Just 13 percent of Americans think pharmaceutical companies are "generally honest and trustworthy," according to a recent survey. "Public confidence in drug companies has plunged harder and faster than for any other industry," putting them "on a par with tobacco, oil and [HMOs]." With medical journals not identifying drug study authors' "relevant conflicts of interest," Schering-Plough pleading guilty to defrauding Medicaid, Bristol-Myers Squibb settling charges of financial improprieties, and GlaxoSmithKline withholding information about its antidepressants' usefulness for adolescents, it's not too hard to understand the survey results.

Montana's citizen-passed ban on cyanide leach mining may be repealed in a November initiative supported by the group Miners, Merchants and Montanans for Jobs and Economic Opportunity. The group receives almost all of its funding from Colorado's Canyon Resources Corp. - which may explain a "little-known part" of the initiative "that would restore mining rights that any company or person had when the cyanide method was banned in 1998." Initiative opponents, concerned at the environmental effects of cyanide mining, have formed a "Save the Blackfoot" group, whose board consists "largely of southwestern Montana residents, some of them Blackfoot River users."

Journalism professor Jay Rosen, who attended the Democratic national convention, says the "great overlooked story in all the reporting" was the heightened security situation. "It was in your face, nonstop, in thousands of ways inside what was called, in military terms, The Perimeter," Rosen writes. "It came lunging at you as you approached the site and enveloped all when you were on site. You could have your credentials checked twenty times on a single trip from the ground floor to your seats. ... It was telling us that we live in a different world than the last time there was a political convention. ... What was all this security about? And who authored it? Ultimately, Al Queda did. ... Al Queda also came to the convention."

New York Times' columnist Paul Krugman looks into why Americans haven't heard much about John Kerry's proposal to extend health insurance to lower- and middle-income families. After "reading 60 days' worth" of transcripts from major cable and broadcast TV networks Krugman writes, "Never mind the details - I couldn't even find a clear statement that Mr. Kerry wants to roll back recent high-income tax cuts and use the money to cover most of the uninsured. When reports mentioned the Kerry plan at all, it was usually horse race analysis - how it's playing, not what's in it. On the other hand, everyone knows that Teresa Heinz Kerry told someone to 'shove it,' though even there, the context was missing." Krugman continues, "Somewhere along the line, TV news stopped reporting on candidates' policies, and turned instead to trivia that supposedly reveal their personalities. We hear about Mr. Kerry's haircuts, not his health care proposals. We hear about George Bush's brush-cutting, not his environmental policies. ... In short, the triumph of the trivial is not a trivial matter. The failure of TV news to inform the public about the policy proposals of this year's presidential candidates is, in its own way, as serious a journalistic betrayal as the failure to raise questions about the rush to invade Iraq."

Florida's Republicans are getting mixed signals about November. Governor Jeb Bush "has tried for months to persuade Florida voters touch-screen [electronic] voting machines are reliable." But the state GOP party is circulating a flier that reads, in part, "The new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount. Make sure your vote counts. Order your absentee ballot today." Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County elections officials are "very pleased" that they found a compact disk containing the votes cast on e-voting machines in the 2002 gubernatorial primary; the information had been reported lost.

"Citizens for a Sound Economy and Empower America have merged to form FreedomWorks, a grass-roots advocacy and political group to bolster their fight for 'lower taxes, less government and more economic freedom,'" reports Judy Sarasohn. The new group will be co-chaired by Dick Armey, C. Boyden Gray and Jack Kemp, with Matt Kibbe as president. Freedom Works is "intended, in part, to challenge political liberal groups such as MoveOn.org for voters this campaign season" and will engage in "lobbying, political fundraising and political activities, including voter education and get-out-the-vote efforts in key campaigns," according to Armey.

"The pyramid has crumbled," said a food industry consultant. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion hired the Porter Novelli PR firm to redesign the Food Pyramid, or, as one PR pro called it, the "Food Guidance System, so it's not prejudiced that it's going to be a pyramid." Food is a $500 billion industry, so "everybody and their dog" is interested, said the Wheat Foods Council president. Concerned groups include the U.S. Potato Board, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Atkins Nutritionals and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The USDA will pay Porter Novelli at least $1.6 million over the next year, for the redesign, slogan, Internet work and educational materials, reports Adweek.

Ohio's concealed carry law allows "only the media to find out the names of those obtaining such permits" for weapons. So Cleveland's newspaper, The Plain Dealer, published the "names, ages and home counties of the 3,000 residents who have taken out such permits, citing the public's right to know." In response, Ohioans for Concealed Carry posted the newspaper editor's home address, phone number and other personal information on their website, along with a map to his house, saying, "The editor believes in open records." The editor's home phone has received "a steady stream of phone calls, some of them obscene."

