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Today's Stories February 1, 2007 Mark Scaramella January 31, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Jean Bricmont Tao Ruspoli James T. Phillips William Johnson Tim Wilkinson Evelyn Pringle Joshua Frank Ramzy Baroud Mickey Z. Website of the Day
Werther Kathy Kelly Uri Avnery Franklin Spinney William S. Lind Pariah Mike Whitney Rev. William
E. Alberts Fran Shor Anthony Arnove Website of the Day
Nurit Peled-Elhanan Patrick Cockburn JoAnn Wypijewski Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Kevin Zeese Reza Fiyouzat Pat Williams Website of the Day
January 27 / 28, 2007 Diana Johnstone Eliza Ernshire Patrick Cockburn David Rosen Greg Moses Bernard Chazelle Tao Ruspoli Hermán
Uribe Ralph Nader Paul Craig
Roberts Fred Gardner Brian Cloughley James Abourezk John V. Whitbeck Seth Sandronsky Alan Cabal Pam Martens Website of
the Weekend
Charlotte Laws Mike Ely /
Linda Flores Joe DeRaymond Phil Donahue Zia Mian Jeb Sprague Evelyn Pringle Missy Beattie Martha Rosenberg Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn John Ross Jeremy Scahill Frida Berrigan Paul Craig Roberts Jason Yossef
Ben-Meir Christopher Brauchli Holger W. Henke Dave Lindorff Julia Landau Website of the Day
January 24, 2007 Tao Ruspoli Paul Craig
Roberts Lt. Gen. William Odom Sharon Smith Brian M. Downing Heather Gray Ron Jacobs James Brooks Robert Day Website of
the Day
Trish Schuh Robert Bryce
Stephen Soldz John Blair Gloria La Riva Joshua Frank Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Uri Avnery Website of the Day
January 22, 2007 Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Jen Marlowe George McGovern Paul Craig
Roberts Norman Solomon Amira Hass Mike Whitney Ramzy Baroud John Walsh Website of
the Day
January 20/21 2007 Alexander Cockburn
Gail Dines
Newton Garver
Gilad Atzmon
Seth Sandronksy
Raphaelle Bail
Jim Goodman Larry Portis
Website of
the Weekend
Jonathan Cook
Glen Ford Dave Lindorff
Larry Portis
Website of
the Day
William Peace
Virginia Tilley
Michael Donnelly
B.R. Gowani
Larry Portis
Jason Hribal
Website of
the Day
Franklin Spinney John Ross Susan George Paul Craig
Roberts Joshua Frank David Lindorff
Col. Sam Gardiner
Marjorie Cohn
Saul Landau
Ron Jacobs
Susan Block Ken Couesbouck Website of
the Day
Roger Morris Paul Craig
Roberts Kathy Kelly William Blum Ralph Nader Saul Landau January 12 / 14, 2007 Patrick Cockburn David Rosen William S.
Lind Laith al-Saud Paul Craig
Roberts John Ross George Ciccariello-Maher Christopher Brauchli Robert Buzzanco Evelyn Pringle Peter Rost,
MD. Mike Whitney Yifat Susskind Saul Cohen Missy Beattie Stephen Lendman Website of
the Weekend
January 11, 2007 Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Paul Craig
Roberts Kathy Kelly Dave Lindorff Jeff Leys Richard W.
Behan Col. Douglas MacGregor Website of
the Day Speech of the Day
Peter Linebaugh Robert Fantina Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Ben Tripp Evelyn Pringle Ron Jacobs Mike Ferner Dave Zirin Website of
the Day Bootleg of the Day
R. T. Naylor Jonathan Cook Mike Ely and Linda Flores Joshua Frank Norman Solomon Sen. Russell
Feingold Joe Allen James T. Phillips Brian Concannon Leonard Peltier Website of the Day
January 8, 2007 Werther Jeff Leys Paul Craig Roberts Shulamit Aloni Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor Seth Sandronsky Dr. Susan Block Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Franklin C.
Spinney Paul Craig
Roberts Ralph Nader Walden Bello Marleen Martin Brian Cloughley Uri Avnery Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Joseph Nevins William S. Lind Gary Leupp Elisa Salasin George Ciccariello-Maher Beyond Chavistas and Anti-Chavistas: Deepening the Bolivarian Revolution Stefan Wray Michael Leonardi Richard Rhames Jeffrey St. Clair Barbara LaMorticella Website of the Weekend Song of the
Weekend
Jorge Mariscal John Walsh Christopher Brauchli Travis Sharpe Tom Barry Linda Schade
/ Kevin Zeese Tiffany Ten Eyck Mahmoud El-Yousseph Lucinda Marshall Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn Winslow T.
