WOLFF RESIGNS KEY G/HI-NY POST

Richard Wolff, who held the positions of managing director/New York, regional managing director/ Northeast, and worldwide director of the financial unit at Golin/Harris International, has resigned after five and a half years effective Sept. 30. The firm said it has initiated a search for a replacement.

"The time is right for me to seek new challenges," he said in a statement.

Wolff joined G/HI as head of its New York office in mid-1997 after 13 years at Kekst & Co. During his term there, G/HI handled M&A deals for CSX-Conrail; Chrysler-Daimler; Dominion Resources-Columbia Gas; Tyson-Smithfield, and EDC-AES.

Jaime dePinies, managing director of G/HI's Madrid office and the firm's chief economist, assumes the worldwide director post for financial communications and investor relations. Shep Doniger moves up from deputy managing director to acting MD.

NAB SET TO AWARD $250K RADIO BIZ

The National Assn. of Broadcasters is on the verge of selecting a PR firm to handle a $250K image and media relations account for AM/FM radio, Stacy Perrus, media relations manager at the NAB, told this NL.

The group wants to counter the threat posed by satellite and defend against criticisms from Congress and the public that AM/FM programming has become homogenous because of the consolidation wave that has swept the business.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) introduced a bill in June aimed at backing small and independent radio stations by prohibiting "anti-competitive practices" in the industry.

The firm selected will present a "positive" image and provide "rapid response" to critics.

EX-CASSIDY COO JOINS BKSH

M.B. Oglesby, chief of staff to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, has joined Burson-Marsteller's PA/lobbying shop BKSH & Assocs. in Washington, D.C., as vice chairman.

Oglesby, 59, a former deputy chief of staff and assistant to President Ronald Reagan on legislative affairs, is charged with expanding BKSH's international PA reach in Brussels, Berlin and London. The former Cassidy & Assocs. COO also lobbied for R.J. Reynolds as a senior VP at R.J. Nabisco and served as president of the Assn. of American Railroads.

EDELMAN HANDLES 'INSENSITIVE' CARR

Edelman PR Worldwide is handling PR for Carr Futures, which lost 69 staffers in the terror attack on the World Trade Center, and has been charged with being insensitive to the needs of victims' family members. Fifty of them have formed an emotional support group to help cope with dealing with CF, according to a story in the Sept. 16 Wall Street Journal.

It reported that eight death benefit beneficiaries received letters from CF's insurer, CNA Insurance, to inform them that they received excess benefits, and must return the overpayment in the self-addressed stamped envelope.

CF also was criticized for a "Dear Family Member" form letter that it sent immediately following the attack and measly financial arrangements to compensate victims' families, compared to sums paid by other WTC companies such as Cantor Fitzgerald, AON Corp. and Sandler O'Neill & Partners.

Hollis Rafkin-Sax, senior managing director at Edelman Financial, said form letters were the quickest way to contact CF families. She defended CF's payments as comparable to what other WTC-impacted companies paid to families of killed workers.

Edelman provided PR for Cantor Fitzgerald, which also was criticized by family members in the immediate days following the attacks, but has since made amends. Rafkin-Sax said her firm was also picked for its financial expertise, and sees an opportunity to work for CF's parent, Credit Agricole Indosuez.

D.C. PLANS RFP TO GAUGE PROMO WORTH

The Washington D.C. Convention & Tourism Corp. is expected to issue an RFP worth $200K during the next few weeks to gauge the effectiveness of its communications effort.

Bill Hanbury, who heads the travel promotion group, wants to analyze the perceptions that visitors have of the nation's capital, and evaluate the city's "American Experience" positioning.

The number of domestic visitors to Washington rose slightly last year, after being severely impacted by the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon. The number of domestic visitors rose 2.8 percent from the 2000 period. Average trip expenditure per-household slipped to $467 from $480. The number of business travelers dropped by more than a third following the Pentagon terror attack.

New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia contributed the bulk of leisure travelers to D.C.

DOBROW SETTLES WITH SEC

Larry Dobrow, Ruder Finn editorial director and former PR Week news editor, has settled insider trading allegations lodged by the Securities & Exchange Commission against him and his father. The securities watchdog contends that 31-year-old Dobrow passed "material, nonpublic information" about an impending takeover of H.D. Vest by Wells Fargo to his father while he worked at Ogilvy PR Worldwide.

