Issue Management

Media Cover For Minister's Rescue

by Bob Burton — July 31, 2006 - 5:26am

Federal police have raided the home of a government employee seeking computer and other records indicating whether Ms. Tjanara Goreng had contact with the newspaper, the (NIT).

Main Source: 
Sydney Morning Herald, July 29, 2006

BBC Archives Reveal Spooks Vetted Staff

by Bob Burton — July 5, 2006 - 4:14am

Archived internal BBC documents from the 1980's, obtained by The Sunday Telegraph under Freedom of Information legislation, reveal that the British spy service, MI5, was used to vet existing and potential staff at the public broadcaster. The paper reported that the documents revealed that "at one stage it [MI5] was responsible for vetting 6300 BBC posts - almost a third of the total workforce." The BBC adopted "categorical denial" as its "defensive strategy" to deflect questions about the practice by unions.

Main Source: 
Sydney Morning Herald, July 3, 2006

Kids to Kraft: Where's the Wheat?

by Jonathan Rosenblum — June 27, 2006 - 2:02pm

In contrast to the more than $15 billion in direct marketing spent in the U.S. to exhort children to buy food and non-food products, children often don’t get very far with the companies when they start asking questions. Olympia, Washington teacher Michi Thacker assigned her elementary students to write food manufacturers to raise questions, such as where the macaroni comes from.

Main Source: 
Rethinking Schools, Summer 2006

Coal Miner Buys Support

by Bob Burton — June 1, 2006 - 4:12am

Private landowners who sell their land to Centennial Coal for a new coal mine in New South Wales have been offered an extra $A25,000 if they sign contract provisions that require them to support the mine.

Main Source: 
Ethical Investor (Australia), June 1, 2006

Hill and Knowlton: Staring Down Consumer Advocates?

by Jonathan Rosenblum — May 16, 2006 - 9:49am

While even Wall Street was getting edgy about increasing reports of a fungal infection pointing to a Bausch and Lomb contact lens solution, the company's PR firm dryly glared at consumer advocates. "Bausch and Lomb has not yet recalled ANY of its products. Rather, its Renu MoistureLoc has been taken off the shelves. Who can I speak to about this inaccuracy?" asked Hill and Knowlton's Grace Healy in an email to Consumeraffairs.com.

Main Source: 
Consumeraffairs.com, May 5, 2006

Bush's Perception Management Plan

by Sheldon Rampton — November 18, 2004 - 12:00am

"George W. Bush has been criticized for disdaining fact in favor of faith in his own instincts. But he is savvy about the dangers that information can present to his authority over the government and the American people," writes Robert Parry. "That is why the first priority of his second term has been the elimination of the few government sources of information that could challenge the images he wants to project to the public. Bush doesn't want the State Department or the Central Intelligence Agency portraying his Iraq and other foreign policies as abject failures or reckless adventures.

Main Source: 
Consortium News, November 18, 2004

A New Angle for the Influence Industry: Morals

by Diane Farsetta — November 8, 2004 - 12:00am

"According to exit polls, one-fifth of voters cited 'moral values' as the factor that most influenced their vote. ... These findings hold deep significance for anyone in issues management," wrote PR Week.

Main Source: 
PR Week (reg. req'd.), November 8, 2004

Privatization, Before and After

by Sheldon Rampton — September 25, 2002 - 9:22am

Thanks to the internet archives, we can see what the Cato Institute's "Project on Social Security Privatization" looked like last year and compare that with its new look, now that the stock market crash has reminded the public about the reality of privatization. In the Orwellian new version, all references to "privatization" have been airbrushed out of history and replaced with the word "choice."

We Don't Call It "Privatization" Anymore

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

Republicans are "crying foul" when Democrats use the term "privatization" to describe their plans for Social Security, but as Joshua Micah Marshall notes, "The simple truth is that 'privatization' has always been the word Republicans themselves used to describe their policy. That is, it was until they rather belatedly realized that their policy was killing them with voters. ... Now the term (and the policy, for that matter) is a political loser.

Main Source: 
Talking Points Memo, September 1, 2002
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