responded but still awaits MLBP's answer.

Rick Berman, the corporate lobbyist and front group king who runs Berman and Co. is probably smiling all the way to the bank, no doubt enjoying a prominent profile in USA Today headlined "Got a nasty fight? Here's your man." The article quotes Berman's critics, including CMD's John Stauber who says "He obviously has made a very monetarily successful career out of bashing, smearing and attacking environmentalists... He's perfected the art of the personal attack and the personal smear. We know from political campaigns that it is a very effective device." Most public figures would cringe, but for Berman the piece is simply good advertising and will probably win him more corporate clients who pay him to be their high-profile attack dog while they stay hidden from scrutiny or responsibility. The USA Today article continues, "He seldom mentions his clients ... and he represents them through a variety of non-profit groups he has set up. His targets range from Mothers Against Drunk Driving to the Ralph Nader-founded Center for Science in the Public Interest, which works on food issues, to labor unions." The article notes that Berman now has a staff of 28 and an annual budget of $10 million dollars, but "only Berman and his bookkeeper/wife know for sure what he makes."

Aaron Glantz, author of How America Lost Iraq, reports on Free Speech Radio and in Inter Press Service that "Kurdish officials toured the United States last week to launch a massive advertising and public relations campaign [under the slogan Kurdistan - The Other Iraq ] thanking the United States ... . On the screen, Kurdish children wave U.S. flags. 'Thank you America,' one says. ... The ad campaign, as well as a U.S. tour by Kurdish politician Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, was put together by the California PR firm Russo Marsh and Rogers. In addition to representing the Kurdish government, the firm founded Move America Forward which has brought parents of dead U.S. soldiers to be counter-protesters at peace demonstrations. The firm has also brought right-wing talk show hosts to Iraq on a 'truth tour' to tell 'the good news that the old-line liberal news media won't tell you about.' All were in attendance at the Kurdish government's press conference in San Francisco with the head of Move America Forward, local radio talk show host Melanie Morgan, serving as master of ceremonies. 'What's going on here is that Russo Marsh and Rogers ... are engaged in an illegal propaganda campaign aimed at influencing the November elections," said John Stauber, co-author of the book Weapons of Mass Deception. 'They don't have to disclose anything so we may never really know where they got the money to run these campaigns.' " The Center's Diane Farsetta examined Move America Forward in a in a 2004 article for PR Watch quarterly.

Federal police have raided the home of a government employee seeking computer and other records indicating whether Ms. Tjanara Goreng had contact with the newspaper, the (NIT). This followed revelations in the paper that a senior federal Aboriginal affairs bureaucrat adopted "a bogus identity" to support claims by the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, that "pedophile rings" operated in Aboriginal communities. Brough was widely criticised after failing to produce any evidence to support his claims. In June, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Lateline program broadcast an interview with an "anonymous former youth worker" who supported Brough's claims and sensationally referred to young girls being held as "sex slaves." The NIT revealed the interviewee was Gregory Andrews, a branch head in the government agency advising Brough on Aboriginal policy.

Reynolds American, the parent company of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, is spending approximately $40 million in an attempt to defeat anti-smoking ballot initiatives to be voted on in November. Part of the tobacco industry campaign involves having front groups promoting alternative measures to those proposed by tobacco control groups. In Arizona, Reynolds is backing the Non-Smoker Protection Committee, while in Ohio it is supporting Smoke Less Ohio. "It is a significant amount of money, but it's very expensive to do these because it's like a political campaign," Carole Crosslin, a Reynolds spokeswoman told Associated Press. Shelly Kiser, a spokeswoman for SmokeFreeOhio, said "the tobacco industry has fought us every step of the way. They have taken out more than 30 lawsuits against us ... It's been horrible." The domain name for the website of Smoke Less Ohio was registered by the PR and lobbying company, Strategic Public Partners.

Ritz Bits Soccer Shoot Out Game

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released a study titled "It's Child's Play: Advergaming and the Online Marketing of Food to Children," which found that more than eight out of ten (85%) of the top food brands that target children through TV advertising also use branded websites to market to children online. "Overwhelmingly, almost exclusively, the Web sites you are looking at are for foods that are of poor nutritional quality," said Margo G. Wootan, director of nutrition at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. A Kraft Foods executive said experts disagree on the impact of advertising food to kids. "There are many different factors contributing to childhood obesity and overweight," said Nancy Daigler, a Kraft vice president. Examples of advergaming are Cheetos Cowtapult, Ritz Bits Soccer Shoot Out, and several games choices featuring Pop-Tarts.

