Corporations

Army Considers Privatizing PR Jobs

by Laura Miller — November 10, 2002 - 11:00pm

"The US Army is considering a proposal to privatize more than 200,000 jobs, a move that could displace thousands of public affairs officers worldwide - and yield a wealth of opportunity for private firms," PR Week's Douglas Quenqua writes.

Main Source: 
PR Week, November 11, 2002

Trusted Computing Meets George Orwell

by Sheldon Rampton — November 8, 2002 - 1:24pm

Computer experts say Microsoft's "Palladium" software project, which builds on technology being developed by the "Trusted Computing Platform Alliance" (TCPA), could be misused
to gain unprecedented access to personal computers and endanger freedom of speech. TCPA could potentially allow courts, governments and corporations to remotely delete and censor files they deem offensive.

Main Source: 
http://www.sjc.uq.edu.au/insite/edition_7/Lifestyle/Computer%20Privacy.html

PR Budgets Average $2.7 Million

by Laura Miller — November 7, 2002 - 11:48am

PR Tactics, a publication of the Public Relations Society of America, reports corporate budgets for public relations average $2.7 million in 2002, an increase from $2.25 in 2001. The Thomas L. Harris/Impulse Research Client Survey found that telecommunications firms outspend other sectors, averaging $8.04 million for PR budgets. Chemicals and plastics average $5.55 million; retailing, $3.96 million; energy, $3.68 million; and sports and entertainment, $3.52 million. Some of the PR spending goes to promoting new products. PR Tactics reports "a recent survey of 600 U.S.

Main Source: 
PR Tactics, November 2002

Tarnishing the Halo

by Sheldon Rampton — November 4, 2002 - 7:11pm

Are Berman & Co., flacks for the tobacco, restaurant and booze industries who specialize in attacking groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Greenpeace, preparing to launch a new front group called "Tarnish the Halo?" Or are they just looking for new recruits for their on-going smear campaigns? We wonder because they've posted a job advertisement seeking a researcher. "The food police want us arrested," the ad states. "The animal-rights movement wants us thrown to the lions.

Main Source: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wl/jobs/JS_JobSearchDetail?value=11279826&TS=10364...

From Boom-Boom Room to Cooks-Books Crook

by Sheldon Rampton — October 31, 2002 - 11:00pm

"Gordon Andrew, who has held top communications posts at Prudential and Travelers Group, is handling the press for former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, who was indicted on 78 counts of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice," reports O'Dwyer's.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, November 1, 2002

Marketing the New "Dogs of War"

by Sheldon Rampton — October 30, 2002 - 9:23am

In the latest installment of their series on the business of war, the Center for Public Integrity's team of investigative journalists examines the career of Tim Spicer, the figurehead in a PR campaign to improve the unsavory image of soldiers who fight for hire. "Politicians in the West seem quickly to have accepted a convenient if illusory dichotomy just as it has been handed to them - contrasting the old-style (and bad) 'dogs of war' with the new-style (and good) private military companies, or PMCs," the report states.

Main Source: 
http://www.icij.org/dtaweb/icij_bow.asp?Section=Chapter&ChapNum=3

Is Big Oil Lubricating the Drive to War?

by Sheldon Rampton — October 29, 2002 - 11:00pm

Jeremy Rifkin examines news coverage of the Bush Administration's war drive on Iraq. "One can't help but be surprised by the almost total silence on the question of the 'oil connection,'" he writes. "Is it possible that United States political leaders and reporters, columnists, editors and producers are so naive that they really believe there is no other White House agenda in the Middle East except the one that the administration is extolling? Do they really believe that oil plays no role in the strategic thinking of the inner circles at the White House? ...

Main Source: 
Orlando Sentinel, October 30, 2002

The Business of War

by Sheldon Rampton — October 28, 2002 - 9:13am

A nearly two-year investigation by the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has identified at least 90 private military companies worldwide that intervene on behalf of governments in military conflicts. The ICIJ investigation shows how profits from war commerce have gone to a small group of individuals and companies with connections to governments, multinational corporations and, sometimes, criminal syndicates in the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Main Source: 
http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=469&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=...

Corporate-Friendly Researchers Fabricated Data

by Sheldon Rampton — October 27, 2002 - 11:00pm

A series of influential studies purporting to show that federal regulation is broadly irrational are based on data that is highly misleading and frequently manufactured to fit a preconceived point of view, according to an investigation by Richard Parker, a law professor at the University of Connecticut.

Main Source: 
OMB Watcher, October 28, 2002

The Death of the Internet

by Sheldon Rampton — October 27, 2002 - 11:00pm

"The Internet's promise as a new medium -- where text, audio, video and data can be freely exchanged -- is under attack by the corporations that control the public's access to the 'Net, as they see opportunities to monitor and charge for the content people seek and send," writes Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy. "The industry's vision is the online equivalent of seizing the taxpayer-owned airways, as radio and television conglomerates did over the course of the 20th century.

Main Source: 
TomPaine.com, October 28, 2002
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