Former MSNBC correspondent Jessica Yellin admitted on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 last night that during the run-up to the war, "the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war that was presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings." Appearing as part of a panel discussing Scott McClellan’s book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, Yellin alleged that "the higher the president’s approval ratings ... the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president." Hardball host Chris Matthews also admitted in a speech at Harvard’s Institute of Politics on Monday that MSNBC bosses were "basically pro-war during the war." His remark came during a discussion of top-down editorial control at the network, which Matthews denied existed.

"The catastrophic earthquake that rocked China's Sichuan province has changed the entire tenor of the coming Olympics" -- and the shift is good for beleaguered Olympics sponsors. "Marketers such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Samsung have had their Olympic efforts to date tarred by protesters" concerned with China's poor human rights record, especially in Tibet, and its support of the Sudanese government. But those issues have been overshadowed by the Sichuan earthquake, which killed more than 55,000 people. "Many of the top Olympic sponsors have been among the most generous and aggressive in responding to the Sichuan crisis," according to Advertising Age. "Coca-Cola donated more than $3 million and gave more than 5.7 million bottles of water. McDonald's served 17,000 meals daily to earthquake victims, relief workers" and others. Public relations consultant David Wolf explained that China is "a big market, and companies, if you want to look at it cynically, want to be seen as making a contribution. But many of the people ... are genuinely shocked by the images coming out of Sichuan and want to do everything they can."

The pharmaceutical company Pfizer "is preparing an advertising and public-relations campaign to counter concerns about its antismoking drug Chantix, once trumpeted as a potential billion-dollar-a-year blockbuster." So far, Pfizer has "run ads in five major newspapers in which its medical director explains Chantix's risk-benefit balance." The drug company will soon "start hosting round-table discussions on Chantix for members of the media." The Pfizer campaign comes after an independent study linked Chantix "to 988 serious side effects in the last quarter of 2007." According to Senator Charles Grassley, who has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the drug's safety, Chantix has had "more reports of serious adverse events in this country than any other prescription drug." Some of the side effects reported for Chantix aren't currently listed in the drug's warnings. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, which conducted the Chantix study, receives drug company funding, but not from Pfizer, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

As we have reported previously, Medialink Worldwide -- the largest producer of fake news products such as video news releases (VNRs) and audio news releases (ANRs) -- has fallen out of favor with investors. On May 27, the company's stock closed at just 89 cents. "NASDAQ rules require companies to maintain a minimum closing bid of $1 per share. Failure to do so for 30 consecutive business days runs the risk of delisting," writes Tonya Garcia in PR Week. Medialink Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Torosian attributes the share price crash to the recent sale of 900,000 shares by Pequot Capital. However, the company's shares have been falling consistently over the last year, dropping by 75 percent since the beginning of 2008. At the end of March, Medialink announced that its board had approved a plan to purchase 150,000 of the company's own shares, in a bid to counter "recent volatility in the financial markets."