Swift Boat Firm Helps Abstinence Group Court Public Opinion

Captain Abstinence, on an <a href="http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/postcard/" target="_blank">e-card</a> from Washington state's "<a href="http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=aboutus" target="_blank">Teen Health and the Media"Using membership dues paid in part by federal tax dollars, the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) hired the Washington, DC, public relations firm, Creative Response Concepts," writes Scott Swenson. CRC -- best known as the PR firm for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who smeared 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry -- will be heading a "proactive rapid response initiative to counteract negative attacks on abstinence education," reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. The Nation's blog notes that the formation of NAEA and its hiring of a well-connected conservative PR firm comes after "a frigid winter for the abstinence-only crowd." The Government Accountability Office criticized the funding of abstinence-only programs without checking their "education materials for scientific accuracy," while the Institute of Medicine faulted abstinence programs in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief as jeopardizing "the vitally important end of saving lives." That's not to mention that the abstinence-only programs "favored by Republicans and their conservative allies have lost momentum with the Democratic takeover of Congress," as O'Dwyer's observes.

Comments

The picture looks like yet another iteration of the old "celibacy directs the energy upwards" concept. If you try flying, though, you should probably take off only from ground level.

It's fascinatingly twisted to read about the NAEA and their hiring of the swift boat PR firm. Their leadership is equally as repulsive. There's another post up about NAEA's leadership on RH Reality Check about this at http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2007/04/09/abstinence-only-abstaining-from-ethics-while-imposing-morality.

The link to the original story on RH Reality Check isn't right on this story. Here's the corrected link:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2007/04/03/when-abstinence-only-policies-fail-bring-in-the-hatchet-men-to-preserve-bushs-billion-dollar-boondoggle

The link in the original post is now corrected; it was simply too long to fit in the "Spin of the Day" format.