Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
A "Defense Communications Strategy" developed for the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) notes that the UK is spending millions of pounds on more than 1,000 spin doctors to improve the public image of the armed forces.
The pro-war front group Move America Forward has announced that it will caravan across the United States September 3 - 17 on a trip to DC to lobby for the war in Iraq.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Gawker.com, a New York-based website that focuses on media news and gossip, has posted the contents of an email exchange between Ronn Torossian of 5W Public Relations and Richard Rubenstein, the son of PR crisis management guru Howard J. Rubenstein.
Mark Penn, CEO of the global PR firm Burson-Marsteller (B-M) and president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates (PSB), feels misunderstood.
Penn was recently in the news when several union officials expressed concern that Democratic Presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton had hired him as a "key strategic adviser," even though B-M has a specialist unit that advises clients on defeating union campaigns. Not surprisingly, Clinton's campaign shrugged off the criticism, insisting that he is a "vital member of our team." In an email to Atlantic Online, Penn wrote that that he had "never personally done such [anti-labor] work" and insisted that he has "strong personal sympathies with the labor movement." (Why someone who proclaims their pro-labor sympathies would even head up a PR firm that runs an anti-labor unit went unexplained.) Even if one accepts Penn's explanation at face value, it left me wondering who he had worked for.
A little digging reveals that, for well over two decades, both Penn and his opinion polling company have advised the tobacco industry on how to counter the campaigns of the tobacco control movement. Based on internal tobacco industry documents, it is clear that Penn and his colleagues have little personal sympathy for those promoting policies that put public health ahead of the interests of the tobacco industry.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
Karl Grossman, a professor of journalism at the State University of New York and host of the nationally aired TV program Enviro Close-Up, recounts that the "overwhelming majority" of the pitches he and his producer receive are from "conservative public relations companies promoting conservative guests." Grossman observes that "in terms of volume and intensity, there's nothing comparable from the progressive world.
Submitted by John Stauber on
James Hoggan, a long time Canadian PR pro, represents a slew of big corporations and trade associations. But Hoggan is also the chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, a leading environmental organization, and he has been using his DeSmogBlog to heap shame and ridicule upon his colleagues in the PR business over the issue of global climate change.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
Medicines Australia, the drug industry's peak lobby group, has lost a legal bid to protect member companies from being required to disclose details of hospitality they provide at "educational" events for doctors.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
Earlier this year, the investments held by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in companies which had adverse health and environmental impacts were scrutinised by the Los Angeles Times. The foundation, which aims to improve health and reduce extreme poverty, said they would review their investment policy, but then subsequently retreated.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
The U.K. Parliament's Public Administration Committee is set to launch an inquiry into the lobbying industry.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
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