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Wednesday, April 30. 2008
The Special Committee to protect the journalistic integrity of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal issued a statement April 29 in a desperate attempt to remove some of the egg from its face.
 The toothless-tiger committee was sandbagged by Murdoch who graciously accepted the resignation of managing editor Marcus Brauchli after Rupe told Marcus that his future lies in determining a game plan for News Corp.’s Star TV operation. Asia is about as far as you can get from the WSJ’s newsroom.
The Committee’s statement says it learned of Brauchli’s “amicable” resignation after the fact, which “failed to meet the letter and the spirit of the agreement” that gave it power to protect the integrity of the paper. As Christopher Bancroft, an opponent of Dow Jones sale to Murdoch, says that agreement is nothing more than “window dressing.” Rupert gets what Rupert wants.
Committee members, according to the statement, met and decided there was no practical way to “unresign” Brauchli and start the process over. In other words, they threw in the towel. The panel, which is chaired by former Detroit News editorial page editor Tom Bray, vows to “exercise fully its role in the approval of a successor managing editor and to take the steps necessary to prevent a repeat of the process it has just been through.”
The truth of the matter: Murdoch already outmaneuvered the Committee in December when he named his friend Robert Thomson, ex- Times of London editor, WSJ publisher. Thomson is de facto editor. The Committee, whose members receive $100K a year, plans to meet with Thomson in the “near future.” It has a little more face to be saved.
Murdoch, the Godzilla of the media world, already has moved on to his next target, Newsday.
The Federal Communications Commission stands as the next mountain for Murdoch to conquer. Following Murdoch's clinching of Newsday, the Commission could decide not to renew News Corp.’s TV licenses for WNYW and WWOR due to cross-ownership concerns.
Word to the wise: never underestimate Murdoch.
(Photo: European Pressphoto Agency via N.Y. Times)
Tuesday, April 29. 2008
The Bush Administration today suffered its biggest loss on the environmental front as U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the Interior Dept. must follow existing law and decide whether or not the polar bear is an endangered species due to climate change. That's right. The Government must follow the law. How refreshing.
 The polar bear is the iconic image of global warming. Environmental groups such as Greenpeace have skillfully reinforced that point with heart-tugging visuals of bears leaping from one shrinking ice floe to another in desperate attempts to stay alive. Elementary and high school students throughout the U.S. have adopted the polar bear as the “poster animal” of warming. The U.S. Geological Society has validated the threat to the bears, reporting that two-thirds of them will vanish by 2050 if predictions of future melting sea ice hold up.
Yet it took a lawsuit filed by Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense Council and Center for Biological Diversity to get today’s decision that Interior must rule by May 15 whether the bears should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Interior Dept. has missed various deadlines and wanted another delay until June 30 to gather more information about the bears' plight.
This blogger believes that like everything else in the Bush Administration, energy development explained Interior’s foot-dragging. Interior is home to the Minerals Management Services, which has been selling off Alaskan oil and gas leases to energy companies. Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips were among giants that bid $3.4B for Alaskan oil leases in February. That bidding including a habitat for one of two of Alaska’s polar bear populations, and is undeveloped land not seen in any area of the U.S., according to Shell executive Annell Bay. Conservation groups -- to no avail -- protested that bidding, saying Interior had not made its decision on the fate of the bears. That now looms.
If Interior rules the bears are threatened, they will be the first species designated as a potential victim of global warming. That decision would be pretty embarrassing to the global warming deniers that dominate the Administration. It also will signal that -- in the waning days of the Bush Administration -- things are changing for the better in D.C.
(Photo: Climate Progress)
Monday, April 28. 2008
Travel Portland, the non-profit that markets Oregon’s capital region to business and leisure travelers, has created what must be one of the first green jobs in travel PR.
 In announcing the creation of the “public relations manager, sustainability,” position on Friday, TP said it has promoted media relations staffer Veronique Meuneier to tout the area’s “green” highlights.
It will be interesting to see if more posts like this are set up in PR, especially as “green marketing” is beginning to be met with some skepticism by reporters.
USA Today last week covered the green “branding onslaught” and offered a bit of advice from Middleberg Communications’ Thomas Basile, who heads the firm’s sustainability group:
“You have to be able to stand up to the scrutiny of consumers, media, bloggers and environmental advocates.”
Walking the walk is about more than PR, but building trust is a huge part of it. As a Cone/Boston College poll recently found, only 47% of consumers trust companies to tell them the truth in environmental marketing. [We also covered a Bite PR study on the risks of green PR back in February.] Having a staffer in place who specializes in green issues, can avoid dreaded accusations of "greenwashing."
Jeff Miller, Travel Portland’s president/CEO, said he was keeping up with a growing number of travelers’ requests for “green experiences” in creating the sustainability PR post. But he also noted that the staffer that fills the role is steeped in both PR and environmental practices.
Meunier, who last year planned a “green media research tour” and is part of a team that encourages businesses to adopt sustainable practices, takes up the post on May 5.