James Bamford reports that "War with Iran has been in the works for the past five years, shaped in almost complete secrecy by a small group of senior Pentagon officials attached to the Office of Special Plans. The man who created the OSP was Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy. ... Before Bush had been in office a year, Feith's team had arranged a covert meeting in Rome with a group of Iranians to discuss their clandestine help. The meeting was arranged by Michael Ledeen, a member of the cabal brought aboard by Feith because of his connections in Iran. ... Working behind the scenes, the members of the Office of Special Plans succeeded in setting the United States on the path to all-out war with Iran. ... The shift in official policy has thrilled former members of the cabal. To them, the war in Lebanon represents the final step in their plan to turn Iran into the next Iraq." Bamford's article sheds more light on the double-dealings of Ahmed Chalabi, the former darling of the neoconservatives who with CIA funding and training provided by John Rendon and The Rendon Group led the Iraqi National Congress in planting phony stories about Weapons of Mass Destruction with Judith Miller and other US news media.

Patrick Michaels. Source:Cato Institute

In a nine-page memo, the general manager of the Colorado-based Intermountain Rural Electric Association co-operative, Stanley Lewandowski Jr., rails against the the scientific consensus supporting the need to curb greenhouse gases. The memo, which was circulated in mid-July to more than 900 members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, was leaked to ABC News. "We decided to support Dr. Patrick Michaels and his group (New Hope Environmental Services, Inc.) ... In February of this year, IREA alone contributed $100,000 to Dr. Michaels." Lewandowski also wrote that IREA had rattled the tin for Michaels amongst other groups and "have obtained additional contributions and pledges for Dr. Michaels group." The memo also reports on others campaigning against taking action to limit climate change. "The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has been running two ads in ten states that were financed by General Motors and the Ford Motor Company," he wrote.

The New York Times reports that Oliver Stone's film about 9/11 "is already drawing rave reviews in some unlikely quarters. L. Brent Bozell III, president of the conservative Media Research Center and founder of the Parents Television Council ... sent an e-mail message to 400,000 people saying, 'Go see this film.' ... Creative Response Concepts, on retainer for Paramount, began pitching 'World Trade Center' to pundits who would not normally be considered part of Mr. Stone’s core audience. A screening in Washington last week, for example, drew members of the Family Research Council, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the evangelical Wilberforce Forum, along with a producer for William Bennett’s radio show ... . Creative Response Concepts has played a prominent role in promoting conservative causes" Including "advising the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" whose attacks on presidential candidate John Kerry "were among the most damaging blows to the Kerry campaign."

A survey (pdf) by the Cancer Council of New South Wales has found that 81% of all food being advertised on television in Australia was for junk food. The study, which has been published in Health Promotion International journal, recorded 645 hours of television between 7am and 9pm on both weekdays and weekends in four different locations. It found that 31% of all ads were for food, with fast food and takeaway foods being the most common. Kathy Chapman, a researcher and nutritionist at the Cancer Council NSW, identified 194 breaches of the advertising industry's voluntary code of conduct. "Our study shows that current regulations don’t go far enough, and rules certainly need to be better enforced to protect our children,” she said. At a meeting of Australian government health ministers, the Minister for Health Tony Abbott ruled out any discussion of restrictions on food advertising in children's viewing hours and described the advertising industry's self regulatory code as "extensive and potentially prescriptive."

Picture from a Institutes of Health website

Australian drug companies have been directed to disclose details of their funding of 'educational' events for doctors. While the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) approved Medicines Australia's voluntary code of conduct on marketing, it insisted on an amendment requiring companies to disclose details of the venue, purpose of the event, the hospitality provided, the number of attendees and the total cost of the function. The information will be made publicly available every six months on a website. ACCC Chairman, Graeme Samuel, told ABC Radio that consumers should be able to decide whether "drug companies are crossing the boundaries of proper ethical behaviour in dealing with the medical profession." Last week it was revealed that Roche spent approximately $A65,000 on a dinner at a top Sydney restaurant for 200 cancer specialists.

