Hope your all having a good summer. Heres the lates selected items from Muckracker:



2.
DON'T ASK, DON'T SHELL
Nigeria Hits Shell With $1.5 Billion Pollution Claim

The Nigerian parliament has hit Shell with a $1.5 billion claim after the Ijaw tribe of the Niger Delta demanded compensation for health and economic hardship caused by the company's polluting operations. The oil giant admits to 262 oil spill incidents in Nigeria in 2002, and that same year it identified 548 sites in the country that needed "remedial" action to prevent contamination. And Shell's reputation as a polluter and violator of human rights in the country goes back even further, with the nadir having come in 1995, when the company failed to intervene as Nigeria's military dictatorship executed activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who had led locals in the fight against Shell's destructive drilling practices. It's unclear whether the parliament's resolution carries the force of law. Shell is, as one might imagine, rather desperate to rehabilitate its public image in Nigeria.

straight to the source: The Guardian, Terry Macalister, 26 Aug 2004




3.
DISMISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
New U.S. Government Report Acknowledges Human-Caused Climate Change

President Bush famously dismissed a 2002 U.S. government report that acknowledged the human causes of climate change as something "put out by the bureaucracy." Well, it looks like the bureaucracy's at it again: A new administration report to Congress indicates that human production of heat-trapping greenhouse gases is likely behind the rapid climate change of the past three decades. According to James R. Mahoney, director of government climate research, the report reflects "the best possible scientific information" on climate change. The White House, which has regularly followed the lead of industry groups in emphasizing the uncertainty of climate science, may have difficulty dismissing this report, as it is signed by the secretaries of energy and commerce and Bush's top science adviser, but you never know.

straight to the source: The New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 26 Aug 2004


straight to the report: Our Changing Planet




4.
SUNFLOWER POWER
Scientists Create Hydrogen Fuel from Sunflower Oil

British scientists have discovered a way to power cars with sunflower oil. While biodiesel cars that directly burn cooking oil are fairly common, researcher Valerie Dupont and her colleagues have something else in mind, as they reported this week at an American Chemical Society conference. They've figured out a way to use catalysts to extract pure hydrogen from a combination of air, water vapor, and sunflower oil. Hydrogen is frequently hailed as the clean fuel of the future, but most current methods of creating hydrogen burn the very fossil fuels responsible for pollution and greenhouse gases. Dupont's process could eventually use any vegetable oil and be miniaturized to the point that the converter could transform oil to hydrogen on the fly, in the car itself. Another researcher at the same conference claimed she was working on a process that could convert pure water directly to hydrogen using a catalyst and solar energy. For now, both veggie oil and water catalysts are prohibitively expensive, but still, maybe this whole hydrogen thing will work out after all.

straight to the source: BBC News, Richard Black, 26 Aug 2004


straight to the source: The Guardian, Tim Radford, 26 Aug 2004

Here's some more from the alternate press:
1. DISINFOPEDIA VERSUS SWIFT BOAT VETS AND OTHER FRONT GROUPS
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=swift+boat&btnG=Google+Search
Last year we launched the Disinfopedia, a "wiki" website designed
to mobilize hundreds of volunteers to help us investigate and
expose front groups and propaganda campaigns. The Disinfopedia is
an experiment in participatory investigative journalism, and the
experiment seems to be succeeding. One recent example is the
Disinfopedia listing for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Not only is
the Disinfopeda entry on the group extensive, up to date and well
documented, it's being widely read by thousands daily and it
appears at or near the top in Google. There will always be
propaganda and deception, but Disinfopedia is proving a powerful
tool for getting to the truth. We invite you to help us to
research, edit and write the Disinfopedia; click here to learn how
to get started.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093406400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093406400

