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 the demise of whistleblower protections, Lipitor's new pitch man, and how to look like you're military without actually enlisting. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we look at the Ogilvy and Mather advertising firm. 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!

"We do not want children to smoke,” British American Tobacco (BAT) declares on its website. But the company that describes itself as the “world’s most international tobacco group” routinely violates its own voluntary international marketing and advertising standards, according to a July 1, 2008 BBC-TV This World investigation. BAT was caught in Malawi, Mauritius and Nigeria using marketing tactics that are well-known to appeal to youth: advertising and selling single cigarettes, and sponsoring non-age-restricted, product-branded musical entertainment. (See also "Playing with Children's Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi.")

When a company adopts and prominently touts its voluntary behavior codes, only to end up violating them, people start asking questions: What are the real reasons for these codes? Are they just for public relations (PR) purposes? To, as they say, ‘cover your a*s’ (CYA)? How did they arise? What, if any, value do they have?

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The U.S. Labor Department has only "ruled in favor of [corporate] whistleblowers 17 times out of 1,273 complaints filed since 2002," and has dismissed 841 cases. Many of the dismissals were based "on the technicality that workers at corporate subsidiaries aren't covered" by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Act, passed after the Enron and Worldcom scandals, contained the first federal protections for corporate whistleblowers. Senator Patrick Leahy, who helped draft the Act, says it covers workers in corporate subsidiaries. "Otherwise," he explained, "a company that wants to do something shady, could just do it in their subsidiary." The Labor Department disagrees. One of the whistleblower cases it dismissed involves communications giant WPP. A former staffer at WPP's ad firm Ogilvy & Mather claims he was fired "in retaliation for his cooperation with a federal criminal investigation into his employer's billing practices." Two former Ogilvy executives received prison sentences for overbilling the U.S. government, but the staffer's whistleblower complaint was dismissed. Even though WPP describes its firms as "centrally integrated," the Labor Department ruled that Ogilvy is a subsidiary not covered by Sarbanes-Oxley.

Corporate-funded "educational" materials about healthy eating distributed to British schools have been criticized by Britain's Food Standards Agency, the Department of Health and dieticians' groups. "It's bad nutritional advice, which could give children wrong ideas about food at a very impressionable time," said Richard Watts of the Children's Food Campaign. The campaign is "assembling a dossier" on such materials, to prod the government to act. One pamphlet from the British Soft Drinks Association cautions students against refilling soda bottles with tap water, claiming it's "unsafe" and "can lead to contamination." A Dairy Council leaflet urges "three to four servings of milk, yoghurt or cheese" to "ensure that teenagers get all the calcium they need." Other sponsored materials direct students "to eat six slices of bread a day," claim that eating cheese "will soon have you a lot healthier," and compare soft drinks to "rice, pasta and bread."

From Pfizer's new Lipitor adPfizer's getting ready to resume advertising for its cholesterol drug Lipitor. In February, the drugmaker pulled its Lipitor ads, over charges they were misleading. The old ads featured artificial heart inventor Robert Jarvik, who appeared to be giving medical advice though he isn't a practicing physician. The new ads feature "John E.," a baby boomer and heart-attack survivor who "didn't take a cholesterol-fighting drug before his heart attack ... despite a history of high cholesterol." A Pfizer marketing executive said, "When we did testing with consumers ... John really resonated with them." But will the ad boost sales? According to a new study, the impact of direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising on sales is "highly variable" and, for two of the three drugs studied, the ads "had no apparent impact." The study, which was published in the British Medical Journal, compared drug sales in French-speaking versus English-speaking Canadian provinces. Like most countries, Canada bans DTC ads, but Canadian viewers still see them via U.S. television. Advertising executives maintain that DTC ads do boost sales. "Had anyone ever heard of erectile dysfunction or overactive bladder before the drugs were advertised?" asked one.