Nearly one in five scientists appointed to expert panels of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) had direct financial ties to companies that stood to benefit from the deliberations, according to a sampling released by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). NAS was created by President Lincoln in 1863, to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" when requested by any department of the government. "I believe there are scientists out there without conflicts of interest who can serve on these committees and do a comparable job" to experts with ties to the affected companies, said Merrill Goozner, CSPI's director of Integrity in Science program. CSPI cites the example of a NAS panel evaluating the risk of mercury in fish that included a scientist whose research was funded by pro-industry lobbying groups such as the United States Tuna Foundation. Another panel studying pollution emissions included 10 out of 11 scientists with ties to carbon-emitting industries.

Amory Lovins, the Chief Executive Officer of the Rocky Mountains Institute, an eco-efficiency think tank, is aghast at U.S. government support for the U.S.- India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative. The agreement would facilitate an expansion of nuclear power in India, which is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. "We're going to blow up what's left of the nonproliferation regimes to promote a sector that doesn't make sense," Lovins told the Washington Post. Lovins believes India would be better off promoting energy efficiency than pouring scarce funds into nuclear power. Lovins said that the subsidies provided to nuclear power in the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 "are equal to the entire capital cost of the next six reactors . . . but is similar to defibrillating a corpse: it will jump but not revive."

In March this year Dr. Peter Gleason, a Maryland psychiatrist, was arrested by the FBI at a Long Island train station and later charged for promoting off-label use of Xyrem, a prescription drug manufactured by Jazz Pharmaceuticals. The New York Times reports that federal prosecutors allege that "at hundreds of speeches and seminars where he was rewarded with generous fees, Dr. Gleason advised other physicians that a powerful drug for narcolepsy could be prescribed for depression and pain relief. In doing so, he conspired with the drug’s manufacturer to recommend it for potentially dangerous uses the prosecutors claim." Gleason admits that he was paid over $100,000 last year alone from Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Gleason, who was released on bail, argues that he was only charged after he refused to help build a case against the drug company which, New York Times reporter Alex Beremson writes, "court documents seem to support."

The global oil giant, BP, has reached a multi-million pound out-of-court settlement with a group of Colombian farmers after they brought a legal action against the company in Britain. They alleged that Exploration Company (Colombia) "benefited from harassment and intimidation meted out by Colombian paramilitaries employed by the government" to guard a 450-kilometre long pipeline from the Cusiana-Cupiagua oilfields. "Marta Hinestroza, one of the farmers' lawyers, fled Colombia for Britain when she discovered that her name was on a paramilitary hit list. In November 2002, the Home Office granted Ms Hinestroza political asylum after she told of the threats she faced while working in the region," The Independent reports.

Brandweek examines some of the latest corporate greenwashing efforts. A recently released study by Landor Associates, part of the WPP, found that "fifty-eight percent of the general population" are "self-proclaimed "Non-Green' individuals [who] do not care about environmentally friendly practices, including recycling, corporate social responsibility, or natural and/or organic ingredients. ... [T]wenty-five percent of the respondents consider themselves 'Green Interested,' meaning that while this group is concerned about the environment, it is not active in its defense. The remaining seventeen percent surveyed are, in fact, 'Green Motivated,' meaning that they feel it's very important for a company to be Green." Brandweek observes "the noise in the green marketing space has grown louder in recent months" with " Dow Chemical's 'Human Element' campaign ... Shell Oil launched a $30 million marketing campaign in June ... General Electric continues to build on its 'Ecomagination' effort... In June a public/private partnership titled EcoZone was launched, created by EcoMedia, a New York-based media company. Such companies as DaimlerChrysler, Alcoa and AbTech ... pay up to $5,000 per sign to put their logos on billboards carrying environmental messages ... 'Green is green as in the color of money,' said Judy Hu ... at General Electric. 'It is about a business opportunity, and we believe we can increase our revenue behind these Ecomagination products and services.' "

94 million registered users – many in their teens and 20s – use MySpace.Com as a way to connect with others with similar interests. The U.S. Marine Corps is hoping to tap into that pool of potential recruits through its own MySpace profile. According to Gunnery Sgt. Brian Lancioni, it’s “definitely the new wave. Everything's technical with these kids, and the Internet is a great way to show what the Marine Corps has to offer.” Louise Eaton, media and Web chief for the U.S. Army Accession Command agrees. “It is where prospects are. We go to where they are to try to inform them of the opportunities we offer.” Fortunately, the Marine Corps has stated that they won’t actually enlist anyone directly through the MySpace site – they will meet the potential recruits in person first. The approach has its critics. Steve Morse with the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors stated “It's kind of obnoxious of them to be using something that's sort of like a youth domain, to kind of come in and really sucker youth into something they're not really explaining fully.”