The complaint charges that Harvey Dobrow, a 60-year-old doctor, purchased 2,000 shares of Vest after Larry "tipped him that Wells Fargo was going to acquire" the Ogilvy client. He paid $6-$7 a share for Vest stock on March 22, 2001 for a total outlay of $13,314.

A press release issued the next day announcing the takeover sent Vest stock up "$13.38 to $20.38, earning Harvey Dobrow an illegal potential profit of $27,436 on his 2,000 shares," charges the SEC.

The SEC complaint alleges that from Dec. 2000 until April 2001, "Lawrence Dobrow was an H.D. Vest 'temporary insider' due to this work as an account director in the New York office of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide." As part of the "Ogilvy team that managed public and investor relations in connection with the sale of H.D. Vest to Wells Fargo, Lawrence Dobrow passed insider information about the takeover to Harvey Dobrow on or before March 22, 2001 while that information was still confidential," the Feds charge.

Consent to Relief

The SEC, on Sept. 18, issued a litigation release. It said: "The Dobrows, without admitting or denying the Commission's allegations, have consented to the relief sought in the Commission complaint."
Harvey, in his consent, "agreed to disgorge $27,436 illegal profits plus $2,265 prejudgment interest, and to pay an additional $34,295 civil penalty, an amount equal to 1.25 times his illegal profits," according to the settlement.

Larry "has consented to pay a $34,295 civil penalty for his role in tipping his father about the impending takeover. The Dobrows have also consented to the entry of permanent injunctions from future violations of the Section 10 (b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5," said the SEC.

Larry Dobrow has not returned calls for comment.

KENYA GIVES BING $600K TRADE PACT

Kenya has awarded Eric Bing & Co. a $600,000 economic development and public policy contract.
The Austin, Tex.-based firm is to identify opportunities for Kenya under the African Growth and Opportunities Act, organize a trade mission to the U.S. for Kenyan officials, and court U.S. foreign aid.

Eric Bing is to coordinate his efforts with various branches of Kenya's government. He reports to Margaret Chemengich, the country's Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Presidential elections to succeed Daniel arap Moi, 77, are to be held by the end of the year.

U.S. PROPAGANDA NEEDS MORE $$, PR

America's propaganda effort requires more dollars and creative input from PR firms, ad agencies and Hollywood to restore the "edge" that it lost with the end of the Cold War, according to a report issued by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.

Congress also must be further integrated in public diplomacy, a term described as doing PR aimed at foreign audiences by Charles Dolan, vice chairman of the Commission and Ketchum senior VP.

The Commission released its report on Sept. 18 during a State Dept. conference. The session was attended by reporters from this NL, Al Jazeera TV, Variety, Christian Science Monitor, Associated Press and the Hollywood Reporter.

The document calls for "realistic and tangible" approaches to make America's case overseas.

It stresses the need to take into account the rise of the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle. Those developments mean the State Dept. must broaden its traditional outreach to foreign government officials, journalists and thought-leaders to include the general public.

Outspent by Bloomberg

The Commission noted that the State Dept. spends $1 billion annually on its information and exchange programs.

Chairman Harold Pachios pointed out that the State Dept. earmarked $5 million last year for polls to determine foreign attitudes and interests worldwide. That is half of what New York City's Mayor Bloomberg spent in his campaign run.

The Commission wants President Bush to issue a directive stating that public diplomacy is a strategic component of American foreign policy and that significant reform is needed.

Another goal is closer coordination between the White House Office of Global Communications and Charlotte Beers, the State Dept.'s Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

MERRITT GOES TO PhRMA'S AID

Mark Merritt joins the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America on Oct. 7, and will help spearhead its campaign to deflect criticism against high drug prices and thwart any Congressional move to slap any controls on prescription drugs. He is to head PhRMA's just-created Strategic Communications and PA division.

Merritt was chief strategist at the American Association of Health Plans, which represents the managed care industry.

His role is to pitch PhRMA's line that prescription drugs keep people out of costly hospitals and nursing homes. It also maintains that drug costs account for only nine cents of the nation's healthcare dollar.

Korn/Ferry International conducted the PhRMA search. Nels Olson, in the recruiter's Washington, D.C., office, handled that effort.

KAMINSKY JOINS PLAYBOY AS TOP EDITOR

James Kaminsky, 41, is leaving Maxim magazine to join Playboy as editorial director, the most senior editorial position.

He will succeed Arthur Kretchmer, who is retiring after publication of the 50th anniversary issue of Playboy (Jan. 2004).

