In the news
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- Science Reporting by Press Release: Science reporting "is more and more the direct product of PR shops," according to Charles Petit, a veteran science reporter who runs MIT’s online Knight Science Journalism Tracker. Petit says information spoon-fed to reporters through news releases has "become a powerful subversive tool eroding the chance that reporters will craft their own stories." Cristine Russell reports that "institutional news offices from universities, government research agencies, and corporations are putting out large press packages that provide well-written press releases, graphics, and even video in a form that can be used directly by news outlets that are hungry for stories but lack the resources, time, and/or experience to do more thorough reporting."
- Sneaky manufacturers shrink packaging, while keeping prices the same: Prices of your favorite grocery items are skyrocketing, but you probably don't know it. Many companies are using a sneaky way to raise prices without driving customers to less expensive brands: they are shrinking their packaging. A jar of Skippy peanut butter, for example, is the same height and circumference it has always been, but now has a hidden, inward "dimple" on the bottom that decreases the amount the jar holds by two ounces. A "six ounce" can of Starkist Tuna now holds just five ounces. When asked about the shrinkage, most companies point to higher costs for ingredients, manufacturing and fuel. Dan Howard, a marketing professor at Southern Methodist University, says the only way consumers can fight back against this sneaky way of increasing costs is to refuse to buy from manufacturers who engage in this deceptive tactic.
- Medialink's Books Awash with Red Ink: In its latest quarterly financial report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Medialink Worldwide -- the largest producer of fake news products such as video news releases (VNRs) and audio news releases (ANRs) -- reports that revenue dropped by more than 28%, compared to the same three month period in 2007. From early 2008, the company's share price has dropped from a high of $4.50 to just 9 cents. In its report, Medialink notes (see page 11) that the company's stock has traded below "the minimum $1.00 per share requirement for continued listing" on the Nasdaq stock market and has been warned that it has until May 18, 2009, to "regain compliance."
- How David Axelrod May Be Like Karl Rove: "If David Axelrod decides to join the Obama White House, he'll ... have to take an enormous pay cut and possibly reveal the extent of his lucrative corporate public relations work," reports Politico. Axelrod co-founded two high-powered Chicago firms: AKP&D Message & Media, which does political consulting, and ASK Public Strategies, a corporate PR firm. ASK has "established front groups for corporate giants including Madison Square Garden and ComEd to help sway public opinion on controversial initiatives." Karl Rove sold his political consulting firm in 1999, "just before going to work for Bush's nascent 2000 presidential campaign." If Axelrod doesn't follow suit, "The same kinds of questions that were asked about Rove need to be asked about Mr. Axelrod," said Republican National Committee chair Mike Duncan.
- A Drink to Your Health (Unless We Also Sell the Sugary Stuff): "Bottled water sales in the past have grown mainly from consumers moving to water from soda and other sugary beverages," fueled by rising childhood and adult obesity rates. But ads for bottled water don't push the health angle, because many bottled water companies also sell soda. For example, Aquafina is made by PepsiCo and Dasani by Coca-Cola. Nestle -- which does not sell soda -- is now seeking to counter "concerns that bottled water is a bad choice for the environment" by raising concerns about the health impact of soda. Its new "antisoda" campaign is focused on "the Hispanic community because it drinks more bottled water than most other ethnic groups."
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The Weekly Radio Spin
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- Weekly Radio Spin: Help Them Help Us: 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 good eats in Iraq, selling agua and calling all cars for a bail-out. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we A-S-K about front groups. 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!
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Recent blogs on PR Watch
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- Sheldon Rampton reflects on the the use of malicious emails spread as part of propaganda campaigns. See "Hollywood Goes to War" (November 13);
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Editor's pick of the week
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In June 2008 blogger William K. Wolfrum concluded that M. Thomas Eisenstadt was a hoax. 'Eisenstadt' claimed that he was a Senior Fellow at a think tank called the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy. After days of the Eisenstadt hoax being written about on the Internet, the New York Times has reported that "a pair of obscure filmmakers" have admitted they created "Martin Eisenstadt to help them pitch a TV show based on the character."
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Projects for citizen editors
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- The Election Protection Wiki is a non-partisan, non-profit collaboration of citizens, activists and researchers to build a one-stop-shop for reports of voter suppression and the systemic threats to election integrity. We collect just the straight facts that are fully referenced to external, verifiable sources, and we need your help.
- 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!
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Forums for communication
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- 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.
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Popular articles over the last week
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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.
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What they're saying about SourceWatch
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"The folks at the Center for Media and Democracy have done incredible work documenting fake grassroots ("astroturf") groups. Here, they're helping protects the rights of all Americans to exercise their right to vote. They are completely non-partisan. These guys are the real deal." Craig Newmark, Craig's List
"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.
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