Public Relations

'Chernobyl-on-the-Hudson' Hires Burson-Marsteller

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"Burson-Marsteller is handling the public and media uproar over the safety of New York's Indian Point nuclear plant for the facility's owner Entergy Corp," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "Activist groups and the media have criticized the safety record of the plant and its potential vulnerability to an attack by an airliner in the wake of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center tragedy. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in its annual review of the nation's 103 reactors released last month, gave the Indian Point 2 reactor its lowest performance rating.

No
Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, April 25, 2002
Topics: 
Nuclear Power
Public Relations

"Perception Management"

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

PR Watch editor John Stauber and Hunter College Professor Stuart Ewen recently participated in a a panel discussion on the topic of "perception management" and managed to make an impression on columnist Danny Schechter's own perceptions of today's over-spun media environment. The influence of PR, he observed, has some unintended consequences for us all. When spin doctors "drive the news agenda" with "pre-fabricated messages," rational public discourse starts to break down. "Think about the messages of the terror war or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Schechter says.

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Main Source: 
MediaChannel.org, April 24, 2002
Topics: 
Journalism
Public Relations
Rhetoric

ActivistCash.com Picked for USA Today Hot Site

Submitted by Laura Miller on

Tobacco, booze, and restaurant industry front-group website ActivistCash.com received "hot site" status in USA Today. "In the Internet age, all secrets are open secrets. With gleeful abandon, ActivistCash.com reveals the diverse and oftentimes surprising sources currently funding nonprofit activist organizations. From Mothers Against Drunk Driving to Greenpeace," USA Today writes. What's missing is ActivistsCash's own funding sources.

No
Main Source: 
USA Today, April 23, 2002
Topics: 
Front Groups
Media
Tobacco

Arctic Power Sees Conflict With Saudi Arabia, Drops PR Firm

Submitted by Laura Miller on

Arctic Power, a lobbying organization that promotes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, has ended its $4-million account with Qorvis Communication reports PR trade publication O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Arctic Power says there is a conflict of interest since Qorvis also is working for Saudi Arabia. One of Arctic Power's key arguments for opening ANWR to oil drilling is that it would reduce US dependence on foreign oil, particularly Middle-Eastern oil. The US is Saudi Arabia's second top export market.

No
Main Source: 
American Prospect, April 2, 2002; O'Dwyer's PR Daily, April 8, 2002
Topics: 
Corporations
Ethics
Public Relations

Leaked Catholic E-mails Discuss Priest Scandal

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The email correspondence of Los Angeles' Roman Catholic cardinal as he struggled to contain a scandal over child-molesting priests was broadcast across the city after copies of his correspondence was leaked to radio station KFI-AM's popular talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou.

No
Main Source: 
Reuters, April 5, 2002
Topics: 
Crisis Management
Ethics
Religion

Spirits Crisis Controlled

Submitted by Laura Miller on

PR Week describes how the Distilled Spirits Council, an alcohol industry trade group, handled a "crisis" when the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) released a study claiming that children consume 25% of alcohol sold in the US. "Such a study could do irreparable harm to the alcohol industry," says PR Week. DSC pored through the raw data used in CASA's study, rerunning the numbers "in hope of finding some miscalculation" and ready to jump if there was a mistake.

No
Main Source: 
PR Week, April 1, 2002
Topics: 
Crisis Management
Health

Shandwick's Anti-Green PR Backfires, Big Time

Submitted by Laura Miller on

As of April first, 130,000 hectares of rainforests have been added to New Zealand's National Parks and conservation reserves, thanks to the the unravelling and demise of a devious pro-logging PR campaign run by a government-owned company, Timberlands, and its PR adviser, Shandwick New Zealand. In 1999 a whistleblower leaked hundreds of pages of internal Shandwick documents which formed the basis for the shocking exposé Secrets and Lies: The Anatomy of an Anti-Environmental PR Campaign by Nicky Hager and Bob Burton.

No
Topics: 
Environment
International
Public Relations

The Other War Room

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

George Bush likes to insist that he governs "based upon principle and not polls and focus groups." In reality, writes Joshua Green, "the Bush administration is a frequent consumer of polls, though it takes extraordinary measures to appear that it isn't." In 2001, the administration spent close to $1 million for polling, using political advisors like Jan van Lohuizen and his focus-group guru, Fred Steeper. "Policies are chosen beforehand, polls used to spin them.

No
Main Source: 
Washington Monthly, April 1, 2002
Topics: 
Public Relations
U.S. Government

CLEAR for Launch

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

For years, the Clearinghouse for Environmental Education, Advocacy and Research (CLEAR) did yeoman's work researching the financial ties and extremist rhetoric of the corporate-funded anti-environmental movement. Until recently a project of the Environmental Working Group, CLEAR recently spun off to become independent.

No
Main Source: 
http://www.clearproject.org/
Topics: 
Astroturf
Corporations
Environment

Media Rely Increasingly on Spokespeople

Submitted by Laura Miller on

The media's use of spokespeople as primary news sources has increased 81% between 1995 and 2000 according to a study by Bob Williams, an ethics fellow at the Poynter Institute. "As a reporter, you look around the newsroom, and the tendency has become to talk to spokespeople rather than to even try to get to the principals," Williams told PR Week. Council of PR Firms president Kathy Cripps suggests reporters and editors sit down with their PR contacts for interviews as a way to improve the relationship between the media and PR practitioners.

No
Main Source: 
PR Week, March 25, 2002
Topics: 
Journalism
Ethics
Public Relations

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