Rhetoric

Food for Activists

by Sheldon Rampton — February 4, 2003 - 1:10pm

PR crisis manager Nick Nichols, who advises companies to use attack-dog strategies against pesky activists, delivered another fiery speech this weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference, branding environmentalists as terrorists and comparing them to Hitler. "A lot of [my] clients look like food to the more extreme environmental groups," he said.

Main Source: 
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1183938.html?view=print

Liquid Truth

by Sheldon Rampton — January 30, 2003 - 11:00pm

The accusation that Iraq has used chemical weapons against its own citizens - Iraqi Kurds at the town of Halabja - is a familiar part of the debate over whether to go to war. According to a controversial article by Stephen C. Pelletiere, however, the facts surrounding that claim have been selectively presented and distorted.

Main Source: 
New York Times, January 31, 2003

Imagining the Worst

by Sheldon Rampton — January 27, 2003 - 11:00pm

In his State of the Union address, President Bush asked Americans to imagine what would have happened if the Sept. 11 hijackers had been armed with poison gas or germs. "However, U.S. officials and private analysts said Bush's suggestion that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein might give such weapons to terrorists - and the implication that the risk of American retaliation can no longer deter him - stretches the analysis of U.S. intelligence agencies to, and perhaps beyond, the limit," reports Warren P. Strobel.

Main Source: 
Associated Press, January 28, 2003

Staying on Message

by Sheldon Rampton — January 23, 2003 - 11:00pm

As it prepares for war with Iraq, the new White House Office of Global Communications (OGC) is "revving up a global effort to defuse its image as arrogant and overbearing," reports Randall Mikkelsen. The State Department is creating an Islamic media center in London to manage U.S. communications with the al Jazeera satellite television network. The OGC is also organizing "daily telephone conference calls to coordinate foreign policy messages among U.S. government agencies and representatives of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Main Source: 
Reuters, January 24, 2003

Bush PR Barrage Formalizes Office of Global Communications

by John Stauber — January 21, 2003 - 11:00pm

'War Is Sell,' and the techniques being used by the US are familiar marketing and PR strategies. The Financial Times notes today that the Bush Administration has "published a dossier depicting Saddam Hussein's government as an 'apparatus of lies', as President George W. Bush maintained a high-pitched note of impatience with the Iraqi leader. ... However, the White House's own version of agitprop also skates over some aspects of history. ...

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Financial Times, January 22, 2003

Will 'Dolphin-Safe' Tuna Really Mean 'Dolphin-Dead'?

by John Stauber — January 8, 2003 - 11:00pm

"Two former government scientists who
spent years investigating stress in dolphin populations
charged this week that superiors at their federally
financed laboratory shut down their research because it
clashed with policy goals of the Clinton and Bush
administrations. The scientists ... said their research indicated that the practice of chasing and encircling dolphins to catch tuna exposed the
dolphins to dangerous amounts of stress. The accusations, by Dr. Albert Myrick, a wildlife
biologist, and Dr.

Main Source: 
New York Times, January 9, 2003

Telling Stories to Sell War

by John Stauber — December 26, 2002 - 11:00pm

"At a press briefing Dec. 18, State Dept. public diplomacy chief Charlotte Beers announced that her division has asked author Ken Pollack to interrupt a book tour and travel overseas to talk about his book 'The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq.' Turns out the State Dept. also has been courting foreign journalists over the past year.

Main Source: 
Reuters, Friday, December 27, 2002

'Vote for Me, I'm Not Soft on Terrorism'

by John Stauber — December 25, 2002 - 11:00pm

"The expressions of concern about the nation's safety by Mr.
Bush's prospective challengers, voiced in interviews,
speeches and television appearances over the last three
weeks, suggest that the focus of the Democratic White House
candidates in 2004 will go well beyond the traditional
Democratic fare of education, the economy, jobs and health
care.

Main Source: 
New York Times, December 26, 2002

Shh...Don't Mention Where Saddam Got Weapons

by Sheldon Rampton — December 17, 2002 - 11:00pm

"The United States edited out more than 8,000 crucial pages of Iraq's 11,800-page dossier on weapons, before passing on a sanitized version to the 10 non-permanent members of the United Nations security council," reports the UK's Sunday Herald. Apparently the report includes embarrassing evidence of U.S. and European culpability in aiding the Iraqi weapons programs, dating back to before the Gulf War, but covering the period of Saddam Hussein's rise and his worst crimes.

Main Source: 
The Independent (UK), December 18, 2002

Conservatives Rule the "Liberal" Media

by Sheldon Rampton — December 15, 2002 - 11:00pm

"Resentment at the 'liberal media' has been a Holy Grail of the American right for 40 years, and a gold mine for conservative direct-mail fund-raisers," writes Joel Connelly. In reality, though, "the right plays an almost dominant role in setting the agenda and stereotyping opponents. It has unmatched powers to get a story airborne. ... The party line gets out on issues from going to war with Iraq to drilling the West." Then why do conservatives still pretend that the media are liberal?

Main Source: 
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 16, 2002
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