"Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media," reports Kelly Kennedy. "It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training." An officer told the troops that "they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters." One Walter Reed staffer said some soldiers saw the changes as "a form of punishment" for talking to reporters. The Washington Post ran an exposé on the poor conditions in Walter Reed's Building 18. But "the Pentagon also clamped down on media coverage of any and all Defense Department medical facilities ... saying in an e-mail to spokespeople: 'It will be in most cases not appropriate to engage the media while this review takes place,' referring to an investigation of the problems at Walter Reed." The president of Military Reporters and Editors told Editor & Publisher that the problem is bigger still: "It is becoming a policy in some areas where they are not allowing reporters on the base unless it is an absolutely positively good news story."

As had previously been shown with "heart, stroke and bone marrow cancer research," a review by medical researchers found that "breast cancer studies funded by drug companies are more likely to yield positive findings than those without pharmaceutical industry backing." Researchers at the University of North Carolina "looked at 140 studies published in 2003, 1998 and 1993 in 10 medical journals on breast cancer therapies, nearly half of which were deemed to have had drug company involvement in the form of funding, provision of drugs or participation of a company scientist." The lead author of the review said it is possible that industry-funded studies "are biased and negative studies are not being published," but it could also be true that industry-funded research focuses on "safer bets," or drugs more likely to do well.

News searches on USA.gov, a website run by the federal General Services Administration, no longer return stories from Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe, or other government-funded media. Prompted by questions from "an official at the State Department's electronic information division," federal lawyers "determined that the material should not be on a domestic news site," under a 1948 law barring "domestic dissemination of official American information aimed at foreign audiences." A VOA spokesperson noted that U.S. residents can still easily access VOA websites. "The nature of the Web is that it doesn't respect boundaries," he said. Meanwhile, U.S.-funded programs are being broadcast in South Florida, the Pentagon has OK'd its own "news" websites, and a 2003 information operations document claimed that propagandizing U.S. audiences is permissible -- as long as the government doesn't intend to do so.

Critics argue offsets are just sweeping carbon emissions under the carpet. Photo: Mike Wells.

The marketing of carbon offsets as a 'solution' to global warming is attracting criticism. The theory is that an individual or organization can pay a company to invest in renewable energy or tree planting projects to offset carbon emissions from travel or other activities. Speaking at a protest at the office of the UK-based The Carbon Neutral Company (TCNC), Sam Chase from London Rising Tide described offsetting as "a smokescreen". Carbon Trade Watch, a project of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute, recently released a report (pdf) critiquing offsets. "Offset companies give the idea that emissions are instantly 'neutralised' when in fact the supposed 'neutralisation' can take place over periods of up to a hundred years. Regular offsetting worsens the problem because the rate at which carbon emissions are 'neutralised' is far slower than the rate at which they are generated," warns Kevin Smith, the report's author.

Alexander Downer. Photo: Bob Burton

A parliamentary committee reviewing government expenditures was informed that Christopher Pearson, a conservative columnist who writes on national politics and foreign affairs for the Weekend Australian, was paid $A11,364 to help ghostwrite seven speeches in 2005 and 2006 for the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer. Weekend Australian is published by News Limited, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Pearson's work for Downer, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, was not disclosed in his columns. Speeches Pearson assisted with included one for an evangelical Christian conference and others on terrorism, regional foreign policy and environmental issues. Pearson was previously a speechwriter for Prime Minister John Howard and the former parliamentary leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party, Kerry Chikarovski. After government officials detailed the speeches and the amounts paid, Senator Robert Ray commented, "Not only have we got the snout in the trough; we have all the trotters as well."

New restrictions on junk food advertising on children's television announced by the British advertising and media regulator Ofcom have been criticised by health groups as being too weak. The restrictions apply to food and drink products "high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS)" in programmes and on channels aimed at children under 16. From April 1, HFSS ads will not be allowed "in or around programmes" pitched at children aged 4-9, with the age range extended up to 15 after January 1, 2008. Health campaigners had proposed a ban on junk food ads in all programs broadcast before 9pm. Peter Hollins, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said, "Kids don't only watch children's programmes, they watch other shows too, which means they are still getting bombarded with unhealthy food adverts throughout their day." The Food and Drink Federation, which counts Coca-Cola as a member, described the changes as a "disproportionate" response to childhood obesity.