Wheeler M. Shahid Alam Raed Jarrar Bert Sacks Kathy Rentenbach Stephen Fleischman George Bisharat Peter Rost, MD Evelyn Pringle Website of the Day
January 3, 2007 Kathy Kelly Paul Craig
Roberts William Johnson Stan Cox Trita Parsi Declan McKenna Joe Bageant Nicola Nasser Missy Beattie Website of
the Day
Michael Watts Amina Mire James Brooks Alevtina Rea Al Krebs Peter Rost Niranjan Ramakrishnan John Stanton Website of the Day
January 1, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Joshua Frank
December 30
/ 31, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Tariq Ali Paul Craig Roberts Douglas Valentine Brian M. Downing Michael Donnelly Stephen Lendman Fred Gardner Bailly / Caudron / Lambert Ralph Nader Nick Dearden Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Missy Beattie Ron Jacobs Dan La Botz Andrew Wimmer Dr. Carol Wolman, MD Martha Rosenberg Dick J. Reavis Jeffrey St.
Clair Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend Music Video of the Weekend
Norman Finkelstein John Borowski Abid Mustafa Greg Moses Uri Cohen Bailly / Caudron
/ Lambert Website of
the Day
December 28, 2006 Norman Finkelstein Anthony Cowell John Ross Hilaria Cruz Greg Moses Brittany Bond Website of
the Day
December 27, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Faruq Ziada Christopher Brauchli Michael Ortiz
Hill Nikolas Kozloff Mark Schneider
Peter Stone
Brown Tito Tricot Gary Leupp John V. Walsh Reza Fiyouzat Ron Jacobs Website of
the Day
Saul Landau Lang / McGovern Michael Dickinson Website of
the Day
Marjorie Cohn Jeffrey L.
Gould Diane Christian William Loren
Katz Greg Moses M. Shahid Alam Fred Gardner Dave Lindorff Azmi Bishara Ralph Nader Seth Sandronsky William Hughes Ron Jacobs Jeffrey St.
Clair
December 22, 2006 David Rosen Christopher
Brauchli John Ross J.L. Chestnut,
Jr. Rahul Mahajan Arthur Neslen Peter Rost, MD Website of
the Day
Rosa Mariam
Elizalde Arundhati Roy Brian Cloughley Daniel White John V. Whitbeck Sam Smith Paris Reidhead Kevin Wehr Website of the Day
Gabriel Kolko Winslow T.
Wheeler Tariq Ali Saree Makdisi Bruce Jackson Dave Lindorff Leslie Radford Dave Jansson Johnny Barber Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn Jonathan Cook Greg Moses Sean Penn Dave Lindorff Ralph Nader Laura Carlsen Carlos Villarreal Website of
the Day
Luis J. Rodriguez Norman Solomon Uri Avnery Ron Jacobs Phil Gasper Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi William Blum Jim Goodman James Brooks Maria C. Khoury Website of the Day
Vijay Prashad Saul Landau Anthony Arnove Paul Cantor Annie Nocenti Nicole Colson Stephen Gowans Jordan Flaherty Fred Gardner P. Sainath Seth Sandronsky Nadia Hijab Deb Reich Susie Day Albert Wan Missy Beattie Martha Rosenberg Lee Ballinger Michael Dickinson Jeffrey St.
Clair Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
December 15, 2006 Eliza Ernshire Virginia Tilley Mike Ferner John Ross Fred Wilhelms Kevin Zeese David Severn Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor Website of
the Day
December 14, 2006 Jonathan Cook Riz Khan Jason Hribal Pennick / Gray Richard Levins Pat Williams Peter Rost, MD Website of
the Day
December 13, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Greg Moses Elizabeth Schulte Joshua Frank Debra Eschmeyer Leon Hadar Peter Rost, MD Margaret Knapke Reza Fiyouzat Fred Wilhelms Website of
the Day
Fernando A.
