"Halliburton's KBR engineering and services unit has launched a strike against the documentary, 'Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers,' that filmmaker Robert Greenwald plans to release nationally during 'Patriotism over Profit Screening Week' set for Oct. 8-14," reports O'Dwyer's. A Halliburton statement called the movie, which accuses it of ripping off U.S. taxpayers, "nothing more than a theory in search of a conspiracy." The defense contractor also slammed Greenwald for not including information that it had provided him, "because the facts did not support their thesis for the film." Greenwald did request interviews with Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar several times. Cathy Mann, Halliburton's director of communications, did not respond to any of the requests. O'Dwyer's "emailed Mann, asking why she did not respond. ... She referred [O'Dwyer's] to Halliburton's statement." The Greenwald movie does include an interview with an ex-KBR procurement manager, who said, "I wouldn't run a local lawn service on the business practices that Halliburton has."

The U.S. State Department, which has been widely criticized for ineffectual public diplomacy, recently announced its new "Global Cultural Initiative." It's a joint effort "to educate Americans and participating nations about other cultures," reports PR Week. U.S. PR czar Karen Hughes explained, "Public diplomacy isn't just the work of government. ... Every American who travels abroad or welcomes a foreign visitor can be an ambassador for America." As part of the initiative, the Kennedy Center will send U.S. performance artists overseas, including to Pakistan. The American Film Institute will showcase U.S. and foreign filmmakers at festivals. The National Endowment for the Arts will organize literary exchanges between the U.S. and Pakistan, Russia and other countries. The National Endowment for the Humanities will recruit foreign teachers for U.S. seminars. The State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which leads the new initiative, has seen its budget triple since 2001, to $4.5 million for 2006.

Khongkran reporting (image via AP)

Thawinan Khongkran, a former beauty queen and public relations staffer at an army-owned television station, is the new spokesperson for the military officials who took power in Thailand recently. "I consider it an honor," she told AP. The move is part of a campaign by the junta to "soften its image," in response to international and domestic criticism of its restrictions of basic rights. The junta is also "assigning female troops to help keep the peace in Bangkok and telling its soldiers to smile." Activist Ji Ungpakorn countered, "The real issue is not having basic freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press. ... They can parade a hundred beauty queens but without those freedoms, we don't have anything." The Washington Post reports that the junta's international outreach includes "special English-language briefings for foreign media," inviting diplomats to "briefings with question-and-answer sessions," and assuring foreign investors of its "commitment to a free-market economy."

"Under a broad new set of laws criminalizing speech that ridicules the government or its officials, some resurrected verbatim from Saddam Hussein's penal code, roughly a dozen Iraqi journalists have been charged with offending public officials in the past year," reports Paul von Zielbauer. "Three journalists for a small newspaper in southeastern Iraq are being tried ... for articles last year that accused a provincial governor, local judges and police officials of corruption. ... On Sept. 7, the police sealed the offices of Al Arabiya, a Dubai-based satellite news channel, for what the government said was inflammatory reporting. And the Committee to Protect Journalists says that at least three Iraqi journalists have served time in prison for writing articles deemed criminally offensive. ... In May, a court in ... Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, sentenced two journalists ... to six-month suspended jail terms for an article claiming that a Kurdish official had two telephone company employees fired after they cut his phone service for failing to pay his bill."

Jon Gingerich wrote a lengthy and insightful review of Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's recently released book, "The Best War Ever" for odwyerpr.com, the on-line companion to O'Dwyer's PR Report Monthly Magazine. Gingerich's piece begins: "Much like beauty, victory is in the eye of the beholder. This case is made clear in 'The Best War Ever,' a scathing analysis of the Bush Administration's misinformation campaign leading up to and during the war in Iraq." He goes on to highlight the thorough research presented in the book on topics like the role of the Iraqi National Congress and its disgraced leader Ahmed Chalabi in the build-up to war, Bush administration spending on PR and propaganda to sell the war and occupation to both Iraqis and Americans, and the role of the media in not bringing the deceptions and distortions to light. Reviews and a selection of interviews in other publications can be seen here. A reader in Holland, MI just sent us a note saying "Great book -- WOW -- an eye-opener!" There are also comments on the Amazon.com page for the book -- we hope that when you read "The Best War Ever" you will add a comment of your own!

