According to a report by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, "five conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist, 'appear to have perpetrated a fraud' on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff." The nonprofits are Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Center for Public Policy Research, and Toward Tradition. The Senate report finds the groups probably violated their tax-exempt status, "by laundering payments and then disbursing funds at Mr. Abramoff's direction; taking payments in exchange for writing newspaper columns and press releases that put Mr. Abramoff's clients in a favorable light; introducing Mr. Abramoff's clients to government officials in exchange for payment; and agreeing to act as a front organization for congressional trips paid for by Mr. Abramoff's clients." Clients benefiting include Microsoft and Primedia's Channel One. Norquist's attorney countered that "there is no 'abuse' of ATR's tax status," as long as funds are spent in keeping with the mission of Americans for Tax Reform.

This October is the 26th annual Breast Cancer Awareness month, an event "conceived by the pharmaceutical company Zeneca, now AstraZeneca ... to promote mammography as the most effective weapon in fighting breast cancer." The increasing number of pink ribbon / breast cancer cause-related marketing campaigns has the advocacy group Breast Cancer Action referring to October as "breast cancer industry month." Companies -- like Ty, which is offering "SpongeBob PinkPants" this October -- point out that they raise money for breast cancer research. "In 2005 alone, cause-related marketing generated more than $30 million for research and community programs for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation," reports Josephine Marcotty. Pink marketing also helps companies' bottom lines. Advertising Age reports that "by turning its iconic red-and-white soup cans pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Campbell Soup Co. has doubled sales of its top varieties to its biggest grocery customer. ... [Campbell spokesman John] Faulkner said he would 'love to see the program expanded greatly next year.'"

The sport of baseball got its reputation as a "Field of Dreams," in part, because the game is played outside of time. There is a nominal starting time, but no game clock. Once endorsement deals became as fashionable as designer steroids, everything else went up for sale. Last week, reports Richard Sandomir, the Chicago White Sox literally sold their starting time for $500,000 per year, so that convenience store chain 7-Eleven could get a little more PR. For the next three seasons, the approximately 50 night games on Chicago's South Side will be scheduled to begin at exactly 7:11 p.m. "Every time the media announces the game's start time it will be a gentle reminder of our sponsorship," 7-Eleven spokesperson Margaret Chabris said of the games. In 2003, the White Sox sold stadium naming rights to U.S. Cellular for $68 million, upon which the Chicago wireless service provider's nameplate replaced iconic Comiskey Park (named for the former team owner and ballplayer). There was no word at press time whether players will also be required to "Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven" or sip on a Slurpee before they step up to the plate.

A group of producers of video news releases (VNRs) have formed the National Association of Broadcast Communicators (NABC) to campaign against the mandatory disclosure of fake news. NABC Vice-President Mike Hill, who is is President of News Broadcast Network, told PR Week that "disclosure is something that TV and radio stations should do as they feel necessary from a news standpoint." Mandatory disclosure, Hill claimed, "would be unworkable." The new group is supported by the Public Relations Society of America. "We all play an important role in the news gathering and dissemination process," said Michael Cherenson, the chair of PRSA's advocacy practice. NABC has hired the Washington D.C. law firm Keller and Heckman and the lobbying firm Bryan Cave Strategies to counter a Federal Communications Commission investigation into the use of VNRs. On October 16, Keller and Heckman filed a comment with FCC Chair Martin on behalf of NABC that claims that the Center for Media and Democracy's "Fake TV News" report "unfairly tarnishes a host of broadcasters along with the entire VNR industry."

Alaska's Future, is a front group which, according to its former president, was created by BP, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. The group may be required to disclose its funders and other financial information, following a three-hour hearing by the Alaska Public Offices Commission. Even though commission staff recommended dismissing a complaint brought against the group, the Commissioners decided they wanted to consider the matter further. The group was originally formed to promote a proposal for a pipeline that would serve the three companies. More recently, the group has run television advertisements opposing a ballot initiative that would tax the leaseholders of gas reserves $1 billion a year until a gas pipeline is built. In September, BP spokesman Daren Beaudo told the Anchorage Daily News that the company only intended to disclose what it spent on the campaign after the election.

The case of a judge granting an injunction to prevent a group of medical professionals publishing a critical review of the herbal drug Tebonin has the editor of a major drug bulletin worried. The editor of Australian Prescriber, John Dowden, notes that in two other instances where drug companies sued drug bulletins, the judgements favoured the publishers. In the Tebonin case, Justice Andrew Greenwood decided that as a copy of the draft report had been sent to the government regulator, granting of an injunction would not harm the public interest. "Unfortunately, the Department of Health and Ageing has said that any investigation by the TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration] will be commercial-in-confidence and the results will not be disclosed to the public," Dowden writes. It is time, he suggests, that the health supplement industry opened itself up to greater scrutiny of its products.

A coalition of European health groups, including the International Society of Drug Bulletins and the Medicines in Europe Forum, is alarmed at a renewed campaign by the drug industry to lift the ban on direct-to-consumer advertising in Europe. While acknowledging consumer information about health is essential, the groups are concerned that backdoor direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) through "disease awareness" campaigns and the direct or indirect funding of patient groups by drug companies "have blurred the boundaries between drug promotion and health information." They argue that there "needs to be a clear distinction between information and advertising that is disguised as 'information.'" Meanwhile, the New Zealand Minister for Health, Pete Hodgson, has said that he will shortly announce a decision on a review of DTCA advertising. New Zealand and the U.S. are the only countries which currently allow DTCA ads. Public health groups are urging the government to ban the ads.