Barack Obama’s “honeymoon” is now officially over as the Associated Press-Ipsos poll released today shows Hillary Clinton is in best position to beat John McCain. Clinton slugs the Arizona Senator by a 50 to 41 percent margin. Obama is tied with McCain with 44 percent support.
 The New York Times reports today that Obama is “retooling” his campaign to appeal to blue-collar voters who have been turned off by his elitist pitch. The Illinois Senator reinforced the perception that he is the candidate of the Chardonnay crowd w hen he told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that working class voters are “less familiar with him than they are with her, and so we probably have to work harder.” Where have you been, Barack? Your line is more than a bit condescending. Maybe you should have kept your Wallace boycott in place.
Harrison Hickman, a Democratic pollster, told the AP that voters are moving from the “infatuation stage” in choosing a candidate to the “decision-making stage” where they determine who would be the best President. That’s good news for the experience-heavy Clinton, who only because of her boneheaded strategists faces a tough fight to snatch the Democratic nod from Barry.
Obama is reportedly “bored” with the campaign against Clinton. He wants to take on Big John in the November election. One can be sure that McCain is thinking along those same lines.
McCain, who once professed a desire to run a “clean campaign” based on issues, has now chucked that line out the window.
Sensing his own mortality, the 71-year-old candidate is doing whatever it takes to win, bashing Barack for ties to Rev. Wright, and depicting Obama as the candidate preferred by Hamas. It's a safe bet the Republicans will be calling Obama and Osama former roomies by the time November rolls near.
What can Obama do? Should he challenge McCain to a little one-on-one on the basketball court?
Hillary looks better every day.
Friday, April 25. 2008
As the Bush Administration winds down, Freedom House—for the first time— will analyze the state of freedom in the U.S. The Washington-based group, founded in 1941 by Eleanor Roosevelt, Wendell Willke and other influentials, is treasured for its annual surveys of freedom throughout the world.
 There is little debate about how the Bush Administration’s “war on global terror” has curtailed freedom in the world’s sole military superpower. Bush largely rolled over a supine Congress with warrantless wiretraps, extraordinary renditions and mistreatment of prisoners. Those activities have corroded the image of the U.S. as the world’s standard-bearer for liberty and justice. Restoration of that reputation is a priority of the next Administration of either McCain, Obama or Clinton.
Freedom House will release its study on May 5. “Today’s American: How Free?” will examine “whether America is sacrificing its essential values in the war against terror and scrutinize the state of freedom and justice in post 9/11 America,” according to the group’s promotional material.
The study will probe how current Government curbs on freedom compare to other crises and conflicts in America’s history. It promises to look at challenges that pre-date 9/11 such as racial inequality, lack of political competition and handling of immigration.
This blogger can’t wait for Freedom House’s report. He prays Freedom House's report gets an extensive and fair hearing in the press. The fear is that a large section of the media, the chunk that has given the Bush White House a free ride in its assault on liberties, will dismiss the report as a political hatchet job.
The only question this blogger has for Freedom House: “What took you so long?"
Wednesday, April 23. 2008
President Bush today nominated General David Petraeus, head of U.S. forces in Iraq, to head the U.S. Central Command, succeeding Admiral William Fallon who resigned last month. Guess, Brownie wasn’t available.
 Petraeus, if confirmed by the Senate, will be responsible for both Iraq and Afghanistan. His elevation signals the Administration is sticking to its “stay the course” strategy, while it is obvious to millions of Americans that Iraq is a losing situation.
The General’s promotion follows the April 17 release of a scathing report by the Pentagon’s National Defense University that called the Iraq war a “major debacle” with an outcome “in doubt.”
Iraq has diverted “manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers” from “all other efforts in the war on terror.”
Joseph Collins, the ex-Pentagon official who wrote the report, says the “surge” strategy devised by Petreaus largely prevented the break-out of an all-out civil war. Though the surge of 30,000 U.S. troops has improved security, the additional forces are not enough to ensure that Iraq become a stable democracy.
Collins puts the blame for the Iraq mess on the shoulders on President Bush who told former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to begin “planning in secret for potential military operations in Iraq” before the war in Afghanistan was over.
The report faults Rumsfeld for never having a “Plan B”, which covered handling the insurgency, after “Plan A,” the fight against Saddam Hussein’s military was over.”
The U.S. media to its discredit largely ignored the Pentagon report. The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal failed to mention the report, which says the situation in Iraq looks like a “can’t win” situation. Commendably, McClatchy Newspapers ran a nice feature on the Pentagon’s report.
The rest of the U.S. media have apparently grown weary of the Iraq quagmire. They have moved on to covering the sinking economy and the Clinton/Obama death march.
Aggressive media coverage of the Vietnam war helped pave the way out of that quagmire. It’s a shame the current media are giving the Administration a “pass” on Iraq.
They are doing a heck of a job.
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