"Perhaps no list of reporters has commanded such attention in Washington since Richard Nixon compiled his enemies list more than thirty years ago," writes Douglas McCollam, discussing the reporters whose names and phone numbers appear in a confidential July 2002 memorandum from the Iraqi National Congress (INC). The memo lists 108 news stories that were influenced by INC-supplied defectors. "The balance of the stories," McCollam writes, "advanced almost every claim that would eventually become the backbone of the Bush administration's case for war, including Saddam Hussein's contacts with al Qaeda, his attempts to develop nuclear weapons, and his extensive chemical and bioweapons facilities - all of which are now in grave doubt." According to Helen Kennedy, one of the reporters whose name appears on the list, "The INC's agenda was to get us into a war. The really damaging stories all came from those guys, not the CIA. They did a really sophisticated job of getting it out there." After interviewed reporters whose names appear on the list, McCollam concludes that "influencing public opinion through the American and European media was always central to the INC's mission (of the 108 stories on Qanbar's list, fifty appeared in U.S. news outlets). One of the first uses for the Iraq Liberation Act funds was to hire the giant public relations firm Burson-Marsteller."

"When he appeared on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News Channel show last week, Georgetown law professor David Cole was impressed that the hard-charging host played, as part of his opening commentary, 'a balanced sound bite' from the chairman of the 9/11 commission," reports Howard Kurtz. "Cole was less impressed when an aggravated O'Reilly stopped the taping of 'The O'Reilly Factor' and killed the sound bite. And when Cole brought up the incident during his interview, he says, O'Reilly 'exploded,' called him an SOB and declared he would never be invited back."

"Cold War hawks are resurrecting a decades-old group to lobby for a harder line against terrorist organizations and rogue states," reports The Hill. The Committee on the Present Danger will see its third incarnation (it was established in 1950 and re-formed in 1976) as a Washington DC-based lobby group, headed by PR pro and former Reagan adviser Peter Hannaford. Other known members include Senator Joe Lieberman, former CIA director James Woolsey, and Reagan administration official and 1976 Committee founder Max Kampelman. Past Committee incarnations advocated for tripling the defense budget and helped launch neoconservatives into government positions.

In writing the Center's newest book, Banana Republicans, authors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber experimented with collaborative research, inviting visitors to the Center's website to contribute their own research and analysis while the book was being written. That process of collaboration is still continuing. If you'd like to contribute, you can do so through the Center's online feature Disinfopedia.

The "handover of power" to Iraq is "a publicity stunt and has almost no substance to it," says Middle East history professor Juan Cole. "Gwen Ifill said on US television on Sunday that she had talked to Condaleeza Rice, and that her hope was that when something went wrong in Iraq, the journalists would now grill Allawi about it rather than the Bush administration. (Or words to that effect.) Ifill seems to me to have given away the whole Bush show. That's what this whole thing is about. It is Public Relations and manipulation of journalists. Let's see if they fall for it."

After New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau wrote a story reporting that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had collected extensive information on antiwar demonstrators, FBI spokeswoman Cassandra Chandler sent around a memo urging agency officials to "please avoid providing information to this reporter," and the Justice Department revoked his press credentials.

The U.S. Justice Department's Freedom of Information office admitted that its database of lobbyists working for foreign governments, political parties and companies is "so fragile" that making an electronic copy "could result in a major loss of data." The Congressional General Accounting Office has repeatedly stated that the Department's Foreign Registration Unit "lacks the resources to fulfill its responsibilities." The non-profit Center for Public Integrity, which had its Freedom of Information Act request for foreign lobbyist data denied due to technical concerns, noted the irony of the Unit being "under-funded" while "the lobbying activity it is supposed to track and make freely available to the public is extravagant."

"Not only are major news organisations rolling out blogs of their own, but in the past 12 months the influence of bloggers over their print, television and radio counterparts has grown massively," observes Paul Carr. "Consider a decision made by organisers of this year's Democratic National Convention (DNC), next month in Boston. So keen are John Kerry's men to get their message through to the people of Blogistan that for the first time they have issued press accreditation to political bloggers." Carr notes that the impact of blogging is especially noticeable at America's newest radio network, Air America Radio. Not only do the network's hosts frequently cite news and other information gleaned from bloggers, many of their listeners tune in via their Internet audio feed rather than via the airwaves. "The effect of this is to guarantee a large web-savvy audience for the station, an audience for whom it is perfectly natural to visit the shows' official blogs and to comment on what they're hearing, as they're hearing it," Carr observes.

