internet

Lobbying Firm Caught Editing Wikipedia Article on Beer Brand

Submitted by Anne Landman on January 9, 2012 - 7:19pm

Stella ArtoisAnheuser-Busch's United Kingdom division, InBev, employed a lobbying firm to edit the Wikipedia entry about its Stella Artois brand of lager to delete a negative reference to the brand. Portland Communications, a lobbying firm run by a former adviser to Tony Blair, deleted the term "wife-beater" from the Wikipedia article about Stella Artois, reportedly to "challenge any connections between the brand and domestic violence." Stella Artois, one of the biggest brands of lager in the UK, in recent years has earned the nickname "wife beater" because of its high alcohol content and apparent popularity among rowdy soccer players. The changes on Wikipedia were made by a user named Portlander10, who had an IP address traceable to Portland Communications. Portland maintains that the changes were made openly and within Wikipedia's rules. In the wake of this revelation, though, a meeting has been scheduled between the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and Wikipedia to give PR professionals guidance for working on Wikipedia, and to develop a code of conduct for PR professionals to help minimize attempts to mask the true identity of PR pros seeking to edit the site.

Main Source: 
The UK Daily Mail, January 4, 2011

Facebook Agrees to Change Privacy Practices

Submitted by Sara Jerving on December 1, 2011 - 8:23am

FB logoThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Tuesday that it reached a proposed settlement with the social networking site Facebook for charges it has failed to keep promises about guarding the privacy of information of its consumers. The settlement comes in response to a two-year federal investigation and demands by a coalition of pro-privacy groups, including the Center for Media and Democracy, to investigate these claims in order to protect the some 200 million Facebook users in the United States.

Apple's New IPhone 4S Opposes Abortion

Submitted by Anne Landman on November 30, 2011 - 3:29pm

Siri logoApple is being accused of using its new IPhone 4S to promote an anti-abortion agenda. IPhone 4S users in big cities have found that when they ask their IPhone to locate abortion clinics, the phone's new voice-assistant, Siri, says she can't find any. Instead, she directs users to "crisis pregnancy" centers, which do not offer abortion services. When an IPhone user named Kristen asked Siri why she is anti-abortion, the phone responded, "I just am, Kristen." Users who ask the phone to locate places where they can get emergency contraception are shown a Google results page containing definitions. Siri may not help IPhone owners find abortion services or even emergency contraception, but she will help users locate strip clubs, escort services, Viagra and plastic surgeons who do breast implants. Siri will even recommend a good place to dump a body.

Main Source: 
Raw Story, November 29, 2011

Wisconsin Democrats Allege Governor Walker Used Taxpayer Dollars for Campaign Website

Submitted by Brendan Fischer on October 26, 2011 - 7:11am

Governor Scott Walker's new "Reforms and Results" website touting the successes of his policies is allegedly a campaign website funded by taxpayers, according to a complaint filed Tuesday by the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

CMD Demands Investigation of Facebook's Impact on Privacy

Submitted by Patrick Moran on October 18, 2011 - 9:27am

Facebook logoCMD has signed onto a letter with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and seven other pro-privacy groups requesting that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigate changes Facebook has made to user accounts that undermine the privacy rights of millions of users.

The letter focuses on two recent policies implemented by Facebook called "frictionless sharing" and "post-log-out tracking." According to the letter, "frictionless sharing and post-log-out tracking harms consumers throughout the United States by invading their privacy and allowing for disclosure and use of information in ways and for purposes other than those to which users have consent and relied upon."

Frictionless sharing is "Facebook's term for allowing applications to automatically share users' activity rather than having users initiate each instance of sharing themselves." Facebook developed two new features called "Ticker" and "Timeline" to promote this concept.