A judge has challenged the fairness of the policy of a News Corporation subsidiary under which all e-mails are deleted after only three days, with only those considered important printed out and included in hard copy files. Justice Ronald Sackville told News Limited's barrister, Noel Hutley, that the company should "Keep them. Or don't engage in a systematic process of removal of them so that in a case like this the end result is that ... I simply don't know what the contemporaneous communications were within News." In its closing submission News Ltd pointed out that the deletion of e-mails by its in-house lawyer was consistent with the system employed by News's head office in New York. Sackville is hearing a case into allegations that News Limited and others sought to undermine the viability of a pay TV company operated by the Seven Network.

George Monbiot argues that journalists and media outlets routinely fail to ensure adequate disclosure of the funding sources when including interviewing staff from think tanks on global warming. "While the BBC would seldom allow someone from Bell Pottinger or Burson-Marsteller on air to discuss an issue of concern to their sponsors without revealing the sponsors' identity, the BBC has frequently allowed International Policy Network's executive director, Julian Morris, to present IPN's case without declaring its backers. IPN has so far received $295,000 from Exxon's corporate headquarters in the US." He points out that while the BBC's guidelines are clear that the broadcaster should not "get involved with campaigning programming which is politically contentious" not all groups describe themselves in those terms. IPN, he suggests, would be better described as a "lobby group" than as a think tank.

"Everyone is kind of groping around in the dark," says New York Times Baghdad correspondent Dexter Filkins on his return from reporting in Iraq. Despite employing 70 Iraqi staffers, the civil war there (Filkins doesn't hedge--"Yeah, sure" it's a civil war) has meant the Times cannot safely access stories. Its own five correspondents primarily spend their time pasting together reports by the Iraqi staff, protected by a small army of 45 security guards, armored cars, and belt-fed rooftop machine guns. "Nobody trusts anybody anymore. There's no law, and the worst people with guns are in charge." The Iraqi reporters know that if their association with the Times is revealed they may pay with their lives, Filkins told the Committee to Protect Journalists at a September 14, 2006, talk in Manhattan where he is preparing to serve a U.S. fellowship. His advice to other reporters thinking about covering Iraq: "Don't go." Filkins said that the U.S. military is similarly hamstrung in getting quality information: soldiers rarely leave their bases and don't interact much with average Iraqis. Ninety-eight percent of Iraq, including Baghdad, is too dangerous for reporters to cover, he said.

When previously spotted pitching in to help the cause of "independent" research involving its products, McDonald's Corp. asked a Connecticut nun to quickly issue an unfinished report about farm workers in order to help the fast food giant fight off a fair wage campaign by migrant tomato pickers. Now McDonald's has donated $2 million to the Scripps Research Institute of La Jolla, California, which (like Sister Ruth Rosenbaum) says it does independent research, this time on the critical medical issue of child obesity. The Institute's press release headline announces, "The Scripps Research Institute, McDonald's Align to Fight Childhood Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes." The release describes McDonald's as "serving a variety of wholesome foods made from quality ingredients to millions of customers every day." It also states, "The relationship unites Scripps ... world-renowned scientists...with McDonald's 50-year legacy of supporting programs that promote children's health and wellness." Bloggers at CarbWire, a diet industry website, call the move a "publicity stunt." Under the Institute's own philanthropy guidelines, McDonald's gift makes it a member of Scripps' "Council of 100" and enables the company to "enjoy private sessions specifically designed for them with....[r]esearch scientists."

Lincoln Group, the PR firm that covertly placed U.S. military-written stories in Iraqi newspapers and has been called "amateurish" by former associates, has won a new two-year, $6.2 million Pentagon contract. Additional requests from Washington DC could increase the value of the contract up to $20 million total. The work includes establishing "a unit of 12-18 communicators to support military PR efforts in Iraq and throughout the Middle East from media training to pitching stories and providing content for government-backed news sites." The Rendon Group previously handled similar work for the U.S.-led military force in Iraq. The request for proposals for the new contract "cited the emboldened insurgency bent on civil war as a key obstacle to the U.S. force's military and communications mission in Iraq." U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has introduced an amendment to halt the PR blitz, according to O'Dwyer's.

