OK this weeks blog is very long. Your assignment this week is to find a story or advertisment in Japanese that has spin. Which means it has a planned slant or often angle which makes something bad look good. Propaganda in other words. You should translate the article and point out what the spin is. I'm going to show you some examples. This is the Weekly Spin and newsletter published by the Centre for Media and Democracy:

The Weekly Spin, May 30, 2007

Blog Postings

Democratic Spin Won't End the War in Iraq
by John Stauber

After several months of empty posturing against the war in Iraq, politicians in Washington have made what Democratic congressman James P. Moran called a "concession to reality" by agreeing to give President Bush virtually everything he wanted in funding and unrestricted license to continue waging the increasingly detested war that has made Bush the most unpopular president since Richard Nixon.

This is the outcome that we warned against two months ago when we wrote "Why Won't MoveOn Move Forward?" In it, we criticized MoveOn for backpedaling on its previously claimed objective of ending the war in Iraq immediately. Anti-war sentiment was the main factor behind last year's elections that brought Democrats to power in both houses of Congress. Once in power, however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through a "compromise" bill, supported by MoveOn, that offered $124 billion in supplemental funding for the war. To make it sound like they were voting for peace, the Democrats threw in a few non-binding benchmarks asking Bush to certify progress in Iraq, coupled with language that talked about withdrawing troops next year.

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Be a Citizen Journalist

New Participatory Project: Covering the 2008 Congressional Elections (U.S.)
Source: Congresspedia

Update: It's early, but the campaigns for the primaries of the 2008 congressional elections are starting to heat up, especially on the Democratic side, with everyone from Dennis Kucinich to Albert Wynn to Robert Wexler facing primary challenges. Please help out your fellow citizens by pitching in on this Congresspedia project to cover the campaigns and candidates of both the primary and general elections for Congress in 2008.

The Congresspedia staff editors will be kicking off a project soon to provide voters with comprehensive information on the congressional elections next year, including profiles on each candidate on the ballot in both the primary and general elections. More than 2/3 of the members of Congress hail from "safe" districts or states that overwhelmingly vote for one party, meaning that for most voters the primary election or caucus is the only way to hold them accountable. Before we get started on the profiles, however, we need to figure out when each state will be holding their primaries and when their ballots will be officially released. No one knows this better than you, the people who actually live there.

Please join us in helping your fellow citizens become educated voters by letting us know when those dates are. We've got an article set up on Congresspedia with spaces for every state. For many states we already found out which month they finalize their ballots, but we need to know the specific day and other information. You may need to dig around a bit on the websites of your state election authority or parties or even give them a call. If you do find any useful websites, please enter them under your state's entry so other citizen journalists can utilize them later.

If this is your first time editing, you can register as a SourceWatch volunteer editor here , and learn more about adding information to the site here and here. Have fun, and thanks for your help!

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Spin of the Day Postings

Nuclear Greenwashing
Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 29, 2007

Professional Greenpeace turncoat Patrick Moore is going around with a slide show that "isn't as slick as Al Gore's," writes Amanda Witherell, promoting nuclear power as a safe, clean, reliable and emissions-free solution to global warming. Witherell discusses the role that the Nuclear Energy Institute and PR firm Hill and Knowlton have played in creating Moore's "Clean and Safe Energy Coalition" and takes a critical look at some of the factoids in his presentation, such as his claim that nuclear power plants could withstand a direct hit from a jetliner without breaching radioactive contamination.

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Australian Government Revokes Critic's Tax Status
Source: Sydney Morning Herald, May 30, 2007

A watchdog group that criticized the social and environmental failings of the Australian government's overseas aid policies has been stripped of its charitable tax status. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) informed Aid/Watch that it had lost it tax-deductible gift status because it was "trying to procure changes in Australia's aid and development programs". The ATO took exception to Aid/Watch urging supporters to write to the Government to put pressure on the Burmese military dictatorship and raising concerns about the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement. Dr Clive Hamilton, the Executive Director of The Australia Institute and co-editor of the book Silencing Dissent, believes the decision is also aimed at curtailing advocacy groups' election year campaigns. "A very clear message is being sent, especially in the lead-up to the next election, that the Government will crack down on non-government organisations it doesn't like," he said.

