A sampling:
Weekly Spin weekly-spin@prwatch.org wrote:
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:45:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Weekly Spin weekly-spin@prwatch.org To: cmd+weekly_spin-46979@lists.democracyinaction.org Subject: The Weekly Spin, September 13, 2006
THE WEEKLY SPIN, September 13, 2006
Sponsored by the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy: http://www.prwatch.org
3. CORPORATE SPIN CAN COME IN DISGUISE http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/10/news_pf/Worldandnation/Corporate_spin_can_... "If McDonald's makes the case that fast food is nutritious or ExxonMobil argues against higher taxes, it looks like simple self-interest. But when an independent voice makes the case, the ideas gain credibility. So big corporations have devised a form of idea laundering, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to seemingly independent groups that act as spokesmen under disguise. Their views wind up on the opinion pages of the nation's newspapers - often with no disclosure that the writer has financial ties to the companies involved. A few examples: James K. Glassman, a prominent syndicated columnist, denounced Super Size Me, a movie critical of McDonald's. Readers were not told that McDonald's is a major sponsor of a Web site hosted by Glassman. ... Steven Milloy, an analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, wrote a column in the Washington Times that sided with the oil industry against windfall profits taxes. Readers weren't told that groups closely affiliated with Milloy have received at least $180,000 from ExxonMobil. By having others deliver their talking points, the companies stay above the fray, said John Stauber, whose Center for Media and Democracy tracks corporate front groups. 'What these companies are doing is paying somebody else to attack their critics while keeping their fingerprints off the attack.'" SOURCE: St. Petersburg Times (Florida), September 10, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5163
4. MORE JOURNALISTS ON U.S. GOVERNMENT PAYROLL http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15466239.htm Ten Miami journalists have been paid by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) for their involvement in programs for the anti-Castro propaganda stations, Radio Mart? and TV Mart?. The OCB is a unit of the the U.S. government-funded Broadcasting Board of Governors. Three of the ten were journalists with El Nuevo Herald. "Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and writes an opinion column, was paid almost $175,000 since 2001 to host shows on Radio Mart? and TV Mart?. El Nuevo Herald freelance reporter Olga Connor, who writes about Cuban culture, received about $71,000, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covers the Cuban exile community and politics, was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years," Oscar Corral wrote. Alfonso and Isla have been fired by El Nuevo Herald and Connor's freelance relationship terminated. The director of OCB, Pedro Roig, defended the payments. SOURCE: Miami Herald, September 8, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5162
5. WAL-MART SENDS IN THE TANKS http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/08/business/08walmart.html "As Wal-Mart Stores struggles to rebut criticism from unions and Democratic leaders, the company has discovered a reliable ally," report Michael Barbaro and Stephanie Strom: "prominent conservative research groups like the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Manhattan Institute," as well as lesser-known think tanks such as the Pacific Research Institute. "Top policy analysts at these groups have written newspaper opinion pieces around the country supporting Wal-Mart, defended the company in interviews with reporters and testified on its behalf before government committees in Washington." What the think tanks haven't done is disclose the more than $2.5 million in funding they've received from Wal-Mart over the past six years. The National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy has compiled a report detailing the political objectives of Wal-Mart's charitable activities, titled "The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy." SOURCE: New York Times, September 8, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5161
9. PHARMA PR TRIES TO SPIN GOLD FROM YAWN http://www.prweek.com Americans may tire quickly of some pharmaceutical PR, but they've got nowhere to turn (certainly not in bed) when it comes to a new campaign sponsored by the makers of a sleep-fighting medication, Provigil. Drug-maker Cephalon hired Dorland Global Public Relations, which has spun consumers' disinterest in "sleepiness" into a Homeland Security-like campaign for "alertness." The trick: target employers. "No employer is going to allow you to bring advertising into their marketplace," notes Cephalon PR director Sheryl William. Instead, employers opened the door when Dorland created an "education" campaign, including two ex-NASA scientists, to warn employers that the lack of alertness at work could be dangerous. Among other things, Provigil has FDA approval for treatment of "shift work sleep disorder"--a condition that can result from employers' rotating shift requirements. Dorland also created a website and launched a pilot in Atlanta and Chicago that included street interviews and visits to baseball games. The "alertness" website (which gently leads the viewer to Cephalon) has reached four times its hoped-for audience. SOURCE: PRWeek, August 28, 2006 (sub req'd) For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5155
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