issue management

The Colombian government -- which is dogged by controversy over its human rights record -- is seeking help from British PR firms to help promote a "modern" image amongst journalists and politicians. Colombia's deputy head of mission in the UK, Andelfo Garcia, told PR Week that "the stereotype of Colombia is not right. We are a growing country with a good story to tell. We need someone to help us reach out to the UK media, its politicians and its businesses." The UK-based Colombia Solidarity Campaign and other groups have shone the spotlight on Colombia's poor human rights record. In the U.S., Colombia has hired Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland & Stewart and Andrew Samet from Sorini, Samet & Associates to help lobby the U.S. Congress to pass the U.S. - Colombia Free Trade Agreement. In early April, Colombia terminated its contract with the PR firm Burson-Marsteller, after taking exception to comments by its CEO, senior Hillary Clinton campaign adviser Mark Penn.

Almost two weeks after the New York Times reported on the Penatgon's military analyst program to sell controversial policies such as the invasion of Iraq, the broadcast television news outlets implicated in the program are hoping to tough out the scandal by refusing to report it. Media Matters of America (MMA) reports that, according to a search of the Nexis database, "the three major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- have still not mentioned the report at all." In contrast, they note, on April 28 all three reported on the controversy over a photo of scantily-clad Miley Cyrus, the star of Disney Channel's Hannah Montana program. "ABC devoted about two and a half minutes to that story, while CBS and NBC each devoted about two minutes to it," MMA reported. The Pew Excellence in Journalism project has a chart showing that " there was virtually no mainstream media follow up to The Times’ expose" with the only national TV coverage being the introduction segment and live debate featuring CMD's John Stauber on the PBS NewsHour. Meanwhile, Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro and three dozen colleagues sent a letter to the Department of Defense Inspector General calling for an investigation of this "propaganda campaign aimed at deliberately misleading the American public."

One of the over 75 pundits revealed by the New York Times as being part of the Pentagon military analyst program was Robert H. Scales Jr. In 2003, Scales founded a defense consulting firm, Colgen, which lists both National Public Radio (NPR) and and Fox News as clients. NPR's Ombudsman, Alicia C. Shepard, wrote on her blog that since February 2003 Scales "has been on NPR 67 times, most often (28 appearances) on All Things Considered (ATC). The latest was March 28, when he gave ATC listeners an assessment of the fifth anniversary of the war. ... Only once in December 2006 was Scales' relationship to Colgen mentioned." While 40 NPR listeners protested against any further use of Scales, Shepard disagreed. "Rather than toss Scales off the air and lose his practical and scholarly knowledge of the Army, in the future NPR should always be transparent and identify him as a defense consultant with Colgen," she wrote. NPR also developed new guidelines for "vetting guests" which state, "Ask the guest if he/she has any conflicts of interest." Meanwhile, Editor & Publisher notes "the news chiefs and on-air hosts at CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, and CBS, have had little reaction," apparently hoping it all blows over.

As gas and food prices rise, so does scrutiny of industry profits. But "food and energy companies have learned a lot since the 1970s about how to deal with public indignation," writes George Anders. In 1980, "Congress hit the energy industry with a windfall profits tax" that lasted until 1988. While Congress is holding hearings now, oil executives "are better at deflecting attention from their own companies, arguing that state-owned, foreign oil companies control most of the world's reserves, and that financial speculators" drive price fluctuations. As they prepare to announce their first-quarter 2008 earnings, Exxon Mobil executives are "hammering out possible responses to questions ... about the sheer size of the company's profit." The largest U.S. ethanol producer, Archer Daniels Midland, is holding conference calls decrying the "misguided attacks on biofuels," to "avoid being portrayed as the villain in rising farm-product prices." Oil companies "have hired plenty of lobbyists and supported trade groups, such as the American Petroleum Institute. ... Food companies may soon find themselves redoubling similar efforts of their own."

A recent Wall Street Journal editorial claimed that a landmark environmental liability case against Chevron was being judged by "Ecuador's kangaroo courts." Ecuador's Ambassador to the U.S., Luis Gallegos, responded that Chevron had filed 10 affidavits before U.S. federal judges "praising the fairness of Ecuador's court system," in order to get the case out of U.S. courts. "Happily, its PR efforts have been frustrated by the fact that Ecuador no longer has 'banana republic' institutions that can be controlled through extrajudicial pressure," he wrote. When the two Ecuadorians leading the legal case against Chevron were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, the company turned to crisis management adviser Sam Singer for advice. Chevron's counter-attack included a San Francisco Chronicle opinion column. Chevron's ham-handed PR inspired cartoonist Mark Fiore to satirize the company's "Human Energy" campaign.