Torres Paul Craig
Roberts Stephen Soldz Uri Avnery William S. Lind Missy Beattie Dave Lindorff George Pyle Norman Solomon Website of
the Day
December 11, 2006 Virginia Tilley Roger Burbach Col. Douglas MacGregor Fawwas Traboulsi Ron Jacobs Gideon Levy Mary McGrane Bernardo Ruiz Website of the Day Video of the
Day
December 9
/ 10, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Sen. Gordon Smith Greg Grandin
Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Ralph Nader Behrooz Ghamari Rev. Willliam Alberts James T. Phillips Bennis / Leaver Dave Lindorff Nikolas Kozloff Seth Sandronsky Lucinda Marshall Mike Whitney John V. Whitbeck Faisal Kutty Hugh Sansom Robert Gold Boots Riley Jeffrey St.
Clair Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
Patrick Cockburn Leutisha Stills Norman Finkelstein Will Youmans Peter Rost, MD Jonathan Demme Ray McGovern Lucinda Marshall Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn Website of
the Day
December 7, 2006 Alex Friedman Maureen Webb Paul Craig Roberts Dave Lindorff Matt Vidal Yifat Susskind Rodriguez / Jones Website of
the Day
Robert Bryce
William S. Lind Zoe Blunt Corporate Crime Reporter Amira Hass Richard W. Behan Sophie McNeill
Virginia Tilley Sharon Smith Joe Bageant Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Mike Whitney Derrick O'Keefe Julian Assange Missy Beattie Website of
the Day
December 4, 2006 Alexander Cockburn George Ciccariello-Maher Ray McGovern John Ross Walden Bello Peter Rost,
MD Stephen Lendman Gideon Levy Website of the Day
December 2
/ 3, 2006 Barucha Calamity
Peller Paul Craig
Roberts Ralph Nader Winslow T.
Wheeler Amira Hass Maymanah Farhat Dave Lindorff Fred Gardner Col. Dan Smith Raed Jarrar Seth Sandronsky K.-Y. Taylor Yifat Susskind David Rosen Ron Jacobs Nikolas Kozloff Talli Nauman Alan Gregory Joe Allen St. Clair /
D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
December 1, 2006 Greg Grandin Linn Washington,
Jr. George Ciccariello-Maher Brian J. Foley Dave Zirin Joshua Frank Chris Floyd Ingmar Lee Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Website of the Day Video of the
Day
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February 1, 2007 How PR Firms and Major Media Help Military RecruitersAn Army of Thousands MoreBy DIANE FARSETTA Increasing "the ranks of our military" is "one of the first steps we can take together" to "position America to meet every challenge that confronts us," said President Bush in last week's State of the Union address. "Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an increase in the size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next five years." The 92,000 figure was put forward by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee on January 12 that more troops are needed to boost "combat capability" and "strengthen our military for the long war against terrorism." The Pentagon plans to meet that goal by reenlisting former Marines and increasing the Army's recruitment and retention rates. Under the plan, the Army would only "slightly increase its recruitment goals -- by 2,000 to 3,000" a year, according to UPI. But in 2005, "the Army failed to meet its annual recruiting goal by the widest margin in two decades," reported the New York Times. To meet its 2006 goal, the Army hired more recruiters, raised the maximum allowable age for recruits, doubled the percentage of recruits who scored low on aptitude tests, issued waivers for some recruits' prior convictions, and significantly increased cash bonuses. If it was that difficult for the Army to meet past recruiting goals, how will it meet future, larger ones? Some clues are offered in the Army's self-nomination for a prestigious public relations award. The Army submitted its "Birth of an Army, Birth of Freedom: The U.S. Army 225th Birthday Campaign" for consideration in the Public Relations Society of America's 2001 Silver Anvil Awards. (The Army won an award, but then so did the U.S. Northern Command in 2006, for "outstanding achievement in strategic public relations planning and implementation in response to Hurricane Katrina.") The nomination documents provide a rare, detailed look at Army recruiting, including how the largest branch of the U.S. armed forces works with public relations firms and major media to meet recruiting goals. Moreover, they illustrate how a small campaign, by Pentagon standards -- the Army spent $370,000 and used its "in-house marketing team" -- can reach tens of millions of people, thanks in large part to uncritical support from broadcast outlets.
