The White House's "Good Cop"
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Nicolle Devenish, the new White House communications director, was "once fired for being too nice to reporters," writes the New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller.
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Politics
National Association of Manufacturing Consent
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The National Association of Manufacturers, whose political action committee BIPAC mounted a massive get-out-the-business-vote drive last year, is forming two new groups to support the Bush administration.
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Karen Ryan, Meet Mike Morris
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
For the second time, the Government Accountability Office "scolded the Bush administration for distributing phony prepackaged news reports," or video news releases.
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The Money Behind Social Security Privatization
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"President Bush's political allies are raising millions of dollars for an election-style campaign to promote private Social Security accounts, as Democrats and Republicans prepare for what they predict will be the most expensive and extensive public policy debate since the 1993 fight over the Clinton administration's failed health care plan," reports Jim VandeHei.
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A War Room of One's Own
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The "first permanent communications war room for Democrats on Capitol Hill," the Senate Democratic Communications Center, has been launched.
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Republicans 'Outorganized and Outthought' Democrats
Submitted by Laura Miller on
The 2004 presidential race was the most expensive in history. While Republicans did outspend Democrats -- $1.14 billion to $1.08 billion -- the difference wasn't that much. "Despite their fundraising success, Democrats simply did not spend their money as effectively as Bush," the Washington Post's Thomas Edsall and James Grimaldi report.
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Don't Let the Revolving Door Hit You
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Representative Billy Tauzin, "a principal author of the new Medicare drug law, will become president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the chief lobby for brand-name drug companies." The Medicare law is generous to industry, forbidding price controls, regulations, or even negotiations with drug manufacturers "to secure lower prices for Medicare beneficiari
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Attack of the Appalled Embeds
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
In Kuwait, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was asked why soldiers "had to dig through landfills to find scrap metal to up-armor vehicles." The soldier who asked the question discussed it beforehand with an embedded reporter.
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Class War Is Sell
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Bush's second term will focus on domestic policy, specifically "creating private Social Security accounts," "revising the tax code," "limiting the size and number of lawsuits, and changing immigration laws." The PR plan to sell these policies is underway. "In the next few weeks, White House officials, including [Karl] Rove, are planning to meet with Republican activists" to coordinate the campaign.
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Fact-Checkers Bypass Spin Alley
Submitted by Laura Miller on
"When Jon Stewart 'busted' Spin Alley [the post-debate media feeding frenzy where campaign officials talk up their candidates for journalists] for in his famous confrontation with the Crossfire people (the most downloaded video clip ever, at the time) he was hitting on a practice that had grown more and more disreputable. As a designated spot for the practice of spin, the Alley only fell from legitimacy when an alternative practice rose up and called out to conscience of the press.
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