[Media-watch] FW: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, April 2, 2003
david Miller
david.miller at stir.ac.uk
Wed Apr 2 10:50:00 BST 2003
I will stop sending these spin of the week updates from now on (too much
mail in you inbox :)). If anyone want to sign up to them directly click on
the link below.
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From: spin at prwatch.org
Date: 2 Apr 2003 06:00:01 -0000
To: weekly-spin at prwatch.org
Subject: The Weekly Spin, Wednesday, April 2, 2003
THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, April 2, 2003
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
1. Pentagon Embeds Public Affairs Officers With Journalists
2. Propaganda's Diminishing Half-Life
3. Coalition Of The Shills
4. Edelman Defends France's Sodexho From Congressional Attack
5. General GOP
6. Clear Channel Gets PR Help Over Pro-War Rallies
7. An Army of Propaganda
8. The Spectre of Al-Jazeera
9. Chickenhawks' War Comes Home to Roost
10. Embedded Reporter Tactic "Sheer Genius"
11. The Truth About Basra
12. NYC Peace Activists Risk Arrest Protesting Media Bias
13. Global Anger Grows Against US War on Iraq
14. The "Information Operations" War in Iraq
15. Rumsfeld's Happy Face Masks Deep Problems
16. Hackers Shut Down al-Jazeera Websites
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1. PENTAGON EMBEDS PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICERS WITH JOURNALISTS
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=175623&site=3
"They may not get as much attention as their media counterparts,
but dozens of Pentagon public affairs officers are 'embedded' right
alongside the reporters in Iraq," PR Week reports. "The Pentagon
also maintains the Coalition Press Information Center (CPIC) in
Kuwait, a base of operations for public affairs officers not
traveling with troops. A 24-hour operation designed to keep up with
news cycles in every time zone, ... one of the CPIC's most vital
roles is to discourage 'rogue' journalists from venturing into
dangerous areas by providing the information they might otherwise
attempt to get on their own." The Wall Street Journal praised the
Defense Department's PR Strategy. "The embedded reporters will
continue to be a brilliant strategy by the Pentagon -- one that
should echo in the rules of corporate communications," the
Journal's Clark S. Judge writes. "As the Pentagon has demonstrated
so aptly, the essential strategy for becoming the standard of truth
when no one believes you is to open your operations to the kind of
risk that no one would take if he were planning to lie. Spin is out
of the question. Good or bad, the story is there for the reporter
to see."
SOURCE: PR Week, March 31, 2003; Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1049173202
2. PROPAGANDA'S DIMINISHING HALF-LIFE
http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030401051950914
"In the good old days, the US used to tell a lie -- crass
propaganda -- and it would stick for a long time. Journalists would
have to scurry for months before they could expose the lies, but by
then it would be almost irrelevant," writes London-based economist
Paul de Rooij for PalestineChronicle.com. "In the run up to the
US-Iraq war, it became increasingly evident that propaganda has a
diminished half-life. ... As soon as a propaganda ploy has been
exposed, the current media spinners will move to the next tall
story. They seem to count on either the poor memory of the
population, their general disinterest or their credulity. ... There
is only one antidote against propaganda, and that is a relevant
sense of history and a strong collective memory. When we remember
the lessons from the past, and when we remember what happened even
a few days ago, then the job of the propagandists and their
warmongering bosses, becomes much more difficult."
SOURCE: PalestineChronicle.com, April 1, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1049173201
3. COALITION OF THE SHILLS
http://www.areporter.com/sys-tmpl/thecoalitionofthewilling/
Government officials from the U.S. and U.K. insist on labeling the
American and British forces in Iraq as "coalition forces" despite
the fact that the majority of "coalition of the willing" countries
are providing little to no support for the Iraq invasion. But as
Reuters reports, "It can pay to be a member of President Bush's
coalition against Iraq." Freelance journalist Constantine von
Hoffman has compiled a chart, showing the GDP, annual military
expenditures, number of troops being sent to Iraq by all the latest
coalition partners, and the amount promised to each in Bush's
supplemental wartime budget request.