"In their widely quoted book Weapons of Mass Deception, Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber argued in 2003 that the U.S. government used the shock of the 9/11 attacks to justify an invasion of Iraq. Bush counter-terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke further denounces President George Bush for using the attacks as a pretext for the war in his book Against All Enemies published last March. For propaganda expert Nancy Snow ... 'if war is the paint, then propaganda is the paint primer that makes possible the total devotion of the public to the just cause of the state in wartime.'"

Michael Crowley looks at the Media Fund and Americans Coming Together (ACT), two liberal 527 committees who may spend as much as $150 million before Nov. 2 in an attempt to defeat George W. Bush. Although they are officially nonpartisan, 527s - used by both parties - use a loophole in election laws to get around limits on "soft money" spending by political parties. "The goal was to provide some air cover [for Kerry] early in the campaign," says ad man David Kessler, who has worked with the Media Fund. Kessler compares the 527 ads to "the scene in Saving Private Ryan, when they hit the beachhead and the shit's flying. That's what our job was - take the f--ing beachhead and [Kerry] will come in when he's ready." (So is it an air war, a ground war, or a naval invasion?)

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which promotes nuclear power, concluded that "even under the most favourable circumstances," nuclear power wouldn't slow global warming. An IAEA report predicted that global warming would decrease more if "no new [nuclear plants were] built beyond those already planned," because "the world would have to be so prosperous to afford" a significant increase in nuclear plants that greenhouse gas emissions "from fossil fuels would have grown even faster." The IAEA's findings undercut the Nuclear Energy Institute's claims that "nuclear energy ... helps to keep the air clean, preserve the Earth's climate, avoid ground-level ozone formation and prevent acid rain."

Australian blogger Tim Lambert has taken a closer look at some of the think tanks that have emerged as critics of open source software, which threatens Microsoft's position in the marketplace. "Why are all these think tanks so down on Open Source?" Lambert asks. "Well, the Small Business Survival Committee is concerned that using open source will expose small business to the risk of lawsuits. Citizens Against Government Waste is concerned that the Government might waste money on Open Source. Defenders of Property Rights is concerned that Open Source might be a threat to intellectual property rights. However, I was able to detect a common theme to all their criticism. They all seem to be funded by Microsoft." Lambert also notes that many of them, such as the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, have participated in previous campaigns to deny the dangers of tobacco and global warming, while receiving funding from the tobacco and fossil fuel industries.

In "the latest instance in which the Bush administration has been accused of allowing politics to intrude into once-sacrosanct areas of scientific deliberation," the Health and Human Services Department asked the World Health Organization to allow the Department's secretary to review meeting invitations. The WHO refused, claiming that changing its long-standing practice of directly inviting individual scientists could "compromise the independence of international scientific deliberations." A spokesperson for Department Secretary Tommy Thompson said, "The World Health Organization does not know the best people to talk to, but HHS knows."

The New PR Wiki, a website for PR pros, is organizing a "global PR blog week," scheduled for July 12-16. Public relations pundits will use the event to discuss questions such as "Why do you blog?" and "Why is blogging important for PR?" The event will cover topics including, "PR in the Age of Participatory Journalism," "Corporate Blogging" and "Crisis Management," and will be hosted at globalprblogweek.com.

Citizens for a Sound Economy, a right-wing corporate front group opposed to everything Ralph Nader has struggled for, is working hard to help his 2004 presidential campaign in an effort to defeat John Kerry. "'Ralph Nader is undoubtedly going to pull some very crucial votes from John Kerry, and that could mean the difference in a razor-thin presidential election,' reads a script used by Citizens for a Sound Economy in its phone calls [to Republicans in the state of Oregon]. 'Can we count on you to come out on Saturday night and sign the petition to nominate Ralph Nader?' Russ Walker, state director of Citizens for a Sound Economy ... said the idea of helping Nader has been widely discussed among conservative groups and activists in Oregon. 'It's definitely an interesting scenario,' Walker said. 'We don't agree with Ralph Nader's positions on the issues - he's socialistic and we're free marketers. ... We think he'll take some of the more extreme votes from the other side.'"

"One of environmentalism's biggest foes - Ron Arnold—is back, peddling the idea that environmentalism breeds terrorism," reports Bill Berkowitz. "Arnold is the same man who once bragged to the New York Times that, 'No one was aware that environmentalism was a problem until we came along.' He's been so successful, says one environmentalist, that he's now 'within striking distance' of checking off every item on his 'wise-use' agenda."

"A new series of whimsical public service announcements from the Environmental Protection Agency are lampooning the notion that cars can be made more energy efficient while the ads encourage conservation at home," reports Danny Hakim. The ads depict a wacky home inventor trying to make his car more fuel-efficient by adding a sail and "a helium tank with a bulbous hose ... Viewers are then directed to a Web site that lists energy-efficient furnaces, computers and dishwashers - in fact, just about everything but cars."

