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THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS

1. Banana Appeal
2. The Mighty Windbags
3. False Dichotomies
4. Hummer Bummers
5. Counter-Attack of the Killer Clowns
6. Free the Press!
7. The Sound of One Invisible Hand Clapping
8. Torture, Brand America and the Bottom Line
9. Putting the Bold in Diebold
10. The Power of Pictures
11. Identity Crisis at SBC
12. Disinfopedia as Part of the Smart Mobs vs. Amway
13. Real Atrocities and Faked Photos
14. Drink Up
15. Don't Read This Over an American Hamburger
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1. BANANA APPEAL
http://www.bananarepublicans.org
PR Watchers Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber have finished writing
their fifth book, Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning
America Into a One-Party State. It won't be in bookstores until
late May, but you can order it now online. You can also find
chapter summaries and an excerpt from the book on our new Banana
Republicans website. Plus, we've created a section on the
Disinfopedia where you can add your own analysis, research and
insights regarding the ideas in the book.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084334400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084334400

2. THE MIGHTY WINDBAGS
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/05/11/noise/
Salon.com has published an excerpt from former right-wing
journalist David Brock's new book, The Republican Noise Machine:
Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy. In an accompanying
interview, Brock talks about how the conservative media's "sets a
climate and helps set parameters and helps form impressions. ...
One significant problem is that people are in denial about the
impact of conservatives in the press. They dismiss something as one
story and don't think it will snowball. Liberals don't think these
people matter; they think they're crackpots. They may well be
crackpots, but they matter. There may be a slow learning curve
about understanding that."
SOURCE: Salon.com, May 11, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084248002
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084248002

3. FALSE DICHOTOMIES
http://thehill.com/news/051104/pows.aspx
U.S. prisoners of war during the first Gulf War "are criticizing
the Bush administration for fighting their compensation claims
while planning to compensate the Iraqi victims of abuse at Abu
Ghraib prison," reports The Hill. They're responding to Defense
Secretary Don Rumsfeld's remarks last week to the Senate Armed
Services Committee that he's "seeking a way to provide appropriate
compensation to those [Iraqi] detainees... one way or another." The
former U.S. POWs won a $1 billion settlement against the former
Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. But the Bush administration has
appealed the ruling, saying it "wants to avoid draining funds from
the new Iraqi government... the money is needed to help rebuild the
country."
SOURCE: The Hill, May 11, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084248001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084248001

4. HUMMER BUMMERS
http://news.findlaw.com/business/s/20040511/autoschryslerrecalldc.html
Chrysler "is recalling more than 326,000 pickup trucks and Durango
sport utility vehicles because of two potential safety problems,"
reports Reuters. Meanwhile, Hummer sales were down 21 percent in
April, possibly due in part to "rising gasoline prices." General
Motors is responding by "offering discounted financing on its
Hummer H2, the icon of the market for supersize sport-utility
vehicles," according to the Wall Street Journal. GM is also
offering dealer incentives "to move out bloated inventories of its
Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade big SUVs." Declaring,
"It's time we started taxing the sins of the 21st century," one
Texas lawmaker proposed taxing major air polluters, including
"power plants, SUV owners and coal-burning industries." The
proposal was made during an emergency legislative session on school
funding.
SOURCE: Reuters, May 11, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084248000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084248000

5. COUNTER-ATTACK OF THE KILLER CLOWNS
http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?site=3&ID=209884&site=3&/news/news_story.cfm&setcookie=1
As the anti-fast food documentary "Super Size Me" hits theaters,
McDonald's is fighting back. "We're responding aggressively because
the film is a gross misrepresentation," said a company
spokesperson. Helping defend McDonald's are "global nutritionist"
Cathy Kapica and the corporate-funded American Council on Science
and Health. According to PR Week, ACSH's "aggressive independent
third-party response" includes editorials on Tech Central Station,
a website published by Republican lobbyists. Also under attack is
Coca-Cola, for alleged "complicity in gross human rights
violations" in Colombia, reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. "We plan to
destroy the image of Coca-Cola, for which it has spent millions to
cultivate," said the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke's director. To
"get the facts to all concerned parties," the soft drink giant
launched www.cokefacts.org and www.killercoke.com -- the latter to
"capture" people seeking the Campaign's website,
www.killercoke.org.
SOURCE: PR Week, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161603
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161603