Image from an NEI ad

"We all knew it would come to this, didn't we?" a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial asks, of a new offer by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) to pay Nevada to accept nuclear waste at the controversial Yucca Mountain storage facility. NEI's offer is $25 million per year, which would double "once the first waste shipment arrives." After calling Yucca Mountain a "boondoggle," with "audit after audit" revealing "glaring flaws in the scientific models created to demonstrate the project's long-term viability," the newspaper slams NEI's offer as too low. "The standard for paying off a state's population was set by the Alaska Permanent Fund, which collects fees and taxes from oil and mineral exploration and production and offers qualifying residents an annual dividend," it states. This year, Alaska residents received more than $1,100 each; NEI's offer translates to a measly $10 per Nevada resident. In other news, a new poll paid for by NEI and conducted by a former NEI employee found that "nearly seven of 10 Americans favor nuclear energy and 68 percent support building a new reactor at the existing nuclear power plant closest to where they live."

On September 1, the South Korean government established the "Korea-U.S. FTA [Free Trade Agreement] Love Corner" in the lobby of Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to "dispel public misunderstandings of the proposed free trade agreement between Korea and the United States." While "the response so far has been lukewarm," according to the Korea Herald, a ministry PR person explained, "The name of the corner implies that everyone is welcome." The ministry is waging an uphill love-in, though; according to the Korea Times, public opposition to the free trade agreement is increasing. One-half of Korean men surveyed in July 2006 opposed it and 75 percent were critical of "Seoul's negotiation performance." In early September, the South Korean government signed a $660,000 contract with the U.S. firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, to analyze U.S. law and increase support for the agreement in Congress and among the U.S. business community, reported O'Dwyer's PR Daily.

If you were to ask the owner of Lincoln, Nebraska ABC affiliate KLKN-TV (which Journal-Star reporter Jeff Korbelik did) whether the station had received negative feedback about its airing of the controversial "Path to 9/11", the answer was not only "no," but also that the docudrama was "compelling TV." Citadel Communications president Ray Cole, who also sits on ABC's governing board, neglected to say that KLKN had cut off email responses because, in the words of the station's automated response: "No storage space available in mailbox for news8@klkntv.com." So viewers wrote to the Journal-Star with their criticisms of the station's decision to run the drama - or, like Maribeth Milner, sent PR Watch a copy of her returned email, dated September 9, 2006. Viewer TedK wrote: "I also sent an email ... on Friday. It bounced back. ... Seems to me they got a lot of complaints. I guess Ray Cole feels he must lie to back the ABC corporate position." Two writers to the newspaper said they sent critical emails before KLKN's mailbox overflowed and even got responses from a station representative. No apology or correction was provided by ABC's Cole, suggesting that he had given the Journal-Star not a fact-based interview but what ABC might call a "docudramaview."

Although the pharmaceutical company Merck spent $21 million on a 20-month investigation led by a former U.S. district judge, the report's conclusion that "executives at Merck had not knowingly put Vioxx patients in cardiovascular danger" may not boost the drugmaker's sagging reputation. "Some critics say the report is not credible because of Merck's board's involvement" and point out that Debevoise & Plimpton, the firm whose lawyers carried out the study, has a "pro-corporate" reputation. New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, who has covered the Vioxx deaths and legal fallout, told PR Week that Merck's report "reads like a defense brief; it was paid for by the company. I don't think it will change anyone's attitude one iota. It's clearly intended to impact the litigation." There are 14,000 active lawsuits against Merck related to Vioxx. Merck media relations director Ray Kerins said the company is "pleased" with the report, but Merck's PR staff hasn't yet decided "if this thing is going to be used" in company communications.

"This summer, Matt and Doug Stanbro, two brothers from Chelsea, Ala., traded in their game controllers for M-16 rifles," reports Patrik Jonsson. "They're two of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American teenagers inspired by a 'shoot'em-up' video game to join the Army." The "America's Army" game, first released in 1992, "is proving a potent way to communicate military values directly to the messy bedrooms where teens hang out. ... In a recent informal survey of recruits at Fort Benning, Ga., which was conducted by the Army's video-game development team, about 60 percent of recruits said they've played 'America's Army' more than five times a week. Four out of 100 said they'd joined the Army specifically because of the game. Nationwide, the game counts some 7.5 milion registered users." While Army officials say "a range of recruitment tweaks - including easing up on the tattoo policy and up to $40,000 signing bonuses - have played a role" in boosting 2006 recruitment numbers, "few other ideas have been as effective in galvanizing potential recruits as 'America's Army.'"