Toby Moffett is a well-connected Washington lobbyist employed at the Livingston Group, a powerful lobby firm begun by former Republican representative Robert Livingston. One of Moffett's close colleagues at Livingston is Lauri Fitz-Pegado who worked for the front group Citizens for a Free Kuwait. Moffett was previously a vice-president of Monsanto, the giant genetic engineering and pesticide company. In his youth Moffett worked for Ralph Nader and now as he did in 2000 he is trading on his "Nader's Raider" past to raise hefty contributions for a well-oiled attack campaign against Nader's run for the presidency. According to the Seattle Times, "anti-Nader groups have been organized for months. But the efforts have taken 'a huge move' recently in fund raising, research and a detailed attack plan, Moffett said. 'This guy [Nader] is still a huge threat,' he said. 'We're just not going to make the same mistake we made in 2000.' ... A memo given to potential supporters said Moffett's group, United Progressives for Victory, will do research, community organizing, media outreach and Internet marketing aimed at weakening Nader's standing. Last night, Nader called it a smear campaign and said, 'It's the Democrats' undemocratic attempt' to quash third-party candidates."

The international PR firm APCO Worldwide "is spreading the word that Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is a staunch U.S. ally committed to combating terrorism." APCO signed a six-month agreement with Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information "to promote positive U.S./Indonesia ties," including a high-level delegation to Washington DC, after Indonesia's presidential run-off election in September. Yet "Indonesian police ... dropped plans to charge militant cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir with involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings following a court ruling last week that curbed the use of a tough antiterrorism law," reports the Wall Street Journal.

Candidates, delegates, protesters and media aren't the only folks attending the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer. Lobbyists, by the thousands, are doing "what amounts to the only real work going on at the convention - the nonstop currying of favor of elected officials by the most powerful interests in the country," the Washington Post writes. Representing their well-heeled clients, lobbyists are hosting hundreds of events at the conventions hoping to make connections that will pay off for them in the future. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), played down the $19,000 luncheon given in his honor by the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Durbin, an original co-sponsor of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, called the luncheon an extension of his "day-to-day contact with business from my state." "It's hospitality at the convention, and I think that's part of the experience," he told the Post.

"In a difficult security situation, we need to fight the terrorists by all means, and one of the main means is the media. We need them all to co-operate, even the private sector. It's for national security," said Ibrahim Janabi, a former Iraqi intelligence officer who Prime Minister Iyad Allawi just appointed as the head of the new Higher Media Commission. The Commission, which will be housed in the old Information Ministry building, will "impose restrictions on print and broadcast media." Janabi said the restrictions would include "unwarranted criticism of the prime minister."

"Two senior United States trade negotiators who sealed the trade deal with Australia have accepted plum jobs representing U.S. medical and drug companies," reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Ralph Ives, the current U.S. trade representative for pharmaceutical policy, will become the industry group AdvaMed's vice-president for global strategy. Claude Burcky, head U.S. negotiator for intellectual property trade issues, will become Abbott Laboratories' director of global government affairs. "This may help explain why the Australian trade agreement is designed to undercut access to affordable medicines for Americans and Australians alike," said U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown. Wexler and Walker Public Policy Associates, an independent unit of PR firm Hill & Knowlton, lobbied on behalf of U.S. businesses in support of the American-Australian Free Trade Agreement.

The Richmond Organization, a humor-challenged corporation that owns the copyright to Woody Guthrie's classic folk song, "This Land Was Made For You and Me," is suing over a hilarious parody that uses Guthrie's song to lampoon George W. Bush and John Kerry. Columnist Dan Gillmor points out that the company is "dishonoring Woody Guthrie's memory, not that it seems to care. But it's giving us one more example of how the copyright system has abandoned common sense."

The CIA's favorite PR firm, "the Rendon Group is playing a major behind-the-scenes role at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, arranging first-time/real-time video broadcasts each morning to each of the 56 caucuses, serving as the event's project manager, and coordinating 20 convention-related events, Rick Rendon, co-founder of the firm, told O'Dwyer's. Rendon hired Polycom Video Systems to set up secure servers in 22 hotels so leading Democrats can address each caucus at their 8 a.m. breakfast for a 'virtual convention.' ... Rendon said the Boston convention will mark the first time that each delegation will be connected in real-time. 'I remember how hard it was to speak to the different delegations when I worked for Jimmy Carter,' said Rendon. TRG has or will run 20 convention events, ranging from an educational reception for young female Democrats featuring former Texas Governor Ann Richards to the 'Rock the Vote' concert. An Associated Press July 25 photo featured TRG staffer Jim King giving John Kerry's daughters Vanessa and Alexandra a tour of the FleetCenter. King is one of TRG's 'lean and mean' convention team, said Rendon. 'It's been crazy,' he added."