"To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."—Tacitus
(Photo source: United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks report)

Shortly after attacking Iraq in March 2003, President Bush told wounded soldiers that "the war in Iraq is really about peace." Now it seems that 'peace' is breaking out in Lebanon too. The Washington Post reports that "Bush sees a step to peace" in the current "Mideast strife." According to White House counselor Dan Bartlett, "a moment of clarity has arrived."

Howard Kurtz gives a shout out to an anonymous team of PR industry bloggers who are posting under the identity of "Strumpette," a slutty expert in marketing communications with "perfect perky boobs" who "sprinkles high-toned dissections of the flaws and foibles of the PR business with personal insults and the occasional expletive. Strumpette's posts are quite pugnacious, under such headlines as 'PR Mega-Firm's CEO Caught in Big Lie', 'Exposing the Communist Blogifesto' and 'Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Viagra for the PR Business.'" Some PR people think she is "vicious," while another damns the blog with faint praise, saying it is "marginally funny, and acts like a stripper in a nursing home."

"With the tacit consent of the Bush administration, authoritarian Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is continuing his campaign against the democratic movement that sprouted in his country last year," writes the Washington Post. His government has made it illegal to ""affront the president of the republic" — or insult parliament, public agencies, the armed forces, the judiciary. Journalists and bloggers have been arrested, jailed and brutally treated. "The crackdown on the press was predictable," the Post says, "because it followed Mr. Mubarak's assault on opposition political parties and on a judges' reform movement — the two other key elements of Cairo's promising Spring of 2005."

Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley has written to the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services seeking an investigation into whether the Food and Drug Administration and Merck collaborated to try and discredit a whistleblower. Dr. David J. Graham, a FDA drug safety official, publicized the risks associated with Merck's painkiller, Vioxx. In his letter, Grassley cited notes by a Merck employee of a conversation with an FDA official who mentioned an "opportunity to get (the) message out" on Graham and distribute the company's critique of him to journalists. In a statement to Associated Press, Merck wrote that it has "right to express our views when we believe information others have presented is not fair and balanced." In a deposition in a class action case against Merck, Graham stated the material obtained under discovery "actually demonstrates more clearly just how widespread the organized campaign to discredit and smear me was."

The anti-astroturfing campaign has drawn a response from the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA). The National President of PRIA, Annabelle Warren, wrote in a statement that the organisation "strongly opposes astro-turfing practices" and that members must "adhere to the highest standards of ethical practice." If that is the case why did PRIA's College of Fellows recently reject a complaint by Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne over the front group, Tasmanians for a Better Future? Warren said she couldn't comment on the case as the PRIA Board was presented only with a recommendation but not the rationale for the College of Fellows assessment. Senator Milne was unavailable for comment. Keith Jackson, from the Sydney PR firm Jackson Wells Morris notes that there has been no response to the anti-astounding campaign by the PR industry "Big Guys" including Burson-Marsteller, Edelman, Weber Shandwick and Porter Novelli. "They say ethics. We see denial," he concludes.

Bill Berkowitz reports, " For years, U.S. neoconservatives have been ratcheting up the rhetoric -- mostly in small gatherings and on partisan web sites -- claiming that terrorist activities around the world constituted the initial stages of a new world war. But during the past week or so ... Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is using any platform available to him to convince the public that the U.S. is engaged in World War III. ... While Gingrich's media tour definitely thrust him back into the national political spotlight, it may have also given the public a sneak peek into the Republican Party's political/marketing strategy for the November congressional elections: If the war on terrorism doesn't create a fearful enough climate amongst voters, why not ratchet it up by mentioning the spectre of a World War III? ... John Stauber ... [co-] author of the forthcoming book, '"The Best War Ever", [told IPS] 'You've got to call it something and five years after 9/11 with Osama [bin Laden] still roaming free and Iraq an American quagmire, and the Republican Party in danger of losing control of Congress, this ploy makes marketing sense.' "

Robert Hoffman, a lobbyist for Oracle, describes the preliminary Congressional vote to exempt India from a ban on nuclear technology sales as "a coming-out party of sorts for the India lobby." The U.S. Atomic Energy Act bans nuclear sales to countries, such as India, that have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Last month, both House and Senate committees gave in-principle support to the agreement negotiated between U.S. President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Under the agreement, only 14 of India's 22 nuclear reactors would be open to international scrutiny. The U.S India Business Council, a project of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have hired lobbyists Patton Boggs to help with their campaign. The Indian government have hired Barbour Griffith & Rogers to promote the agreement. The final Congressional vote in expected within weeks.