Group Pushes Major League Baseball to Drop Glenn Beck

Submitted by Anne Landman on October 14, 2011 - 12:59pm

A group called Americans United for Change has started a campaign to pressure Major League Baseball (MLB) to end its relationship with demagogue Glenn Beck. Beck left the Fox News Channel earlier this year amid a citizen campaign that succeeded in pressuring nearly 400 advertisers to boycott his show. After leaving Fox, he started his own online television network, GBTV, which charges subscribers $9.95 a month. the interactive branch of the Major League Baseball empire, MLB Advanced Media, agreed to provide Beck's new TV platform with streaming video of sports shows, including baseball games. In response, Americans United for Change launched a website called StrikeOutBeck.com, where viewers can sign a petition asking the corporation that manages America's "favorite pasttime" to cut its ties to Beck. The site features a "Glenn Beck Hall of Hate," with clips of some of Beck's many inflammatory or absurd assertions, like when he said God "punished Japan" with a massive earthquake. Americans United is also running a Facebook ad campaign in major league baseball cities like St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Oakland, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Milwaukee to make people aware of the website and invite them to visit it and sign the petition. A second phase of the campaign is also in the works, which will include more paid ads, probably on sports radio, and urge people to write letters to baseball team owners asking them to end MLB's relationship with Beck. [Updated Oct. 15, 2011]

Main Source: 
Huffington Post - Politics, October 13, 2011

CMD at Netroots Nation, June 16-19, Minneapolis, MN

Submitted by Nikolina Lazic on June 10, 2011 - 6:19am

Netroots Nation speakerbadgeCenter for Media and Democracy's Executive Director, Lisa Graves, the Director of our Real Economy Project, Mary Bottari, and Senior Fellow on Health Care, Wendell Potter, will be speaking at this year's Netroots Nation convention. The conference will take place from June 16-19 at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Further details and the agenda click here. Stop by the CMD table at the Exhibition Hall and sign up for our IPad 2 raffle. For the very lucky, there may even be cheese curds!

Twitter the Winner in Weinergate

Submitted by Anne Landman on June 8, 2011 - 12:11pm

Twitter WeinerThe only winner to emerge from the "Weinergate" scandal is Twitter, which once again paraded its effectiveness at everything from bringing down dictators to engaging in political self-immolation. Twitter is truly a double-edged sword. It can be used for good things like facilitating communication after natural disasters, or it can facilitate disaster itself by amplifying the effects of poor human judgment. In the time it took to make a single stroke on a computer key and then lie about it, Anthony Weiner destroyed his credibility, damaged his marriage and his integrity, handed endless fodder to his political enemies and singlehandedly diverted attention from a huge number of truly important domestic and global issues, for example that the U.S. is spending $2 billion a week in Afghanistan while cutting desperately-needed programs and services here at home, or that an unprecedented three nuclear reactors experienced full meltdowns at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The Weinergate scandal shows that a little salacious piece of information sent out on Twitter has the tremendous power to wipe far more important news off the media map -- a realization that itself has huge implications when it comes to controlling what people see and hear in the mass media.

The Day Egypt Disappeared

Submitted by Mary Bottari on February 14, 2011 - 9:00am

On February 11, 2011, after 30 years of dictatorship, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak announced he was stepping down. As ancient pharaohs slumbered inside, a crowd of over a million surrounded the rose-colored Cairo Museum setting off fireworks and jumping for joy as they peacefully forced a modern pharaoh to flee. This hopeful moment will be studied for years, and no topic will be more hotly debated than the role of social media in the uprising.

American Tort Reform Association Issues "Judicial Hellhole" Report

Submitted by Anne Landman on December 14, 2010 - 3:00pm

The American Tort Reform Association, a front group for big chemical, tobacco, insurance, pharmaceutical and other companies whose products or pollution have been known to make people sick or kill them, has released its ninth annual "judicial hellholes" report which attacks judges and juries who hold their members accountable in court. This year's top "hellhole" is Philadelphia, which won in part due to its Complex Litigation Center, which was created exclusively to handle complex, mass tort cases like those regarding asbestos, hormone replacement therapy, nursing home litigation and suits against drugs like Avandia, Paxil, Phen-Fen and Risperdal. The Center's most recent cases involve pharmaceutical defendants who are being sued over birth control pills in the Yaz/Yazmin/Ocella mass tort. Plaintiffs allege that the pills caused injuries like pulmonary embolism, blood clots in the legs, heart attacks, strokes, gall bladder and kidney disease.

Main Source: 
The Pop Tort, December 14, 2010
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