"The Business Industry Political Action Committee's 'Prosperity Project' program targets 20 million employees in battleground states" and "pushes their companies' views of political candidates to employees via Web sites and interoffice e-mails," reports Advertising Age. BIPAC "is especially concerned about confirmation of pro-business judges and has focused most of its attention on congressional races." BIPAC president Greg Casey said his group tells workers "how the issues impact them," but doesn't tell them how to vote. Casey also said that John Kerry "is not a business candidate. He hasn't even pretend [sic] to be."

The U.S. Army's $200 million advertising account is in review. According to the trade journal Advertising Age, the five-year-old "Army of One" tagline may be "out of touch" with the reality of war. The Army will use its ad campaign as its most public face as it tries to recruit 80,000 new soldiers next year. But the Army has to be "careful," Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone journalist and author of Generation Kill. Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War, told Advertising Age. "It really damages morale if they do a bait and switch," Wright said. The Army sells "kids on this idea of playing with really cool guns, machines, tanks, radios and computers, that they will have so much high technology they'll be an 'Army of One.'" But the primary images of war, according to Wright, "are burning Army Humvees. In the field, the technology doesn't seem so cool." The Army says its advertising is "based on real-life stories. ... If you look at our '2400/7' series [of ads], it demonstrates what soldiers are doing in their jobs. It's reality TV. We don't use actors. Our research tells us that these kids want to know what the deal is.

In his essay, "A Cultural Approach to Communication," Columbia University journalism professor James W. Carey identifies two views of communication -- "transmission" and "ritual." In Carey's words, the "ritual view" is communication "linked to terms such as 'sharing,' 'participation,' 'association,' 'fellowship,' and the 'possession of a common faith.' ... A ritual view of communication is directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time." Media critic and academic Jay Rosen describes the "transmission view" as "the most common in our culture. Here communication is equated with the delivery of 'messages' across distance." Rosen, who is covering the Democratic Nation Convention on his weblog PressThink, suggests journalists keep Carey's essay in mind while covering the convention. Why? "Because if you try to understand a political ritual with a transmission view in your head, you will miss much of what's going on. And because at the deepest roots of their thinking, journalists see the transmission of new information as real and important, whereas ritual communication is fake, newsless and ultimately unimportant," Rosen writes.

"Fear has increased in every newsroom in America," said CBS's Dan Rather during a discussion of "The Press and the Election" at Harvard University. That's fear of "a torrent of e-mails and phone calls" complaining about media coverage of controversial issues. Rather said journalists might think, "when you run this story, you're asking for trouble. ... Why run it?" NBC's Tom Brokaw mentioned the Media Research Center and said conservatives "feel they have to go to war against the networks every day." ABC's Peter Jennings added, "I hear more about conservative concerns than I have in the past. ... I feel the presence of anger all the time."

PBS anchor Jim Lehrer blasted the major TV networks for limited coverage of the political conventions, since "we're about to elect a president of the United States at a time when we have young people dying in our name overseas, [and] we just had a report from the 9/11 commission which says we are not safe." NBC's Tom Brokaw countered, "These conventions are so managed, so over-managed" there's not much to report. Brokaw complained about Kerry campaign media control, saying, "There is a politburo running this convention." For a joint CBS/NBC interview, campaign "staff wanted the questions to concern Mr. Kerry's expectations for the convention, nothing more" - a request that was "swiftly denied."

"All PR people pitch stories to reporters, but Fox is unusually forceful ... and active in letting reporters know when it is unhappy," writes Alex Ben Block. "Among the hundreds of reporters with whom the [Fox News Channel] publicists regularly deal, some have written things that are deemed so offensive that Fox just stops talking to them." The "blacklisted" include an Associated Press reporter who wrote an article about Paula Zahn leaving Fox for CNN and a Baltimore Sun reporter who, in late 2001, "noted that Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera was not actually at the scene of a battle [in Afghanistan], as he had described."

U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey says the Food and Drug Administration's chief counsel "is aggressively intervening against the public on behalf of drug companies and medical device manufacturers" and this "pattern of collusion" has "corrupted [the FDA's] mission to protect the public health." Daniel Troy, who lobbied for drug and tobacco companies before being appointed as USDA counsel, reportedly told drug companies to inform him of lawsuits so that the FDA could strengthen their defense. "Make it sound like a Hollywood pitch," he advised. Troy has filed USDA briefs on behalf of former client Pfizer, SmithKline Beecham Consumer Products and GlaxoSmithKline.