For the third time in two months, Catherine DeAngelis, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), has been embarrassed by revelations that articles published in the journal have not included full disclosure by authors of their drug industry funding. The latest edition of JAMA includes a study which links severe migraines to heart attacks in women. "All six of the study's authors have done consulting work or received research funding from makers of treatments for migraines or heart-related problems," reported Lindsay Tanner for Associated Press. "Authors should always err on the side of full disclosure," DeAngelis wrote in a note to readers. The Center for Science in the Public Interest argues that journals should institute a three-year ban for non-disclosure and the penalty should apply to all publications involved in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Last week, DeAngelis told (sub req'd) the Wall Street Journal she was against instituting a ban.

"The U.S. military has removed two firms from a psychological operations contract aimed at influencing international public opinion," reports the Washington Post. "The firms, plus a third company (SYColeman) that will retain the contract, spent the past year developing prototypes for radio and television spots intended for use in Iraq and in other nations... The TV and radio contract, originally worth up to $300 million over five years, had been held by three firms since last year: the Lincoln Group; San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp.; and Arlington-based SYColeman, a subsidiary of New York-based L-3 Communications Corp. ... 'We learned that working with three companies increases expenditures in both time and money and does not provide best value to the government," said Lt. Col. David Farlow, spokesman for the military's psychological operations unit. Lincoln Group spokesman Bill Dixon said in a statement yesterday that the firm 'continues to win contracts' for Pentagon propaganda, but 'because confidentiality is vital to this work, the firm will not comment on the details of any contracts.' "

Israeli leaflet dropped in Lebanon

It isn't only Israeli bombs that are landing in Lebanon. Propaganda flyers are also descending on the Lebanese landscape. This is just the most recent chapter in Israel's efforts to influence Lebanese opinion. "In a crude drawing, leaflets dropped by Israeli planes over Beirut depict Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as a cobra dancing to the tune of the flute-playing leaders of Iran, Syria and Palestinian group Hamas. The cartoon shows two bombs near Nasrallah's head, while the foreign leaders sit cross-legged on a map of Lebanon. Typed in Arabic and signed the ‘State of Israel’, the flyers are part of attempts by Israel to turn the Lebanese against the guerrilla group it is fighting.” A translation of the leaflet pictured here is available at BloggingBeirut.com. In the past, Israel has also used leaflet drops to discourage Lebanese aid to Palestinian fighters.

Vincent Ferrari managed to make a recording of his hilarious phone conversation with a customer service representative at America Online, in which the service rep repeatedly stonewalled and ignored Ferrari's request to cancel his AOL account. After the recording began circulating on the web, AOL fired the employee and said he had "violated our customer service guidelines and practices." Shortly thereafter, the Consumerist website reports, "A plain manila envelope arrived on our desk. ... Inside was the eighty-one paged 'Enhanced Sales Training for AOL Retention Consultants' manual" which showed that in fact, "customer service John" was just following orders. The manual instructs employees that "every Member that calls in to cancel their account is a hot lead" and tells them to "retain control by redirecting the Member if necessary."

A bipartisan Senate inquiry into Food and Drug Administration generic drug reviews suggests that Big Pharma's abuse of so-called "citizen petitions" is costing consumers tens of millions of dollars each month. Not so, responds the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents brand-name drug makers. Their spin: citizen petitions "raise important regulatory, legal or scientific issues," according to PhRMA VP Carolyn Loew. So why do generic drug makers call the "citizen" actions "blocking petitions"? Exhibit 1: Biovail Corp., maker of the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL, filed a citizen petition to challenge rivals' formulations of the generic version. The FDA takes its time to examine the petitions (a process that the Clinton Administration began to streamline in 1999, but which the Bush Administration reversed after PhRMA's firm protest), so consumers may be paying $37 million per month more for the name brand drug while the FDA considers the "citizen" input, according to Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D. Mich.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) The senators have introduced a bill to implement more efficient review.