The second-largest U.S. oil company sees itself as a victim, and it's going on a PR offensive to explain why. In an "unusual move," Chevron "has approached the media to offer a briefing" on an upcoming civil trial, "in which it faces charges of wrongful death, civil conspiracy, torture and negligence." The case, Bowoto versus Chevron, was brought by Nigerian villagers and stems from a 1998 incident where the Nigerian military shot at protesters on one of Chevron's offshore platforms. The soldiers were paid by Chevron and flown to the platform in Chevron helicopters, according to EarthRights International. A U.S. district court judge recently concluded that Chevron personnel "were directly involved" in and approved of the attack. Chevron denies the charges, saying the protesters "took Chevron workers hostage and attacked law enforcement when it arrived." Chevron has hired Singer Associates, the San Francisco PR firm that defended the city zoo after one of its tigers escaped its enclosure and killed one person. Chevron's PR push is part of a trend of companies doing more media work around legal cases. The traditional "'no comment' approach" yields "the entire dialog to the other side," explained PR executive Erin Powers.

Sears-Army clothing logo (from Advertising Age)Sears has entered into a first-ever deal with the United States Military to market a new line of officially sanctioned, military-styled clothing to men, women and boys. The military has officially licensed a "soldier chic" line of clothing to Sears called the "All American Army Brand First Infantry Division" collection. The garb, to be launched in 550 Sears stores in October -- just in time for the holiday season -- consists of "authentic lifestyle reinterpretations" of regulation uniforms and military-issued gear like T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, denim and other outerwear. The partnership is part of a marketing strategy to raise the public profile of the U.S. military. Sears already carries some military-themed merchandise on its Web site, like a Modern Military Figure Special Forces Soldier toy for ages 8 and up, a musical DVD titled "Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes, Vol. 2," which lists song titles like "Cadaver Recovery Man" and "Mud & Guts," and a Self-esteem Zip Military Style Vest for Juniors.

The Colombian government will pay U.S. lobbyist Andrew J. Samet another $45,000, "to present Colombia's track record on labor issues to Congress, non-governmental organizations and labor unions." The new contract is similar to Samet's earlier work to push the U.S. - Colombia Free Trade Agreement, on which the Center for Media and Democracy previously reported. Samet served as deputy under secretary for labor under President Bill Clinton and later co-founded the Sorini, Samet & Associates lobbying firm. Samet "was responsible for the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation," an addition to the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada meant to address concerns about workers rights.

As the world learned in 2000 and 2004, the very integrity of the voting process in the United States has come under suspicion with dubious outcomes. Fair and honest elections with properly counted results that can be documented and trusted are essential to democracy. But can we really trust the results today? Who is watchdogging elections at the local, state and national level? Will hanging chads and unaccountable electronic machines determine the outcome of the 2008 vote?

To help answer these questions, and to play a role in improving the process, we at the Center for Media and Democracy will soon be launching a new project on our www.SourceWatch.org website, our Election Protection portal. Watch for it in the weeks ahead.

SourceWatch, our online encyclopedia of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda, will soon become a clearing house of vital current information, research and reports for examining the US election process. The new Election Protection portal will be a key "first stop" online resource for information about election officials, polling places, procedures and regulations.

We're hoping to meet an urgent need. There has never to our knowledge been a central repository for this information, certainly not one that harnesses citizen journalism and the benefits of 'wiki' collaboration to stay up to date and accurate. The lack of such a website has been a serious hindrance to understanding and responding to problems on Election Day and to reforming voting procedures before the next election.

Many organizations and individuals are working across the United States to protect our right to vote and the integrity of the electoral process. In the weeks ahead we will be drawing attention to their work and pulling it together in one portal in Sourcewatch. This is an experiment, it's not been done before. We're doing it in the spirit of our successful experiment earlier this year, the Super Delegate Transparency Project.

Right now, we're looking for the right person to become the paid editor of our Election Protection wiki, beginning immediately. Below is the job posting. If you qualify, please send us an email. This is a short term position with no benefits, and it will be a demanding job, but it's an important position. We hope to fill this position by the end of the week, so please send this quickly to anyone you know who might be interested.