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Nigerian Election Good For U.S. Consultants
Source: The Hill, May 30, 2007


Joe Trippi
In a report filed with the U.S. Department of Justice, netroots guru Joe Trippi, who made his name advising Howard Dean's 2004 campaign on new media strategy, discloses he was paid $20,000 to advise former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the recent Nigerian elections. Abubakar, who also hired PR giant Hill & Knowlton and the James Mintz Group, lost the election to former President Olusegun Obasanjo's anointed successor, Umaru Yar'Adua. "Essentially, the text-messaging campaign said, 'Democracy is at risk right now with Obasanjo, do not let them take the election,' that sort of thing," Trippi told The Hill. An election monitoring group described the election as "a charade." The latest filings also reveal that since April 2006, Goodworks International, a PR firm co-founded by Andrew Young, was paid $500,000 by the government of Nigeria. Part of Goodworks strategy was to promote "the democratic election in Nigeria."
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Unhealthy Secrecy
Source: CanWest News Service, May 28, 2007

The chairperson of the Best Medicines Coalition (BMC), Louise Binder, recently appeared before the Canadian parliament's health committee to argue the case for patients gaining access to newer and more expensive drugs. When asked who funded BMC, Binder told the committee that half its funding came from the government agency, Health Canada, and the remainder was from the drug industry. However, CanWest News Service reports that the group receives all of its C$250,000 budget from the drug industry. (The Health Canada grant was in the preceding year.) Binder told CanWest reporter Carly Weeks that she would disclose funders it if she considered it "relevant." But she said, "I don't think it is." Alan Cassels, a drug-policy researcher at the University of Victoria, disagrees: "They don't have a disinterested position about the benefits or harms related to the drugs and they will maintain a position that's very much in their funder's interests."

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Muslims Don't Trust U.S.
Source: U.S. News & World Report, May 23, 2007


An in-depth poll of Muslim countries has found that large majorities believe undermining Islam is a key goal of U.S. foreign policy. Most want U.S. military forces out of the Middle East, and many approve of attacks on U.S. troops there. "While U.S. leaders may frame the conflict as a war on terrorism, people in the Islamic world clearly perceive the U.S. as being at war with Islam," said Steven Kull, editor of WorldPublicOpinion.org. However, respondents strongly oppose attacks on civilians. Large majorities approve of many of al Qaeda's principal goals, but believe its violence against civilians is "violating the principles of Islam."
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EPA Screens Have Gaping Holes, Warn Scientists
Source: Dallas Morning News, May 27, 2007

Will it be "one of the most comprehensive screening programs ever to check whether chemicals can disrupt human hormones" or "a misleading $76 million waste"? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, which is slated to begin tests in 2008, is already controversial. Some scientists are warning that the program will: use "a breed of rat that is relatively insensitive to several known hormone-disrupting chemicals"; feed the rats a soy-based chow containing natural hormone disruptors that may complicate test results; pay little attention to prenatal chemical exposure; test a too-high dosage range; and possibly allow "chemical companies to tailor certain aspects of the tests." The EPA counters that the program was developed "in an open manner to protect it from special interests," and that "it is not worried" about chemical industry involvement. Indeed, the EPA shaped the screening program with input "from people who may have financial interest in the outcome of the tests," using data from the American Chemistry Council and a toxicologist who works as an industry consultant.

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What's Fair in Coverage of RCTV Shutdown?
Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), May 25, 2007

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is criticizing U.S. news media for presenting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's non-renewal of the television station RCTV's broadcast license "as a simple matter of censorship." FAIR points out that "RCTV and other commercial TV stations were key players in the April 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chavez's democratically elected government." Moreover, "the Venezuelan government is basing its denial of license on RCTV's involvement in the 2002 coup, not on the station's criticisms of or political opposition to the government." BBC News reports that the Latin American press is portraying Chavez as "authoritarian" and Venezuelan media as "increasingly suffocated." Journalism and human rights groups have denounced the non-renewal of RCTV's license. Governments have the right not to renew a broadcast license, but a standard process should be followed, international rights groups maintain. "We're not arguing that the concession ... should be given to RCTV," said the Committee to Project Journalists' Carlos Lauria. "We're just saying that there's no process to evaluate if it should be." Just Foreign Policy's Patrick McElwee agrees, but notes that a 1987 law -- enacted previous to Chavez -- "charges the executive branch with decisions about license renewal" and "does not seem to require any administrative hearing."