With election season in swing, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Mike Leavitt has taken his show on the road, visiting key swing states to hand out pots of money for environmental projects. "Leavitt's recent wave of swing-state politicking has won his agency the moniker 'Election Protection Agency' in Beltway circles," reports Amanda Griscom. According to Aimee Christensen, director of Environment2004, "Not only has Leavitt made all his major announcements in swing states - at the exclusion of others - he's been incredibly selective about spotlighting certain problems while he neglects the countless public-health controversies that loom larger than ever."

Outside Grand Central Terminal in New York, six men and women plan to spend six hours advertising for a health club by flashing their underwear at strangers, in the hope that passersby will notice that the club logo appears on the garment. It's part of the growing use of guerrilla marketing, which the Times describes as "a broad range of advertising methods that strives to strike when people least expect it."

The U.S. Commerce Department's under secretary of technology, Phil Bond, said "excit[ing] kids" about science and math "as early as elementary school" is a good way to counter the movement of high-tech U.S. jobs overseas. Bond opposed legislation prohibiting outsourcing (being considered in 37 states), saying, "If we embrace isolation and reject working with the rest of the world, it will be to our detriment." Bond spoke at a forum titled "Offshore Outsourcing - Opportunities, Risks and Rewards," organized by the pro-outsourcing industry group Information Technology Association of America. At the same event, Banc of America Capital Management's chief marketing strategist claimed, "The great misconception is that U.S. companies go abroad for cheap labor."

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber spoke with The Hill recently about their new book Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning America Into a One-Party State.

The agribusiness giant Monsanto will donate $50,000 to the Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) Consortium. AITC is a "grassroots program coordinated by the United States Department of Agriculture," designed "to help students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture ... so that they may become citizens who support wise agricultural policies," according to AITC's website. Monsanto said their donation will support "science education and grassroots efforts that improve the understanding and acceptance of biotechnology." Other AITC "Partners," who are encouraged to make annual contributions, include the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, National Mining Association, National Pork Producers Council, CropLife America and Dole Food Company.

The media giants have taken interest in America's obesity epidemic - recently sponsoring a three-day conference - but the food industry appears to be calling the shots when it comes to dealing with the issue. "What I found most striking at the [Time/ABC News Obesity Summit] was the utter lack of leadership from our federal government officials," writes Center for Informed Food Choice's Michele Simon. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson's keynote speech "had all the cheerleading you might expect, but none of the substance. He was long on showing off government programs ostensibly addressing the problem, but short on acknowledging how they could do better. The chilling call to go out and 'spread the gospel of personal responsibility' is still ringing in my ears. Just as disturbing was the glowing praise for industry, including at least one mischaracterization of their promises. Contrary to Thompson's statement, Coca-Cola has not vowed to end exclusive contracting in schools, and certainly has not done so. Moreover, the secretary's glee over the increasing 'low-carb' menu options in restaurants (he referenced this 'good news' more than once) was especially startling for its nutritional dubiousness," Simon writes.

"A private British firm that won a $293 million contract from the Pentagon for coordinating security in Iraq is headed by a retired British commando with a reputation for illicit arms deals in Africa and for commanding a murderous military unit in Northern Ireland," reports Charles M. Sennott. The firm is owned by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former British military officer. Spicer's past work includes a "psychological campaign" against the inhabitants of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, who were complaining about environmental destruction from a copper mine on their island. To clean up his image following the Bougainville fiasco, Spicer employed PR consultant Sara Pearson, who hired a ghost writer to help with Spicer's 1999 autobiography, An Unorthodox Soldier, which presented him as the "modern, legitimate version of the new mercenaries."

When it comes to acknowledging the widespread anti-American anger in the Arab World, the Bush administration refuses "to engage in self-criticism," according to James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. "The fault, they insist, must be elsewhere. And so they maintain that Arabs are only angry at us because they are being taught to hate us and their regimes use that hatred to deflect from their own inadequacies. ... While reform in the Arab World is, in fact, needed and its need should not be understated, the way current US thinking presents that need is not as a desirable end in itself - but as an alternative to any change in US policy - as in, 'we do not have to change or press Israel to change, it is the Arabs who have to change,' and when they do, they won't be angry at us anymore. ... In fact, while 'public diplomacy' is presented as a way of convincing the Arabs of America's values - its real target is self-justification. 'We are not doing anything wrong - Arabs just don't understand us,'" Zogby writes.