Following significant troop reductions throughout the 1990's, "the Army was becoming disconnected from the American people," explains the awards nomination. "Recruiting new soldiers had become increasingly more difficult, with the Army having not met its recruiting goals" for fiscal years 1997 through 1999. The Army's public affairs staff -- the government's preferred description for its PR people -- hoped that a concerted media campaign could "assist recruiting efforts by using the Army 225th Birthday as a mechanism for attracting potential recruits." The Army drew on extensive research to develop the campaign, including a survey by a major and controversial PR firm. "In conjunction with the Army's Training With Industry program at Ketchum, an Army Public Affairs officer worked with Ketchum's research department to conduct attitudinal research about the Army," the awards nomination states. "The study was focused on regions of the United States without a large military presence." Remember Armstrong Williams, the conservative pundit outed for promoting No Child Left Behind while secretly pocketing payments from the Bush administration? He was a subcontractor on Ketchum's PR contract with the U.S. Department of Education. Ketchum also produced video news releases, or fake TV news reports, for the Education and Health and Human Services Departments that were later found to be illegal covert propaganda. When Ketchum won another major government contract in 2005, to promote the Medicare drug benefit, the Washington Post felt the need to note that "the firm promised the new ads will not cross the legal line." For the Army, Ketchum conducted interviews with 321 people, either "parents of school-aged children" or "students in high school or just starting college" from across the United States, or "Pittsburgh consumers." Among the positive findings of the firm's "Reconnecting the U.S. Army to America Survey" was: "A majority of respondents acknowledge the Army's role in exploring and settling the country (70%), and an equal number realize that technology developed by the Army has beneficial civilian applications." Among the negative survey findings was: "Army life is seen as incompatible with today's lifestyle and is hard on families." Perhaps more worrying for recruiters was: "Even though most respondents have had a family member in the military (75%), less than half would encourage a young person -- who is not a family member -- to join the Army (45%). And even fewer would encourage a family member to join (38%)." Several respondent comments listed in the Ketchum survey are from students describing experiences with Army recruiters. "A recruiter tried to convince my 15-year-old brother to join," said one. "This should be illegal to talk to a 15 year old. He successfully 'snowed' my brother and his friends." Another simply mentioned, "A recruiter for the Army took me out to eat and gave me information." A few students credited recruiters with changing their views of the Army: "I am a high school freshman and an Army recruiter visited us. I have a positive opinion now because I know more and understand what they do."
The Army's campaign theme -- "Birth of an Army, Birth of Freedom" -- was based on the survey results. "An overriding consideration in this theme's selection was a finding from the Ketchum study," explains the awards nomination. "The study found that many Americans have no idea of the Army's contributions to American society -- especially its greatest contribution, securing the nation's independence." The three main campaign messages, to "be included in communication with all audiences and media," were also developed in response to the Ketchum survey:
In April 2000, the Army tested these messages, campaign graphics and other materials on a group of Indiana University students. In addition to serving as a focus group, the students provided useful information on their media habits. "Television is the most important medium to college students," notes the awards nomination, especially "on weekends" and, to reach male students, "sports programming." The Army used other research to further refine and target its birthday campaign. Citing a National Association of Secretaries of State youth study, the Army noted the impact that "parents, teachers, coaches and other influencers" have on young people's decisions, and that "traditional appeals to to civic duty do not spur youth to action." From the Defense Department's Youth Attitude Tracking Study, the Army noted that African-American and Hispanic youth "displayed significantly higher levels of propensity [to enlist] than did White youth," and that the Internet is "a viable medium for providing military information to today's youth." (The latter was a more revelatory finding for a 1997 report than it may seem today.) Lastly, from the Army's own Recruiting Command State of the Youth Market Report, Army officers crafting the birthday campaign noted that "young people get their impressions about life in the military mainly from movies / television, friends and family members." And while "the propensity of young people to serve in the military is declining," the most receptive audiences are 16-year-old white students and 17-year-old students of color, with a "late surge" of interest among 22-year-old Hispanic and African-American youth.