The Iraqi Kurdish region's "leaders try to project a united front in Baghdad and abroad, but few Kurds in the north or Arabs in the south have forgotten that" the Kurdish Democratic Party and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan "spent four of their Saddam-free years fighting a civil war." Now, the KDP "has retained Barbour Griffith & Rogers as its lobbyist to ensure that Iraqi Kurdistan maintains its autonomy" and to push for "the return of oil-rich Kirkuk," reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Former Bush I assistant Ed Rogers will be the KDP's chief lobbyist, along with International Republican Institute founder Keith Schuette.

"One cannot conceive of other elements [that could be] put in place to create a space that's more of an affront to the idea of free expression," said U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock, after touring the Democratic National Convention's "free speech" protest zone in Boston. The zone is "bordered by cement barriers, a double row of chain-line fencing, heavy black netting, and tightly woven plastic mesh," with "coils of razor wire" along elevated train tracks. A lawyer for activists challenging the zone compared it to "a maximum security prison, Guantanamo Bay, or a zoo" - comparisons Woodlock called "an understatement," although he upheld the zone for security reasons.

One day after the re-re-launch of the Committee on the Present Danger, PR pro Peter Hannaford resigned as its managing director. Several CPD members called for Hannaford's resignation, after it was reported that he lobbied for the political party of Austrian nationalist Joerg Haider, who once commended the "orderly employment policy" of the Third Reich and paid a "solidarity visit" to Saddam Hussein in 2002. Laura Rozen, who broke the story, writes that Hannaford also lobbied for China, Saudi Arabia and Algeria and asks, "Who is funding [the CPD]?" Justin Raimondo suggests that CPD member Hedieh Mirahmadi might also want to resign, given her support of Uzbekistan's leader, who the U.S. is urging to hold elections and end torture.

"On Saturday, [Republican] convention officials will begin a highly organized nationwide campaign to get volunteers to donate blood, feed the hungry and operate community health fairs. Initially, it will be part of a broader effort to draw attention away from the Democratic National Convention. But the campaign - known as Compassion Across America - will continue at the Republican National Convention," reports Jennifer Steinhauer. She wonders if "here is a television image that organizers of the Republican National Convention are fantasizing about: Protesters clog the area around Madison Square Garden, inconveniencing commuters ... [while] Republican delegates [are] feeding the homeless."

The first quarter 2004 issue of PR Watch is now online, featuring an update on mad cow disease in the United States and "Pumping Irony," an excerpt from Banana Republicans that looks at Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for governor of California and the growing interpenetration of politics and entertainment. (Of course, if you are a paying member of the Center for Media and Democracy, you would have gotten this issue several months ago when it first came out in print. If you want to get PR Watch as soon as it is published, take a moment now to subscribe.

"The 9/11 Commission will use Edelman PR Worldwide to generate political support for its recommendations on how to beef up U.S. defenses against terrorism," trade publication O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. Rob Rehg, who runs Edelman's Washington, D.C. office, told O'Dwyer's that the firm "will then conduct an ongoing media campaign pairing the Commissioners two-by-two - one Republican and Democrat - to talk to the media and government officials about the need to put its recommendations into place."

Declaring that "the world war against Islamic terrorism is the test of our time" and warning, "in this war, our enemies do not distinguish between Democrats and Republicans," Senators Joe Lieberman and Jon Kyl announced the launch of the third incarnation of the Committee on the Present Danger. In the 1950s and 1970s, the CPD pushed for massive Cold War military spending. "The Committee intends to remain active until the present danger is no longer a threat, however long that takes," said CPD Chair and former CIA director James Woolsey. Other CPD 2004 members include American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation and Boeing Company associates.

The United Nations' Global Compact, a controversial "voluntary corporate citizenship initiative," now includes 1,700 companies and several dozen non-governmental organizations and labor groups. "Some companies are using it for public relations," admitted consultant Scott Greathead, but it fosters "dialogue between companies and their civil society critics" and "lends the stature of the Secretary General to the concept of corporate responsibility." Consultant John Elkington contends, "More attention should be paid to the extent to which corporate lobbying by Global Compact members align - or don't align - with their stated commitment." Also, the lack of enforcement "raises real concerns about the longer-term risk to the UN's reputation," he warns.

"Four years ago, more Americans said they got their political news from the broadcast evening news than cable news, according to a study by Pew Research Center. ... This year, the study shows that the cable channels have eclipsed the nightly network news." Perhaps noting that trend, MoveOn and Common Cause filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint regarding Fox News Channel's slogan. The "fair and balanced" slogan is deceptive advertising, say the groups, given what they call Fox's "deliberately and consistently distorted" reporting. Common Cause's president said, "Fox has no obligation under the law to be fair and balanced, just not to market itself as fair and balanced."