Despite the best PR efforts of industry, global warming is a growing concern to an increasing number of people in the world. That's because corporate propaganda addresses only the perception of climate change, distorting science and corrupting regulatory processes, and not the reality. The new website ExxonSecrets.org explores the links between Exxonmobil, think tanks, corporate friendly scientists, and government officials. The interactive website, sponsored by Greenpeace and based on the research of CLEAR (Clearinghouse on Advocacy and Environmental Research), illustrates how Exxonmobil has funneled over $12 million dollars since 1998 to influencing the global debate on climate change. For example, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works chair James Inhofe (R-OK), who once suggested that global warming "could be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," has ties to both the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy, which jointly account for over $2 million of Exxonmobil largess since 1998.

"One of the most compelling speakers at the recent Biotechnology Industry Organization conference ... wasn't a researcher or a venture capitalist, but a representative of a special agency with the FBI," Paul Holmes writes for PR Week. Conference attendees were warned that "most of their companies were on a list of more than 1,000 potential corporate targets circulating among activists" and urged "to take a more public stand on the issue." Radical animal rights groups were described as "the country's leading domestic terrorist threat." While industry trade groups like BIO are confronting activists, Holmes writes, they "are often reduced to responding to angry rhetoric and graphic images with dry facts about the benefits of research. To counter the emotional appeal of the activists, the industry needs individuals - both researchers and the patients whose lives they have saved - to tell their equally powerful stories." Corporate activist and PR guru Ross Irvine suggests that PR people have taken the "easy way out" by avoiding confrontations with activists. Ross advises PR folks to take a look at how "activists take a much broader and more complex approach to communicating issues than corporate PR folks. ... It shows what can and needs to be done to if corporate PR folks want to battle activists successfully."

A leaked memo by Republican advisor Frank Luntz advises GOP politicians to avoid the words "preemption" and "war in Iraq" when talking about the Bush administration's pre-emptive war in Iraq. "To do so is to undermine your message from the start," he advises. "Your efforts are about 'the principles of prevention and protection' in the greater 'War on Terror.'" Luntz also recommends that "No speech about homeland security or Iraq should begin without a reference to 9/11."

Michael Moore's previous films have generated a cottage industry of conservative commentators eager to find examples of sloppiness and exaggeration, but as New York Times reporter Philip Shenon observes, "if 'Fahrenheit 9/11' attracts the audience Mr. Moore and his distributors are predicting, Mr. Moore may face an onslaught of fact-checking unlike anything he - or any other documentary filmmaker - has ever experienced. After all, White House officials and the Bush family began impugning the film even before any of them had seen it." Shenon, who has spent a year covering the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, viewed the film's premiere and says, "it seems safe to say that central assertions of fact in 'Fahrenheit 9/11' are supported by the public record (indeed, many of them will be familiar to those who have closely followed Mr. Bush's political career)." To make doubly sure, Moore has hired outside fact-checkers to vet the film.

"If your calling is journalism, you enter the job market at the same time that that the long and honorable history of American journalism is traveling through the digestive tract of the disinfotainment industry," declared writer Howard Rheingold in his recent commencement speech at Stanford University. "But at the same time, you arrive on the scene just at the moment something broader, faster, and perhaps more democratic than the invention of journalism is emerging. ... Young people in every part of the world are using and inventing blogs, wikis, mobile messaging, desktop video, digital music, online animation, social software. ... You can -- you MUST -- innovate faster than your ability to innovate can be enclosed by laws, regulations, and technological fences."

The White House and Fox News are spinning furiously in response to the 9/11 commission's recent report, which contradicts one of the administration's key arguments for war with its finding that there was no working relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Bush still insists that "there was a relationship," while adding, "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda." But even that's a lie. Here's what he told Congress in March 2003: "I have also determined that the use of armed force against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States reported, "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated." Will Bush administration officials and other Republican politicians now stop saying there's a connection? "Hell no!" replied one official, when asked whether Dick Cheney would retract his recent statement that Saddam Hussein had "long established ties with al Qaeda." George Bush maintained, "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda [is] because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda." House GOP members are also sticking to their story. "The common link is that they hate America," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. According to Rep. Chris Shays, al Qaeda and Iraq are "like peas in a pod." Rep. Dana Rohrabacher did admit, in response to a question about the wisdom of hyping a highly conjectural Osama bin Laden - Saddam Hussein link, "Was it a well-thought out sales pitch? Probably not."