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Young, Reliable "Activists" Outed as Corporate Spooks
Source: Sunday Star Times (New Zealand), May 27, 2007


The Happy Valley Coalition protests Solid Energy
A private investigation company, Thompson & Clark, employed agents to infiltrate environmental, peace and animal rights groups in New Zealand, investigative journalist Nicky Hager has revealed. One of the company's clients was the government-owned coal company Solid Energy. A student was paid NZ$400 a month to infiltrate and report on the activities of Save Happy Valley, a group opposing a new coal mine. One task was to provide information on the group's legal strategies in response to being sued by Solid Energy over a spoof corporate social responsibility report. The Chief Executive Officer of Solid Energy, Don Elder, is unapologetic: "What do I think about it? So what? If Thompson & Clark had got someone to do the things you've said, then I would say good on them." The State-Owned Enterprises minister, Trevor Mallard, told Solid Energy that the spying operation is "unacceptable." However, Solid Energy has only said that it will consider the issue at its next board meeting.
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One Sham Nuclear Review Replaces Another
Source: The Guardian (UK), May 23, 2007

In a signal that the departure of Tony Blair as British Prime Minister won't result in any major policy shifts, Prime Minister-elect Gordon Brown has supported the construction of up to eight new nuclear power stations. In February, Britain's High Court ruled that a national energy review had been a "sham" consultation exercise. Despite the setback, Trade and Industry Secretary and Brown ally, Alistair Darling, has launched a new round of "consultation" on its latest nuclear power white paper. "We will consider carefully the responses we get and this will enable us to take a decision on nuclear power later in the year," the Department of Trade and Industry website states. Darling, however, is not waiting for the public response, ridiculing those opposing nuclear power as being "daft." Greenpeace director John Sauven said the British government "has tinkered with its failing energy efficiency and renewables policy while indulging its nuclear obsession."

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Automakers Fight Fuel Efficiency Standards
Source: The Hill, May 25, 2007

The Hill reports, "Automakers plan to attack congressional efforts to raise fuel mileage standards in a series of radio and newspaper advertisements this weekend, the unofficial start of summer driving season. The ad campaign, sponsored by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, focuses on states with a high proportion of truck and SUV drivers to stoke grassroots opposition to a Senate bill that would raise fuel standards for cars and trucks by 10 miles per gallon over the next 10 years. The Senate plans to take up the bill after the Memorial Day recess as part of a larger effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and wean the country off of foreign oil. The auto group plans to spend at least $1 million on the ad buy, a spokesman said. ... Fuel mileage standards for automobiles are currently set at 27.5 miles per gallon, and have not been raised since 1990." The auto lobby has a website at www.drivecongress.com with a toll-free number to get US drivers lobbying Congress against fuel efficiency standards.

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Hillary's Poison Penn
Source: Associated Press, May 24, 2007

U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's top presidential campaign strategist is Mark Penn, worldwide CEO of the PR firm Burson-Marsteller and president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates. While the campaign says Penn "is currently working only with Microsoft" for his day job, an internal Burson-Marsteller blog "suggests ... he has been working with multiple clients," reports Bloomberg News. Blog posts by Penn mention work for Shell Oil, the energy company TXU, and the U.S. Tuna Foundation. In one post, Penn says "the mixing of corporate and political work" is "helpful in cross-pollinating new ideas and skills." The Nation notes Burson-Marsteller's astroturf "attacks against environmental and consumer groups," and its "confrontational relationship with organized labor," as well as Penn's polling firm's work for the nuclear power industry (which the Center for Media and Democracy previously reported on). AP reports that Colombia recently hired Burson-Marsteller on a $300,000-per-year contract, to "educate members of the U.S. Congress and other audiences" on "free trade" issues and Plan Colombia, a U.S. backed counter-narcotics program criticized by human rights groups. Colombia will also honor former president Bill Clinton "at a gala event next month in New York City." Her campaign said Hillary will not attend. The Colombian government's links to paramilitary groups led Al Gore to avoid an environmental conference last month that Colombian president Alvaro Uribe attended.

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Prices High, Credibility Low for Oil Industry
Source: PR Week, May 25, 2007


From a "Fun with Propaganda" graphics contest
Once again, the start of the U.S. "summer driving season" is coinciding with "record-high gas prices." The American Petroleum Institute (API) is ramping up media outreach, including bloggers for the first time. "We felt we should become more involved" in the blogosphere, explained API's Jane Van Ryan, "because there are a lot of policies and news-related items being discussed." The industry group has held three blogger teleconferences, "on subjects including energy and environment and, most recently on May 16, gasoline prices," reports Michael Bush. "Blogs the API has reached out to include The Oil Drum, Energy Outlook, and the Daily Reckoning." API's "team of seven media relations people" continues traditional media outreach, fielding "a 'huge amount of calls' from the networks, major dailies, trade press, small newspapers in 'virtually every state,' and consumers," after the latest price hike. Oil companies have their own PR campaigns, as well. Shell's president "is currently in the midst of a 50-city 'listening tour,'" and Exxon Mobil's Dave Gardner said they will "use our Op-Ed space - in national newspapers - to explain current gasoline price drivers to our customers."
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Crisis Management "Gold Standard" Actually Tinny
Source: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), May 22, 2007

