2006 was a year full of deception, manipulation, prevarication, and bald faced lies. But now it's payback time! Every day, we at the Center for Media and Democracy are up to our ankles (and sometimes higher) in the corporate spin and government propaganda that PR firms keep churning out. We have our "favorites," to be sure -- but now we want to hear what YOU think!

At the end of each year, CMD issues the "Falsies Awards," to recognize the people and players responsible for polluting our information environment. This year, we are asking you to help identify the worst spinners and propagandists of 2006. We have put together a juicy selection of nominees -- but we need you to vote and tell us who deserves the Falsies this year.

Go to our survey to fill out your ballot! The Deadline for entries is 5:00 p.m. CST on Friday, December 1, 2006.

Investigative reporting is expensive. If you appreciate CMD's muckracking ways, please donate to support our work.

Thank you!

The leader of the New Zealand National Party, Don Brash, has resigned in the wake of a party backlash over his attempt to ban a book by investigative journalist Nicky Hager. Last week Brash gained an injunction from the High Court of New Zealand banning anyone in the country from publishing the content of his emails. Hager's book, The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception, was set to be released last Tuesday but was blocked by the injunction. Based on internal National Party material, including Brash's emails, the book investigates the party's links with the Exclusive Brethren and U.S. neoconservatives. Brash has indicated that he will allow Hager's book to be published within days but claimed his resignation was totally unrelated to the book. "My own opinion is that it was partly Don Brash leaving and it was partly other people pushing him," Hager said.

On November 17 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved silicone breast implants manufactured by Mentor Corporation and Allergan. PR Week reports that the PR firm MS&L "began working with Inamed Corp. in the lead-up to the April 2005 FDA hearing on their product and continued to work on the effort following Allergan's acquisition of Inamed last March." Ame Wadler, the chief strategist and chairman of global healthcare for the PR firm Burson-Marsteller (B-M), said that the firm had been representing Mentor for about two years. In the mid-1990's BM engineered Dow Corning's PR strategy in an attempt to bounce back from major lawsuits over the health impacts from implants.

Neoconservative war hawk Ken Adelman has gone public with an attack on the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, saying that "the President is ultimately responsible" for what Adelman now calls a "debacle." The Washington Post notes that criticisms now coming from neocons such as Adelman and Richard Perle are the "most striking" examples of trend in which "embittered insiders turn against Bush." Does this mean the neocons have wised up, or is this just a case of rats deserting a sinking ship? Ken Silverstein thinks they're still rats. "Adelman's hypocrisy is stunning," he writes. "In 2002 it was he who famously predicted that American forces would enjoy 'a cakewalk' in Iraq, and during the run-up to the invasion he derided war critics for their stupidity and naiveté. ... But what's most astonishing about Adelman's current criticism of the Bush Administration is that he argued for a 'stay the course' approach long after it became clear that the war was a burgeoning disaster. ... Now, after all this, Adelman would have us believe that he has absolutely no responsibility for the Iraq disaster?"