Kaminsky, who will join Playboy on Oct. 7, will be based in New York. Kretchmer is in Chicago.

FRANTZ IS INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR AT NYT

Douglas Frantz, 52, was named investigations editor of The New York Times. He has been the paper's Istanbul correspondent since 2000, and will be in charge of a separate newsroom department.

Frantz joined the Times in 1994 after working as a Washington, D.C., investigative reporter for The Los Angeles Times.

PEOPLE

Barbara Johnson was named news director of WNBC-TV (Ch. 4) in New York.

Robert Leger, editorial page editor of The Springfield (Mo.) News-Ledger, was sworn in as president of the Society of Professional Journalists Sept. 14 during the group's annual convention.

John Koten, who had been editor-in-chief of Worth magazine, has joined Boston-based Inc. magazine as editor, replacing George Gendron, who left to start his own consulting business.

K.C. Crain, 22, has joined Automotive News, Detroit, as a reporter.

Paige Albiniak, an assistant editor at Broadcasting & Cable in Washington, D.C., has become the magazine's Los Angeles bureau chief. 323/549-4111.

Bob Greene, 55, a syndicated columnist with The Chicago Tribune, was forced to resign after admitting he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct more than a decade ago with a high school student in her late teens.

Christopher Newton, a reporter in the Washington, D.C., bureau of The Associated Press, was dismissed after the news agency could not confirm the existence of people quoted by name in several of his stories.

Larry Burrough has resigned as editor of The Denver Post. His last day on the job is Sept. 27.

Robert Rosenthal, former executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, was named managing editor of The San Francisco Chronicle.

Jane Clayson, who is losing her anchor chair on "The Early Show," will remain with CBS News as a correspondent for the Eye on America segment for "CBS Evening News With Dan Rather."

Elina Furman was recently named online editorial director of seventeen.com, which is Seventeen magazine's web counterpart.

Bettie (Alex) Gant, 46, building editor of This Old House magazine, died Sept. 14.

Derek Davies, 71, editor of Far Eastern Economic Review for 25 years, died Sept. 15.

Cullen Murphy, currently managing editor, was promoted to editor of The Atlantic Monthly, replacing Michael Kelly, who becomes editor at large beginning with the November issue.

MEDIA BRIEFS

CNN has opened its new street-level newsroom on Sixth ave. on the southwest corner of 51st street, in New York. The studio, which has a large picture window, is the new home of "American Morning," which Paula Zahn hosts for three hours every weekday morning starting at 7 a.m.

The Wall Street Journal Sunday, a weekly package of original articles and information focused on personal finance and careers, has been picked up by an additional 12 newspapers with combined circulation of 1.2 million.

The papers include The San Diego Union-Tribune, seven papers from the Los Angeles Newspaper Group and The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson.

With these additions, a total of 74 papers with combined circulation of 10.8 million are now carrying the branded pages in their Sunday editions.

Lou Dobbs' syndicated column on money and politics will run in U.S. News & World Report.

WSBK-TV (Ch. 38) in Boston started a one-hour 7 a.m. newscast on Sept. 16 to compete against the network morning shows "Today," "Good Morning America," and "The Early Show."

Heeb, a Jewish humor magazine started 18 months ago with seed money from filmmaker Steven Spielberg, is going quarterly.

MOVED: Entertainment News Syndicate, a monthly column reaching more than 12 million readers nationwide, has moved its headquarters. The new address is ENS, PO Box 276, Murray Hill Station, New York, NY 10156. 212/679-9968; fax: 679-9969. Lee Canaan is editor-in-chief...The Wall Street Journal Online, published by Dow Jones, is moving its editorial staffers to 100 6th ave. in New York. Staffers were forced to evacuate its former World Financial Center offices after the terrorist attacks last September, moving into temporary offices in South Brunswick, N.J. Neil Budde is editor-in-chief of Online Journal, and Bill Grueskin is managing editor. 212/965-4150.

(Media news continued on next page)

TETZELI TO ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AS M.E.

Rick Tetzeli, deputy managing editor of Fortune, was named managing editor of Entertainment Weekly.

He succeeds Jim Seymore, who becomes editor-at-large at Time Inc.

Peter Bonventre, executive editor at EW, was promoted to editorial director of the magazine.

Tetzeli, 41, joined Fortune in 1990. He became an associate editor in 1993. In 1996, he became primarily responsible for Fortune's technology coverage during the Internet boom and bust.

