Public Relations

Ari Fleischer, "Flack from Hell"

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Writing for the New Republic, Jonathan Chait humorously deconstructs White House spokesman Ari Fleischer's spin tactics, which he first encountered when Fleischer represented Republicans on he House Ways and Means Committee. "Fleischer has a way of blindsiding you, leaving you disoriented and awestruck," he writes. "Much of the time Fleischer does not engage with the logic of a question at all. He simply denies its premises - or refuses to answer it on the grounds that it conflicts with a Byzantine set of rules governing what questions he deems appropriate.

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Main Source: 
New Republic, May 30,2002
Topics: 
Public Relations
U.S. Government

H&K's Baby Incubator Story Still Debated

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"Lauri Fitz-Pegado, the former Hill and Knowlton staffer who promoted the story about armed Iraqi troops tossing Kuwaiti babies out of their incubators - one of the biggest PR stories of the `90s - is now handling PR for the Cayman Island Cultural Center in New York," noted O'Dwyer's PR Daily on May 28. "H&K, on behalf of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait front group of exiled royals, produced a 15-year-old girl 'Nayirah' who testified that she saw Iraqi troops committing the atrocity in a Kuwaiti hospital. She testified before the Congressional Human Rights caucus in Oct.

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Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily
Topics: 
Propaganda
Public Relations
U.S. Government
War / Peace

Mall Developer's Ohio Front Group Exposed in the Press

Submitted by John Stauber on

"A mall (development) war ... has heated up after one developer secretly launched a hard-hitting public relations strike against a competitor, warning that the rival's plan could lead to traffic gridlock and adult businesses. ... After The Cincinnati Enquirer obtained a plan that outlined part of the campaign, David Kass, Continental Retail Development's president, admitted Wednesday to unleashing it against (competitor) Steiner. But he said it was a legal effort similar to development campaigns elsewhere in the country. ... 'We're coming clean,' Mr.

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Main Source: 
Cincinatti Inquirer, May 30, 2002
Topics: 
Front Groups
Corporations

Berman Sees Anti-Meat Conspirators at Wall St. Journal

Submitted by John Stauber on

Tobacco, booze and food lobbyist Rick Berman has mastered the art of lining his own pockets running his non-profit industry-funded front groups . And now there he goes again, attacking us for a quote of John Stauber's in a recent Wall Street Journal article on the mad deer epidemic . Berman is the master of the smear campaign and constantly misrepresents the individuals and groups he attacks.

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Main Source: 
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/headline_detail.cfm?HEADLINE_ID=1436
Topics: 
Food Safety
Front Groups

"Corporate Phantoms" Demonize the GE Food Debate

Submitted by John Stauber on

Two weeks ago, Guardian columnist George Monbiot described how the Bivings Group, a PR company contracted to Monsanto, invented fake citizens to post messages on internet listservers. "These phantoms had launched a campaign to force Nature magazine to retract a paper it had published, alleging that native corn in Mexico had been contaminated with GM pollen," Monbiot writes in today's column. "But this, it now seems, is just one of hundreds of critical interventions with which PR companies hired by big business have secretly guided the biotech debate over the past few years. ...

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Main Source: 
The Guardian (UK), May 29, 2002
Topics: 
Genetic Engineering
Front Groups
Corporations
Ethics

'Astroturf' Lobbying for Lawn Pesticides

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

A year after the Canadian Supreme Court's landmark ruling allowing municipalities to ban the use of lawn pesticides, the chemical industry is fighting back. "In many cases they have been successful in out-organizing the local communities," says Alex Cullen, a member of the Ottawa City Council. In Toronto, for example, public meetings last week on a proposed pesticide ban were overwhelmed by representatives from lawn-care companies sporting T-shirts, handing out pamphlets and offering quick comebacks to any question.

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Main Source: 
Canada.com, May 26, 2002
Topics: 
Astroturf
Environment

SPIN Works

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Activists looking for alternatives to the seemingly overwhelming power of corporate PR may find some useful guidance from tthe SPIN (Strategic Press Information Network) Project. SPIN provides training, media strategizing, and resources to help grassroots activists expand their capacity to influence public opinion and garner positive media attention.

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Main Source: 
http://www.spinproject.org/
Topics: 
Activism
Public Relations

PR Attack Dog Berman Dishes It Out, But Can't Take It

Submitted by John Stauber on

Tobacco PR lobbyist Rick Berman runs a lucrative business smearing public interest groups through his industry-funded fronts such as ConsumerFreedom.com and Activistcash.com. Berman can dish it out, but apparently he can't take it, nor stand the truth. He is threatening to sue food safety activist Jeff Nelson of VegSource for revealing that Berman lines his own pockets from his "non-profit" enterprises. According to Nelson, "Berman claims he wants to 'expose' funding sources of non-profit activist organizations.

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Main Source: 
VegSource Interactive News Release, May 20, 2002
Topics: 
Activism
Animal Rights
Front Groups
Corporations

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