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MoveOn, Media Matters and liberal blogs have launched a campaign against Associated Press Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier, "for what they consider light treatment of John McCain at the expense of other candidates -- especially Barack Obama." In response, AP vice president for corporate communications Ellen Hale sent "elections coverage talking points" to AP managers. Hale suggests pointing to AP's ethics policies, which require reporters to "avoid any political activity, whether they cover politics or not." The talking points cover Fournier's experience and his statement expressing "regret" at "the breezy nature" of a 2004 email to Republican strategist Karl Rove in which Fournier wrote, "Keep up the fight." The talking points also stress when Fournier held different roles at AP and when he worked for the political website HOTSOUP.com. "Later this week," Hale adds, AP "Corporate Communications will go live with a robust new Elections page ... that will provide some real estate to deal with these issues. ... Some of the blogs now are also picking up the drumbeat of dissatisfaction with AP that some members have been voicing with the roll-out of Member choice," a new pricing system for AP content.

Screen capture of a TV ad for Vytorin, taken from YouTubeThree million people worldwide are taking the new, heavily advertised anti-cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin, despite a lack of clinical evidence that they reduce cardiovascular disease or heart attacks, or help patients live longer. Vytorin and Zetia brought in $5.2 billion last year for Merck and Schering-Plough, placing them among the best-selling drugs in the world. The Food and Drug Administration approves many drugs based on whether they perform a specific action, like lowering cholesterol, without requiring long-term trials on whether they extend life or lower disease risks. Other FDA-approved drugs have been found to be ineffective or even dangerous. A possible link between Vytorin and cancer cannot be proved or ruled out after three studies, reports AP. In 1999, the FDA approved the diabetes drug Avandia, because it lowered blood sugar; it was later found to increase heart attacks. But pharmaceutical companies oppose changing the current system. Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, says the FDA's approach enables patients "to access life-saving and life-enhancing remedies more quickly."

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 how much you can trust the World Bank, ICE's failed experiment, and how the early bird gets the war. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we look at the career of World Bank President Robert Zoellick. 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!

There were long lines of people in Poland to buy the new iPhone 3G, just like in the U.S. But in Poland, those lined up were paid actors. The Polish subsidiary of the French firm France Telecom (Orange) admitted that they had staged the popular demand for the new device. "It was a marketing stunt," said Wojciech Jabczynski, the spokesperson for the French company. "We found it to be an interesting strategy. The goal was to grab people's attention. The people standing in line let passers-by know about the iPhone. We couldn't expect the same fever that there was in the U.S., taking into account that Apple products are less known in Poland and in Central Europe." In an odd twist, some paid line-standers sold their spot to others for between 30 and 90 euros (US $45 to $135). The Polish subsidiary of the German company Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) also launched the iPhone in Poland, but without lines of (fake or real) customers. Orange later denied that it had paid people to stand in line, according to Advertising Age. A France Telecom spokeswoman explained, "As part of the excitement around the launch of the iPhone, some of our team have been joining customers outside our shops. Their aim is to welcome people to the Orange shop, share in their excitement and give information about Orange tariffs." Apple did not comment.

A year ago, World Bank President Robert Zoellick committed the lending institution to "significantly step up our assistance" to fight climate change through its loans. Instead, the World Bank is increasing its financing of fossil-fuel projects worldwide. One example is the coal-powered Tata Ultra Mega power plant in western India, a $4.14 billion project scheduled to go online in 2012. When it is fully operational, it will become one of the world's 50 largest greenhouse-gas emitters and "will emit more carbon dioxide annually than the nation of Tunisia," according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The World Bank will provide "$450 million in loans and guarantees for the project and also may buy a $50 million stake in it." While the U.S. is insisting that developing countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank -- over which it has tremendous influence -- is supporting projects that do the opposite. "The World Bank's lending record does not match up to Zoellick's rhetoric," says Heike Mainhardt-Gibbsof the Bank Information Center, a World Bank watchdog group. "The institution is simply not slowing down its significant funding to fossil-fuel projects that will emit greenhouse gases for 20 to 40 years."

"I think this proves the only method that works is enforcement," concluded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official Jim Hayes. He was referring to "Scheduled Departure," a controversial ICE program that encouraged undocumented immigrants to deport themselves. Only eight people participated in the three-week, five-city program. As the Center for Media and Democracy reported previously, immigrant rights activists blasted "Scheduled Departure" as a PR stunt. ICE has since admitted that the program was designed in part "to quell criticism by immigrant advocates that its enforcement efforts were disruptive to families." Hayes said of immigrant rights activists, "They want a more vulnerable America." Immigration lawyer Lisa Ramirez is concerned that ICE may now use the failure of "Scheduled Departure" to "fuel their enforcement even further."

