On his CNN TV program, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post interviewed Thomas Ricks, the Post's Pentagon reporter and author of the book Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. Ricks told Kurtz, "One of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon." Kurtz responded, "Hold on, you're suggesting that Israel has deliberately allowed Hezbollah to retain some of its fire power, essentially for PR purposes, because having Israeli civilians killed helps them in the public relations war here?" Ricks replied, "Yes, that's what military analysts have told me." Kurtz remarked "that's an extraordinary testament to the notion that having people on your own side killed actually works to your benefit in that nobody wants to see your own citizens killed but it works to your benefit in terms of the battle of perceptions here." Ricks replied "It helps you with the moral high ground problem, because you know your operations in Lebanon are going to be killing civilians as well."

Source: Australian Conservation Foundation

In a feature in the weekend magazine accompanying the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, scientist Tim Flannery extolled nuclear power as the solution to global warming. Flannery's book, The Weather Makers, was underwritten by businessman Robert Purves, the president of WWF Australia. Clive Hamilton, the Executive Director of the Australia Institute, a centre-left think tank, is critical of Flannery's reliance on individual responsibility and nuclear power as solutions to climate change. Flannery's reliance on individual responsibility "is music to the Government's ears," Hamilton writes. "Alone among Australian environmental advocates, he has declared his support for the development of a nuclear industry. The Prime Minister, John Howard, now regularly buttresses his nuclear push by saying that even some environmentalists 'like Tim Flannery' support nuclear power," Hamilton writes. WWF Australia's CEO and former BP executive, Greg Bourne, has also backed an expansion of uranium mining and nuclear power.

Drug company funding for the Mental Health Council of Australia to run lobbying and disease awareness campaigns, The Age reports, raises "questions about whether the agendas of a consumer group and that of a multinational drug company are the same." Some of the companies that have funded the council include Pfizer, Janssen-Cilag, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb. "Disease awareness campaigns are very important in countries like Australia where direct-to-consumer advertising is prohibited," said Melissa Raven, adjunct lecturer in public health at Flinders University in Adelaide. A spokesman for the peak drug industry lobby group, Medicines Australia, defended patient groups working with drug companies. "Patient groups and pharmaceutical companies have common goals, including treating and managing disease," the spokesman claimed. Others disagree. "The strategy is all about growing markets and increasing sales," says Dr Jon Jureidini, the chairman of the global watchdog on drug industry marketing, Healthy Skepticism.