O'Dwyer's has more revelations about the multifaceted fakery engaged in by Wal-Mart and its PR firm, Edelman. Edelman staffers have been posing as "grassroots" bloggers on two Wal-Mart websites, for the Working Families for Wal-Mart front group and paidcritics.com, which -- rather ironically -- slams the "paid critics [who are] smearing Wal-Mart." The paid bloggers are Edelman's Miranda Gill, Brian McNeill and Kate Marshall. A post by Marshall praises a Wall Street Journal editorial for exposing "Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch as front groups of the union leaders." If you can take more hypocrisy, read Advertising Age's article on how Edelman "is being aligned with a newly coined word for its present crisis" over walmartingacrossamerica.com: "flog," for "fake blog." AdAge points out that Edelman helped write the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's (WOMMA's) code of ethics, which states, "Never obscure your identity." Asked why WOMMA is not sanctioning Edelman, WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz said, "We aren't the police. Associations don't punish. And look, PRSA didn't even say a word, and they are the PR association." Maybe that's because PRSA is too busy defending undisclosed fake news.

Richard Edelman, the CEO of the Edelman PR firm, "issued an apology for his agency's role in creating a blog for client Wal-Mart that did not properly disclose its origins or funding," notes PR Week. The walmartingacrossamerica.com website "chronicled a couple's journey across the country in an RV while stopping at various Wal-Mart parking lots." The trip was funded by Working Families for Wal-Mart, a front group funded by the giant retailer. Edelman told PR Week, "We still have a job to do about explaining to our staff their [disclosure] obligation in old media and new media." Worse, one of the fake bloggers was Washington Post photographer James Thresher, who later agreed to repay Working Families for the $2,200 cost of his and his girlfriend's airfare, RV rental, gas and food during the 10-day trip. Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., who also asked that Thresher's pictures be removed from the pro-Wal-Mart website, called Working Families "a special-interest group," reports Howard Kurtz. Even worse, filmmaker Ron Galloway recently resigned from Working Families' steering committee, reports O'Dwyer's. Galloway said he disagreed with Wal-Mart's new wage caps; Wal-Mart says the split's because Galloway's new movie is about "the so-called myth of global warming." Even worse again, Wal-Mart is being criticized for a holiday-themed website that allows kids to email gift wish lists to their parents, reports Advertising Age.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is the first international court to declare that access to government information is a human right. The recent ruling was reached in a case brought by Chilean environmentalists against the U.S.-based logging company Trillium. The court's decision is based on the American Convention on Human Rights' Article 13, which deals with "freedom of thought and expression." The ruling states, "Article 13 of the Convention, which specifically establishes the rights to 'seek' and 'receive' information, protects the right of all persons to request access to information held by the State." In other news, the nonprofit research group National Security Archive (NSA) is criticizing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' report on improving access to U.S. government information. The report "fails to acknowledge that many of the admirable goals set by [federal] agencies [to improve responses to Freedom of Information Act requests] can only be met with an increased commitment of resources," which "is not being considered by the Administration," states NSA. Among the "serious deficiencies" noted by the group are some federal agencies' "lack of basic technology such as copiers and Internet access."

Image from Lincoln Group's website

A U.S. Defense Department inspector general's report concluded, after reviewing three contracts with the PR firm Lincoln Group worth $37.3 million, that military commanders in Iraq "complied with applicable laws and regulations in their use of a contractor to conduct psychological operations and their use of newspapers as a way to disseminate information." A Los Angeles Times article revealed that the Lincoln Group was paying Iraqi newspapers to covertly run stories written by U.S. military personnel. The Defense Department report did find that, for one contract, "a military contracting office did not maintain enough documentation to verify expenditures," according to Reuters. Sen. Edward Kennedy said that meant "the Pentagon cannot account for millions paid to the Lincoln Group." Kennedy, Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Peter Pace and others have said the program undermines U.S. goals of supporting democracy in Iraq. The Lincoln group recently won another "multimillion-dollar media contract to monitor English and Arabic media outlets and produce talking points, speeches and other material for U.S. forces in Iraq."

The former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Lester Crawford, has pleaded guilty to breaching conflict of interest rules. Crawford and his wife held between $188,000 and $336,000 in shares in four companies that he was required to have sold, under FDA rules. Two of the companies he held stock in were the food companies Sysco and PepsiCo. Crawford had shares in these companies at a time that he was chair of the FDA's Obesity Working Group, which was reviewing calorie-content labelling standards for soft drinks. Crawford currently works as Senior Counsel at the Washington D.C. lobbying firm Policy Directions Inc.. In 2005, Policy Directions clients included Kraft Foods, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Nestle, Merck and the American Feed Industry Association.