A majority of 350 people attending a debate on PR ethics voted against the team supporting the proposition that PR practitioners have a responsibility to tell the truth. The debate was hosted by the PR industry trade publication PR Week. The director of communications for the Church of England, Peter Crumpler, was disappointed with the result. "Truth and integrity have to be the cornerstones of our profession if we are to have any credibility with the media and the wider world," he said. Celebrity PR adviser Max Clifford and PR academic Simon Goldsworthy led the winning team that disagreed. Writing in PR Week, Daniel Rogers summarized (sub req'd) their central premise as being "if you are not prepared to lie occasionally, you cannot do your job successfully."

A sign protesting U.S.-Philippine military exercises (Source: PBS Frontline)

"Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have acquired screen rights to 'Jihadists in Paradise,' a Mark Bowden article," reports Variety. The article "details the emergence in the Philippines of the Islamic terrorist faction Abu Sayyaf and one of its leaders," who kidnapped 20 tourists, including Americans. The new film project was not welcomed by some in the Philippines. In a statement, the spokesman for the Fisherfolk Alliance of the Philippines (described as "a leading progressive group") called "Jihadists in Paradise" a "propaganda film and psychological warfare movie." He added that the film will promote the "U.S. war on terror and amplify its [U.S.] tagging of the Philippines as the second front for U.S. military aggression," reports All Headline News. Bruckheimer previously produced "Black Hawk Down," about U.S. military operations in Somalia; that film was adapted from a Bowden book. Bowden "is also penning a drama for Imagine and Paramount based on the subject of 'extraordinary rendition,'" where CIA agents kidnap terrorist suspects and deport them, without trial, for detention and interrogation overseas -- often in countries where prisoners are routinely tortured.

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."

Newly-introduced federal legislation would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a measure of authority over the manufacturing, marketing and advertising of tobacco products. HR 1108, also known as "The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act," predictably focuses primarily on youth, and not adult smoking--territory where Philip Morris' public relations machine has succeeded admirably in helping the company avoid regulation. In supporting the bill, Steven C. Parrish, Senior VP of Corporate Affairs at PM's parent company, Altria Group, said "In the long term, it's good for business if fewer people get sick and die from smoking." Indeed. But if PM really believes that fewer people dying from using its products is good business, why wait? PM is could voluntarily stop engineering cigarettes for addiction and promoting cigarettes right now. But it isn't. It's waiting for the Feds to make it. We should ask why, and exactly what in this bill benefits PM.

Source: MilkPEP

The Coca-Cola Company has terminated a 15-year long working relationship with the global PR firm Weber Shandwick. The makers of Coke objected to the PR firm helping run a campaign for the Milk Processors Education Program (MilkPEP), a project funded by dairy companies. As part of the MilkPEP campaign, a January 8 media release stated that "experts say that nutrient-poor, sweetened beverages are a problem because they can push nutrient-rich beverages out of the diet -- including low-fat and fat-free milk." In a statement to PR Week, Coke described this as "a direct, inappropriate and misguided attack on our industry."

Kids' vinyl lunch boxes often contain dangerous levels of lead, but government regulators have released to the public only the test results most favorable to industry, according to documents the Associated Press obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. The Consumer Product Safety Commission found that 20 percent of boxes tested in 2005 contained unsafe amounts of lead--and several contained more than 10 times the safety level. Instead of reporting the findings, the agency used different tests--for example, measuring swabs instead of patches of the material--and then reported the numbers as safe. Lead is used as a binder in some vinyl products, especially those made in China. A spokesman for the Vinyl Institute said, "... [B]asically, we haven't seen any indication of actual harm from the lunch boxes."

