Where's the Outrage Over Obama's Health Care Propagandist, Jonathan Gruber?

John Stauber — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:19:07 -0500

US News and World Report blogger Peter Roff is comparing the Obama Administration's payments to Jonathan Gruber to the the pundit payola scandal of the Bush Administration paying Armstrong Williams.

In January 2005, USA Today revealed that a U.S. Department of Education contract paid Williams to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind legislation on his TV show and to ask other African American journalists to do likewise. Democrats and media activists were appropriately outraged at such blatant and hidden government propaganda. A January 7, 2010, report by Marcy Wheeler on her Firedoglake blog exposed the similar failure of the Obama Administration and influential MIT economist Jonathan Gruber to fully and consistently reveal Gruber's role in receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars as a paid consultant to the Obama Administration, while promoting Obama's health care legislation.

Roff, a long-time Republican activist and right wing pundit, notes that in the William's payola scandal "senior Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to President George W. Bush expressing their outrage. In one of those letters, then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Henry Waxman, George Miller, David Obey, and Elijah Cummings denounced the payments made to Williams under a government contract as 'illegal covert propaganda' intended to influence the American electorate."

What a difference partisanship makes now that Obama is president. In the Gruber scandal prominent liberals including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman have attacked the messenger, Marcy Wheeler and Firedoglake, rather than criticizing the lack of disclosure and the money changing hands, and digging further into the relationship between Obama and his paid health care advocate Jonathan Gruber.

Media Watchdogs Call Out Planted "News" Story in Washington Post

Anne Landman — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:30:27 -0500

A conspicuously-biased article printed in the Washington Post on December 31, 2009 is drawing the attention of media watchdogs, bloggers and public policy experts. Titled "Support grows for tackling nation's debt," the article discusses a proposal to create a government commission to examine the country's growing debt. This new commission, according to the article, would be charged with exploring "how to rein in skyrocketing spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security," but it failed to mention other major sources of government spending, like the $663 billion military budget. The story pointed to growing support for such a commission among political figures, but failed to mention the 40 or so prominent organizations that oppose the plan, including the NAACP, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), AARP, Common Cause, the AFL-CIO, and the National Organization for Women.

Smoking in "Avatar": Necessary to "Reflect Reality"?

Anne Landman — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:26:05 -0500

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.

Anonymous Funder Fills Sails of Pro-Nuclear "Documentary"

Bob Burton — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:14:58 -0500

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.

Five Questions, Five Doses of Spin

Bob Burton — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:21:28 -0500

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.

Old Consultant Welcomes New Sucker

Bob Burton — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:30:18 -0500

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."

The Nuclear Sponsorship That Keeps on Giving

Bob Burton — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:01:18 -0400

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."

Making War Spin McChrystal Clear

Diane Farsetta — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:55:15 -0400

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.'"

Increasing Scrutiny for Online Marketing

Diane Farsetta — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:01:07 -0400

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.

Pentagon Propaganda Gets a Pass

Diane Farsetta — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:25:02 -0400

Is there a difference between covert propaganda and secretive campaigns to shape public opinion on controversial issues? The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) apparently thinks that there is.

The GAO recently ruled that the Pentagon pundit program did not break the law against taxpayer-funded domestic propaganda. The program involved some 75 retired military officers who serve as frequent media commentators. From 2002 to 2008, the Pentagon set up meetings between the pundits and high-level Department of Defense (DOD) officials. The Pentagon's PR staff not only gave the pundits talking points, but helped them draft opinion columns and gave them feedback on their media appearances. The Pentagon also paid for the pundits to travel overseas, following carefully-scripted itineraries designed to highlight successes in Iraq and humane measures at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

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