"An analysis by the Department of Homeland Security found 272 chemical plants nationwide at which an attack or accident could affect at least 50,000 people and an additional 3,400 plants at which more than 1,000 people were at risk," reports the New York Times. Moreover, "the Bush administration, the chemical industry, Democrats, Republicans and environmentalists" agree that "voluntary measures put into place by the industry after the 2001 terrorist attacks are not enough." So why is there a "fierce struggle" in Congress over industry oversight language for the Homeland Security budget bill? Strong lobbying by the chemical industry, which is claiming "that Democrats and environmentalists are trying to hijack what had been an antiterrorism matter and use it to advance their own agenda," which they say includes reducing use of highly toxic chemicals. The Hill profiles lobbyists on chemical security issues, including from such industry mainstays as the American Chemistry Council and American Petroleum Institute.

Following sharp criticism from Britain's Royal Society, Exxon Mobil says it is reviewing which of the groups "that challenge the scientific validity of concerns about global warming" it will continue to fund. Exxon gave at least $6.8 million to nonprofit groups in 2005, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which recently ran "television ads that argued that carbon dioxide, widely seen as the main global-warming gas, is helpful." The Royal Society, made up of Britain's leading scientists, took the "unprecedented step" of writing to Exxon to demand the oil giant stop funding groups that have "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence." The Society also criticized Exxon's "corporate citizenship reports," which claim that "gaps in the scientific basis" make it very difficult to link climate change and human activity. In the Guardian, George Monbiot writes about the history of corporate climate change denial, going back to the PR firm APCO, Philip Morris, PR Watch "usual suspect" Steve Milloy and his front group, the Advancement of Sound Science Coalition.

 

On September 5, 2006, President Bush nominated Mary Peters as Secretary of the Department of Transportation. PR firms should be thrilled. During her short tenure as head of the Federal Highway Administration she made plans to spend an average of $8 million for the services of private PR firms, including almost $3 million a year to "advertise visually-appealing highways and routes." Despite a chorus of criticism, Peters is holding firm to her belief that the plan, which was written with PR as its base, is critical to "position the brand" and "develop a core identity." If Peters is confirmed as Transportation Secretary she will succeed Norman Mineta, the final member of Bush's Cabinet who was a Clinton appointee.

President Bush hugs Katrina victims in Biloxi, Miss. (White House photo)

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, Salon.com obtained "a large batch of emails" which show that, on climate change issues, the Bush administration was "controlling access to [government] scientists and vetting reporters," reports Paul D. Thacker. The emails are from, to or about employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Hurricane Center. "After Hurricane Katrina, NOAA press officers had to get clearance from the Department of Commerce for scientists to discuss global warming and hurricanes with the press," Thacker reports. Commerce "was happy to have a ... politically reliable NOAA hurricane researcher named Chris Landsea speak to the press. At the time, Landsea was stating publicly that global warming had little to no effect on hurricanes." Still, a Commerce communications official sent emails stressing that Landsea must be "on message" and "on his toes. Since [redacted] went off the menu, I'm a little nervous on this, but trust he'll hold the course." Other emails suggest that Commerce kept NOAA scientist Tom Knutson, who "did not toe the line on the administration's view of global warming and hurricanes," from appearing on CNBC.

U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Kevin Martin has launched investigations into two reports on media ownership by FCC staff that were never released. One study found that local ownership of TV stations correlates with more news coverage. The other study found that "while there was a 5.9 percent increase in the number of radio stations in the country between March 1996 and March 2003, there was a 35 percent decrease in the number of radio owners," according to Senator Barbara Boxer, who recently made public copies of both studies. "I, too, am concerned about what happened to these two draft reports," Martin wrote Boxer. Martin launched his own investigation, asked the FCC's Inspector General to conduct a separate inquiry, and promised to include the studies "as part of the open localism and media ownership proceedings" addressing whether the agency should allow further consolidation of media ownership.