A coalition of academics, advocates and foundations has called for strict limits on conflict-ridden, "direct-to-physician" marketing campaigns by pharmaceutical companies. A typical campaign provides free samples to doctors, accompanied by free lunches for office staff and doctors, while some also sponsor speaker's bureaus and provide gifts and junkets. The campaigns, valued at about $12 billion annually, may lead doctors to prescribe expensive, patented medications in place of equally effective generic drugs. The anti-perk campaign, called "The Prescription Project," seeks to ensure that medication use is based on scientific evidence instead of "Sichuan shrimp" lunches and other goodies, said Jim O'Hara, managing director of policy initiatives at the Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the partners. Several academic medical centers, including Yale, University of Pennsylvania and Stanford have already forbidden Big Pharma perks, while others have hesitated out of the fear of losing research money from the companies, according to the Project. Several researchers have documented the effect of such gifts on doctor prescribing patterns.

Source: Friends of Maldives.

Supporters of the Maldives democracy movement protested outside the London office of the giant public relations firm Hill & Knowlton over its work for the oppressive regime of President Gayoom, who has been in power for 28 years. Friends of Maldives argue that "there have been few real democratic reforms since Hill and Knowlton began the contract with the Government of Maldives three years ago. Arbitrary detention, repression of independent media, and an increase in military expenditure remain pillars of support for the regime." Tim Fallon, a former adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is head of corporate affairs at Hill & Knowlton and has carriage of the Maldives account, claims the firm is "helping the smooth transition of the Maldives towards a free and fair democracy." The Maldives government is reported to be paying Hill & Knowlton approximately $20,000 a month for their work, which includes heading off a tourist boycott of the country.

Former executive of the PR firm Fleishman-Hillard (F-H) Doug Dowie, who was convicted in 2006 of overbilling the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other clients, is suing his former employer to recover $3 million in legal fees. The LA Daily News reports that, in his statement of claim, Dowie argues that F-H had promised to pay all his legal bills but only covered them until he was indicted on federal charges in June 2005. "By then, (Dowie) had been fired from his job with Fleishman-Hillard, was impecunious and financially unable to engage new counsel," his lawsuit states. F-H senior partner Rich Jernstedt told (sub req'd) O'Dwyers PR Daily that the company stopped paying Dowie's legal fees "when we concluded it was no longer appropriate or required to do so." Dowie is scheduled to begin serving a 42-month prison sentence in March.

Richard Zitrin, a San Francisco-based lawyer who teaches at the University of California, warns that the willingness of lawyers to reach secret out-of-court agreements with drug companies can have dangerous consequences for patients. Referring to Eli Lilly's settlement in 2005 of 18,000 lawsuits over the side-effects of Zyprexa, Zitrin writes that "when secrecy is the price of a legal settlement, wrongdoers hide their mistakes as if they never happened and continue with business as usual." Those involved in the 2005 settlement agreed to secrecy provisions on documents that showed the dangers of Zyprexa and how it was marketed. "When lawyers cut secret deals behind the public's back, what we don't know can and does hurt us. The civil justice system belongs to all of us, and no one should be allowed to use it to keep the public in the dark," Zitrin argues.

Source: www.zyprexa-lawyers.com

Federal court judge Jack B. Weinstein has lifted an injunction on U.S. websites distributing copies of internal Eli Lilly documents on the adverse side effects and marketing of Zyprexa, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder. However, in his decision, Weinstein directed eight defendants to return their copies of the documents to Eli Lilly and was highly critical of a New York Times reporter for his role in obtaining them and publicizing their contents. Weinstein justified the gag order against the defendants on the grounds that "selective and out-of-context disclosure may lead to confusion in the patient community and undeserved reputational harm." Philip Dawdy, who writes the blog Furious Seasons, asks, "and what would be the problem with patients having complete information about the drugs they take and how the company that makes said drugs has behaved, conducted research and marketed its products?"

