PR Watch
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PR Watch is a quarterly newsletter whose stated mission is to expose deceptive and misleading public relations campaigns. It frequently writes about anti-environmental PR campaigns but also covers issues ranging from labor rights to world affairs. Its web site states, "Whether the issue is health, consumer safety, environmental preservation or democracy and world peace, citizens today find themselves confronted by a bewildering array of hired propagandists paid to convince the public that junk food is nutritious, pollution is harmless, and that what's good for big business and big government is good for the rest of us."[1] (http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/index.html)
Articles appearing in past issues have included:
- "British-American Tobacco's Socially Responsible Smoke Screen," which discusses the tobacco company's effort to repackage itself as socially responsible[2] (http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2002Q4/bat.html)
- "Ecos Corp's 'Win-Win' Spin for Corporate Environmentalism," which critiques a PR firm set up by former Greenpeace activists[3] (http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2002Q2/ecos.html)
- "ConsumerFreedom.org: Tobacco Money Takes on Activist Cash," which details the alleged hidden tobacco funding behind a front group that claims to represent consumer rights[4] (http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2002Q1/ddam.html)
- "The Pentagon's Information Warrior: Rendon to the Rescue," which reviews the history of a PR firm charged with assisting the Bush administration's "war on terrorism"[5] (http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2001Q4/rendon.html)
- "Spy TV: Just Who is the Digital TV Revolution Overthrowing?," which examines the impact that interactive TV might have on personal privacy [6] (http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2001Q2/spytv.html)
- "China's Corporate Friends in High (and Low) Places," which exposes an alleged nationwide lobbying effort by U.S. corporations to win most-favored trading status for China [7] (http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q1/china.html)
In addition to archives of the newsletter, the PR Watch web site also offers daily reporting on public relations, propaganda and mass media spin in its Spin of the Day section. Its Impropaganda Review offers tips on "How to Research Front Groups" and a "Rogues Gallery of Industry Front Groups and Anti-Environmental Think Tanks." It has also started the SourceWatch (formerly Disinfopedia) project, a specialized wiki encyclopedia about propaganda and public relations campaigns.
PR Watch, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, is the creation of Center director John Stauber and PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton.
Sheldon Rampton's contributions to SourceWatch include articles that:
- Compare reports that the People's Republic of China in 1989 did not execute thousands of students in Bejing's Tiananmen Square with Holocaust denial. [8] (http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Denying_the_Tiananmen_Square_massacre&diff=14141&oldid=14140)
- Claim "only a tobacco industry funded think tank" would assert that smoking is a civic duty. [9] (http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Smoking_as_a_civic_duty)
Funding
PR Watch and the Center for Media and Democracy reported receiving funding from a number of organizations founded by heirs of industrial and real estate fortunes. Their reported funding sources include, among others, the Bydale Foundation, Careth Foundation, Carolyn Foundation, Changing Horizons Charitable Trust, CS Fund, Deer Creek Foundation, Educational Foundation of America, Florence and John Schumann Foundation, Grodzins Fund, Jenifer Altman Foundation, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, Rockwood Fund, Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Stern Family Fund, Town Creek Foundation, and the Turner Foundation.
See also: junk science, global warming, Ted Turner
External links
- PR Watch website (http://www.prwatch.org)
- Spin of the Day section (http://www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html)
- Impropaganda Review section (http://www.prwatch.org/improp/index.html)