"Spending on [British] Government spin has trebled under Labour," reports Graeme Wilson, "and taxpayers are now supporting an army of more than 3,200 press officers." Moreover, "the amount being spent on Government advertising, marketing and public relations has risen three-fold since" Tony Blair became prime minister, to £322 million last year. "Critics have expressed concern that Government spending on advertisements and public relations tends to peak in election years, prompting suspicions that Labour is using public money to sell its key policies to voters." Britain's Central Office of Information defended the spending, the details of which were released by the Conservatives, by saying the Labour government is "radical and reforming" and must "explain its policies, decisions and actions" and "inform members of the public about their rights and liabilities."

CMD's dynamic duo of Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber have written a new book, "The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies and the Mess in Iraq." It is now in stores and available through Internet booksellers. "The Best War Ever" is a must-read for anyone who wants to effectively counter pro-war arguments and support the growing peace movement.

Rampton and Stauber are available for print, radio, and television interviews, and we need your help! You can help us identify local media outlets that should be covering this book and the issues it brings to light. Please send us the name of the media outlet, name of the program if applicable, the contact person, and how to reach them. And please also tell us if you would be willing to help us pitch it to them and the best way for us to contact you. Send your information to editorATprwatch.org (please replace AT with @)

With your help, we can make "The Best War Ever" the most talked-about book this Fall. And don't forget to send your friends to www.thebestwarever.com so that they can watch our four-minute video and sign the Voters for Peace pledge.

While federal law provides only minimum guidelines for healthy school meals (and snack foods and branded beverages proliferate in school vending machines), state-based activism has the potential to push standards higher. That's the cautionary message delivered by food marketing critic Michele Simon at last week's 29th Annual National Food Policy Conference. Simon's new book, Appetite for Profit, skewers food marketers for putting PR before public health and fighting state regulatory efforts. Simon had to note some odd juxtapositions in the annual corporate social responsibility-food activist crossroads: for example, Coca Cola sponsored the break before her own talk. The conference also featured New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle, who Simon says "pulled no punches" in criticizing Big Food for giving lip service to nutrition while focusing most marketing on traditional products of low nutritional value.

Willem Marx, a recent graduate from Oxford, dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent. He applied for an internship in which he would "pitch story ideas" and "interact with the local media" in Iraq. That's how the U.S. government-funded Lincoln Group advertised it. Sent off to Baghdad with virtually no training, Marx was soon packing a loaded Glock and helping buy good press for America--$3 million in cash in his apartment safe and another $16 million coming for "news," PR and advertising. Until, he writes, he could bear no more. "We were...to create something called a Rapid Response Cell... . Working in the violent cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, the journalists would be paid by Lincoln Group to report news that bolstered the U.S. military message." That included advance notice of "breaking stories" in order to ensure that the reporters would "'positively' portray events before the insurgency could put out its own account." Marx's account has stimulated a lively discussion on Alternet.org and offers an epilogue to CMD's The Best War Ever.

President Bush's approval rating has risen to 44% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll conducted September 15-17, 2006. This represents his highest marks in a year. Concurrently, for the first time since December 2005, a majority of people did not say the war in Iraq was a mistake. This shift is particularly interesting in light of a Z Magazine web article that analyzes the Bush administration's recent PR push to ensure that safety from terror and staying the White House's course are one and the same. Hardly striking a moderate tone, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has accused the administration's critics of not learning “history’s lessons,” while the President himself in an August 31, 2006 speech to the American Legion National Convention labeled the terrorists “successors to Fascists, to Nazis, to Communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century.”

Maldives democracy supporter Abdulla Mahir attempts to deliver flowers to Hill & Knowlton's Tim Fallon. Source: Minivan News

On the second anniversary of the murder of Maldives prisoner Evan Naseem, supporters of democracy in the Maldives went to the London office of Hill & Knowlton, where consultant Tim Fallon handles the account for the repressive government headed by President Gayoom. "We ... asked if we could see Tim Fallon to present him with the flowers. The flowers are in memory of those people that Fallon's client has murdered, tortured and abused over the past 28 years. However, Fallon would not meet us. First we were told that he was not in the building, then we were told he is 'too busy' to see us," said Sara Mahir. On its website, Hill & Knowlton boasts that "we put in place whatever is needed to help get the end result – your success" and that their work for the Maldives government has helped "avert a possible tourism boycott."