The oil company Shell is working with the PR firm Edelman "in an effort to bring the gasoline experience home to consumers in a hands-on fashion." The wide-ranging campaign kicked off at the Daytona 500, with Shell-sponsored NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick. Other campaign activities include a video game "where players can race cars while avoiding 'gunky desposits'"; exhibits on Shell's history and the "Future of Energy," including "alternative fuels"; and "an interactive game that lets people record themselves having a conversation with a virtual Harvick and then upload the videos to YouTube for an extra viral component," according to PR Week. "Shell hopes to reach 2 million people with the tour," which will travel to 15 cities over the next few months. Edelman is helping Shell "harvest consumers' cell phone numbers, conduct online surveys, and gauge message uptake in the media for ongoing measurement and follow-up communications."

R.J. Reynolds caused a stir recently by unveiling new female-targeted Camel cigarettes, "Camel No. 9." Camel cigarettes have for years been targeted at the "virile segment" -- male smokers whom RJR thinks respond to ads that feature pictures of macho men climbing mountains, fording rivers and such. RJR's targeting of women is not new, however. They have intensely studied women for decades, even to the point of hiring a female psychophysiologist to determine the effects of the menstrual cycle on the "positive aspects of smoking specific to women." RJR's "Project VF" (for "Virile Female") targeted a new cigarette brand toward less-educated, low income or unemployed women who tend to wear blue jeans, whose favorite TV characters are "bitches" and who like to attend tractor pulls and monster truck rallies. This led to "Dakota" brand cigarettes, since discontinued. Women from around the country wrote to RJR to protest the brand, but RJR didn't learn from all the offense it generated. Camel No. 9, just as offensive, uses pink packaging and flowery ads, which will run in Cosmopolitan, Flaunt, Glamour, Vogue and W., to once again target women.

Johnson & Johnson's biopharmaceutical unit, Centocor, "has developed a documentary film to serve as the centerpiece of a national campaign," reports O'Dwyer's. The movie, "Innerstate," follows "three patients living with chronic diseases like Crohn's disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis -- ailments for which Centocor markets treatments. Centocor's drugs aren't mentioned in the movie, however." According to Centocor PR director Michael Parks, "These diseases are quite complex and not easily explained in a 30- or 60-second ad. We wanted to find something that would give us enough real estate to have a discussion." The healthcare PR firm Dorland is promoting the movie. At least 14 U.S. cities will host movie screenings, complete with appearances by "local medical experts and support groups, along with the film's patients."

From an ad by the U.S. National Energy Institute

In a stunning defeat for Prime Minister Tony Blair's national energy review, Britain's High Court ruled the process a "sham" consultation exercise. The environmental group Greenpeace had "accused the Government of acting illegally by failing to consult properly on its nuclear power plans before giving them the go-ahead." The court found the 12-week process to be "seriously flawed," "misleading," and "procedurally unfair," not to mention "wholly insufficient for [the public] to make an intelligent response." The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, admitted that the government "will have to start a new round of consultations on nuclear power." Darling added that the government "still intended to reach a decision by the end of the year," and pointed to an editorial by Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace member now a public relations executive and paid consultant for the nuclear industry. Blair was originally intending to declare nuclear power "a vital ingredient in Britain's energy programme," in a White Paper to be released next month. The NuclearSpin website warns that in the wake of Balir's legal setback, citizens can "expect the pro-nuclear lobby to gear up for a major PR offensive in the coming months."

"The politics of Texas power and pollution have moved suddenly into the living rooms of millions of Texans," over "electric companies' plans to build 16 coal-burning plants using conventional technology that pollutes more than a newer coal system." In addition to lobbying, interested parties are launching ad campaigns and websites and forming new "pressure groups." Campaigning for the coal plants are: Texans for Affordable and Reliable Power, which receives funding from the Dallas-based energy company TXU and includes "mayors, officials and business leaders in towns with TXU plants"; and Texas Business for Clean, Affordable, Reliable Energy, which was founded by the Texas Association of Business. At least six groups are opposing the coal plants: Texas Business for Clean Air, which includes nearly 100 "local or state business leaders"; Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition, which includes the mayors of Dallas and Houston; Texas Clean Sky Coalition, which launched a $1 million ad campaign is funded "by unknown parties," though "natural-gas companies are involved"; Clean Coalition, which was founded by a Dallas developer; Stop the Coal Plant, a joint effort of Public Citizen and Sustainable Energy & Economic Development; and Robertson County: Our Land, Our Lives, which was founded by local citizens.