In an attempt to "taint the al-Qaida brand," a British counter-terrorism unit has targeted the BBC and other domestic media outlets. A report from the UK research, information and communications unit described efforts to discredit al-Qaida (AQ) by promoting messages that the terrorist group is losing support, that "they are not heroes and don't have answers," and that "they harm you, your country and your livelihood." The unit is mostly sending information to "overseas communicators" such as British embassy and consulate staffers and others "working with overseas influencers and opinion formers." But the counter-terrorism report adds: "We are pushing this material to UK media channels, eg, a BBC radio programme exposing tensions between AQ leadership and supporters. And a restricted working group will communicate niche messages through media and non-media." The report also advocates using new media to "channel messages through volunteers in internet forums." The counter-terrorism unit's material "is a mixture of recent news reports and articles from Arabic, Middle Eastern and North African news sources illustrating the theme of 'AQ is in decline' as well as articles from the New York Times, the Observer, Newsweek and American websites," reports Alan Travis.

The Pentagon's new Defense Media Activity (DMA) -- which "combines formerly separate Pentagon media organizations, such as the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, the Stars and Stripes newspaper, and the Pentagon Channel" -- needs someone to run it. The Defense Department is looking for an "energetic and imaginative executive" to oversee "2,400 military, government and contract employees around the world and a budget of more than $225 million." The DMA is tasked with communicating "messages and themes" from Pentagon officials and providing "a wide variety of information products" to Pentagon staff, servicemembers and their families, veterans and "external audiences." The DMA also provides "high quality visual information products, including Combat Camera imagery depicting U.S. military activities and operations." According to the Army Times, "development of the group and its first-year budget has been given to [Bryan] Whitman, since the job of his supervisor ... is vacant." Whitman's name frequently appears in the Pentagon pundits documents. The DMA "will not include the America Supports You public relations program," which is currently under investigation for funneling PR and marketing contracts through Stars and Stripes. Whitman said America Supports You "wasn't placed under the DMA because it is not of the same 'nature' as other external information programs."

Tobacco manufacturers discovered over 40 years ago that radioactive polonium-210 exists in cigarettes and tobacco smoke, and spent decades working to remove it, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health. The companies tried to remove polonium -- a naturally-occurring, alpha particle-emitting constituent of the fertilizers and soil used to grow tobacco -- by creating special filters, washing the tobacco leaf and genetically altering tobacco plants, but ultimately failed. Instead of coming clean, the companies kept their internal research on polonium and information about their unsuccessful efforts to remove it secret. They didn't want to heighten public awareness of polonium in cigarettes. Polonium-210 is the lethal radioactive substance that was used to poison Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Bush administration officials exaggerated what U.S. intelligence agencies were reporting about Iraqi weapons, according to Congressional investigations. But even before that exaggeration, the intelligence reports had been skewed by an administration eager for war, according to recently declassified documents. For example, the CIA's white paper on "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program" was supposedly based on the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). But drafts of the CIA paper existed in July 2002, "long before the NIE was even requested by Congress." There are few differences between the early draft and final paper, mostly made "to insert more charges" about Iraqi weapons activities, "or to sharpen them. ... Little of the text shows the kind of approach characteristic of intelligence analysis." An early draft of a September 2002 British paper on Iraqi weapons shows that its claims were also made "even more somber," suggesting that "the Bush administration and the Tony Blair government began acting in concert to build support for an invasion of Iraq two to three months earlier than previously understood." U.S. intelligence agencies' use of information from the anti-Saddam Hussein exile group Iraqi National Congress -- and their dismissal of more reliable sources saying there were no Iraqi WMDs -- "most likely flows directly from the prodding ... by high levels at the Pentagon and White House," concludes the National Security Archive.

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 sustainable greenhouse gas emissions, the politics of banking and those wily union bosses. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," how John Rendon waves the U.S. flag. 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!