Geoff Gray writes, "what looks to be a 2006 version of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has formed. The putatively grassroots organization called Vets for Freedom has been offering up decorated, interview-ready soldiers to, as its website puts it, 'promote the unbiased, nonpartisan truth of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to educate the public and mobilize public support for the Global War on Terror.' Their offensive started in April, when former Bush press secretary Taylor Gross ... tempted newspaper editors ... with inexpensive war coverage—'unbiased perspectives' that 'would not be at any significant cost.' Gross had no takers. Then, over Memorial Day, Owen West, a Goldman Sachs commodities trader, Marine reservist, and adventure-book author published an op-ed in the Times in which he lashed out against war opponents ... . John Stauber, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, thought the Vets’ Website looked suspiciously un-grassroots. ... The group’s Website is hosted by Campaign Solutions, a high-profile political consultancy that does Republican-campaign web work. Clients have included Bush-Cheney ’04 and the Swift Boat Vets. 'Vets for Freedom are the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' of the ’06 cycle, says Stauber."

Ford smokes the competition.

Sales of gas-guzzling pickup trucks are softening due to high gasoline prices, so PR Week reports that the Ford Motor Company has launched a series of PR stunts aimed at pumping up sales to country folk, including sponsoring a monster truck rally, NASCAR races, and a marketing arrangement with country singer Toby Keith to have a video play at the beginning of Keith's concerts, showing him driving an F-series pickup. Meanwhile Toyota, "one of the few automakers currently doing very well," is holding seminars to talk up the fuel efficiency of its hybrid pickups. Which strategy is working? Ford's CEO has talked big about being an environmentalist for years, but has repeatedly reneged on its promises to build more fuel-efficient vehicles while his company loses money and market share. "Had Mr. Ford produced more fuel-efficient vehicles like hybrids sooner," observes the New York Times, "he not only would have found his company keeping pace with nimble foreign competitors like Toyota when oil prices spiked, but he also would have been able to illustrate the bottom-line merit of his environmental values. Instead, Ford, is again in the all-too-familiar spot of playing corporate catch-up."

The logo of the anti-astroturfing campaign

Two Australian PR bloggers, Trevor Cook from the Sydney-based PR firm Jackson Wells Morris and Paull Young from the sports PR agency BAM Media, have launched an anti-astroturfing campaign. Cook bluntly states that "Astroturfing is evil. Astroturfing is always unethical and usually illegal. It corrodes democracy which relies on transparency." Cook and Young want PR companies to publicly state their opposition to using front groups. The catalyst for the campaign was an article by Melbourne journalist Katherine Wilson, who documented the role of the Public Relations Institute of Australia in hosting events by Canadian PR adviser, Ross Irvine. Irvine's tour of Australia was sponsored by the conservative think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs. More recently, the PRIA dismissed without explanation an ethics complaint over the Tasmanians for a Better Future front group, which was run by a Porter-Novelli affiliate.

In early June George W. Bush announced he was nominating sitcom producer, Warren Bell, to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The corporation funds public radio and television programming. Bell, who is an occasional contributor to the online edition of National Review, describes himself as a "not-so-secret conservative." In one blog post, Bell complained about Disney executives wanting him to include more minorities in the series he produces, "According to Jim". NPR spokeswoman, Andi Sporkin, is critical of Bell's nomination. "So far as we can tell, Mr. Bell only brings a history of questionable comments about women, minorities and the media, and no discernible relevant achievement, involvement or commitment to public broadcasting," she said. The Senate Commerce Committee, which vets nominees to the CPB, has yet to schedule a hearing on Bell's nomination.

"What happens when you refer to Turkey's 1915-1923 genocide of Armenians, accurately, as 'genocide'?" asks the Los Angeles Times. "In Turkey, you face a possible three-year jail term, even if it wasn't you using the term but a character in your novel. In the United States, you just lose your job as ambassador to Armenia."

Dell recently hired the GCI Group to help the computer company with a PR campaign titled "Rebuilding Corporate Reputation Through Grassroots Efforts" — a fancy way of saying they are trying to repair the company's reputation for poor customer service. They helped Dell set up one of those newfanged "blog" thingies, but couldn't resist insulting Jeff Jarvis, a prominent blogger who has been complaining for years about his "Dell Hell." After someone at GCI posted an anonymous comment calling Jarvis a "worm" who has "no life," Jarvis fired back. The lesson, according to John Stodder, is that "there is no such thing as an anonymous blog comment," and "there is just no telling how stupid some people can be."