PR industry writer Paul Holmes has written a lengthy essay arguing that PR people need to take blogging seriously. "The people who read blogs are the opinion leaders and the early adopters," says PR pro Steve Rubel. "They are people who pass on what they learn to other people. And these sites are being read every day by the journalists who cover your industry. It's amazing how many stories start on the Internet and then make it into the mainstream media."

As "voters took to the streets in 19 states ... to protest paperless electronic voting machines" at "The Computer Ate My Vote" rallies, the high-tech industry lobby group Information Technology Association of America fought back. ITAA head Harris Miller suggested that "critics who claim to be concerned about the issue are really pushing a political agenda on behalf of the open-source software community." Furthermore, asking open-source proponents about electronic voting "is like asking a bunch of clergymen what they think of premarital sex," said Miller. An ITAA-funded poll found that 77 percent of registered voters aren't concerned about the security of e-voting systems.

Of the 35 federal terrorism-related cases in Iowa since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Des Moines Register reports that "most defendants had questionable links to violent extremism. Those defendants who could be identified by the newspaper were, in most cases, charged with fraud or theft and served just a few months in jail." Apparently, the "terrorism-related" label has more to do with the type of illegal activity that the suspect is being prosecuted for than evidence of actual terrorist connections or motives. "'Bona fide' terrorism is a matter of semantics," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Murphy, who heads the criminal division of the U.S. attorney's office in Cedar Rapids, told the Register. "I don't think you can draw conclusions based on what a person is convicted of." U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Ia.) questioned the rationale of lumping minor crimes under the terrorism label. "When people read that they're doctoring the numbers, aren't they going to have less confidence in the Justice Department and the war on terror?" asked Grassley. "You can't say that somebody's a terrorist when he isn't a terrorist."

Ken Grubbs has been fired as director of the conservative National Journalism Center after he wrote a piece criticizing the Washington Times and its founder, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Grubbs, a former employee of the Times, criticized its coverage of a bizarre event where Moon proclaimed himself the Messiah, declared that Marx, Lenin, Hitler and Stalin had converted to his religion in the "spirit world," and then had himself crowned by a congressman.

Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed's public affairs firm Century Strategies "has raked in millions of dollars by mounting grassroots lobbying drives" for corporations, Republicans and "controversial lobbyists." Reed is also the Bush campaign's southeast regional chair; campaign manager Ken Mehlman called Reed "fabulous" for "outreach to the Jewish community, to the African-American community, and to the evangelical community." Reed organized a "pastors' reception" following the Southern Baptist Convention, where ministers "were asked to sign pledges to endorse Bush publicly, to organize a party for the president ... close to Election Day," and other activities. Some conservatives criticize Reed's lobbying for the school-focused media company Channel One, and coordinating with (and perhaps accepting money from) casino lobbyists to block new, competing casinos.

After years of trying to build an unpopular nuclear waste dump in South Australia, Prime Minister John Howard has reversed himself and abandoned the project, fearing a voter backlash. "As he pressed the flesh in four key marginal seats, Mr. Howard became acutely aware of the resentment in the community over a nuclear dump being forced on the state and the potential electoral fallout," report Paul Starick and Leanne Craig. "Having declared repeatedly that his government is only eight seats from oblivion, Mr. Howard needed to shake off the dump as an electoral liability. ... It has been estimated that $620,000 was spent on public relations and marketing consultants to try and win support for the dump," plus another $10 million for an environmental impact statement. A senator for the South Australia's opposit Labor Party called the money wasted on the dump a "disgrace," adding, "For the cost of the EIS

Joining industry lobbyists in the battle against government regulations is a small think tank based at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. The Mercatus Center is earning a reputation as a heavyweight in the business of rolling back and softening unpopular rules, responsible for picking 14 of 23 rules targeted by the Bush White House for elimination or modification. "Staffed by veterans of the White House office that reviews and often scales back proposed rules, Mercatus, with its free-market philosophy, has become a kind of shadow regulatory authority," writes the Wall Street Journal. Mercatus' $10,000-plus funders in 2002 include ExxonMobil, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, General Motors, Gillette, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, the New York Stock Exchange and Pfizer. Also key to Mercatus is Koch Industries. "A Koch family foundation has given Mercatus and George Mason University a total of $14.4 million since 1998, according to public documents analyzed by the Public Education Center, a Washington group that tracks environmental issues. A Koch spokesman says about half of the money went to Mercatus. In addition, the company's chief executive, Charles Koch, donated interests in limited partnerships to Mercatus that the think tank sold last year for $6.1 million. Mr. Koch is a Mercatus director," the Journal reports.