He was promoted to deputy mng. editor in 2001.

ROSIE MAGAZINE MAY SHUT DOWN

Rosie magazine's last issue, as it stands now, will be published in December.

The magazine, which was started last April as a remake of McCall's, is a joint venture between Rosie O'Donnell, a former TV talk show host, and Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing.

O'Donnell has been fighting with G+J over who has editorial control of the magazine. The feud began this summer with the appointment of a new editor and the ending of O'Donnell's TV show.

McDONALD'S PAYS FOR GAME PLACEMENT

McDonald's Corp. and Intel Corp. are paying Electronic Arts to use their products in its new online computer game, "The Sims Online."

The multimillion-dollar deal is a milestone for the game industry, which traditionally has paid to use other companies' logos in their games, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Sony Corp., for example, paid car manufacturers to use real-world race cars in its driving games, and EA paid millions of dollars to the National Football League for its series of "Madden Football" games.

"The turnaround demonstrates the burgeoning role of video games in shaping mainstream entertainment," said Alex Paham, a reporter for The Times.

The new online version of EA's popular series "The Sims" is due out this fall.

The game lets players choose occupations, buy houses, furnish them, date, marry and have kids.

In the game, players can buy Intel PCs, and also can run a McDonald's kiosk to make money.

PLACEMENT TIPS

The New York Press Club is looking for companies and/or organizations to donate items for a "goody bag" to be distributed at its 10th annual conference on journalism to be held Oct. 19 at Columbia University.
The conference will be attended by reporters, editors, producers and other members of the media.

Debra Caruso is handling donations. She can be reached at 212/849-1285 or [email protected].

Actress Linda Dano returns to Lifetime TV as the host of the weekly talk magazine show "Lifetime Now," premiering on Oct. 5 at 11 a.m. (ET/PT) on the cable network.

Dano will discuss the latest trends and issues for women today, and she will interview celebrities.

Juju Chang, a former health reporter for ABC News, and physician Dr. Winnie King, are hosting "Lifetime's Speaking of Women's Health," a weekly talk show that also premiers Oct. 5 at 11:30 a.m.

The show will offer the latest health news, tips and inspirational stories for women.

Viewers will also have a chance to learn about the guests' causes, emotional struggles and health experiences through their own stories.

Both shows are produced by Ellman Productions, in Los Angeles. Linda Ellman is executive producer and Denise Contis is co-executive producer.

Sunset, the 104-year-old "Magazine of Western Living," is being changed by its new editor to attract a younger readership, without losing any of its 1.4 million subscribers.

The average Sunset reader is 48 and has a household income of about $80,000. Katie Tamony, who replaced Rosalie Wright as editor last year, wants to appeal more to homeowners in their early 40s.

Tamony will try to "humanize" the magazine, and will not stray from its usual offering of advice on cooking, travel, gardening, and do-it-yourself home care.
Tamony is based in Sunset's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters.

Reader's Digest has added two new columnists to the magazine, Will Shortz and Mary Roach.

Shortz, the crossword editor of The New York Times, will create an original puzzle each month for the magazine.

Roach is joining RD as the monthly "My Planet" columnist, in which she'll address universal topics about approaching middle-age, from deteriorating eyesight to the complicated nature of satellite TV. She has written columns for Health magazine, Salon.com, and Inc. magazine.

Marcia Rockwood is executive editor of RD, which is based in Pleasantville, N.Y.

Surfing Girl magazine has been relaunched as sg: Surf Snow Skate Girl.

Kai Stearns, who is editor, said the new title reflects expanded editorial content that includes girls snowboarding and skating as well as the magazine's mainstay-surfing.

"We're all about capturing a lifestyle for the girl that's athletic, adventurous and independent," said Stearns, who is based in San Clemente, Calif.

The magazine will continue to appeal to its main target audience-girls between 15 and 22-through surfing, skating and snowboarding features, how-to stories, contest coverage and travel stories.

Primedia publishes SG six times per year.

OMC, IPG RELEASE BALANCE SHEETS

Omnicom and Interpublic, following their practice of many years, filed their balance sheets with the Securities & Exchange Commission last weekend within a day or two of the deadline.

Both companies traditionally release their sales and earnings reports about a month ahead of the balance sheets which show near and long term debt, goodwill, receivables, payables and other key figures.