2. SECRET JUSTICE
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1183557.htm
After nearly three years of confinement at Guantanamo Bay,
Australian national David Hicks goes on trial for alleged terrorism
before a U.S. military court. "There'll be no pictures allowed of
David Hicks, no audio from the courtroom, no pictures of the
defence, prosecution or presiding officer entering the building,
and military camera operators will choose what images are broadcast
via closed circuit television to most journalists covering the
hearing," reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
According to reporter Leigh Sales, some of the restrictions on
press coverage "are bizarre and have no parallel. For example,
journalists in the courtroom can't use phone lines to file stories
during breaks in the proceedings. If you get up to go to the
toilet, you are then barred from the courtroom for the rest of the
day. ... Another restriction here, is that no sound or pictures
whatsoever will be taken of the military commissions, even though
they're one of the most important legal aspects of the Bush
administration's war on terrorism, and the first proceedings of
this kind since the Second World War."
SOURCE: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 24, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093320001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093320001

3. SLICK - THE NOVEL
http://www.slicknovel.com/
Check out the new book SLICK by first-time novelist Daniel Price.
SLICK's anti-hero protagonist, Scott Singer, works "in the field of
perception management, although the less colorful term is 'media
manipulation.' We're the CIA of PR, the sublime little gremlins who
live just outside your senses, selling you products and concepts
without you even knowing. ... I've conspired with the gun people,
schemed with the liquor people, toiled for tobacco, and moiled for
Monsanto. I've pushed polluters and promoted porn. I've shilled for
Shell and lied for Tide. I've helped a major pharmaceutical company
sell a drug that does nothing by promoting a disease that doesn't
exist. And that's just the old stuff on my resume." Daniel Price is
both a brilliant novelist and a sharp media critic who also
publishes AbusedByTheNews.com, a website "dedicated to analyzing
the tricks, kinks and quirks of America's corporate news media."
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093320000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093320000

4. SECONDHAND SMOKE SCREEN
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=220175&site=3
A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
finds that Philip Morris attempted to influence media coverage of
secondhand smoke. Citing internal industry documents, the study's
author, Dr. Richard Hunt, says the company and its PR firm,
Burson-Marsteller, made "a controversy out of secondhand smoke when
there wasn't any." Hurt also said Philip Morris gave "hundreds of
thousands of dollars" to training programs at the Herndon, VA-based
National Journalism Center. "Hurt said the funds went to support
speakers who would discount research on the dangers of secondhand
smoke," PR Week writes. "They also backed an internship program to
place reporters who supported the tobacco industry's position, Hurt
said."
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req'd), August 23, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093233601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093233601

5. BUSH CAMPAIGN GRABS FOR IRAQI GOLD
http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1288686,00.html
George W. Bush's re-election campaign has been accused of
appropriating the Olympics for political means. A recent
Bush/Cheney advertisement that links Iraq's and Afghanistan's
participation in the Olympic games with the White House's "war on
terror" is drawing criticism. "To the embarrassment of their media
handlers in Athens, members of the Iraqi football team have reacted
furiously to the news that their efforts are being used to aid Mr
Bush's efforts to win a second term in the White House," The
Guardian reports. The team's coach, Adnan Hamd, told Sports
Illustrated magazine, "My problem is not with the American people.
They are with what America has done; destroyed everything. The
American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom
when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?" The
Guardian is also reporting that Bush may be "planning to visit
Athens later this week to watch some sporting events, including a
potential gold-medal winning bid by the Iraqi football team."
SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), August 23, 2004
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093233600

6. FULL COURT PRESS RELEASE
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19616/
"Over the past few weeks of Presidential WrestleMania MMIV, the
Bush campaign has fired off more than a dozen press releases about
John Kerry's policies on energy, nuclear-waste storage, forest and
water protections, and other environmental issues - a hodgepodge of
smears, exaggerations, and obfuscations intended to besmirch
Kerry's pro-environment reputation," Grist Magazine's Amanda
Griscom writes. Polls indicate that swing-state voters are
concerned about things like pollution and wilderness conservation,
prompting the Bush campaign to "neutralize" the environment as an
election issue. "They know they can't persuade voters that Bush is
good on the environment, so they're trying to create enough
confusion about Kerry's record that people decide it can't be the
issue that decides their vote," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club
executive director. "Most of the Bush team's environment-related
releases rely on one of two tired claims - that Kerry is a
flip-flopper, or that creating jobs and protecting the environment
are incompatible goals," Griscom writes.
SOURCE: Alternet, August 20, 2004
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092974403