SourceWatch

Welcome to SourceWatch—your guide to the names behind the news. SourceWatch is a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. A primary purpose of SourceWatch is documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy. SourceWatch also includes profiles on think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests. Over time, SourceWatch has broadened to include others involved in public debates including media outlets, journalists, government agencies, activists and nongovernmental organizations. Unlike some other wikis, SourceWatch has a policy of strict referencing, and is overseen by a paid editor. SourceWatch has 37,831 articles.

• Fridays with Tory: Canada's Tory government is taking heat for using Friday afternoons to release negative news to the public. "The Tories took office promising clean, open governance and vowing not to practice the same old politics as previous government," reports the Canadian Press. "But they've stuck to one tried and true tactic -- releasing negative news when it will get the least media attention." Recent examples include a Foreign Affairs report on the misplacement of government documents and a major climate-change report that questioned Conservative claims about greenhouse gas reductions.

• Another Ghost-Written Op/ed Traced to LMG: If there's a questionable opinion column promoting a corporate viewpoint, chances are the secretive Washington DC public affairs firm LMG -- also known as LawMedia Group -- is involved. As the Center for Media and Democracy reported previously, LMG helped place a column attributed to the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he didn't write and which criticized some SCLC donors. Now, it appears LMG is behind another column. The author supposedly was Mel King, a community organizer and network neutrality advocate. However, his column questions the need for net neutrality provisions. King admitted that LMG was involved and refused to say whether "he was paid for the use of his name," reports Declan McCullagh. LMG's clients include Comcast, which opposes net neutrality, and Microsoft, which hired LMG in an attempt to block a Google-Yahoo advertising deal.

• Buried Soldiers, Buried Coverage: "The former spokeswoman for Arlington National Cemetery says the facility's No. 2 official has been calling military families to try to talk them out of media coverage of their loved ones' funerals, despite his denials that he does so," reports William H. McMichael. "Gina Gray, who was fired June 27 after 2½ months on the job, said Deputy Director Thurman Higginbotham told her in early May that he had been making such calls for about a year -- while denying he did so at least three times, including once in an April 30 meeting with Pentagon reporters to discuss the cemetery's media policy."

• Philip Morris Caught in Second Concert Sponsorship in Philippines: Last month, when pop singer Alicia Keys protested Philip Morris International's (PMI) sponsorship of her concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, PMI was forced to pull down posters and billboards that promoted the concert. That debacle was hardly over when health advocates started pushing for PMI to end its involvement in yet another concert, the August 30 reunion of the Filipino group Eraserheads, a band so popular in this part of the world that it has been dubbed the "Beatles of the Philippines." People seeking tickets to the free concert are directed to www.marlboro.ph, a Web site run by PMI's Philippine subsidiary. To obtain tickets and information, visitors must provide personal contact information that allows PMI to send them promotional materials for cigarettes.

• Wal-Mart: We're Green, Just Don't Ask How Green: "Wal-Mart has been taking many major steps [to] go green in recent years," writes Eoin O'Carroll. "So you can imagine my surprise when I came across Wal-Mart's comment on the Federal Trade Commission's attempts to standardize carbon offsets." As the Center for Media and Democracy reported previously, the FTC is revising its environmental advertising guidelines, prompted by the booming trade in carbon offsets, environmental "credits" that can be purchased to balance the impact of activities (like plane flights) that emit greenhouse gases. The FTC plans to issue guidelines for carbon offsets and renewable electricity credits (RECs). Wal-Mart suggested (PDF) to the FTC, "rather than attempting to define offsets or RECs, the Commission should rely on the flexibility inherent in the 'reasonable basis doctrine.' ... Different authoritative and expert institutions have adopted different, but reasonable approaches."

• Gasoline: Like a Healthy Lifestyle: BP North America recently launched "its first full-scale lifestyle effort," to promote its new gas with "Invigorate." Unlike a traditional product launch, which "simply discusses gas," BP's "Younger for Longer" campaign will compare its new gas formula to older athletes. The oil company says its new gas "cleans and extends the use of engine parts, in the same way a healthy lifestyle contributes to a longer lifespan." The campaign will run for five years, with support from the GolinHarris firm. It will include ads, "a mobile tour and interactive Web site." The tour -- of BP's "Invigoration Station" -- will visit 15 cities, offering "the chance to participate in activities related to the athlete spokespeople, such as rock climbing."