Many companies release their earnings statements and balance sheets at the same time since both parts are needed for an understanding of a company's finances.

OMC reported assets of $11.5B including $4.2B in goodwill and $9.3B in liabilities, giving it tangible net equity (assets) of -$2.08B (assets minus goodwill and liabilities).

Current liabilities of $6.32B exceed current assets of $5.68B by $640M.

Cash was $409M vs. $501M as of March 31.
Short term and current long term debt of June 30 was $165M. Long term debt was $2.55B. Deferred long term liability charges were $301M. Long term investments totaled $179M.

Payables of $6.16B exceeded receivables of $4.5B by $1.6B.

IPG Has TNE of -$1.03B

IPG reported assets of $11.7B including $3.3B in goodwill and liabilities of $9.48B, giving it tangible net equity of -$1.03B.

Current liabilities of $6.43B were slightly ahead of current assets of $6.40B.

Cash was $537M vs. $575M as of March 31.
Short term and current long term debt was $598M and long term debt, $2.37B. Deferred long term liability charges were $416M.

Payables of $5.8B slightly exceeded receivables of $5.47B.

PEPSI GETS STUCK IN WEB OF RUMORS

PepsiCo is using its website to deny that it deleted the words 'under God' from a line of "patriotic" soda cans that were produced to honor the spirit of Sept. 11. The soft drink company, in fact, had nothing to do with the edited cans. Dr. Pepper/Seven UP Inc. is the "culprit," it says.

Pepsi posted the following "false rumor alert" on its site. It reads:

"We wanted to clarify an erroneous report that has been circulating around cyberspace for the past several months. Pepsi has not created any packaging containing a version of America's Pledge of Allegiance. A patriotic package used last year by Dr. Pepper was inappropriately linked to this rumor."

The Pepsi site provides a link to the Dr Pepper/Seven Up site, which explains the situation. The 41 million Dr. Pepper cans featured an image of the Statue of Liberty, and three words from the pledge. They were "One Nation... Indivisible."

The company said those words were used "in concert with the patriotic mood of the nation." They were chosen to "reflect our pride in this country's determination to stand together as one." The "offending" cans were retired in February, and are not to appear again, according to the company.

L.A. PR PRO PROFILED FOR MEDIA SAVVY

U.K.-born Bumble Ward, a press-oriented PR pro whose firm handles directors rather than stars, is profiled in the Sept. 23 New Yorker.

Ward and her staff "read every entertainment publication from cover to cover; they are the first to call a journalist with compliments, and they often have a keener understanding of a writer's tastes than the writer's editor does," writes Tad Friend.

The approach of Ward and her staff of 12 is in contrast to that of PMK/HBH, headed by Patricia Kingsley and Leslee Dart, which takes a hard-nosed stance towards reporters and press coverage.
PMK/HBH often sees its role as limiting access to stars such as Tom Cruise so that they don't "wear out" with the public.

Kingsley rebuffs media requests so often that she is known as "Dr. No," says Friend.

"The paradox of publicity is that its greatest achievements are thwartings," he adds.

So heated is the relationship between PR and media that some magazines now employ a specialist known as a "celebrity wrangler."

This person haggles with publicists about who the writers and photographers will be, how much time they will get, and numerous other conditions.

Cruise, it is said, once rejected 14 writers proposed by Rolling Stone before accepting one.

The Ward firm has become the leading firm specializing in directors, says the article. The firm has a standard retainer of $5,000 a month and also handles writers, actors and films. About 25 clients at any one time are on retainer.

John Calley, head of Sony Pictures, told Friend that publicists fill a "huge vacuum of insecurity" in Hollywood.

They help deal with "the evil press person who's trying to trap you, to humiliate you. Your kid needs babysitting? I'll do it. Dry cleaning? I love picking up dry cleaning. I'm here 24 hours a day..."

The story is not available on the New Yorker website. It only uplinks one story per issue.

'SOPRANOS' MISREPRESENTS US - OSIA

"The Sopranos" misrepresent the values held by Americans of Italian heritage, according to The Order of Sons of Italy in America. "This is a family that teaches its children nothing about good manners, ethics, or morality," said OSIA national president Robert Messa.

He said a far more authentic portrait of the average Italian- American family is found on the 1970s TV series "The Waltons," which had key characters based on Italian-Americans, according to OSIA research.