The Canadian government fired three scientists who have taken high-profile stances critiquing livestock feed regulations to address mad cow disease, against Monsanto's milk hormone BGH and against new uses for Eli Lilly's antibiotic tylosin for livestock. A government official said, "This is not because of anything they may have said publicly." A union representative rebutted, "The fact that it's three [people fired] on the same day is unusual, and it also, I believe lends credence to the argument we're putting forward that [the firings are] a result of them being whistle-blowers."

Trespassing charges have been dropped against Nicole and Jeff Rank, who wore anti-Bush T-shirts to the president's July 4 rally in Charleston, West Virginia. "Law enforcement officers told the couple to take the shirts off, cover them or get out," reports Jennifer Bundy. "When they refused and sat down, they were arrested." According to Charleston Mayor Danny Jones, the couple was arrested for their own safety. (Apparently the Republicans at the rally couldn't be trusted to refrain from physically assaulting people whose T-shirts say things they don't like.) "We'll continue to exercise our right to free expression when we see fit," said Jeff Rank after the charges were dismissed.

Center for Public Integrity examines the hidden power of the Koch brothers, the billionaires who launched the corporate front group Citizens for a Sound Economy. "CSE has found itself in hot water in recent weeks over charges it has been working illegally to get consumer activist Ralph Nader on the presidential ballot in Oregon. On June 30, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that groups, including Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Bush/Cheney campaign and the Nader campaign, had violated federal campaign laws through the use of prohibited in-kind contributions. In its complaint, CREW said CSE directed employees to call members, using prepared scripts, to encourage them to sign a petition that allowed Ralph Nader to put his name on the November ballot in the presidential election. ... Since CSE is a corporation, it is prohibited from making contributions to federal campaigns, CREW said in its complaint. The costs of creating the scripts as well as the costs of the telephone calls constitute prohibited in-kind contributions." Not to be deterred, CSE is bragging about its work for Nader in Michigan.

Several former employees of the giant public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard say F-H routinely overbilled the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power some $30,000 a month. One described F-H's attitude as, "Get as much as you can because these accounts may dry up tomorrow." Questionable charges include $50 for leaving a phone message and $850 for a two-hour business lunch (not including the cost of the meal). A former executive said that Douglas Dowie (then head of F-H's L.A. office; now a senior vice-president and partner) "made it clear that Fleishman-Hillard's corporate headquarters counted on collecting every penny every month" from its contract with the country's largest public utility.

Several key advocates for the invasion of Iraq are now profiting from Iraq's reconstruction the Los Angeles Times reports. "As lobbyists, public relations counselors and confidential advisors to senior federal officials, they warned against Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, praised exiled leader Ahmad Chalabi, and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national security and moral duty. Now, as fighting continues in Iraq, they are collecting tens of thousands of dollars in fees for helping business clients pursue federal contracts and other financial opportunities in Iraq," Walter F. Roche Jr. and Ken Silverstein write. Among the profiteers are former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, a founding member of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq who used his Pentagon connections to help arrange for a debriefing of an Iraqi defector provided by the Iraqi National Congress; Randy Scheunemann, founding president of the CLI; and Washington lobbyist K. Riva Levinson, who while at Burson-Marsteller owned BKSH & Associates did PR work for the INC.

According to the "PR Machine" blog, "blogging threatens the power of brands and their message control because blogs facilitate open dialogues with customers. ... The exact threat? Meta-sites, blogs, wikis, and the proliferation of RSS and related site syndication technologies, have all rapidly given a voice to people who previously had no way of expressing their opinions. ... Disruptive messages that campaigns like 'Super Size Me' and 'Fahrenheit 9/11' send out to audiences threaten brands (be it McDonalds or the Republican Party)." What's a threatened company to do? More PR. "Any Fortune 1000 company that has a threat (blogs) also therefore has a need to meet the threat. PR can fill that need with reactive and proactive blogging." (Um...okay, but shouldn't someone tell PR Machine that "Super Size Me" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" are movies, not blogs?)

It used to be that the U.S. chemical industry lobbied lawmakers in Washington. Now the White House is aggressively lobbying on the industry's behalf in Brussels, opposing new European Union regulations on chemicals. The EU's proposed Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals or REACH would require chemical makers to publicly report the potential harmfulness of their products - both for new chemicals being introduced and those already available. "The Bush administration, which has consistently favored policies beneficial to the U.S. chemical industry, has teamed up with American chemical companies to lobby against REACH and has already succeeded in weakening some of the proposed rules. Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell himself stepped up pressure on the EU when he cabled U.S. diplomats with a list of talking points, urging them to voice these objections to European officials," BushGreenWatch reports. The latest U.S. ploy is to threaten that REACH violates WTO agreements, parroting chemical industry statements that the new rules would be too "burdensome" and "costly" for U.S. chemical makers who export to Europe. "Once again, we have the U.S. position equals the chemical industry position," said Joe DiGangi, a scientist with the Environmental Health Fund.