With 44,000 employees, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) "is larger than the [U.S.] departments of Labor, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development combined," Donald Barlett and James Steele write, in an in-depth profile of the military contractor. "SAIC currently holds some 9,000 active federal contracts," more than any other company. But "several of SAIC's biggest projects have turned out to be colossal failures," including "Trailblazer," a system to manage incoming intelligence for the National Security Agency, and the "Virtual Case File," a centralized data repository for the FBI. "SAIC executives have been involved at every stage ... of the war in Iraq," from pushing WMD claims to helping "investigate how American intelligence could have been so disastrously wrong." Under "yet another no-bid contract," SAIC created the Iraqi Media Network, supposedly a "free and independent indigenous media network" that quickly became "a mouthpiece for the Pentagon." Eventually, "the network was turned over to Iraqi control. Today it is a tool of Iraq's Shiite majority and spews out virulently anti-American messages." Moreover, SAIC's work on the Iraqi Media Network was criticized by the Pentagon's Inspector General as having "widespread violations of normal contracting procedures."

Robin Raskin promoting Swiffer during a satellite media tour

Companies are exploring new ways to target women. "As word-of-mouth marketing has increased in use by marketers, 5.4% of moms have emerged as 'netfluencer' moms," writes PR Week, using data from the PR firm Porter Novelli. When Procter & Gamble decided to promote Febreeze and Swiffer as "allergen-reducing" products, it surveyed women and found they turned to pharmacists, physicians, medical websites, friends, family and local TV news for health-related information. The resulting marketing campaign included a partnership with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), "influencer" kits for physicians, and an AAFA member and physician serving as "third-party spokespeople" in TV satellite media tours and audio news releases for radio. When Georgia-Pacific wanted to boost Dixie cup sales, it used a "consumer segmentation study" and focus groups. The resulting "Make it a Dixie Day" campaign included sponsoring "Mommycast, a podcasting show hosted by and targeted to moms." The sponsorship, suggested by Porter Novelli, "has allowed Dixie to become a 'mom's advocate,'" said PN's Karen Weidenaar.

"In just the last two months, lawmakers invited lobbyists to help pay for ... lavish birthday parties in a lawmaker's honor ($1,000 a lobbyist), martinis and margaritas at Washington restaurants (at least $1,000), a California wine-tasting tour (all donors welcome), hunting and fishing trips (typically $5,000), weekend golf tournaments ($2,500 and up), a Presidents' Day weekend at Disney World ($5,000), parties in South Beach in Miami ($5,000), concerts by the Who or Bob Seger ($2,500 for two seats), and even Broadway shows like 'Mary Poppins' and 'The Drowsy Chaperone' (also $2,500 for two)." But don't worry -- it's all happening under the U.S. Congress' new ethics rules. "Instead of picking up the lawmaker's tab" directly, explains the New York Times, "lobbyists pay a political fund-raising committee set up by the lawmaker." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who voted for ethics reform, said, "If you are not going to have publicly financed elections ... I don't see any problem with having events where private individuals who give you money can talk to you." Such fundraising via lawmakers' personal political action committees (PACs) "might even increase the volume of contributions flowing to Congress from K Street, where many lobbying firms have their offices."

One radio station in Santa Fe, New Mexico has had enough. "It is the policy of KSFR's news department to ignore and not repeat any wire service or nationally published story about Iran, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia or any other foreign power that quotes an 'unnamed' U.S. official," news director Bill Dupuy told his staff. "We should not dutifully parrot whatever comes out of Washington, on the wire or by whatever means, no matter how intriguing and urgent it sounds, when the source is unnamed. I am also calling on our colleagues in other local news departments -- broadcast and print -- to take the same professional approach." President Bush inadvertently proved the wisdom of KSFR's policy at a February 14 press conference. Bush contradicted an earlier briefing by "unnamed officials" in Baghdad claiming that "top Iranian leaders" were behind weapons used against U.S. troops in Iraq, reports Editor & Publisher. "I do not know whether or not the Quds Force was ordered from the top echelons of [the Iranian] government," Bush said.