As many speeches, magazines and books have done previously, the current issue of Fortune magazine calls Johnson & Johnson's (J&J's) response to the 1982 Tylenol capsule poisoning deaths "the gold standard in crisis control." O'Dwyer's PR Daily writes that "the Tylenol story, as commonly told, is a 'fairy tale,'" as PR executive James Lukaszewski once called it. J&J's CEO at the time, James Burke, "learned of the tragedy" of the seven Chicago-area deaths "on Wednesday, Sept. 30, and called a staff meeting for Monday" -- in contrast to the "myth" that he acted immediately. J&J also "tried to localize the problem, recalling two batches that were circulated in the Chicago area." A wider recall wasn't launched until "after another attempted poisoning using Tylenols took place on the following Tuesday in Oroville, Calif." And "while Burke has been lauded for his openness with the press, he did not hold a press conference." The problem was the capsules, which "some pharmacists would not stock," because they "could easily be taken apart and 'spiked.'" After another Tylenol capsule poisoning in 1986, J&J's Burke admitted he was sorry that the company "did not stop making Tylenols in capsules after the Chicago murders."

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The Not-So-Free Press, Worldwide
Source: Associated Press, May 21, 2007

After giving an interview to Afghanistan's Tolo TV in which she called the Afghan parliament "worse than a stable or a zoo," because "at least there you have a donkey that carries a load and a cow that provides milk," Malalai Joya was suspended from Parliament. Joya, a young lawmaker and rights activist, has been threatened by warlords, while Afghan officials have sought to intimidate Tolo TV. Human Rights Watch is calling for Joya to be reinstated. In Thailand, the government is closing down community radio stations, allegedly for using "illegal frequencies." Rights activists say the shut-downs are at least partially due to stations having aired interviews with ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In Iraq, local journalists and news organizations, along with the Committee to Protect Journalists, are protesting the government's ban on journalists reporting from attack scenes. Lastly, the OpenNet Initiative found that 25 of 40 countries it studied "block Web sites for political, social or other reasons." The "most extensive filters" are imposed by China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam.

This weeks assignment is mostly research. You should find a small Japanese story or advertisment that has spin and translate it into English and point out the spin. Due noon Sat. I will be looking at and marking your blogs this weekend so hope they are in good shape.
Here is one expample of a newsletter that exposes Enviroment related stories that the regular press tends to ignore.
Environment Newsletter
May 28th, 2007
More from Environment »




Ethanol Booms, Farmers Bust
By Lisa M. Hamilton, AlterNet
From the news these days you'd think farmers have never had a better friend than ethanol. But if you actually are a farmer, ethanol, with the high corn prices it brings, is looking less and less like a blessing -- and more like a curse. Read more »



What's all the hype about ethanol? Lisa Hamilton writes about how farmers are really faring with a new ethanol-infused corn market.

Anneli Rufus documents Al Gore's new book promotion tour and what the climate guru has to say about the media, politics and our future.

And Jane Lampman exposes a new creation "science" museum that has hundreds of scientists fuming.

As always, thanks for reading.



Al Gore: Modern Politics' Movie Star
By Anneli Rufus, AlterNet
Like the children's classic "A Fish Out of Water," Al Gore has outgrown his fishbowl. He has developed a following of millions simply by reminding people that they can use knowledge as a source of influence.



Natural History, Bible-style
By Jane Lampman, Christian Science Monitor
A new creation "science" museum puts dinosaurs in the garden with Adam and Eve. Some 700 scientists have deplored its inaccurate exhibits, warning that students who accept them are "unlikely to succeed in science courses."



Women Emerge as Powerful Advocates at UN Environment Conference
By Regina Cornwell, Women's Media Center
At this month's UN Commission on Sustainable Development, women's organizations were were the most organized and effect segment.



ExxonMobil: Sex, Lies and Global Warming
By Sara Whitman, HuffingtonPost.com
ExxonMobil is refusing change its employment policy to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. They claim they are already doing the right thing. But, given their record, how can we believe them?



EarthTalk: Is the Bush Administration Censoring Scientists?
E Magazine
Word of the White House censoring federal climate scientists on global warming was leaked in Bush's first term in office, but only in the last few years have federal employees been willing to go on record with such accusations.



Carbon Emissions Exceed Highest Assumptions Used in Climate Change Studies
By Peter N. Spotts, Christian Science Monitor
While global warming deniers argue that most climatologists are alarmists, CO2 emissions in the past few years have exceeded the levels used in scientists' models -- signaling even more cause for concern.



U.S. Undermines International Action on Global Warming
By Josh Dorner
The U.S. is trying to undermine to the work of G8 countries on global warming.






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