== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. Introducing the coalSwarm

== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. Pricing Doctors
2. Telling It Like It Is
3. Playing for the "Green" in Las Vegas
4. Think Tank Citations Sink
5. It's Not Your Grandfather's Oil Industry
6. Yes He Can... Create Front Groups
7. What About McCain's Pastor Problem?
8. Weekly Radio Spin: The "PhRMAtion" of Congressional Support
9. This Is Your Brain on Logos
10. MultiVu Goes MultiCultural
11. U.S. News Media in Quite a State
12. More Spin for the Span
13. Robin Raskin Puts Fake News in Perspective

== UPCOMING EVENTS ==
1. It's Our Birthday! Come Celebrate with Us!

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== BLOG POSTINGS ==
1. INTRODUCING THE COALSWARM
by Judith Siers-Poisson
       In the spring of 2007, when author Ted Nace set out to
  profile the emerging No New Coal Plants movement for Orion magazine,
  he had no idea that the assignment would turn into more than just a
  single article.
       Nace had become interested in the anti-coal movement after
  reading an article in The Nation magazine, in which NASA's chief
  climate scientist James E. Hansen warned that another decade of
  continued growth in greenhouse gases would "guarantee" enough
  dramatic climate change to produce what Hansen called "a different
  planet." Hansen made it clear that the most important step that
  needed to be taken to avoid such a consequence was an immediate
  moratorium on new coal-fired power plants.
       THE POWER OF THE SWARM
       As Nace explored the anti-coal movement, he found that some
  of the most effective work was being done by small, rurally-based,
  grassroots groups linked together informally through computer
  networks. His Orion article, "Stopping Coal in Its Tracks," noted
  that in many cases this decentralized "swarm" had been more militant
  and more effective than the large groups known as Big Green.
       Nace set up the website Coal Moratorium Now! to organize the
  information he was gathering on coal, then recruited two
  researchers, Meilin Chin and Michelle Chandra, to help him track
  down the status of every proposed coal plant they could locate. As
  word of the coal plants database spread, several people proposed
  moving it onto a wiki so that it could be more easily accessed and
  edited by multiple researchers.
To read the rest of this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7127

== SPIN OF THE DAY POSTINGS ==
1. PRICING DOCTORS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7134
  A proposal before the Massachusetts state Senate to ban drug
  company gifts to doctors is generating controversy. "To imply that
  doctors who have invested years and tens of thousands of dollars in
  their profession can be bought with a dinner or a package of
  Post-its is beneath contempt," wrote the husband of one doctor. But
  Dr. Daniel J. Carlat, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry
  at Tufts University School of Medicine, wrote that the proposed ban
  "may be one of the most important pieces of healthcare legislation
  in years." Carlat cited former drug sales representative Sharam
  Ahari, who explained that "It's my job to figure out what a
  physician's price is. For some it's dinner at the finest
  restaurants, for others it's enough convincing data to let them
  prescribe confidently and for others it's my attention and
  friendship."
SOURCE: Boston Globe, March 19, 2008

2. TELLING IT LIKE IT IS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7133
  The director of external relations for Procter & Gamble, Mark
  Chakravarty, recently told a UK healthcare PR conference that the
  drug industry is less than popular with the public. "There is a high
  suspicion of the pharma industry. Greed, dishonesty and fraud are
  some of its associations. The clinical trial press this week and an
  increased number of drug scandals add to this image," he said. David
  Lewis, the corporate affairs director of the Association of the
  British Pharmaceutical Industry, was less worried. "The industry is
  not as badly perceived as it thinks it is," he said. The same week,
  the CEO of the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory
  Agency, Professor Kent Woods, stated that GlaxoSmithKline "could and
  should have reported" information that patients under 18 had a
  higher risk of suicidal behavior if prescribed the antidepressant
  Seroxat compared to a placebo.
SOURCE: PR Week (UK), March 13, 2008

3. PLAYING FOR THE "GREEN" IN LAS VEGAS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7132
  MGM Mirage's new $8 billion CityCenter project is a massive 75
  acre, 4,000-room hotel-casino complex with condos and retail space
  currently under construction in Las Vegas. Its builders are
  promoting the complex as a model of green construction, and are
  seeking LEED certification for the project from the U.S. Green
  Building Council. The Council awards varying levels of the coveted
  LEED (for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design")
  certification. Certification of CityCenter would make the complex
  eligible for millions of dollars in tax breaks. The only problem is
  that MGM plans to allow smoking in the casino, and LEED
  certification signifies that the building is a healthy place to live
  and work. During a presentation about the complex at a Hotel
  Developers Conference last week, Stephanie Steinberg of Smoke-free
  Gaming of Colorado pointed out the hypocrisy of CityCenter being
  held up as a paragon of green building when one of its buildings
  won't even qualify. MGM Mirage responded by saying the casino
  portion of the complex would be exempt from the certification.
SOURCE: In Business Las Vegas, Tourism and Gaming, March 21-27, 2008