The New York Times recently attempted to contact former secretary of state Henry Kissinger to ask about allegations that he had used his influence inside the Council on Foreign Relations to quell a debate concerning him in the pages of its magazine, Foreign Affairs. Kissinger was "traveling and could not be reached for comment," responded his assistant. Jack Shafer points out that this dodge doesn't carry much weight anymore in these days of cell phones, but lots of public figures still seem to have travel plans that mysteriously synchronize with bad news that they don't want to discuss. Examples include movie industry lobbyist Jack Valenti, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Monica Lewinsky, Afghan warlord Rashid Dostum, former U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey, investor Warren Buffett, and Disney honcho Michael Eisner.

The Australian government is using a report by the right-wing think tank Institute for Public Affairs to determine "the most effective ways to ensure that the transparency of the growing engagement between Government and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) is maintained." The report, titled "Managing Relations with Non-Government Organisations," maintains that NGOs enjoy "privileged positions which are not accorded to other members of the community." It suggests that "information [be] made public about both the relationship itself, and about the NGO with which the Department has a relationship." Report co-author Gary Johns wrote in an opinion piece, "If the far more complex matter of corporate performance can be presented in simple terms, the same can be achieved for charitable NGOs."

"The Central Intelligence Agency has ruled that large portions of a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee that is highly critical of the agency includes material too sensitive to be released to the public," reports Douglas Jehl.

"In a direct challenge to federal limits on political advocacy, the National Rifle Association plans to begin broadcasting a daily radio program on Thursday to provide news and pro-gun commentary to 400,000 listeners. The group says its jump into broadcasting with its program, 'NRANews,' means that it should be viewed as a media organization that does not have to abide by provisions of a sweeping campaign finance law from 2002. That law stops organizations from using unregulated 'soft' money to buy political advertising that directly attacks or praises federal candidates in the weeks before federal elections and primaries." The N.R.A. says its three-hour program constitutes news and commentary, not advertising. As a result, when other advocacy groups are required to stop running political commercials, "NRANews" intends to continue broadcasting its reporting and commentary against politicians who favor gun control to Nov. 2.

This Friday, June 18, join us in celebrating the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Center for Media and Democracy. Join John Stauber, Sheldon Rampton and other CMD staff members for an evening of great food and friendship. Our featured speaker will be Amy Goodman of Pacifica Radio's award-winning news show, Democracy Now!

After three days, a billboard proclaiming "Don't Wal-Mart Bridgeport. Not here!" was removed from the site of a proposed Wal-Mart superstore near Tacoma, Washington. The Bridgeport Way Community Association paid for the message, because "people who travel this way have a right to know what's coming," said one association member. But the billboard owner, Clear Channel Outdoor (a division of radio and entertainment behemoth Clear Channel), took down the sign because advertisements that "alienate the property owner" are against company policy. Clear Channel did offer an alternative location, but the community association decided that placing the message anywhere else would be "less effective."

When it comes to stealthy PR campaigns, the biotech industry has spared no expense. For the past six years, the UK-based public interest group GM Watch has been tracking and documenting biotech's dirty tricks, learning that the PR web reaches further than just GM food. Encompassing a broad range of front groups, industry-funded researchers, and internet campaigns, GM Watch's new website LobbyWatch provides a who's-who of PR operators in Europe and the rest of the world. LobbyWatch's groundbreaking research details how the Living Marxism network is bringing a "Wise Use"-type environmentalism (read: industry friendly) to Europe, how the European Science and Environment Forum was founded with money from tobacco giant Philip Morris, and many other stories.

A university study comparing the amount of bacteria on conventionally-grown and organically-grown produce found that the level of the common bacteria E. coli on certified organic produce was "not statistically different from that in conventional samples." Alex Avery, of the right-wing Hudson Institute's project the Center for Global Food Issues, attacked the researchers for their pro-organic "bias" in an editorial posted on the USDA's Food Safety Research Information Office's website. Avery claims, "The concern about manure and bacterial contamination of organic foods was originally raised in 1997 by a physician with the Centers for Disease Control." That would be Dr. Robert Tauxe, who told the New York Times in August 2000, "The big question is how to properly compost manure ... but our concern applies to both organic and conventional farms."

In Australia, McDonald's launched an unprecedented, multi-million dollar advertising and PR campaign to counter the release of the US documentary "Super Size Me," which follows filmmaker Morgan Spurlock on a month long McDonald's binge. Until recently, the fast-food giant chose to ignore the hit movie. But McDonald's now fears for its reputation. Its advertisements feature McDonald's Australia chief Guy Russo, saying Spurlock's 30-day McDonald's diet is "stupid."

Bowing to the demands of hundreds of angry members, the League of Women Voters has rescinded its support of paperless voting machines. About 800 delegates who attended LWV's biennial convention in Washington voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that supports "voting systems and procedures that are secure, accurate, recountable and accessible."

