Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at the nuclear industry's largesse, Merck's marketing and cigarettes for kids. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," how is secondhand smoke like an uncurbed dog? The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

To understand how the Bush administration "could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs," look to the 1980s, suggests Robert Parry. On Consortiumnews.com, Parry publishes the "lost chapter" (pdf) of the Congressional report on the Iran-Contra scandal, which was excised in order to win "the votes of three moderate GOP senators." The chapter details how a "public / private network set out to accomplish what a covert CIA operation in a foreign country might attempt -- to sway the media, the Congress, and American public opinion in the direction of the Reagan administration's policies." The chapter describes a 1983 meeting between CIA director William Casey and PR professionals, including Philip Morris' Bill Greener. The topic was how "to sell a 'new product' -- Central America -- by generating interest across-the-spectrum." Edelman is also mentioned as being paid $92,000 to organize "press conferences and speaking tours by persons supporting the Contras." Another PR firm, International Business Communications, was "awarded a secret contract for $276,186," from the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is on record as a big supporter of ethanol and has many ties with the industry. At the opening of a new ethanol plant, Obama argued that embracing ethanol "ultimately helps our national security, because right now we're sending billions of dollars to some of the most hostile nations on earth." In addition, former senator Tom Daschle serves as one of Obama's national campaign chairs. Daschle also sits on the boards of three ethanol companies. During his early years in the Senate, Obama faced criticism for flying at subsidized rates on corporate airplanes. Two trips were on jets owned by Archer Daniels Midland, the nation's largest ethanol producer. Obama is a strong supporter of subsidies for the ethanol industry, even though some of those subsidies are given to the same oil companies he says should be subjected to a windfall profits tax. Ethanol's energy production is only one fourth as efficient as that of Brazilian-made sugar cane ethanol, against which there is currently a tariff. Obama says that he would continue that taxation, even though it may be illegal under the World Trade Organization's rules.