Source: Guillaume restaurant at the Sydney Opera House

The global drug company, Roche has been fined $A75,000 for breaching a provision of the Australian drug industry's voluntary code of conduct which requires that meals given to doctors at company events should be "simple and modest". An investigation into the complaint - lodged by the Australian government drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration - followed the July 2006 revelations in the British Medical Journal and The Australian that the company had spent in the order of $A65,000 entertaining approximately 300 cancer specialists at the Guillaume restaurant in the Sydney Opera House. A majority of the members of a committee hosted by the peak drug industry lobby group, Medicines Australia, which oversees the code of conduct, found (pdf) that Roche's entertainment for doctors "brought the industry into disrepute." A minority of the committee "did not consider the hospitality provided ... to be excessive". Roche did not appeal against the decision.

Craig Unger reports in Vanity Fair magazine that "The same neocon ideologues behind the Iraq war have been using the same tactic -- alliances with shady exiles, dubious intelligence on WMD -- to push for the bombing of Iran. As President Bush ups the pressure on Tehran, is he planning to double his Middle East bet? ... Whatever the administration's master plan may be, parts of it are already under way. ... According to Sam Gardiner, by the end of February the United States will have enough forces in place to mount an assault on Iran. That, in the words of former national-security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, would be 'an act of political folly' so severe that 'the era of American preponderance could come to a premature end.' "

Source: General Electric

General Electric's current "green" marketing campaign ads include a train engine "chugging through pristine rural settings surrounded by flowers, birds, trees and mountains." But far from the summit of environmental responsibility, the company is at the "height of hypocrisy," says Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch, because it is simultaneously lobbying the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken proposed nitrogen oxide restrictions for diesel engines. Other train makers say they can meet the EPA's proposed rules, which wouldn't kick in until 2011 at the earliest. GE calls the standard "unlikely to be achieved." An EPA official says GE's resistance is slowing adoption of the new rules. The agency estimates that reducing smog from trains and ships could provide more than $70 billion in health and environmental benefits within 20 years while the cost of compliance would be $2 to $3 billion over the same period.

Nick Madigan of the Baltimore Sun reports, "The trial of I. Lewis Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, and recent disclosures ... are shining a harsh light on the sometimes overly symbiotic relationships between reporters and their sources. ... John Stauber, founder of the Center for Media and Democracy, a media watchdog group, said 'star' journalists and government officials 'go to the same parties' and 'rely on each other in many ways that are invisible to the public, that often involve trading favors mutually beneficial to their careers in the media or in government.' Stauber, the co-author, with Sheldon Rampton, of The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies and the Mess in Iraq, said the Iraq war was possible only 'because most of the mainstream media became like a propaganda arm of the Bush administration' and failed to point out that 'the best available evidence indicated no relationship between Saddam and 9/11, no relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda, and no active WMD program in Iraq.'"

As part of a program to give voice to a select group of think tanks, on January 30 the Washington Post printed an article by toxicologist and epidemiologist Gio Batta Gori, titled "The Bogus 'Science' of Secondhand Smoke." Gori claims that many published studies on the health hazards of secondhand smoke are based on unreliable data, and that smoking restrictions aimed at protecting public health are "odious and unfair." The byline describes Gori as a "fellow of the Health Policy Center in Bethesda," and mentions his former position as deputy director of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Cause and Prevention. Hmmm... sounds like a high-level scientist, all right. However, the Post fails to mention Gori's longstanding record of financial and contractual ties to the tobacco industry. Previously-secret internal tobacco company documents now on the Internet (and available to any reporter) show decades of payments made to the esteemed Dr. Gori, primarily from cigarette maker Brown & Williamson, for promoting pro-tobacco views on secondhand smoke in publications and public testimony. Without this information, readers were kept in the dark, unable to evaluate Gori's damning critique of well-established public health research.