"Green" Toyota Prius adAs a manufacturer of gas/electric hybrid cars, Toyota has enjoyed a public image as an environmentally responsible company. Toyota runs television ads playing up the "green" appeal of its Prius hybrid. So it was particularly disappointing to find that Toyota has been nominated to Corporate Accountability International's 2008 Corporate Hall of Shame for being substantially less green than the automaker has led the public to believe. Toyota has been quietly lobbying against a proposal to increase vehicle fuel efficiency standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The company also belongs to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, two trade groups suing to stop a new California law to reduce greenhouse gases. Toyota has also opposed bills in several states that would require cars emit less pollution, and that would require a percentage of cars sold to be low or zero-emission vehicles. And thanks to models like the Tundra, a gas-guzzling pickup truck that gets an average of 14 miles per gallon, Toyota's fleet-wide fuel efficiency standards are actually lower now than they have been in two decades.

CAMERA, a lobby group that campaigns against criticism of the Israeli government in U.S. media, had a campaign to impact Wikipedia's coverage of Israel and Palestine issues. In emails, CAMERA's Gilead Ini stressed that the effort should be secret, and counseled members to avoid "picking a user name that marks you as pro-Israel, or that lets people know your real name." He also instructed members to "always log in" under their user names, so that Wikipedia would not "record your computer's IP address." While directing CAMERA members to certain articles on Israel and Palestine, Ini cautioned that new Wikipedia users should "avoid editing Israel-related articles for a short period of time," so as not to develop reputations as "one-topic editors." A long-time Wikipedia editor, "Zeq," advised CAMERA on its plan. Zeq suggested that some CAMERA members "stay away from any Israel realted [sic] articles," until building up enough support to become nominated as administrators, who help resolve controversies. "We will go to war after we have build [sic] our army," Zeq wrote. After the emails were published, Zeq was banned from editing Wikipedia for one year, for -- in the words of one Wikipedian -- "recruit[ing] meatpuppets from off-wiki to push POV," a point of view. CAMERA responded by "temporarily or permanently" ending its Wikipedia email group, "in hopes that members' personal contact information will not be made public."

Pro-Tibet groups plan protests when the Olympic Torch procession gets to Canberra, the Australian capital, but the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) has taken pre-emptive steps to minimize unfavourable media coverage. Paul Maley reports that "only a small clutch of media would be allowed to travel with the torch inside the security corridor." The Australian Capital Territory government's director of communications, Jeremy Lasek, said BOCOG "stipulated" that "the host broadcaster for the TV and radio rights gets a slot" in the media vehicle accompanying the torch. The national president of the Council for Civil Liberties, Terry O'Gorman, countered that there's a "clear conflict of interest" in giving preference to media companies with broadcast rights to the Games. "They've got an interest in promoting the Games and minimising any negative impact that the protests would have on the Games coverage," he said. Hill & Knowlton has the PR contract with BOCOG.

An audit review (pdf) of over $507,000 (Canadian) contributed to two University of Calgary "research accounts" has revealed that C$123,427 was routed to Friends of Science (FoS) -- a group lobbying the Canadian government against taking action on global warming. The audit, which was prompted by persistent inquiries from a volunteer SourceWatch editor, revealed that over C$100,000 was paid to APCO Worldwide for "strategic communications services." In addition, Morten Paulsen Consulting, the firm of lobbyist Morten Paulsen, invoiced FoS for over C$25,000 for developing radio advertisements and purchasing air time in five Ontario markets during the 2006 Canadian election. Additional amounts of over C$25,000 were also paid to Paulsen's current employer, the PR and lobbying firm Fleishman-Hillard, and the video production company Directors Chair. In a press release, the University noted that it had "advised Elections Canada and Canada Revenue Agency of its concerns regarding the accounts Friends of Science and the ongoing auditor’s review."

"In a public relations coup for the coal industry," the Australian Coal Association is working with "two prominent environment groups, WWF and the Climate Institute, and the miners' union, to call on the Rudd Government to set up a national task force to develop 'Clean Coal,'" reports Marian Wilkinson. Australia's Green Party and other environmental groups are calling the new alliance "a greenwash for the coal industry over its response to global warming." Greens senator Christine Milne said the government shouldn't give the coal industry more subsidies. "If you believe the polluter should pay, the coal industry is the classic case," she said. "For the last 100 years it had made massive profits at the expense of the atmosphere and the climate and now is the time for them to pay for their own research." WWF's Greg Bourne said his group joined the industry effort because "we need to know quickly" whether "clean coal" technology can work. "If it's not going to work we need to know even more quickly," he added.