The Showtime reality series "American Candidate," set to air during the lead up to the U.S. presidential election, will follow a dozen people as they stage and manage a "virtual" run for the White House. Two of the show's contestants are lefty PR professionals - Bruce Friedrich, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' vegan campaigns director, and Lisa Witter, head of Fenton Communications. Friedrich said the show is an "opportunity to be a face for animal rights, for PETA, and for compassion for all animals." Witter, whose firm's clients include Air America Radio and MoveOn.org, said she will stress "affordable healthcare for all, improving the economy, fair taxes, strengthening education, protecting our environment."

In its "first large-scale change since 2001," Fox News is launching a major redesign of its website. Fox News vice-president of national ad sales Roger Domal said, "In addition to just freshening up the site and making it easier to navigate ... it's a reaction to what advertisers want." Fox News hopes the site "will enable it to become a significant competitor in the online news space. This month, the site doubled its advertising sales staff in New York and San Francisco ... The company believes the redesign will help the site double its advertising sales for 2004 ... and double its audience," according to the Wall Street Journal.

"The once-moribund nuclear power business is undergoing a revival that is having a profound impact on academia and industry," reports the Chicago Tribune. Existing nuclear engineering programs are expanding, and new programs have been announced at three universities. Supporters claim, "Nuclear energy is the only viable source to produce all the electricity we will need for the future." But the New York Times notes, "the plan to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain ... is years behind schedule and the Energy Department is facing financial penalties" for the delay. Saying leaks at the site are probable, a former member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board warned, "The Department of Energy is rushing ahead with a defective Yucca Mountain design."

"So desperate are Bush Republicans to kill Michael Moore's latest film, Fahrenheit 9/11, they have hired a public relations firm to set up a web site attacking Moore," the Alternative Press Review writes. "The site, MoveAmericaForward.com, claims to be 'non-partisan,' but a glance at the 'About' page of the site reveals the director and staff of Move America Forward are all diehard Republicans, anti-tax activists, and former legislative staffers. The PR firm is Russo Marsh & Rogers. Thanks to the detective work of WhatReallyHappened.com, it was revealed that Move America Forward's web site was registered in the name of Russo Marsh & Rogers. ... In short, Move America Forward's campaign is a Republican dirty trick designed to smear Moore and pressure move theater owners not to run his film." Meanwhile, Moore has hired Democratic political strategists Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane "to fire off rapid responses to the conservative attacks," according to Salon.com.

A report for the Urban Water Research Center at the University of California at Irvine (which is "funded in part by contributions from water utilities and other private sources," writes the Wall Street Journal) concluded that the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate is not as dangerous as previously thought. The Council on Water Quality, a perchlorate industry group, praised the findings. Perchlorate, which affects the thyroid, has contaminated water supplies in 22 states. Richard Bull, an environmental-risk consultant and former Lockheed Martin consultant, co-authored the industry-friendly report. After its release, Bull resigned from a National Academy of Sciences panel studying perchlorate's health effects. He said he understood concerns that "I was associated with an opinion that put the NAS in an awkward position."

"Matthew Dowd, President Bush's chief campaign strategist, is not just the man who conducts the president's polling. He also works to control public perceptions about where the presidential race stands, perhaps more aggressively than many other campaign aides in his position. ... 'I just want to make sure people have a realistic view,' said Mr. Dowd, whose official title is 'chief strategist,' in an interview Friday. 'There are highs that are going to go down, there are lows that are going to go up. I'm not just trying to argue with news that is perceived as bad - I'm trying to argue against wrong news, good or bad, like a newspaper journalist might.' Underlying the strategy is the belief among political strategists with both parties that poll results can become self-fulfilling prophecies, contributing greatly to the direction of a campaign by causing enthusiasm or demoralization."

The New York Times editorializes, "Voters should have complete confidence about their ballots' being counted accurately and ... everyone, including the disabled, should have access the polls." Citing important security and accuracy concerns with electronic voting, the Times faults "a handful of influential advocates for the disabled, who complain that requiring verifiable paper records will slow the adoption of accessible electronic voting machines." But the paper inaccurately characterizes the settlement reached when the National Federation of the Blind sued ATM and electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold under the Americans with Disabilities Act as a "troubling ... $1 million gift," which it insinuates may have influenced the NFB's pro-electronic voting stance. Our next issue of PR Watch (coming soon to subscribers' mailboxes!) contains an in-depth look at e-voting PR.

"The seemingly endless media adulation and myth-building surrounding the drawn-out death and funeral of Ronald Reagan is in keeping his media-savvy teflon-coated presidency. For all the conservative squawking about liberals dominating Hollywood, it is the right-wing that has excelled at putting actors into office."