"Pollsters hired by Verizon Communications Inc. presented a study today that suggests consumers overwhelmingly reject 'net neutrality' ... but they support Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens's voluminous bill that rewrites many of the nation's communications laws," writes Amy Schatz. The U.S. Senate Commerce committee, which Stevens chairs, issued a press release claiming the study shows "American voters favor video choice over onerous 'Net Neutrality' regulations." The study was conducted by the PR firm Glover Park Group, in conjunction with Public Opinion Strategies. Glover Park Group has worked for the U.S. Telecom Association and News Corporation, founding an Astroturf group for the latter. The net neutrality poll questions are leading, asking participants which is more important: "the benefits of new TV and video choice" and "lower prices for cable TV," or "barring high speed internet providers from offering specialized services ... for a fee." On MyDD, Matt Stoller compares the poll questions to, "Do you want lots of pie or would you like a kidney infection?"

Steve Sugarman, a former executive from Fleishman-Hillard (F-H), was sentenced to three years probation and 250 hours of community service for his role in the overbilling of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other city agencies. Two other F-H staff, Douglas R. Dowie and John Stoddard, were convicted earlier this year for their role in the scandal. They have yet to be sentenced, as they are seeking a new trial. In April 2005, F-H agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle the lawsuit brought against it by the city of Los Angeles for overbilling various city agencies.

Global PR firm GolinHarris has unveiled a range of new "practices and products," including one it has dubbed "Engage: Activist Issues Management." The firm explains, "In response to the growing influence of NGOs, GolinHarris has formalized its approach to leverage and deflect the influence of activists on issues ranging from the environment to animal welfare." In a report (pdf) accompanying the announcement, GolinHarris describes corporate social responsibility as allowing companies to "take the offensive" and that "social involvement will become the primary means for influencing public perception." GolinHarris clients include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dow and McDonald's.

The major industry lobby group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has retained Qorvis Communications "for a national PR campaign to educate the public about the good work done by drug companies and the important role they play in developing new medicines," reports O'Dwyer's. The government of Saudi Arabia has been Qorvis' main client. "Since being named CEO at PhRMA more than a year ago, former Louisiana Representative Billy Tauzin and his communications team, led by Ken Johnson, have been implementing an aggressive public relations campaign in an attempt to address the industry's numerous reputation challenges, from pricing to safety to whether drugs are marketed over-aggressively," writes the Holmes Report.

El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language newspaper owned by the Miami Herald's corporate parent, has been receiving negative attention lately. Two of its reporters and one freelancer were among 10 Miami journalists secretly paid by the U.S. government for appearances on the anti-Castro Radio Marti and TV Marti. El Nuevo Herald fired the reporters, but pointed out that other journalists have, "for many, many years," been paid to participate in Voice of America programs. The paper names David Lightman, the Washington bureau chief for Connecticut's Hartford Courant; Tom M. DeFrank, the head of New York Daily News' Washington office; Helle Dale, formerly opinion page director for the Washington Times; and syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer. In his defense, Lightman said, "In general, I do not cover the topics we're talking about" on VoA's "Issues in the News." But Miami Herald executive editor Tom Fiedler said of Lightman, "He is clearly in the position to assign reporters to cover stories about Washington, to cover the very government he is taking payments from." The Courant reports that Lightman will no longer appear on VoA, to avoid "any question of a conflict" of interest.

A lawyer formerly with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said agency officials ordered "every last piece" destroyed of a report linking greater concentration of media ownership to reduced news coverage. "The report, written in 2004, came to light during the Senate confirmation hearing for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin," reports John Dunbar. The report's findings include that "local ownership of television stations adds almost five and one-half minutes of total news to broadcasts and more than three minutes of 'on-location' news. The conclusion is at odds with FCC arguments made when it voted in 2003 to increase the number of television stations a company could own in a single market." Current FCC chair Martin and former chair Michael Powell say they knew nothing of the report. Senator Barbara Boxer, who publicly revealed the report, has asked Martin to investigate what happened and to determine if the report was "shelved because the outcome was not to the liking of some of the commissioners and/or any outside powerful interests," reports TV Week.