Based on the media habits of its target audiences, the Army set "three overarching guidelines" for its birthday campaign communications plan: "Emphasize broadcast over print media"; "Incorporate sporting events into the plan"; and "Use the Web." The birthday campaign was particularly successful with national television outlets, which were approached by Army public affairs officers and the New York-based "strategic marketing public relations firm" Cohn & Wolfe. On June 14, the Army's official birthday, the Army scored "a clean sweep of all morning news programs," boasts the awards nomination. Ann Curry of NBC's "Today Show" even "made a live tandem parachute jump with the Army Golden Knights parachute team," which "received the most coverage of any single birthday event." Other national media hits included C-SPAN, the Washington Post, and the "Imus in the Morning" radio show. The head of the Army's Recruiting Command was featured in a satellite media tour -- a series of sponsored and often scripted interviews with different TV stations -- that reached nearly one million viewers in six states and Washington DC. "Birthday greetings from such celebrities as Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Tom Brokaw and Miss America 2000" were featured on the Army's own television newscast, which airs on domestic and international bases, as well as "85 commercial cable outlets." Not surprisingly, the History Channel featured Army-related programming throughout the week. Special events garnered even more media coverage. The Army's birthday run was featured on ABC's "Good Morning America." Yankee Stadium's "Army Day," complete with parachuters, recruiters and "a Humvee display," was covered by ESPN. CNN was among the networks filming when "the secretary of the Army, sergeant major of the Army and soldiers dressed in period uniforms rang the opening bell" of the New York Stock Exchange. Other "local and national recruiting events were conducted with extensive support" from Cohn & Wolfe, according to the awards nomination. "Print media found little interest in the Army celebrating its 225th Birthday," but broadcast media "were extremely receptive of the Pitch Kit's storyboards." That's not too surprising, given television's well-documented appetite for the stunts, celebrity endorsements, fake news and other promotional fluff that the Army was offering. Still, the "unprecedented" media coverage reached more than 73 million people, often directing news audiences to Army websites. Three websites were specifically created for the Army campaign. The main birthday website was "oriented to the general public." The "history site" described "contributions the Army has made to our nation." Remarkably, a list of the Army's "Top 10 Contributions to Civilization" included in the awards nomination has as number four, "Being a model for the integration of African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and women." Lastly, the "soldier site," judged to be the "most compelling and successful" of the three, included "an Army insignia game and an opportunity to register to win prizes and gift certificates."
The June 2000 birthday campaign was "the largest and most ambitious communications undertaking" by the Army at the time. And it did help recruiting efforts, according to the awards nomination. Calls to the Army's toll-free phone number "increased during the campaign and during the week of the birthday were 70 percent more than the previous year." More than 5,000 calls came in that week. Traffic to the Army's recruiting website also "increased as the campaign unfolded," reaching nearly 550 percent above the previous year's levels. On June 14, the Army's official birthday and the peak of the campaign media coverage, website visits were "up an incredible 964 percent." Over the birthday week, some 70,000 online "visitor sessions" were logged. The Army credits its birthday campaign with helping it meet "recruiting goals for the first time in three years." This boast is made in an awards nomination, without providing the number of new recruits attributed to the campaign. But the important question today, as the Pentagon seeks to increase the Army's size, is how likely current recruiting efforts are to adopt the media tactics of this pre-9/11 campaign. The short answer: very likely, though today's efforts will probably benefit from bigger budgets and focus more on new media. After all, potential recruits' characteristics, concerns and media habits haven't changed that much -- with the exception that cell phones, blogs and social networking sites are now in the mix. More than anything, the Army still needs to sway older "influencers." While discussing the new troop increases, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David Chu remarked, "Our real challenge out there isn't the young people ... it's parents, coaches, teachers ... who, when asked by a young person, 'Well, Dad, Mom, should I do this' -- too often get a sour and unsupportive answer." Last year, the Army explained its new slogan, "Army strong," in part by saying it highlights "the transformative powers of the Army" to potential recruits' family members and friends. Of the recent Army media contracts listed in a January 2006 report, several seek to strengthen Army public affairs training, process and technical support. Others involve research and message development to present "the Army's strategic perspective in the Global War on Terrorism" and "media pitches, speakers service and bureau, and news story development in support of the Soldiers in the Global War on Terror," as I reported previously. These contracts suggest a greater role for public relations in Army recruiting efforts. But with an unpopular war in Iraq, an increasingly unstable situation in Afghanistan, and mounting numbers of U.S. military casualties, will media outlets be as receptive to Army pitches as they were in 2000? Only time will tell. Diane Farsetta is a Senior Researcher, Center for
Media & Democracy, publisher of PR
Watch. She can be reached at: diane@prwatch.org |
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