James Cameron's new blockbuster movie Avatar won a "black lung" rating for gratuitous smoking from the Web site Scenesmoking.org, which rates motion pictures according to the amount of smoking they show. Avatar is a futuristic fantasy that takes place sometime in the 22nd century. In it, Sigourney Weaver plays an environmental scientist who puffs on cigarettes as she tries to save the moon Pandora. Cameron responded to the accusation of gratuitous smoking in Avatar by saying that smoking is a "filthy habit" that he does not support, but that smoking in movies is necessary to portray reality:

...[S]peaking as an artist, I don't believe in the dogmatic idea that no one in a movie should smoke. Movies should reflect reality.

Stanton Glantz, director of the University of California San Francisco's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, says the smoking scenes in Avatar hand millions of dollars' worth of free advertising to cigarette makers, and points out that the very idea of a chain-smoking environmental scientist is in itself a gratuitous bit of fantasy.

Gary Jobson, a leading U.S. sailor and sailing commentator, is working on a 90-minute "documentary" promoting nuclear power. The film, which is scheduled to be completed in May, will feature interviews with Marvin Fertel, the president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the nuclear industry's main lobbying group as well as Patrick Moore and Christie Todd Whitman, who head up the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, an Institute front group. "We're happy to participate in it because it's an important issue," said Scott Peterson, vice president of communications for the NEI. The film will also include interviews with Ted Turner and Mike Wallace, the vice chairman and chief operating officer of Constellation Energy. According to Jobson, after making a documentary on the New York Yacht Club he was approached by a member who suggested making a movie on nuclear power. Jobson proposed that he do a documentary first and a movie later. "The yacht club member, who works in the energy industry and wants to remain anonymous, has pledged to fund both projects," reports Theresa Winslow.

The Lansing State Journal is the latest in a long line of media outlets to provide a pro-nuclear platform to former Greenpeace activist turned corporate PR consultant, Patrick Moore, without disclosing his consultancy with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). In its Take 5 column, subtitled 'five questions. five answers", five questions were softballed to Moore. "How do you go from being a founder of Greenpeace, which is adamantly opposed to nuclear energy, to a proponent of nuclear energy?," was one. Moore said that "we got a lot of things right in the early years: stop the bombs, save the whales, stop toxic waste, but we made a mistake (on) nuclear power." Moore could have mentioned that he is now a consultant to the NEI, which was created by the PR firm Hill & Knowlton, but didn't.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is the latest news outlet to fail to disclose the fact that Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace activist turned PR consultant, is on the nuclear industry payroll. A recent 690-word opinion column by Moore, titled "Old foes welcome clean fuel," promotes nuclear power as a "solution" to global warming. At the foot of the column, the biographical note states that Moore "co-chairs the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (CASEnergy), which promotes the economic and environmental benefits of nuclear power as part of a green energy economy." What it doesn't state is that CASEnergy is a front group created by Hill & Knowlton for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the peak lobby group for the U.S. nuclear industry. Just over three years ago, shortly after Moore's "coalition" was launched, Hill and Knowlton's Frank Mankiewicz insisted in a letter to the Columbia Journalism Review that Moore “has been completely transparent about funding sources and relationships with the Nuclear Energy Institute and the public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton."

Former Greenpeace activist turned industry PR consultant, Patrick Moore, regularly appears as an opinion columnist or interviewee in news outlets around the world. Frequently these columns and stories don't disclose that the group Moore co-chairs, the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (CSEC), is a front group for the Nuclear Energy Institute. In an opinion column for the Oregon-based Statesman-Journal, Moore writes that "now may be the right time for this state to consider putting nuclear energy back to work on behalf of clean air and economic growth. I understand Oregon's reservations. I once had them, too. But after four decades as an active environmentalist, studying the facts, my views have evolved — and I'm not alone." The biographical note at the end of Moore's column -- as has been noted before -- omits any indication that Moore is a consultant for the U.S. nuclear industry's lobby group. Instead, the note describes the CSEC as a "grassroots coalition which promotes the economic and environmental benefits of nuclear power as part of a green energy economy."

General Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. military and NATO commander in Afghanistan, wants to change strategic communications goals there from a "struggle for the 'hearts and minds' of the Afghan population to one of giving them 'trust and confidence'" in their government and their future. He also wants to focus on exposing insurgents' "flagrant contravention of the principles of the Koran," which is already a talking point for U.S. military-funded public relations contracts in Afghanistan. The Washington Post notes that "McChrystal's approach mirrors one that U.S. intelligence operatives are taking covertly, with some success, in the Middle East, where direct and indirect support is being given to Islamic leaders who speak out against terrorists." In his assessment (pdf) of the situation in Afghanistan, McChrystal also stressed the importance of cultivating third party advocates -- "getting 'authoritative figures' such as religious leaders and tribal elders to deliver the messages 'so that they are credible.'"

The National Advertising Review Council (NARC), a "coalition of advertising organizations" that recommends standards for industry self-regulation, issued its first rulings dealing with blog promotions. NARC faulted two companies for "posting 'reviews' of dietary supplements, but not disclosing that they actually own the products," or that the reviewers were paid. One company, Urban Nutrition, ran websites that "claimed to offer un-biased reviews of products," but really used paid reviewers to write favorably about the company's own products. NARC ruled that, in doing so, Urban Nutrition "was in violation of the FTC's Guides on Endorsements and Testimonials." Urban Nutrition agreed to add disclosures to its sites. The other company, Herbal Groups, ran a blog that pushed its dietary supplement, including via "testimonials" containing "incorrect information" and "dubious claims." The company agreed to take down the blog. The actions come as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updates its endorsement guidelines to include blogs. The FTC is considering requiring bloggers to disclose "not only when they are paid by a company, but also when they receive a free product," reports the New York Times -- a proposal that the Association of National Advertisers, American Association of Advertising Industries and Word of Mouth Marketing Association strongly oppose.