The United Kingdom's Environment Agency has opened an investigation into toxic groundwater contamination in south Wales after examining evidence that Monsanto knowingly contracted to dump thousands of tons of waste in British landfill sites. In 1968, a Monsanto committee secretly considered disposal options for Aroclor, a trade name for cancer-causing PCBs, and wrote: "[I]t will be impossible to deny the presence and persistence of Aroclors. ... The alternatives are [to] say and do nothing; create a smokescreen; immediately discontinue the manufacture of Aroclors; respond responsibly, admitting growing evidence of environmental contamination." The Guardian reports that Monsanto's detailed planning has publicly emerged only decades after the dumping due to a U.S. lawsuit. The company issued a defensive response, stating that the then-parent company, Pharmacia, informed contractors about the cancer-causing PCBs and "did not dump wastes from its own vehicles." The British government is also under attack for failing to release to the public its own information about the chemical releases. One quarry has been leaking PCBs and other chemicals for years.

"In recent days, White House officials have made a special effort to argue that [President] Bush has always been concerned about climate change," reports the Los Angeles Times. An open letter from John Marburger of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and James Connaughton of the Council on Environmental Quality claims that "climate change has been a top priority since the president's first year in office." The letter quotes selectively from a June 2001 Bush speech, omitting parts where he sought to minimize the human impact by stating, "We do not know how much effect natural fluctuations in climate may have." Environmentalists point out that Bush reneged on a 2000 campaign pledge to reduce power plant emissions, and withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. The oil giant ExxonMobil is also greenwashing itself, reports the Washington Post. While company reports still claim it is "difficult to determine objectively the extent to which recent climate change might be the result of human actions," Exxon spokespeople are now asserting, "The appropriate debate isn't on whether the climate is changing but rather should be on what we should be doing about it."

On February 10, the New York Times ran a story about "an increasing body of evidence" suggesting "an Iranian role" in supplying the "deadliest weapon aimed at American troops in Iraq." Editor & Publisher's Greg Mitchell wants readers to consider the source. The sources cited are "civilian and military officials from a broad range of government agencies," almost all anonymous. And the author of the piece is Michael R. Gordon, who "on his own, or with Judith Miller, wrote some of the key, and badly misleading or downright inaccurate, articles about Iraqi WMDs in the run-up to the 2003 invasion," including the infamous "aluminum tubes" story. In other Iran news, the Washington Post reports that Vice-President Cheney's national security adviser, John Hannah, called 2007 "the year of Iran." President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have said the U.S. has "no intention of attacking Iran."

Image from the movie "Iraq for Sale"

Military contractor DynCorp has retained Qorvis Communications for "messaging and image work," reports O'Dwyer's. Qorvis is best known as being the PR firm for the Saudi Arabian government. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, is investigating DynCorp for "accounting problems and unauthorized spending." At issue is a $43.8 million State Department contract "for a camp that was never used by police trainers," including $4.2 million that DynCorp billed for "unauthorized work." Another $36.4 million expenditure, intended "for weapons and equipment, including armored vehicles, body armor and communications equipment ... cannot be accounted for," reports the Dallas Morning News. DynCorp also holds contracts for police training in Afghanistan -- and a new $95.6 million U.S. Army contract, "to support and maintain various aircraft fleet," reports Associated Press.

Valentine's Day is approaching, and the public relations industry is readying fake news promotions for jewelry, candy, flowers and other traditional gifts. A February 8 press release from the broadcast PR firm Medialink Worldwide and the Flower Promotion Organization reads, "More than 190 million stems of roses will be bestowed upon sweethearts in the U.S. While Cupid is busy keeping the love alive, it may take a flower doctor to help prolong the life of your beautiful blooms." Sound familiar? Medialink is currently promoting the exact same