Stephanie Saule reports that "Innerstate, a documentary about three people coping with disabling chronic illness, may be coming to a theater near you. If so, admission will be free, courtesy of the drug maker that produced the film. The 58-minute film ... is an unusual form of soft-pedal marketing of a blockbuster drug, Remicade. The documentary never specifically mentions Remicade, or the product’s maker, Centocor, a unit of Johnson & Johnson. Instead, it focuses on several of the autoimmune diseases Remicade is approved to treat: rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and Crohn’s disease. ... The film, directed by Chris Valentino and produced by the Creative Group, is the latest twist on a business trend toward blending advertising and entertainment."

"We just a few weeks ago, for the first time, engaged in Arabic on blogs," Karen Hughes, the U.S. Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy, told reporter Tara Copp. "We have what's called here a 'digital outreach team' ... that is actively going on the Arabic blogs and responding to misinformation and disinformation and propaganda and rumors with facts. And we're very above board that it's the digital outreach team of the State Department." That's just one new media venture for Hughes. Her office recently gave "State Department exchange students mini-camcorders," writes Copp. "The students recorded their American experiences and will post the videos to YouTube." Hughes herself took a camcorder to Mexico, to post the footage on her video blog (which the Center for Media and Democracy couldn't find online). Hughes added, "We just took the U.S. wrestling team to Tehran and we brought our first groups of exchange participants over to America from Iran. We're going to be doing more of that this year."

"Former [U.S.] House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo has joined a lobbying and public relations firm that backed his attempts to rework the Endangered Species Act and open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil drilling," reports Josh Richman. Pombo is joining Pac/West Communications as a "senior partner," and will "split his time between Sacramento and other Pac/West offices." Pac/West headed the "Save Our Species Alliance," which sought to weaken the Endangered Species Act. Last year, Pac/West won a $3 million contract from the Alaska state government, "to coordinate a campaign for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration," which Pombo has supported. At Pac/West, Pombo said he will be "working with grass-roots groups ... looking at a lot of the issues that I worked with in Congress -- resource issues, agriculture issues," but won't be lobbying his former colleagues in Congress. Pombo declined to say what Pac/West was paying him, but joked, "I'm doing OK."

The pharmaceutical company Merck, known for its aggressive marketing of the ill-fated drug Vioxx, will stop "lobbying state legislatures to require the use of its new cervical cancer vaccine," Gardasil. "At least 20 states are considering making [the vaccine] mandatory for schoolgirls, and the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has already done so by executive order," prompting a backlash from "some parents, advocacy groups and public health experts." Merck started lobbying state officials "before federal regulators approved the product last year," including through the legislators' group Women in Government, which receives funding from Merck and other drug companies. Gardasil's high price and short track record caused concern, as did its role in combating a sexually-transmitted disease. Merck's Richard Haupt said the company will "continue to provide health officials and legislators with education about the vaccine and would continue to lobby for more financing for vaccines in general," but had judged its lobbying for "school requirements ... a distraction."

Mark Penn, the worldwide CEO of the PR firm Burson-Marsteller, "is a man who wears many hats." In addition to being a PR executive, he's the "chief strategist to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination." Penn's also the president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, which "will be paid millions by the Clinton campaign." Moreover, "Burson-Marsteller is a subsidiary of WPP Group, a London-based advertising and PR giant that owns many of the biggest names on K Street," including Quinn Gillespie, Wexler & Walker, Ogilvy Government Relations, Public Strategies, Dewey Square Group, and Hill & Knowlton. Penn's boss, Howard Paster -- himself "an ex-aide to President Clinton and a high-level volunteer for Hillary Clinton's campaign" -- said the WPP units are run independently, with "no risk of any conflict between clients." Penn, a long-time adviser to Microsoft, said he doesn't "personally" do any lobbying.

The British Medical Journal reports that the director of the World Health Organization's (WHO's) department of mental health and substance abuse, Benedetto Saraceno, proposed in an e-mail that the European Parkinson's Disease Association accept a $10,000 grant from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and pass it on to the UN agency. WHO has a policy that it doesn't accept contributions from drug companies. The funding was earmarked for a report on neurological diseases, including Parkinson's disease, which GSK produces drugs to treat. "GSK withdrew its offer of funding when it learnt that acceptance was conditional on obscuring its origin. However, the email exchange indicates that other sums of money originating from drug companies may have already been channelled to WHO through patient groups," Michael Day reports. In response to Day's inquiries, Saraceno described his original email as "very unfortunate." A WHO spokesperson said, "It's astonishing that the BMJ thinks there's a story here."

Source: The Wilderness Society

Forestry Tasmania, a Tasmanian government-owned forestry agency, lost a bid to get a court order preventing an environmental group from organizing a rally against logging operations. Sue Neales reports that Forestry Tasmania "had sought to prevent the Huon Valley Environment Centre (HVEC) and six of its senior members from e-mailing, texting, handing out pamphlets or posting information on the internet" about a rally. The injunction would have also prevented HVEC from "allowing protesters to sleep at its headquarters in Huonville, or at any of its named office bearers' homes." Tasmanian Supreme Court Chief Justice Underwood ruled parts of the evidence tendered by Forestry Tasmania were inadmissible, due to their speculative nature. As a result, the agency withdrew its injunction application. Underwood directed Forestry Tasmania to pay the defendants' costs. The President of HVEC, Adam Burling, described the legal action as "heavy-handed."

The global PR firm Edelman's six-month-long contract to help build international support for Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a September 2006 military coup, has been revealed as being worth $300,000. The contract is via Thaksin's law firm, Baker Botts. However, Edelman's success led to its Thai affiliate, Spindler & Associates (S&A), terminating its relationship with the firm. The head of S&A is Julian Spindler, whose wife is Kanjana Spindler, the Deputy Secretary General to the military-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont. The Thai newspaper The Nation reports that Thaksin has also hired the U.S. law firm Barbour Griffith and Rogers, to "provide guidance and counsel with regard to Mr Thaksin's interest in Washington, DC, and abroad."