SOURCE: Reuters, March 26, 2003; AReporter.com, April 1, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/April_2003.html#1049173200
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1049173200
4. EDELMAN DEFENDS FRANCE'S SODEXHO FROM CONGRESSIONAL ATTACK
http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0331sodexho_alliance.htm
"France's Sodexho Alliance is fending off Congressional bids to
strip it of its $880 million food service contract with the U.S.
Marines because of the French snub of President Bush's invasion of
Iraq," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "Edelman is our corporate agency
of record, and we use it for crisis work," Bonnie Goldstein, a PR
staffer at Sodexho's North American headquarters in Gaithersburg,
Md., told O'Dwyer's. "Rep. Jack Kingman (R-Ga.) wrote a letter to
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking him to consider
transferring the Marines contract to a U.S.-based firm. That would
send a 'tangible signal to the French government that there are
economic consequences associated with their international
policies.' The letter was signed by 59 Congressmen," O'Dwyer's
writes.
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, March 31, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1049086803
5. GENERAL GOP
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/DocID/F6A45D33BEA21C9E8625
6CFA00491CCD?OpenDocument&story
"According to recent leaks from the Pentagon, Gen. Tommy Franks and
other uniformed war planners argued with Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld over how many troops and how much armor to commit to the
war," writes Lucian K. Truscott IV. "The soldiers wanted more of
both," but "Rumsfeld was reportedly among the influential group on
the administration war team who predicted that the Iraqi army would
quickly fold after it had been shocked and awed. ... The question
is, why didn't the generals insist on the force structure they were
correct in thinking would be necessary? The fact that more than
two-thirds of senior military officers identify themselves as
conservative Republicans - and the true percentage is probably a
lot higher than that - might have something to do with the
military's lack of backbone. ... The lack of backbone in the top
ranks of Pentagon generals when dealing with their Republican
friends may cause unnecessary deaths on the battlefield, a high
price to pay for a military that is finally happy with the politics
of its civilian leaders, but must deal uneasily with their lack of
military expertise."
SOURCE: St. Louis Today, March 31, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2003.html#1049086802
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1049086802
6. CLEAR CHANNEL GETS PR HELP OVER PRO-WAR RALLIES
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/31/business/media/31RADI.html?ex=1050131696&e
i=1&en=605cc49ef21e6063
"Clear Channel Communications ... finds itself fending off a new
set of accusations: that the company is using its considerable
market power to drum up support for the war in Iraq, while muzzling
musicians who oppose it. ... The critics ... cite an unusual series
of pro-military rallies drummed up by Glenn Beck, whose talk show
is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, a Clear Channel
subsidiary. ... Thirteen of those rallies were co-sponsored and
promoted by local Clear Channel stations, including one held March
15 in Atlanta that was sponsored by Clear Channel's WGST and
attended by an estimated 25,000 people. Further plans for rallies
include events in Tampa; Lubbock, Tex.; and Dothan, Ala. Clear
Channel, which hired Brainerd Communicators, a financial
communications and crisis-management firm, last week to help deal
with the controversy, did not make Mr. Beck available for an
interview."
SOURCE: New York Times, March 31, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2003.html#1049086801
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1049086801
7. AN ARMY OF PROPAGANDA
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15507
"It's no coincidence that Americans, and others around the world,
are echoing the exact same phrases and news bites at the same times
with near-military precision. It's the result of a slickly
orchestrated public relations campaign on the part of the military
and the U.S. government that is borrowing the best practices of the
corporate PR world. ... The PR industry, as many may know, was
actually started by the military during World War I, when
persuasive techniques were developed to recruit soldiers. 'After
the [First World War] a lot of those [PR] people went to work for
the private sector and are seen as the grandfathers of PR,' says
Laura Miller, associate editor of PR Watch [and author of the
article War Is Sell ].... "They were very up front about the fact
that [in their opinion] in a democracy, public opinion needs to be
controlled by a small number of people who know what's best for the
public.' In the case of the war against Iraq, that means that there
should be no confusion or dissent about the aims and progress of
the war."
SOURCE: AlterNet, March 31, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2003.html#1049086800
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1049086800
8. THE SPECTRE OF AL-JAZEERA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,924469,00.html
Throughout the world, people are witnessing scenes of horror from
Iraq on Al-Jazeera, the Arab cable news station. However,
Al-Jazeera barely penetrates the United States. The network's
newly-launched English-language web site remains down and may not
be available for several weeks due to hacker attacks. According to
Al-Jazeera correspondent Faisal Bodi, "few here doubt that the
provenance of the attack is the Pentagon." Nevertheless, the
station has become one of the most sought-after news resources in
the world. "I do not mean to brag - people are turning to us simply
because the western media coverage has been so poor," Bodi says.