4. THINK TANK CITATIONS SINK
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7130
  "The 25 most media-prominent think tanks were cited 17 percent
  less in 2007 than they were the year before," according to an annual
  survey by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). "The overall
  ideological breakdown was the same ... 47 percent of citations went
  to centrist think tanks, 37 percent to conservative or right-leaning
  think tanks, and 16 percent to progressive or left-leaning think
  tanks." The downward trend "is not necessarily a bad thing. ...
  Given that FAIR's surveys have consistently found that these
  supposedly detached experts actually tilt toward the center-right,
  fewer of them spinning and shaping news coverage may be a net plus
  for media transparency, if not diversity." The current issue of
  FAIR's magazine "Extra!" also contains the group's annual "Fear &
  Favor" report. Among the news outlets mentioned is Portland's
  KOIN-TV, which CMD documented airing a video news release. KOIN
  merited mention for its "weekly medical report," which is sponsored
  by Providence Health Systems and consistently features Providence
  experts and information.
SOURCE: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, March / April 2008

5. IT'S NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER'S OIL INDUSTRY
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7129
  The oil industry's "nationwide publicity drive to clear up what it
  calls 'common and surprising misperceptions'" about its
  record-breaking profits continues. The American Petroleum
  Institute's (API's) senior economic analyst, Rayola Dougher, was in
  Denver recently. Her message: "It's not your grandfather's oil and
  gas industry anymore." She added that API is "trying to reach out to
  legislators and consumers in 40 locations." API received some
  unwanted attention on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of
  Iraq. On March 19, the group "No War, No Warming" held a protest
  outside API's Washington DC headquarters. The protesters claimed
  that the industry group was changing its name to the "Alternative
  Power Institute" and notifying the U.S. Congress that, "in light of
  API's just announced transition to promotion of renewable energy
  technologies, there is no further requirement to fund the occupation
  of Iraq," writes David Swanson.
SOURCE: Rocky Mountain News (Colorado), March 22, 2008

6. YES HE CAN... CREATE FRONT GROUPS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7128
  Senator Barack Obama's chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod,
  "moonlights" from his political PR firm AKP&D Message & Media.
  Working from the same office, "Axelrod operates a second business,
  ASK Public Strategies, that discreetly plots strategy and
  advertising campaigns for corporate clients," reports Howard
  Wolinsky. Axelrod's ASK partners are John Kupper and Eric Sedler,
  previously of AT&T and Edelman. Chicago Alder Brendan Reilly called
  ASK "the gold standard in Astroturf organizing." In 2005, as ComEd
  was "preparing to ask [Illinois] state regulators for higher
  electricity prices," ASK advised the company to form "Consumers
  Organized for Reliable Electricity." The front group, which
  described itself as "a coalition of individuals, businesses and
  organizations," funded ads that warned of blackouts unless rates
  were raised. Around the same time, ASK helped Cablevision, which
  owns Madison Square Garden, oppose the New York Jets's plans to
  build a new stadium in Manhattan. Cablevision formed the "New York
  Association for Better Choices," and ran anti-stadium ads in its
  name. ASK's other work includes helping AT&T defend municipal
  broadband referenda.
SOURCE: BusinessWeek, March 14, 2008

7. WHAT ABOUT MCCAIN'S PASTOR PROBLEM?
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7124
  While news media have focused on Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah
  Wright, little attention has been paid to the endorsement of
  Republican presidential candidate John McCain by controversial Texas
  televangelist John Hagee. Hagee has voiced extreme anti-Catholic,
  anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual views. In a September 2006 interview
  on National Public Radio, Hagee reaffirmed his view that Hurricane
  Katrina was God's punishment against New Orleans for hosting a
  homosexual parade. Hagee has also said that the Jews brought the
  Holocaust upon themselves by "turning away from the true God." He
  referred to Catholicism as a  "false cult," and said the religion
  contributed to Hitler's anti-semitic views.  When Hagee endorsed
  him, McCain said he was "proud" to have the pastor's support. More
  recently, McCain has been working to distance himself from Hagee's
  inflammatory comments.
SOURCE: Editor & Publisher, March 20, 2008

8. WEEKLY RADIO SPIN: THE "PHRMATION" OF CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7123
  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 China's information blackout on
  Tibet, how PR builds, and sells, bridges, and who cheerfully refers
  to her job as "whore TV." In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we
  take a closer look at the drug industry's lobby group, PhRMA. The
  Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast
  use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on
  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!
SOURCE: Center for Media and Democracy, March 21, 2008

9. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON LOGOS
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7119
  Subliminal advertising may be "more effective than regular
  advertising, because people don't have time to raise their anti-ad
  defenses," according to a new study. Duke University and University
  of Waterloo researchers "tested 341 students, who were told they
  were taking a 'visual acuity test.'" During the test, the students
  were secretly shown a corporate logo for 30 milliseconds.
  Afterwards, "students were given a second task to think of all the
  possible ways they could use a brick." Students shown the Apple logo
  "came up with more ways of using the brick, and were judged to have
  come up with the more creative uses," compared to those shown the
  IBM logo. Students shown the Disney logo "subsequently behaved much
  more honestly than those who saw the E! Channel logos." In a
  statement, one researcher suggested that "companies with established
  brand associations ... may want to give serious consideration to
  shifting marketing resources to product placement opportunities and
  other forms of outreach that emphasize brief brand exposures."
SOURCE: CNET News, March 19, 2008

10. MULTIVU GOES MULTICULTURAL
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7118
  The PR firm MultiVu has a new "social media news release targeting
  the U.S. Hispanic audience," reports PR Week. Its "Interactivo
  Multimedia News Release" (IMNR) distributes fake news "broadcast
  content, photos, and text to Hispanic social networks and news
  sites. Video content will also be distributed to video-sharing sites
  such as MiGente and HispaVista. And IMNR content will appear in
  Spanish on the Reuters billboard in Manhattan's Times Square."
  MultiVu parent company PR Newswire purchased Hispanic PR Wire in
  January. MultiVu's new division, "MultiVu Latino," is headed by
  Hispanic PR Wire co-founder Manny Ruiz.
SOURCE: PR Week, March 19, 2008

11. U.S. NEWS MEDIA IN QUITE A STATE
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7117
  "The state of the American news media in 2008 is more troubled
  than a year ago," opens the latest "State of the News Media" report
  from the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Among the major
  findings is that the Internet is not yet the democratizing media
  force many hoped for. "Even with so many new sources, more people
  now consume what old media newsrooms produce, particularly from
  print, than before," the report states. A detailed analysis of the
  news stories covered in 2007 found that "the media and the public
  often disagreed about which stories were important," and that U.S.
  media mostly ignored the rest of the world. Even though 2007 "was
  the deadliest for American forces in Afghanistan since that war
  began," less than one percent of international news dealt with that
  country. And journalists are more pessimistic, especially about
  "cutbacks in the newsroom" and the "broken economic model" for many
  news operations.
SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, March 16, 2008

12. MORE SPIN FOR THE SPAN
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7116
  After the tragic collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in
  Minneapolis last August, the state wants to "restore the image of
  the beleaguered Minnesota Department of Transportation." So
  Minnesota is paying the public relations firm Himle Horner at least
  $550,000. The firm's work includes a "proactive, on-the-ground"
  initiative with "information kiosks, attempts to shape media
  coverage and weekly 'sidewalk superintendent tours' of the
  construction work." It also plans "to use a webcam to beam a
  half-hour live educational show from the bridge site to all
  Minnesota school-age children." The PR campaign was a major part of
  the bridge reconstruction contract. The U.S. Department of
  Transportation said the contract "emphasized public relations and
  aesthetics more heavily" than similar projects in the state. Some
  are questioning the need for the PR. "Who's against building a new
  35W bridge?" asked the legislative director of the advocacy group
  Minnesota Transportation Alliance. "It ain't the spin, it's the
  span," quipped one columnist.
SOURCE: Star Tribune (Minneapolis - St. Paul, Minnesota), March 16, 2008

13. ROBIN RASKIN PUTS FAKE NEWS IN PERSPECTIVE
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7115
  In his new book True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact
  Society, Farhad Manjoo covers video news releases (VNRs) by looking
  at "VNR Queen" Robin Raskin. Manjoo describes a high-tech holiday
  gifts segment by Raskin, in which she warned that Apple's iPod makes
  kids vulnerable to "iPorn." While the Radio-Television News
  Directors Association -- which opposes any action to ensure VNR
  disclosure -- refused to talk with Manjoo, Raskin did. "I actually
  joked with my own colleagues that, 'Hey, I'm off to go do Whore
  TV'," she told him. "I was fully aware that that's what it was. And
  yet it's such a commonplace thing. I mean, there are people hawking
  drugs, guns, war. The worst that could happen to someone watching my
  segment is that you might buy a game you don't like."
SOURCE: Salon.com, March 19, 2008

== UPCOMING EVENTS ==
1. IT'S OUR BIRTHDAY! COME CELEBRATE WITH US!
       Please join hosts Mike and Saori Kappus, and CMD staffers
  Sheldon Rampton, Judith Siers-Poisson and John Stauber at the
  Rosebud Agency in San Francisco's Haight neighborhood for wonderful
  music by Rick Didia and Aireene Espiritu, a tempting silent auction
  and delicious food. There will be lots of fun, fellowship, story
  sharing and excitement.
       We're asking for a donation of $50 per person. Please email
  us at event@PRWatch.org by April 4th to RSVP.
To read the rest of this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7121

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The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
further information about media, political spin and propaganda. It
is emailed free each Wednesday to subscribers.

PR Watch, Spin of the Day, the Weekly Spin and SourceWatch are
projects of the Center for Media & Democracy, a nonprofit
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