Reflecting on his 50 years of reporting Washington politics, Washington Post journalist, Walter Pincus, notes that media coverage has "become dominated by increasingly sophisticated public relations practitioners, primarily in the White House and other agencies of government." Writing in an edition of the Nieman Reports on the theme of "journalistic courage", Pincus argues that "journalistic courage should include the refusal to publish in a newspaper or carry on a TV or radio news show any statements made by the President or any other government official that are designed solely as a public relations tool, offering no new or valuable information to the public."

For the past couple of years, global warming skeptics have been bashing climate researcher Michael Mann, claiming that fraud or errors created his so-called "hockey stick" graph showing dramatic increases in the temperature of the earth in the last decade. Now a panel of top climate scientists convened by the National Academies of Science (the leading scientific association in the United States) has vindicated Mann's conclusions in a new, 155-page report which finds that the Earth was hotter in the last few decades of the 20th century than it has been over the last 400 years and possibly longer. Of course, that's not good enough for PR industry eco-basher Al Caruba, who responds that he is "bored with global warming." Caruba's column, which provides ample evidence that he has not bothered to read the NAS report, trots out the usual skeptic rhetoric and concludes by reiterating his "utter boredom" with the subject. (If he's that bored, why does he keep ranting about it?)

"A lot of people talk about comparisons between the Iraq war and the Vietnam war," says the Gallup polling organization's Frank Newport. Since Gallup has been taking opinion polls throughout both wars, it is able to make some meaningful statistical comparisons between the two. Newport reviews the data and points out that in the case of Vietnam, it took three years for the majority of Americans to decide that the war was a mistake, whereas that point was reached in Iraq within less than a year and a half. "When we compare the two wars," he says, "it took longer for Americans to sour on the Vietnam war than it took for Americans to sour on the war in which the country is involved now."

The St. Petersburg G8 summit is at the center of a public relations maelstrom, reports The Times. "While the Russian Federation has hired the big American PR firm Ketchum to soften President Putin's image at home and abroad, British PR companies are hard at work to counter its efforts." The Bell Pottinger firm tried to purchase ad space in the G8 program on behalf of Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky's Civil Liberties Foundation. The ads, which were critical of Putin, were rejected. APCO Worldwide is using the G8 to criticize Putin for jailing prominent Russian "oligarchs" Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, with help from the London firm Luther Pendragon. Lastly, the firm Portland is providing "media advice" to the G8 organizing committee. Portland will represent the Kremlin throughout its year-long presidency of the G8.

Why won't Ralph Reed talk to reporters, even though he's running for public office? "He can’t afford to," writes Sean Flynn in a lengthy profile of the scandal-dogged former Christian Coalition organizer. "If he does, they’ll just start asking him all those uncomfortable questions that have nothing to do with being lieutenant governor. Mostly, they’ll ask about his relationship—his multimillion-dollar relationship—with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. And that’s if they’re only skimming the surface. Give them some time and they’ll ask about his work for eLottery or Enron or Microsoft; or his shilling for China; or his close call with the statute of limitations in Texas; or the way John McCain got slimed in the 2000 South Carolina primary; or something called the Black Churches Insurance Program. Maybe they’d even ask how he squares up his professed salvation through his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with…well, with everything else."

"The U.S. military doesn't do all its public relations work overseas -- it's also investing in grass-roots efforts here at home," reports NPR's Martin Kaste. "The Pentagon's 'America Supports You' program employs Pentagon staff and private PR contractors to coordinate activities that support the armed forces. 'Freedom Walk' marches, letter-writing campaigns, even supplements in kids' Weekly Reader, are all paid for by the Pentagon itself. One recent effort is a campaign to get people at major league baseball games to 'text-message' their support to the troops on their cell phones... even though those messages aren't actually sent to the troops. ... Much of the publicity work has been farmed out to a private firm, Susan Davis International. For the first year of America Supports You, the firm signed Pentagon contracts for at least $2.7 million." To keep a closer eye on all this, we've begun a SourceWatch article that you can go to by clicking here: America Supports You. Join our volunteer collaborative research community in buidling a fair, accurate and well-documented article on this Pentagon PR campaign.

It is nice to see that The Clarion Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi, added a link to the SourceWatch page on the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. This enables readers of a column by the foundation's Executive Director, Alejandro Chafuen to see who has funded them. Atlas' funders have included the tobacco company, Phillip Morris, and oil behemoth, Exxon. In another SourceWatch mention, right wing activist and fundraiser Amy Moritz Ridenour refers her readers to SourceWatch in what appears to be some sort of back-handed compliment -- at least that's how we interpret it!