British Columbia's Deputy Minister of Health, Gordon Macatee, ordered a lunchtime presentation on disease mongering cancelled until a drug industry speaker could be added. University of Victoria health researcher Alan Cassels was surprised that the ministry was so sensitive about a discussion on the book he co-authored, Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients. A ministry spokesperson, Marisa Adair, said the change "was all in the interest of presenting a balanced viewpoint." Cassels is unpersuaded: "I think my viewpoint is evidence-based. If they have a problem with the evidence-based viewpoint, what's the opposite? It's the marketing-based viewpoint?" Monday Magazine journalist Andrew MacLeod reported that an earlier presentation on obesity was given by a doctor who had received funding from the soft drink lobby group Refreshments Canada. MacLeod wryly noted that it was unclear "whether the ministry had anyone in representing the salad industry to balance his views."

Writing on her blog "Honest Medicine," Julia Schopick points out that the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) used video news releases (VNRs) to promote two studies that later proved controversial, because the authors had neglected to disclose their financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. One study concluded that pregnant women risked relapsing into depression if they stopped taking antidepressants. The January 2006 VNR on the study featured lead author Dr. Lee Cohen, who is a "longtime consultant to three antidepressant makers, a paid speaker for seven of them and has his research work funded by four drug makers," reported the Wall Street Journal. The other study found a link between severe migraines in women and cardiovascular disease. The July 2006 VNR on that study featured lead author Dr. Tobias Kurth, who "has received research funding from the makers of Bayer aspirin, Tylenol and Advil, pain relievers sometimes used to treat migraines," reported the Associated Press. "If JAMA continues to produce and disseminate VNRs ... its staff must check the financial ties of their authors prior to publication," concludes Schopick.

Under a tough new code of ethics all staff and students at Stanford University's medical school, hospitals and clinics will not be able to accept any gifts from drug company representatives. The new policy comes into effect on October 1. "It's about time that this happened," said Alan Cassels, coauthor with Ray Moynihan of "Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients." Harvard Medical School professor Jerry Avorn told the Los Angeles Times that "even if the object is of trivial monetary value, it creates the notion of a friendship. They wouldn't be investing in those things if there weren't a payoff." Scott Lassman, a spokesperson for the drug industry's peak lobbying body, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, complained that restrictions on sales representatives' access to doctors "would be a serious mistake."

Should "viral" videos, produced and placed online by marketers but circulated by amused viewers, be labeled as advertising? Commercial Alert says yes, and the Center for Digital Democracy agrees that "marketer-generated viral video violates consumer privacy." The videos, often posted on social networking sites, "are not identified as commercial speech" and it's "often difficult to establish who is behind" them. On November 6, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission will host hearings on "Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade." According to AdAge, "The biggest worry ... is that viral videos, much like video news releases, are blurring ethical lines. In August, a video produced by TaxBrain aired on local news broadcasts in a stunning 125 U.S. markets across the country. The video showed a man trying to make off with a race car before being stopped and shoved to the ground by security at the racetrack. ... Tracey Watkowski, assistant news director at San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO, one of the stations that reported on the incident, called the incident -- and the use of that type of marketing -- 'despicable.'"

"Indonesia's national intelligence agency used a former Indonesian president's charitable foundation to hire a Washington lobbying firm ... to press the U.S. government for a full resumption of controversial military training programs," reports the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The firm, Collins & Co., was retained by the Gus Dur Foundation in May 2005, for $30,000 a month, to "remove legislative and policy restrictions on security cooperation with Indonesia." From June to October 2005, "Collins & Co. lobbyists, sometimes accompanied by [Indonesian intelligence] officials, met with several key members of Congress and their staffs," including Senators Leahy, Hagel and Murkowski, an aide to Senator Obama, and Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. In late 2005, the State Department "fully reinstated military cooperation and aid to Indonesia." The Gus Dur Foundation's mission is to build orphanages, libraries and schools. The man who signed the lobbying contract on the foundation's behalf said former Indonesian president Wahid "didn't know" about it.

"How did 9-11 change the news?" asks the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). To answer the question, ADT Research's Tyndall Report analyzed network evening news shows, comparing "the four years of network newscasts prior to 2001" with "the four years since." The study reveals "increased coverage of foreign policy and global conflict ... but less coverage of domestic issues." PEJ writes, "A rise in foreign coverage may not surprise anyone. U.S. troops are currently fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. The issue of global terrorism is the new question of our times." Yet, "the balance between reporting-driven 'hard news' and softer features, interviews and commentaries remained virtually unchanged after 9-11." The topics with the steepest decline in U.S. network news coverage since 9-11 are drugs, alcohol and tobacco; space, science and technology; and crime, penal policy and law enforcement.