"Of all the major global networks, al-Jazeera has been alone in
proceeding from the premise that this war should be viewed as an
illegal enterprise. It has broadcast the horror of the bombing
campaign, the blown-out brains, the blood-spattered pavements, the
screaming infants and the corpses. Its team of on-the-ground,
unembedded correspondents has provided a corrective to the official
line that the campaign is, barring occasional resistance, going to
plan."
SOURCE: Guardian (UK), March 28, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2003.html#1048827603
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1048827603
9. CHICKENHAWKS' WAR COMES HOME TO ROOST
http://www.msnbc.com/news/752664.asp#030328
If you think you remember that we were promised a quick, easy war,
your memory is not faulty. Eric Alterman has gone to the trouble of
assembling some of those recent quotes in which Bush administration
officials and pundits predicted, not that war is hell, but that it
would be heaven. "Support for Saddam ... will collapse at the first
whiff of gunpowder," predicted Richard Perle. The war will be "a
cakewalk," said Ken Adelman. According to Donald Rumsfeld, "it will
not be long." And Dick Cheney said the Iraqi people "will welcome
as liberators the United States."
SOURCE: MSNBC, March 28, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2003.html#1048827602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1048827602
10. EMBEDDED REPORTER TACTIC "SHEER GENIUS"
http://www.themeasurementstandard.com/issues/303/eng/painemilitary303.asp
"The current war has been called the best-covered war in history,
and certainly the visuals and reports from 'embedded' reporters
have been spectacular, bringing war into our living rooms like
never before," Katie Delahaye Paine writes in her PR firm's
publication The Measurement Standard. "[T]he embedded reporter
tactic is sheer genius. ... The sagacity of the tactic is that it
is based on the basic tenet of public relations: It's all about
relationships. The better the relationship any of us has with a
journalist, the better the chance of that journalist picking up and
reporting our messages. So now we have journalists making dozens --
if not hundreds -- of new friends among the armed forces. And, if
the bosses of their new-found buddies want to get a key message or
two across about how sensitive the U.S. is being to humanitarian
needs or how humanely they are treating Iraqis, what better way
than through these embedded journalists? As a result, most (if not
all) of the dozens of stories being filed contain key messages the
Department of Defense wants to communicate."
SOURCE: The Measurement Standard, March 28, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1048827601
11. THE TRUTH ABOUT BASRA
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=391460
Robert Fisk reports that "an Iraqi general, surrounded by hundreds
of his armed troops, stands in central Basra and announces that
Iraq's second city remains firmly in Iraqi hands. The unedited
al-Jazeera videotape, filmed over the past 36 hours and newly
arrived in Baghdad, is raw, painful, devastating. ... It is also
proof that Basra, reportedly 'captured" and 'secured' by British
troops last week, is indeed under the control of Saddam Hussein's
forces. ... The unedited reports therefore provide damaging proof
that Anglo-American spokesmen have not been telling the truth about
the battle for Basra."
SOURCE: The Independent, March 28, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1048827600
12. NYC PEACE ACTIVISTS RISK ARREST PROTESTING MEDIA BIAS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Anti-War-Protests.html?ex=1
049792245&ei=1&en=f5dde147bba64b44
"Hundreds of chanting demonstrators lined Manhattan's Fifth Avenue
on Thursday, and dozens lay down in the street in a 'die-in' to
protest the war. ... Anti-war groups also called for other civil
disobedience in the city to protest media and corporate
'profiteering from the war.' ... Some protest signs were directed
at the media. One protester held a sign showing a picture of
parrots and the words, 'Don't Parrot the Right-wing Propaganda.'
Another, 44-year-old teacher Lee Whiting, held up a sign that said,
'Embedded? or In Bed?' Embedded, she said, means 'journalists are
presenting almost exclusively the military view of this war.'
Police and security officers placed a web of barricades at the
adjacent Rockefeller Center, home of the GE Building, NBC and The
Associated Press, to prevent the protesters from staging their
'die-in" there."