"Citizens for a Sound Economy, a national organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R., Texas), is widening its efforts to help presidential candidate Ralph Nader get on the ballot in pivotal states. A recent news release from the corporate-backed group says it plans to pursue those efforts 'in key battleground states like Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.' John Stauber, founder and executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, said today: 'The Republican machine is mobilizing for Nader. Major Republican funders are sending checks to Nader, and a far-right industry-funded front group, Citizens for a Sound Economy, is organizing to get Ralph on the November ballot in a number of swing states. Nader, the sworn enemy of corporate power and influence, has become its not-so-secret weapon for the November election.' "

"Public relations should first understand that to the extent that its art is a form of 'spin' - whether it's reasonable spin, accepted spin, good spin, bad spin, terrible spin - it is selling a service for which there is less and less value, and less mind is paid to it. Spin was possible in the era of few-to-many media, and a small number of gatekeepers who could be spun," media critic and Press Think blogger Jay Rosen tells Micro Persuasion blogger Steve Rubel, who also takes part in Global PR Blog Week 1.0, an online forum on PR and blogs. With the rise of participatory journalism, which has been facilitated by the Internet and weblogs, Rosen says journalistic bloggers create a "second wave" effect that has an impact on the traditional press. "A little orchestra of interpreters instantly comes along and does something to journalism, plays back its significance, but first editing out all the noise. It's like a reply. Smart journalists are tuning into that because its an intelligent use of their work - and a departure point, a place where criticism flashes," Rosen says.

"A little known U.S. group headed by an advisor to President George W. Bush has attacked copycat drugs makers at the world AIDS forum, accusing them of exaggerating claims about the costs, safety and effectiveness of their products." On the first day of the International AIDS Conference, the AIDS Responsibility Project took out a full-page ad in the Bangkok Post critical of cheaper, generic versions of AIDS drugs, which are mostly manufactured in India, Thailand and Brazil. Abner Mason, a member of Bush's HIV/AIDS advisory council, is the founder and head of the AIDS Responsibility Project, which HIV/AIDS policy activists have called "a drug industry-funded front group."

Clear Channel Communications refused to display a peace group's billboard ad in New York's Times Square during the Republican Convention. The ad features a red, white and blue bomb graphic with the words "Democracy Is Best Taught by Example, Not by War." The peace group says Clear Channel also rejected their alternative ad, in which a dove replaced the bomb graphic. (Clear Channel says they found the dove ad acceptable.) A Clear Channel marketing executive explained that New Yorkers "are extremely sensitive to references to war." A peace group spokesperson remarked, "I guess we can have a war, but we can't talk about it."

Robert Greenwald employs "a 'guerrilla' method of documentary filmmaking, creating timely political films on short schedules and small budgets and then promoting and selling them ... through partnerships with grass-roots political organizations like MoveOn.org." His latest, "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," includes "interviews with former Fox employees, leaked policy memos ... and extensive footage from Fox News, which Greenwald is using without the network's permission." Greenwald worked with "a team of media volunteers ... who monitored Fox News 24 hours a day for months." While praising "Outfoxed," Don Hazen asks, "Do we run the danger of making Fox News appear more powerful than it is?" In any case, Fox News has gone ballistic over the film. If you want to see it, MoveOn is sponsoring screenings at theaters and house parties throughout the United States.

GOP pollster Frank Luntz's advice against 1998 rookie Senate candidate John Edwards - "it's almost impossible to go too far when it comes to demonizing lawyers" - wasn't successful, but Luntz remains influential. Molly Ivins writes that Luntz is now focusing on women undecided voters. Noting that many women feel pressured, he advises, "It's not about issues, it's about empathy. They have to know that you care." After Bush administration attacks on family leave, Head Start, services for domestic violence survivors, equal pay and anti-discrimination law enforcement, Ivins wonders "how Bush could convince 'the ladies' that he has helped take stress out of their lives."

"In the strongest evidence to date that Americans are routinely using the Internet to bypass traditional media, a new report finds that about one quarter of Net users say they go online to find news coverage and images they can't get from the mainstream media. Net users say they have sought out graphic Iraq war images in particular."

If you're interested in reliving the TV advertisements from previous presidential elections, the American Museum of the Moving Image has put together an archive featuring every ad from every election since TV first infected politics in 1952. Our favorite is "Failure," a 1968 ad by candidate Richard Nixon. Campaigning against the Democrats for leading America into Vietnam, the Nixon ad asks, "How can a party that lets the country get bogged down in an endless war against a fourth rate military power promise anything but decades of conflict?" Pretty good question, huh?