• All's Fair in Love and Political Ads: The CEO of the public relations firm Burson Marsteller, Mark Penn, likes John McCain's TV ad likening Barack Obama to celebrities like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. "Hillary Clinton's former top strategist wrote the ad tries to 'portray Obama's leadership for change as something fluffy and useless.' It bears a Republican political trademark 'attacking a candidate's strengths rather than the candidate’s weaknesses.'" In an essay posted on Politico.com, Penn contends that "clever negative ad can be devastatingly effective." He says that like the McCain ad, "Some negative ads crystallize voters' opinions without presenting any new information."

• Faking Reality in the Name of National Interest: First the organizers of China's spectacular Olympic opening ceremony admitted that they digitally faked the dazzling "footprint" fireworks that viewers saw on TV leading up to the Bird's Nest stadium. Now it has emerged that the cute little girl who sang a patriotic song in the ceremony was lip synching for another little girl who, officials decided at the last minute, was not cute enough to adequately represent China's national image. Chen Qigang, musical director of the opening ceremonies, explained the last-minute switch by telling Beijing Radio, "The performer was Lin Miaoke, but the sound was Yang Peiyi. The reason...is this: One was for the benefit of the country. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression, and Lin Miaoke meets our requirements in those aspects."

• Ethical News Director Receives Award: As CMD previously reported, Eau Claire, Wisconsin news director Glen Mabie quit his job in January. Instead of going along with a deal that his station had struck with a local hospital to guarantee coverage of medical issues featuring personnel from that hospital and not others, Mabie left his position. The station later cancelled the agreement. Mabie has been selected to receive the Ethics in Journalism award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

• 
  Weekly Radio Spin: Deportation with a Heart: Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at not-so-endangered species, burying media access, and why it doesn't matter what "green" means. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," how to boost your image after the world's worst industrial accident. Podcasters can subscribe to XML feed on http://www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

• Diane Farsetta surveys the breadth of the U.S. nuclear lobby. See Meet the Nuclear Power Lobby (July 1);

• In a guest blog, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner reviews how the the U.S. Administration is building its anti-Iran message. See Same Old Dog and No New Tricks: Update on Messaging on Iran (June 20);

• Anne Landman reviews the latest bout of "pinkwashing", with numerous companies trying to boost sales by associating their products with the fight against breast cancer. See Pinkwashing: Can Shopping Cure Breast Cancer? (June 11);

• Diane Farsetta reports on the recent National Conferences on Media Reform in Minneapolis. See Pentagon Pundits, Media Reform and Talking Back to Bill O'Reilly, June 10; and

• Sheldon Rampton scritinises the review of former Bush administration press secretary Scott McClellan's new book by John Stodder, one of the two former Fleishman-Hillard consultants convicted in May 2006 of multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud in a scheme to overbill the city of Los Angeles for public relations consulting services. See McClellan and the Ethics of Spin (June 5).

• 
  *Probing the Pentagon Pundit Documents: Remember the New York Times expose on the Pentagon's use of retired military officers who frequently appear as "military analysts" on television and radio news shows? The program was launched in 2002 to help sell the Iraq war, but soon expanded to other controversial issues. Most of the 8,000 pages of internal Pentagon documents used to document the illegal propaganda program haven't been analyzed or reported on. But now, thanks to the Center for Media and Democracy, those documents are now text searchable! Help us dig out the gems in the emails between Pentagon PR staffers, talking points and briefing transcripts. How did the Pentagon use the program to spin Guantanamo Bay or military operations in Afghanistan? Are John McCain or John Murtha mentioned in the Pentagon documents? What about Fox News or PBS? CMD has converted the Pentagon documents so that you can search them by keyword, and posted them on our SourceWatch site. Have a look -- some ideas to help you get started are here -- and post what you find on relevant SourceWatch articles.

• Help Publicize What the Candidates for Congress and the White House Stand For: The online world is rife with complaints that it's hard to tell what Barack Obama and John McCain's positions and records really are on the issues. Fortunately, the Congresspedia staff have come up with a handy guide to tracking their positions - and those of every congressional incumbent and candidate - down. Who supports continuing the War in Iraq? Who wants to make abortion illegal? Who voted for the Bush tax cuts?