6. FREE THE PRESS!
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/05/10/ap_miss_newspaper_sue_over_tape_erasure/
The Associated Press and the Mississippi paper Hattiesburg American
filed a lawsuit "against the U.S. Marshals Service over an incident
in April in which a federal marshal erased reporters' recordings of
a speech Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave to high school
students" about the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit alleges the
marshal "violated due process and the constitutional protections
from unreasonable search and seizure." Saying "the government's
power is overwhelming," Associated Press President Tom Curley
announced plans to form a "media advocacy center to lobby in
Washington for open government." Curley said the Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Society of Professional
Journalists and others would be invited to help "seek better
statutory guarantees for more accessible government information."
SOURCE: Associated Press, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161602

7. THE SOUND OF ONE INVISIBLE HAND CLAPPING
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108414149947006210,00.html?mod=politics%5Fprimary%5Fhs
Jackie Calmes writes: "Over the past four years, Mr. Bush has swung
from free-market candidate to sometime-protectionist president and
back again." But lately, on the campaign trail, "he has re-emerged
as a full-throated free trader," even in "the most hotly contested
states... with the biggest job losses." Why? "Advisers have made
optimism a hallmark of the re-election campaign and argue that an
upbeat message trumps pessimism every time, even on trade and even
in hard-hit Midwestern manufacturing states." According to The
Hill, 37 House Republicans urged Commerce Secretary Don Evans "to
continue highlighting the many benefits of foreign-based companies
choosing to 'insource' work here in America." Industry groups
(including the Coalition for Employment through Exports) "are
leading an informal group formed to fend off outsourcing-related
measures" like Independent Bernie Sanders' Defending American Jobs
Act.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161601

8. TORTURE, BRAND AMERICA AND THE BOTTOM LINE
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&e=1&u=/ap/20040510/ap_on_re_eu/red_cross_prisoner_abuse
In its damning report, the Red Cross states that "physical and
psychological coercion were used by [U.S.] military intelligence in
a systematic way to gain confessions and extract information and
other forms of cooperation" from Iraqi detainees. But look on the
bright side: "American companies that sell globally say that they
have so far experienced little if any disruption from discontent
over the war in Iraq," reports The New York Times. "In a display of
the growing sophistication in marketing... many people see products
originating from the United States as firmly rooted in their own
home nations." But "one of the world's largest market research
organizations" found the opposite in their annual 30-country
survey: "Diminishing respect for American culture is having a
detrimental impact on American brands around the world."
SOURCE: Associated Press, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161600

9. PUTTING THE BOLD IN DIEBOLD
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/business/8625251.htm?1c
California's secretary of state said "they broke the law," called
their conduct "absolutely reprehensible," and banned their machines
in four counties, but maybe the news isn't all bad for e-voting
company Diebold Election Systems. "It could affect the stock for a
week or two," said corporate branding executive Clayton Tolley, but
"generally, it's a passing fad that will fade within six months."
Diebold spokesperson Mike Jacobsen pointed out "we're a
business-to-business firm... not a consumer company," so negative
public opinion doesn't hurt as much. To make sure, Diebold Election
Systems just hired a second national PR firm, Edward Howard & Co,
to work with Public Strategies Inc to boost the company's
reputation. Tolley also suggests the Diebold parent company
distance itself from Diebold Election Systems: "I'd try to insulate
the business units."
SOURCE: Akron Beacon Journal, May 9, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084075200
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084075200

10. THE POWER OF PICTURES
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/010346.shtml
"By many accounts, the horrible treatment of Iraqi prisoners by
U.S. soldiers and mercenaries has been going on ever since the end
of the invasion," notes Dan Gillmore. "The Red Cross warned U.S.
officials a year ago. Yet it took those appalling photographs to
turn this into the huge story that it's become. Which raises some
questions: Suppose the Americans hadn't bothered to take pictures
of each other in that infamous prison? Suppose they'd just gone on
abusing the prisoners without cameras? Does a story exist without
pictures?" And Tim Porter makes an interesting observation about
the vanishing role of the mass media in unearthing the story. "The
two biggest recent stories to emerge from the Iraq - the
administration's don't-show-don't-know policy toward the
photographing of military caskets and the puerile abuses by Army
reservists inside Abu Ghraib prison - were based on digital
photographs not made by journalists but by participants in both
stories." According to the Associated Press, this reflects "a
defining fact of 21st century life," as "the pervasiveness of
digital photography and the speed of the Internet make it easier to
see into dark corners previously out of reach for the mass media."
SOURCE: Dan Gillmor Journal, May 7, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083902400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083902400