FaithfulAmerica.org, which describes itself as "an online community of people of faith who want to build a more just and compassionate nation," will run commercials on the al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya Arabic language networks apologizing for the torture of Iraqi detainees by U.S. servicepeople and military contractors. The ad states, "As Americans of faith, we express our deep sorrow at abuses committed in Iraqi prisons." FaithfulAmerica.org spokesperson Bishop Melvin Talbert is an ecumenical officer of the United Methodist Church, to which George Bush belongs. A State Department spokesperson would not comment on the ads, but former ambassador to Syria Edward Djerejian said they "could be harmful ... [if they are] an attempt to criticize the current administration," but if they just "say torture is contrary to our religious beliefs, then that I think would be helpful."

"Blogs are exciting many people in the business world, including many PR practitioners," reports Keith O'Brien. For business communicators, "blogs are a combination of many things: a kind of online networking cocktail reception where everyone seems to have a copy of the article they were referencing handy in their purse or briefcase, an easier and less-intrusive form of boosterism, and, as many will claim, an opportunity to further public discourse on the industry." Examples include PR Machine, Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion, and Media Culpa, by Swedish PR practioner Hans Kullin.

Punk Voter is "a coalition of over 130 bands and about 30 independent record labels" seeking to register and mobilize punk rock fans for the 2004 U.S. presidential election. But will the effort "serve to strengthen the very political system that punk has made its reputation attacking?" Scott Evans would say yes. He writes: "Last March [political punk band] Propagandhi withdrew from Punk Voter's Rock Against Bush Vol. 1 compilation after [Punk Voter founder Mike] Burkett requested that they remove a jab at billionaire George Soros from their song contribution. ... Although he acknowledged that Soros was involved in selling weapons of war and had 'screwed a bunch of countries to make his money', Burkett also noted Soros was bankrolling 'many great organizations such as MoveOn.org and America Coming Together, and these organizations help support us.'"

The environmental group Clear the Air asked the same research firm that the Bush administration used to analyze its plan to reduce coal plant emissions, the "Clear Skies Act," to compare Bush's plan to two other proposals before Congress. The resulting report found "Clear Skies" to be the weakest of the three. The report estimated that, under current policies, 24,000 people die annually due to power plant emissions. "Clear Skies" would reduce that number by 14,000, but a bipartisan Senate measure would save 16,000, and independent Senator Jeffords' more aggressive plan would save 22,000 lives. Scott Segal of the industry group Electric Reliability Coordinating Council said the report was simply "the environmentalists repackaging the same old arguments."

The New York Times editorializes today in favor of a little known reform that might have a revitalizing affect on the US political process. Candidates can now draw a salary running their own campaign for Congress. "The victory of a Democratic lawyer, Stephanie Herseth, in the race last week for an open House seat in South Dakota had some intriguing implications. Ms. Herseth is the first successful Congressional candidate of either party to take advantage of a change in the campaign finance rules that allows federal candidates to pay themselves salaries from their campaign treasuries. ... It remains to be seen, of course, how the commission's new salary rule will play out in other states. But the dearth of competitive contests for the House, in a Congress that increasingly resembles an exclusive millionaires' club, has us rooting for this experiment in leveling the playing field."

After a "72 hour stretch of glowing remembrances" of Ronald Reagan, "Republicans and Democrats began crafting statements" about the late president "that suited their political goals." Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman told the New York Times, "In many ways, George W. Bush and the policies that he put forward stand on the shoulders of Ronald Reagan." The Bush-Cheney campaign website also features a "living memorial" to Reagan. (Interestingly, then-Congressman Dick Cheney implored President Reagan to "really cut defense" and faulted Reagan for "tolerating a decision-making process ... that lacked integrity and accountability," according to Misleader.org.) Democrats "are praising Reagan for qualities they often say Bush lacks." John Kerry said, "President Reagan ... taught us that there is a big difference between strong beliefs and bitter partisanship," and praised Nancy Reagan for her stem-cell research advocacy.

"The State Department is scrambling to revise its annual report on global terrorism ... amid charges that the document is inaccurate and was politically manipulated," reports the Los Angeles Times. The most recent "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, which claimed terrorist attacks declined 45% and minor terrorism events declined more than 90%, was touted by the Bush administration as proof that America's winning the "War on Terrorism." At its release, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called the report "clear evidence that we are prevailing." The corrected report will likely show an increase in significant terrorist incidents, according to experts. One State Department official called the errors "clerical," and likely due to the recent transfer of responsibility for the report from the CIA to the new Terrorist Threat Integration Center.

