The Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America (SUVOA) industry front group paid the PR firm Stratacomm $440,000 in the first half of 2007 to lobby the U.S. government. Stratacomm boasts a range of auto industry clients. Later this year, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are set to discuss proposals to mandate that the auto industry meet a fuel efficiency target of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 across their range of vehicles, including passenger cars and sport utility vehicles. Associated Press reports that recently filed lobbying disclosure forms reveal that SUVOA "lobbied against Senate legislation promoting higher fuel economy standards." In 2004, the PR commentator Paul Holmes wrote that "what is clear is that SUVOA is a front for SUV manufacturers. Its board of directors consists largely of industry reps and public affairs execs with ties to the industry."

"The biggest threat to science," writes Jennifer Washburn, is "the decline of government support ... and the growing dominance of private spending over American research." In 1965, the U.S. government funded more than 60 percent of research, while in 2006, 65 percent of research was privately funded. Even some industry leaders are concerned that basic research, which "drives innovation 10 to 15 years out," is being shortchanged in favor of applied research focused on marketable products. Multiple analyses have shown "that the effect of industry funding on the research outcome is huge" -- a particularly troubling phenomenon for medical research. "Big Pharma now finances approximately 70 percent of the nation's clinical drug research," and of that, "an estimated 75 percent flows to for-profit contract research firms. ... In 2001, the editors of 12 leading medical journals ... expressed their shock at what was happening to independent scientific inquiry." Government research is increasingly privatized to firms like Sciences International, while "most of these federal agencies lack even the most rudimentary tools that a medical journal editor would use to assess the quality and scientific integrity of industry-funded research."

"The United States has begun a $75-million program to promote democracy by supporting Iranian NGO's [non-governmental organizations]," write Haleh Esfandiari and Robert Litwak. "That program, coupled with loose talk about regime change ... has fed a sense of vulnerability and paranoia among elements of Iran's ruling regime." Iranian officials have warned scholars, students, NGO workers and others not to travel overseas, lest they be recruited for U.S. plots. Iran also suspects "the grant-giving programs of American foundations, universities, and think tanks." While the U.S. has used similar methods to destabilize other governments, in Iran the approach has backfired, "further reducing the political space for open debate in Iran," write Esfandiari and Litwak. "In this new climate of intimidation, NGO's and journalists are subject to censorship and are defensively engaging in self-censorship. Prominent Iranian activists, such as the Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, declared their opposition to the U.S. program." Instead, Esfandiari and Litwak suggest, "governments should talk to governments, while Iranian and American NGO's should be permitted to interact in a transparent fashion without the intrusion of governments."

"There's sensitivity to sponsored news right now," admits KEF Media Associates' Yvonne Goforth, adding that her firm is doing more to target satellite media tours (SMTs) -- sponsored and often scripted television "interviews" -- to local TV stations. "The smaller markets are the ones embracing SMTs," notes PR Week, especially those on "lifestyle, technology, consumer, and house care" topics. For a recent SMT promoting "Together Rx Access," a pharmaceutical industry program, KEF Media told local stations "how many people are uninsured in that area, how many people this program will affect, how many kids are uninsured in that area," explains Goforth. With "a good spokesperson, a good topic, and ... some news that relates back to [viewers'] lives, you can do an SMT for everything," Goforth enthuses. Medialink Worldwide is also regionalizing its SMTs. For a recent Aflac-sponsored SMT with a baseball theme, Medialink informed stations of local children involved in the "All-American High School Baseball Classic."