Iraqi defectors who stepped forward with stories about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction were coached by senior figures in Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, according to a former INC field leader. To back up his claim, Muhammad al-Zubaidi has provided his handwritten diaries from 2001 and 2002, and his existing reports on the statements originally made by the defectors. "According to the documents," writes Jim Dwyer, "the defectors, while speaking with precision about aspects of Iraqi military facilities like its stock of missiles, did not initially make some of the most provocative claims about weapons production or that an Iraqi official had met with Mr. bin Laden." According to Zubaidi, "They intentionally exaggerated all the information so they would drag the United States into war. ... I don't want to criticize U.S. agencies, but it's strange that the U.S. with all its powerful agencies, the C.I.A., could not manage to know the truth from the lies in these people."

The Food and Drug Administration "banned brains and other cattle parts that could carry mad cow disease from use in cosmetics and dietary supplements, but delayed some similar safeguards in animal feed for up to two years." In January, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson proposed an "interim final rule" (first discussed in 2002) to strengthen animal feed regulations. "We must never be satisfied with the status quo," he said. But new feed regulations have now been downgraded to an "advance notice of proposed rulemaking," which delays possible implementation. Today, Thompson explained, "We cannot be content with the status quo."

"When a beautiful girl walks up to you, and she's wearing the TV commercial on her chest, you just can't get away from it," enthused Adam Hollander, head of The Brand Marketers and creator of T-Shirt TV. The shirts contain speakers and 11-inch TV screens, which can show video ads, flash animation or slides. T-Shirt TVs worn by "aggressively friendly" young women will be part of a 10 city marketing campaign for the movie "I, Robot." Advertising executive David Helm commented, "Advertising is obnoxious so that it gets attention. And then that doesn't work anymore, so it gets more obnoxious."

Conservatives and liberals alike are concerned by growing media consolidation, notes Jack Bradigan Spula, but he warns that "this outrage is being channeled into a national debate about 'indecency,' 'values' and moral policing." The Federal Communications Commission, headed by Michael Powell, recently announced large fines for broadcasters whose programming is deemed indecent. The problem is that the large fines will still be just a drop in the bucket for large networks but "will burden small independents disproportionately - and thus tilt the playing field even more to mega-corporate advantage." Monty Pythonite Eric Idle has commented on the trend with a song dedicated to the FCC. (Warning: It contains profanity. Idle says that at $5,000 per F-word, his song will cost half a million in fines to any station that broadcasts it.)

Wondering why the Bush administration only "significantly increased its pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, or the Taliban's Mullah Mohammed Omar" this spring, The New Republic interviewed Pakistani security officials. One member of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence said, "The Pakistani government ... wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the U.S. elections." Another ISI official claimed that a White House aide told ISI's director, "It would be best if the arrest or killing of [High Value Targets] were announced on 26, 27 or 28 July" - during the Democratic National Convention.

Ralph Nader's run for the presidency of the US has brought him some strange right-wing bedfellows such as Citizens for a Sound Economy and Rupert Murdoch. CSE has been working hard to place Nader on the presidential ballot in Oregon, and will do so too in Wisconsin and other states, according to press accounts describing them as "a conservative anti-tax group." Such a description is a little like saying Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are Christian ministers. We reveal much more about Citizens for a Sound Economy in our new book Banana Republicans: How the Right is Turning America into a One-Party State. The Center for Media and Democracy investigates and tracks the work of corporate front groups including CSE through our Disinfopedia website. There you can find out the latest information and you can help us keep tabs and report on CSE and other corporate fronts.

According to The Hill, nearly half of the Voice of America's staff signed a petition complaining that the Broadcasting Board of Governors launched "new services in the Middle East with no editorial accountability" while cutting back VoA programs in the region. One VoA editor called the new Middle East networks - Radio Sawa, al-Hurra and Radio Farda - "expensive and ill advised." The VoA petition claims the new networks "provide inadequate news coverage and do not operate under VoA's charter, which guarantees balanced reporting." Other Middle East media have questioned the credibility of the new U.S.-funded networks.

"Tom Donohue, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has made a public vow: If John Edwards is chosen as John Kerry's running mate, the chamber will abandon its traditional stance of neutrality in the presidential race and work feverishly to defeat the Democratic ticket. 'We'd get the best people and the greatest assets we can rally' to the cause, he says," reports Alan Murray. An anonymous Fortune 100 CEO called Edwards "the one we fear the most" - not for his views, which are "more moderate and more in line with business" than Dean or Gephardt - but because he's a trial lawyer.