If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can register here, and learn more about adding information to the site here, here and here. Hold onto your hat, have fun, and thanks for your help!

And if you would like to work on something else, take a look at some of our earlier citizen journalism projects here. Have fun, and thanks for your help!

• Join the Discussion: Forums for Communication on SourceWatch: The SourceWatch staff has created two forums for citizen journalists on SourceWatch to communicate with each other about what's going on in the site: a Yahoo group and a Community Portal. The Community Portal is a place where you can find announcements by staff and citizen editors, links to important policies and help pages and categories of outstanding tasks and projects identified by readers and editors, such as articles that need updating, expanding or fixing. The Yahoo group is meant primarily for sysops and other editors who are most concerned with the administration of the site and facilitating the contributions of the users, but both the group and the community portal are open to everyone to view and post. SourceWatch is only as strong as its community of editors, so please dive in and let us know what you think.

With the U.S. election primary season dominating news headlines, it is no surprise that pages on the 2008 Presidential election campaign are amongst the most popular pages over the last week. Heading the list are those on Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, the main campaign issues, Congresspedia's Superdelegate Transparency Project and the Economic Stimulus Bill of 2008.

Other popular pages include those on the Heartland Institute, a corporate-funded think tank which this week convened a meeting of global warming skeptics in New York; the article on Corporate Social Responsibility and the profile on the military contractor, Blackwater USA.

"A truly impressive project based on cutting edge web technology." David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.

"The troublemakers at the Center for Media and Democracy, for example, point to dozens of examples of "greenwashing," which they defined as the "unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government or even a non-government organization to sell a product, a policy" or rehabilitate an image. In the center's view, many enterprises labeled green don't deserve the name.—Jack Shafer, "Green Is the New Yellow: On the excesses of 'green' journalism", Slate, July 6, 2007.

"As a journalist frequently on the receiving end of various PR campaigns, some of them based on disinformation, others front groups for undisclosed interests, [CMD's SourceWatch] is an invaluable resource."—Michael Pollan author of The Botany of Desire

"Thanks for all your help. There's no way I could have done my piece on big PR and global warming without the CMD [Center for Media and Democracy] and your fabulous websites."—Zoe Cormier, journalist, Canada

"The dearth of information on the [U.S.] government [lobbying] disclosure forms about the other business-backed coalitions comes in stark contrast to the data about them culled from media reports, websites, press releases and Internal Revenue Service documents and posted by SourceWatch, a website that tracks advocacy groups." Jeanne Cummings, 'New disclosure reports lack clarity", Politico, April 29, 2008.

Looking for somewhere to start?

To learn how you can edit any article right now, visit SourceWatch:About, SourceWatch:Welcome, newcomers, our Help page, Frequently Asked Questions, or experiment in the sandbox.

If you are unsure where to start, you could expand some of the recently created but currently very brief articles. (If you look at the recent changes page you will see some noted as being 'stubs' - articles that may just be a line or two and needing to be fleshed out). So if you would like to add to some of those you would be most welcome. Or if you would like some other suggestions closer to your interests you could drop SourceWatch editor, Bob Burton an email. His address is bob AT sourcewatch.org

SourceWatch content

SourceWatch also includes specific case studies of deceptive PR campaigns, the activities of front groups, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts. We are also building profiles on public relations associations, specific criticisms of PR, common propaganda techniques, war propaganda and much, much more.

Research and Writing Tips

• Article guidelines
• How to research front groups
• Resources for studying propaganda
• Research using the web

SourceWatch began as the "Disinfopedia" in February 2003. In January 2005, the name was changed to SourceWatch. Contributors are now working on 37,831 articles. In the last twelve months SourceWatch has served over 113 million pages to users.

Disclaimer: SourceWatch is an encyclopedia of people, issues and groups shaping the public agenda. It is a project of the Center for Media & Democracy—email bob AT sourcewatch.org.

Antispam note: To avoid attracting spam email robots, email addresses on SourceWatch are written with AT in place of the usual symbol, and we have removed "mail to" links. Replace AT with the correct symbol to get a valid address. We regret the inconvenience this entails. Lobby your government for more effective antispam regulations.