A lot of soul-searching is going on these days at the Columbia Journalism School. It halted a search for a new head to rethink the role of journalism. Michael Wolff in New York (9/23) and Ron Rosenbaum in (9/2) leveled heavy criticism at both journalism and the Columbia J school. How anyone could miss a year of working in journalism in order to spend $30K+ to study it is beyond them.

Both Wolff and Rosenbaum say most journalists never studied the subject in college. Wolff says Columbia grads come out "with a certain level of literalness and inflexibility and even stridency that is out of place in an increasingly, to say the least, plastic and accommodating media business."

Rosenbaum quotes a friend who works with the Columbia grads as saying: The faculty "beats the voice out of them" (destroys their individuality).

Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker), after spending a few days in class at the J school in 1993, wrote a piece in the New Republic titled "J-School Ate My Brain." He found "irrelevant blather" and "jargon" and urged writers to study anything but journalism. He also said journalism cannot be re-created in class.

The key words above are by Wolff, who notes media are increasingly "plastic and accommodating."

Translation: they duck and run from difficult and politics-laden topics as readily as PR ever did.

We were disappointed in 1994 when the Columbia J mag skipped coverage of a lengthy examination of PR, advertising and editorial practices by its 1980 graduate, Dean Rotbart. The 14,000-word speech to the 1993 PRSA conference in Orlando had numerous insightful and accurate descriptions of journalism practice, many of them embarrassing to major media. For instance, he said Wall Street Journal reporters (he was a former staffer) knew about the dealings of Ivan Boesky (later convicted of securities law violations) but didn't investigate them because Boesky gave the WSJ so many tips.

We thought the speech was a rich source of material and covered and criticized it extensively. We were sued on charges of using too much of the speech, misreporting it, libel, defamation and other charges. Federal Court dismissed them all. But the lawsuit put the entire presentation on the public record. The New York Times wrote about the speech but ignored the suit. The Wall Street Journal ignored both, as did Fortune and Forbes, mentioned in the speech.

PRSA's PR Journal (then phasing out) and the new PR Tactics and PR Strategist skipped the whole thing although the speech took place at the PRSA conference and we covered it as a reporter credentialed by PRSA. The Society had unlimited, perpetual rights to the speech, which it videotaped with two cameras for later sale. Also skipping the topic was the New York Financial Writers' Assn. The New York Law Journal, saying it was a precedent-setting case, made it the lead story when the verdict came in.

We can think of other examples where media have decided not to cover a story. The New York Times, while spending dozens of pages on Enron and other financial busts, has barely touched Omnicom's stock decline and the nearly 20 lawsuits against it. OMC and the three other ad giants control about 80% of U.S. and world advertising...the survivors of the attack on the USS Liberty (9/11 NL) complain they can't get the NYT or other major media to cover the alleged mistaken attack on their ship by Israel in 1967 even though this is its 35th anniversary. A 300-page book on the subject, Assault on the Liberty, by crew member James Ennes, tells of numerous failures in communication that cost lives. The Liberty, an obvious spy ship bristling with antennae of all sorts, was stationed 13 miles off the coast of Gaza just as war was breaking out. It presented a security threat to Israel, which was then preparing a surprise attack on three Arab nations. Several orders were given to the Liberty by the U.S. military to go 100 or 200 miles out to sea but through one snafu or another it never got them. Israeli planes buzzed the ship at least a dozen times in the morning and early afternoon to no effect. Israel then launched a ferocious attack lasting nearly two hours. It strafed, rocketed, napalmed and torpedoed it. Crew members who tried to launch life rafts were machine-gunned. Had not one torpedo hit a steel beam, it would have sunk the ship, Ennes says. There is no doubt in his mind that the intention was to leave no survivors. He says the U.S. knew of the impending attack because the Israelis learned the broadcast channels the ship was using and jammed five of the six. The attack was halted after a nearby U.S. carrier sent two planes even though they were ordered to return in mid-flight by President Johnson...another story that certain media ducked was the inability of friends of Denny Griswold, who died last year, to contact her at a nursing home in Fairfield County, Conn., during her last five years. The New York Times covered it and the New York Post did a full page on it. But seven newspapers in the county never printed a word on it...a new specialty is springing up in colleges called "media literacy," an apparent move to understand what does or doesn't appear in the media. The American Communication Assn. (www.americancomm.org), with 6,000+ academic members, is concerned with anything that involves "human communication." One member is working on a book studying the "framing" of certain issues in the media so that an issue is seen only from a desired viewpoint.
--Jack O'Dwyer