Russian oil company OAO Yukos has seen hard times since the arrest on tax evasion and fraud charges of its former chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The company "is trading at a fraction of its value at the time of Mr. Khodorkovsky's arrest," and owes $3.4 billion in back taxes, according to the Russian government. "Company executives say Yukos could be driven out of business," writes the Wall Street Journal. The Hill reports that Yukos hired BKSH & Associates, the lobbying arm of PR giant Burson-Marsteller, to keep "U.S. policymakers and administration officials informed about current issues" it faces "in Russia and abroad." Khodorkovsky, one of Russia's most famous "oligarchs," will stand trial on June 16.

Guess what we recommend for your summer reading? No surprise, it's Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning America into a One-Party State, by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber of our staff. As with all of Rampton & Stauber's books for the Center for Media and Democracy, 100% of the royalties benefit our work. If you attend our organization's tenth anniversary bash on June 18th in Madison, you can have Banana Republicans autographed for you by the authors. Sheldon Rampton is currently speaking on a book tour in Britain, Ireland and Scotland but he promises to return for our June 18th celebration. We're very excited that Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! will be our special guest speaker on June 18th.

"The leading drug-industry trade group and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are working ... to demonstrate the cost of depression in the workplace and to show employers that treating affected workers would improve the bottom line," reports The Hill. The American Psychiatric Association, Chamber and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America endorsed a "depression calculator," which allows employers to estimate the effect of untreated depression on their company's profits, through absenteeism and low productivity. The calculator also figures "how much the business would save if employees were treated." However, the Chamber opposes mental-health-parity legislation that would ensure equal mental health and substance abuse healthcare coverage; their healthcare policy director explained, "employers do not often get a bottom-line return regarding employee benefits ... treating depression is an exception."

House Republicans "quietly introduced a measure to make it easier for churches to support political candidates, just days after the Bush campaign ... [invited] church members to distribute campaign information at their houses of worship," reports the New York Times. "'Safe Harbor for Churches' ... would allow religious organizations a limited number of violations of the existing rules against political endorsements without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status." Americans United for Separation of Church and State's director, Reverend Barry Lynn, said the election year timing "reeks to high heaven, literally." Bush campaign spokesperson Steve Schmidt replied, "The campaign wants people of faith to participate in the political process." On Tuesday, a state campaign coordinator emailed religious contacts, writing, "The Bush-Cheney '04 national headquarters ... has asked us to identify 1,600 'Friendly Congregations' in Pennsylvania."

As part of its restructuring, the debt-laden nuclear power generator British Energy hired American Roy Anderson as its chief nuclear officer, created a new technical director position, and switched PR firms. Anderson, who's currently president of New Jersey-based PSEG Nuclear, was welcomed by British Energy as someone with "significant experience of nuclear turnarounds." In April, British Energy ended its 14-year contract with PR giant Hill & Knowlton and began discussions with Bell Pottinger Public Affairs. However, upon discovering that Bell Pottinger director Neil Stockley had signed "anti-nuclear policy papers when he was director of policy for the Liberal Democrats in the 1990s," British Energy ended talks with the firm at the "eleventh hour" and started looking for alternatives, to "promote nuclear energy's green credentials."

Investigative journalist Robert Parry writes that "the U.S. news media's reaction to Ronald Reagan's death is putting on display what has happened to American public debate in the years since Reagan's political rise in the late 1970s: a near-total collapse of serious analytical thinking at the national level. Across the U.S. television dial and in major American newspapers, the commentary is fawning almost in a Pravda-like way, far beyond the normal reticence against speaking ill of the dead. ... Yet absent from the media commentary was the one fundamental debate that must be held before any reasonable assessment can be made of Ronald Reagan and his Presidency: How, why and when was the Cold War 'won?' " Author William Blum writes that Reagan's "ultra-tough, anti-communist" policies prolonged the Cold War, resulting in "pervasive suspicion, cynicism and hostility on both sides."

The 60th anniversary of D-Day was a major production, but most previous anniversaries weren't. "A chronicle of each decade's commemoration of Normandy shows how the passage of time has softened the pain of the experience, and how the modern American presidency has evolved into a giant stage production to promote political goals," reports the New York Times. Boston University history professor Bruce Schulman said recent "American presidents have seized on World War II because it has this resonance of a heroic struggle free of the ambiguities of later wars." Historian David Kennedy said this year's anniversary illustrated "how much Americans long for moral clarity." French President Jacques Chirac's D-Day message was clear - the Allies fought "in defense of ... a certain vision ... that lies at the heart of the United Nations charter."