11. IDENTITY CRISIS AT SBC
http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0506fleishman_sbc.htm
San Francisco Chronicle reporter David Lazarus is questioning
whether Marc Bien, who he interviewed as telecommunications giant
SBC's vice-president of corporate communications (as Bien's
business cards indicate) broke ethical guidelines when he neglected
to tell Lazarus that he's actually an employee of major PR firm
Fleishman-Hillard. Lazarus, who's covering a potential
Communication Workers of America strike at SBC, notes the irony
that the "SBC spokesman" he quoted "defending the company's use of
hundreds of outside contractors" is a "nonemployee" himself.
Fleishman-Hillard senior vice-president Ed Presberg said the firm
"acted ethically and appropriately.... It is no secret that some
F-H employees represent SBC. Many of the reporters who cover the
company are aware of it. We thought David was aware of it."
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, May 6, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083816001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083816001

12. DISINFOPEDIA AS PART OF THE SMART MOBS VS. AMWAY
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18605
"As Howard Rheingold, who literally wrote the book, Smart Mobs,
says: 'Civilizations jump in complexity whenever a threshold for
collective action is lowered. It's not just street protestors. It's
science, democracy, markets, the way people meet and mate, the way
people use cities and the way motor vehicles use roadways that are
affected ... when mobile communication and pervasive computing
enable new forms of collective action,'" Brad deGraf writes for
AlterNet. "'Wikis' have become the participatory writing tool of
choice, and have revolutionized online collaboration. The
Disinfopedia, from the folks at PR Watch, is an encyclopedia of
disinformation that anyone can add their two-cents to, using the
'Edit this Page' button on every page."
SOURCE: Alternet, May 6, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083816000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083816000

13. REAL ATROCITIES AND FAKED PHOTOS
http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/000762.php
The photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib are bad enough,
considering that possibly 25 prisoners have died while in American
custody. However, some faked photos are also circulating, including
pictures of an alleged rape by soldiers that were actually taken
from a porno site. Independent journalist Chris Albritton debunks
the fakes and criticizes a cavalier attitude toward the truth that
"seems to have taken hold in anti-war journalism as well. I have no
doubt there are horrible things going on, and that U.S. soldiers
are doing some of them," he writes. "But I'm unwilling to report on
them unless I can get some confirmation. ... Everyone involved in
this mess, including Arab journalists, needs to write as accurately
as possible because 'a lie gets halfway around the world before the
truth ever gets its boots on.' That's what's happened with the
alleged rape photos and people will die because of them. ...
[Websites] printing them when they admit they are not confirmed
should be ashamed of themselves."
SOURCE: Back to Iraq, May 5, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083729603
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083729603

14. DRINK UP
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/050504/Local/ST001.shtml
A grand jury report on groundwater contamination in Escambia
County, Florida, has been released charging that local, state and
federal agencies responsible for protecting the environment and
public health all failed to inform the public about industrial
contamination of the county's water supply, with the Conoco oil
company among the area's leading polluters. "The combined failure
meant thousands of residents were unaware that more than half of
the county's public water wells were laced with harmful
contaminants for an untold number of years," reports Steve Mraz,
noting that authorities were "more concerned about public relations
and financial impacts" of their decisions than "than the health,
safety and welfare consequences." As is often the case, the impetus
for cleanup came, not from government regulatory agencies, but from
Margaret Williams, a local grandmother turned activist, Margaret
Williams, and her organization, Citizens Against Toxic Exposure.
SOURCE: Pensacola New Journal, May 5, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083729602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083729602

15. DON'T READ THIS OVER AN AMERICAN HAMBURGER
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/05/DDGFL6EUPN1.DTL
Recently the Center's John Stauber had lunch with journalist Laurel
Wellman to discuss the Center's prescient 1997 book by Stauber and
Sheldon Rampton, Mad Cow USA. The resulting column in today's San
Francisco Chronicle notes that in the month after December's
discovery of a mad cow in Washington state, 80,000 people
downloaded Mad Cow USA for free off of our website. Meanwhile, the
US government continues to cover-up the threat of mad cow in
America. For instance, on the meat-industry website
meatingplace.com, reporter Dan Yovich today breaks the outrageous,
shocking news that a United States Department of Agriculture
official ordered that a suspected Texas mad cow NOT be tested for
the disease. Instead, it was sent to a rendering plant and
destroyed, probably to become food for other animals, which is how
the disease is spread.
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, May 5, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083729601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083729601


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