"If McDonald's makes the case that fast food is nutritious or ExxonMobil argues against higher taxes, it looks like simple self-interest. But when an independent voice makes the case, the ideas gain credibility. So big corporations have devised a form of idea laundering, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to seemingly independent groups that act as spokesmen under disguise. Their views wind up on the opinion pages of the nation's newspapers - often with no disclosure that the writer has financial ties to the companies involved. A few examples: James K. Glassman, a prominent syndicated columnist, denounced Super Size Me, a movie critical of McDonald's. Readers were not told that McDonald's is a major sponsor of a Web site hosted by Glassman. ... Steven Milloy, an analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, wrote a column in the Washington Times that sided with the oil industry against windfall profits taxes. Readers weren't told that groups closely affiliated with Milloy have received at least $180,000 from ExxonMobil. By having others deliver their talking points, the companies stay above the fray, said John Stauber, whose Center for Media and Democracy tracks corporate front groups. 'What these companies are doing is paying somebody else to attack their critics while keeping their fingerprints off the attack.'"

Ten Miami journalists have been paid by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) for their involvement in programs for the anti-Castro propaganda stations, Radio Martí and TV Martí. The OCB is a unit of the the U.S. government-funded Broadcasting Board of Governors. Three of the ten were journalists with El Nuevo Herald. "Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and writes an opinion column, was paid almost $175,000 since 2001 to host shows on Radio Martí and TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald freelance reporter Olga Connor, who writes about Cuban culture, received about $71,000, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covers the Cuban exile community and politics, was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years," Oscar Corral wrote. Alfonso and Isla have been fired by El Nuevo Herald and Connor's freelance relationship terminated. The director of OCB, Pedro Roig, defended the payments.

"As Wal-Mart Stores struggles to rebut criticism from unions and Democratic leaders, the company has discovered a reliable ally," report Michael Barbaro and Stephanie Strom: "prominent conservative research groups like the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Manhattan Institute," as well as lesser-known think tanks such as the Pacific Research Institute. "Top policy analysts at these groups have written newspaper opinion pieces around the country supporting Wal-Mart, defended the company in interviews with reporters and testified on its behalf before government committees in Washington." What the think tanks haven't done is disclose the more than $2.5 million in funding they've received from Wal-Mart over the past six years. The National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy has compiled a report detailing the political objectives of Wal-Mart's charitable activities, titled "The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy."

Governments should learn a lesson from tobacco marketeers and restrict junk food advertising aimed at children, says a prominent obesity specialist. Boyd Swinburn, professor of population health at Deakin University in Australia, was one of several members of a global task force on obesity who called for international standards on advertising food products to children. "If you put a child in a sweet shop and say 'Choose not to consume that', it's an almost impossible responsibility," said Neville Rigby, director of policy and public affairs for the London-based International Obesity task force. (Companies like Altria have historically launched joint efforts to combat criticism of tobacco and food industry policies.) Papers and talks presented at the International Congress on Obesity in Australia were promptly attacked by snack food and restaurant industry advocates. Food industry PR flacks allege that at least one obesity task force member is underwritten by pharmaceutical companies seeking to market antiobesity medications. Many conference participants are calling on the UN's World Health Organization to promulgate uniform restrictions on food marketing to children.

The largest study yet of lung problems among 9/11 rescue workers shows bad news. "Nearly 70 percent of the rescue and cleanup workers who toiled in the dust and fumes at ground zero have had trouble breathing, and many will probably be sick for the rest of their lives," reports Amy Westfeldt. The study, conducted by the Mount Sinai Medical Center, monitored the health of nearly 16,000 ground zero workers. The volunteers who dug through the rubble in search of survivors inhaled dust laden with asbestos, pulverized concrete, mercury and toxins that will leave many of them chronically sick for the rest of their lives. As Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber reported in their 2004 book, Banana Republicans, this tragedy happened because the same politicians who struck heroic poses following America’s worst terrorist attack betrayed the real heroes of the day — the construction workers, police, firefighters and everyday citizens who rushed to the scene and tried to help. In a report for the FireDogLake weblog, they tell the story of how volunteers dug through the rubble while receiving assurances — now proven false — that the air in which they worked was safe to breathe.

A group of activists has launched an