SOURCE: Associated Press, March 27, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1048741201
13. GLOBAL ANGER GROWS AGAINST US WAR ON IRAQ
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/27/international/worldspecial/27PERC.html?ex=
1049774803&ei=1&en=3c8ef900c48117e5
As pundits and the Pentagon try to quantify the number of
acceptable US casualties, world-wide opposition to the attack on
Iraq grows by the day. The New York Times notes that "the public
mood in many countries around the world seemed to become angrier
and more sarcastic than ever... . Another day of global protest is
being advertised on Web sites and posters for Sunday, April 6. If
there was a common image summoned up by the protests and angry
commentaries, it was of the United States as an imperial power
intoxicated by its military supremacy but receiving a lesson in the
price of arrogance by unexpected Iraqi resistance. ... 'The world's
only remaining superpower is beginning to suffer from the disease
with which every imperial power throughout history has been
afflicted: the overestimation and overtaxing of its own
capabilities,' Germany's Der Spiegel said. 'Could the Iraq war
herald its decline?' "
SOURCE: New York Times, March 27, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2003.html#1048741200
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1048741200
14. THE "INFORMATION OPERATIONS" WAR IN IRAQ
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/26/international/worldspecial/26GORDON.html?e
x=1049721202&ei=1&en=07a02253e3da1698
"Bush planners appear to have left television off the initial
[bombing] target list because they wanted to use it to administer
Iraq immediately after the war and to limit the damage to civilian
infrastructure. Reports from Iraq, however, suggest that the
American restraint was seen by many Iraqis as an indication of Mr.
Hussein's resilience, undermining the allied message that his days
were numbered. There are, in fact, two parallel battles underway.
One is the intense assault American forces are mounting to set
themselves up for a drive to Baghdad to overthrow the Saddam
Hussein regime. The other, and equally critical, is the struggle to
secure the support of Iraqi citizens. The military has a name for
its campaign to win over the Iraq population It is called. 'I.O'
for 'information operations.' The problem is that during the
initial days of the war Mr. Hussein's 'I.O.' has been beating the
allied 'I.O.' "
SOURCE: New York Times, March 26, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1048654802
15. RUMSFELD'S HAPPY FACE MASKS DEEP PROBLEMS
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/5473652.htm
Journalist Joseph L. Galloway, the military affairs correspondent
for Knight Ridder, criticized the Bush administration's war
fighting plan today on NPR's Fresh Air program. Galloway, the
co-author of We Were Soldiers Once, and Young, was recently a
consultant to Colin Powell. Yesterday Galloway reported that "the
risks of the [Iraq] campaign are becoming increasingly apparent,
and ... there may be a mismatch between Secretary of Defense Donald
H. Rumsfeld's strategy and the force he has sent to carry it out.
... Intelligence officials say Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz
and other Pentagon civilians ignored much of the advice of the CIA
and the Defense Intelligence Agency in favor of reports from the
Iraqi opposition and from Israeli sources that predicted an
immediate uprising against Hussein once the Americans attacked."
The Washington Post reports that "the war is likely to last months
... senior defense officials said today." (Our Disinfopedia
analysis warned before the war started of the danger of the Bush
administration believing its own propaganda.)
SOURCE: Knight Ridder, NPR, Washington Post, March 26, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2003.html#1048654801
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1048654801
16. HACKERS SHUT DOWN AL-JAZEERA WEBSITES
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,922264,00.html
"The English-language and Arabic websites of Qatar-based
broadcaster al-Jazeera were forced down this morning after a spate
of suspected hacker attacks last night. Neither aljazeera.net,
which gets the most hits of any Arabic website in the world, nor
english.aljazeera.net, which launched on Monday, were available
this morning after suspected attacks crashed both sites.
[C]ommunications manager Jihad Ali Ballout told MediaGuardian.co.uk
the company was doing everything possible to get the sites up and
running.. ... Asked where the attacks originated, Ali Ballout said:
"I wish I knew. There are rumors that the attacks originated in the
US but at this moment in time we cannot verify that. But it is
worrying and an indication perhaps [that] in certain quarters there
is a fear of freedom of expression and freedom of the press."
SOURCE: The Guardian, March 26, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/March_2003.html#1048654800
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1048654800
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