F-H GRABS $3M L.A. POWER ACCOUNT

The Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power has awarded Fleishman-Hillard a $3 million one-year contract to develop a corporate PR plan to communicate to the 1.4 million power and 600,000 water customers at the nation's largest municipal utility.

The Dept. sent out RFPs to about 125 firms. Edelman PR Worldwide, Burson-Marsteller and The Phelps Group were finalists.

F-H has worked for the Dept. for the past five years on matters such as educating customers about energy deregulation, launching its "Green LA" program and handling a community relations program with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Doug Dowie is in charge of F-H's Los Angeles office. He said the firm's Washington, D.C., office will also work on the account.

BT PICKS PEPPERCOM FOR RE-BRANDING

British Telecommunications has tapped Peppercom to handle a full "rebuilding of BT's brand" in the U.S., as the former U.K. monopoly admits it has a "huge amount to do" after the breakup of its $10 billion partnership with AT&T, BT's PR manager for the U.S., Diane Noe, told this NL.

Peppercom edged Omnicom's Fitzgerald Communications for the work, which Peppercom has called a "significant" piece of business. Noe said good reviews from colleagues and Peppercom clients helped in the "tough decision."

BT and AT&T's joint venture, Concert Communications, which officially ended in April, was aimed at expanding BT's reach in the Americas while giving AT&T a stake in the European markets. CC never lived up to its billing, reporting annual losses of $800M at times in its four-year life.

BT has charged Peppercom with heading an aggressive rebranding and media campaign to make its presence in the U.S. markets known.
Deborah Brown, partner and senior director at Peppercom, manages the account team.

PB GETS $2.2M ANGOLA PACT

Patton Boggs has signed a $2.2 million one-year obbying contract with Angola's national oil company to improve ties with the U.S. government. Corruption within Angola's $6 billion energy sector is a key irritant between the two countries. The U.S. estimates government officials and their cronies skim about $1 billion from Angola's yearly energy revenues.

CHRISTIAN COALITION USES KCSA

KCSA PR Worldwide is doing PR for the Christian Coalition of America, says Ronn Torossian, who recently joined the firm from Golin/Harris International's MWW Group.

He is promoting CCA President Roberta Combs and her call to Congress to support President Bush's plan to whack Iraq. Combs is inspired that Bush plans to use "all means that he determines to be appropriate to confront Saddam Hussein." She urges CCA members to "pray for Saddam to be removed shortly." Combs also tells members in her "action alert" to "pray for the Iraqi people and for the removal of their dictator."

The Coalition's "God Bless America-One Nation Under God, Road to Victory 2002 Conference" rolls into Washington, D.C., on Oct. 11-12. It will feature a "Christian Solidarity for Israel Rally" at the Ellipse near the White House. Televangelist Pat Robertson is the founder of CCA.

KCSA also represents the Zionist Organization of America. The firm's CEO Herb Corbin is chairman of the American Jewish Committee's PR and communications committee.

AMG WORKS TO SALVAGE IMCLONE

ImClone Systems, whose founder Sam Waksal is charged with insider trading, uses Abernathy MacGregor Group, a unit of France's Havas, for PR. The company is also in the news because of the stock trading of Waksal's friend, Martha Stewart.

AMG's David Pitts and Andrew Merrill handle the account of the New York-based biotechnology company. ImClone's PR man Jason Farber has not been reached.

Waksal resigned his CEO post at ImClone on May 22. He received a $7 million payment under a "separation agreement." ImClone is trying to recoup that payment after it found out that Waksal "in contravention of company policy directed the destruction of certain documents that were or could be perceived to be material to the pending government investigations." Waksal denies the federal charges.

ImClone posted a $43 million net loss during the quarter ended June 30. Its stock trades in the $8 range, down from a $75.45 52-week high.

Lonny Unger, who was EVP/worldwide operations at Manning, Selvage & Lee, is now asssistant coach of soccer at Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y.

NATIONAL PR UNVEILS ANTI-KYOTO GROUP

National PR launched on Sept. 26 the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions, a group composed of more than 25 businesses and trade associations largely opposed to the country's plan to adopt the Kyoto global warming treaty.

The goal is to replace the Kyoto Protocol mandatory emissions cuts with a "Made in Canada" solution to pollution that includes corporate incentives to adopt cleaner technology to improve air quality.

The Coalition noted there is "growing unease among businesses and other groups over the federal government's apparent readiness to commit the country to a binding international agreement without a concrete plan on how it will meet Kyoto's aggressive targets."

Canada has agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 240 million tons by 2010.
"Canadians deserve a fulsome debate on the merits of the Protocol," said Thomas d'Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, a Coalition member.

He noted that the Canadian emission cut targets "represent a 30 percent reduction in energy use for every Canadian, with important implications for how we live and work."

Tom Donahue, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, met with Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Sept. 23 and told him that his country would be at a disadvantage with nations such as Mexico, China and India if it complied with the greenhouse gas cuts. The U.S. has not adopted the Protocol.

National is partly owned by Burson-Marsteller.

BP AMOCO SUBPOENAS FLORIDA PR FIRM

After being sued by nine operators of its gas stations in Florida, BP Amoco has served a subpoena to take a deposition from Boca Raton-based TransMedia Group, the PR firm hired by the operators to publicize their case against the oil giant.

The operators allege BP Amoco, the third largest oil company in the world, misled them into believing the company would lease the stations to them for a full 12 years, via a series of four-year contracts. The operators say BP Amoco will not renew the leases after the first four-year term and is "evicting" them without compensation for building up the businesses. The lawsuit was recently moved from Broward County Circuit Court, where it was filed, to U.S. district court in Fort Lauderdale.

The operators hired TMG earlier this month to publicize their charges against the oil company.

BP Amoco spokesman Richard Judy told this NL the company is "confident" its contracts with the operators were legal, but declined further comment because the matter is under litigation.

Responding to the subpoena of his firm, TMG chairman Tom Madden said in a statement: "Any effort to intimidate us will only make us even stronger advocates in a just cause."

FOX NEWS CHANNEL CALLED ANTI-ISLAM

Fox News Channel is the most biased major media outlet toward Muslims, Ibrahim Hooper, communications director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told this NL.

Hooper cited the recent Florida "terror scare" as part of Fox's inflammatory reporting. While CNN's Larry King was pretty even-handed in interviewing the suspected terrorists, a Fox interviewer demanded they take a Fox-paid lie detector test, he said.

CAIR also is upset with Fox broadcasters who allow guests to launch into an anti-Islam tirade without being challenged. Sean Hannity of "Hannity & Colmes" let televangelist Pat Robertson call Islam's Prophet Muhammad a "killer," a "wild-eyed fanatic," "a robber and a brigand" during the Sept. 18 program. Robertson dismissed Islam as a "monumental scam" and ridiculed the Koran as "a theft of Jewish theology."

Brian Lewis, Fox spokesperson, confirmed that the station received many e-mails from CAIR, which he dismissed as a special interest group. He stressed that 99 percent of them were form letters. "We did get a few threatening letters," Lewis added.

The Fox spokesperson emphasized that none of the purported anti-Islam bashing appeared during its news programming. CAIR officials, he added, were invited to rebut Robertson's remarks.

CAIR has asked for a meeting with Fox executives, but they have not yet responded to the request, said Hooper. Lewis said "that's not going to happen." Fox has officially rescinded the offer to CAIR to appear on the network.

INTERPUBLIC PUZZLES MERRILL LYNCH

Merrill Lynch can't figure out why new clients are signing up at Interpublic while existing clients are either slashing budgets or pulling accounts from the ad/PR combine.

"The disconnect between strong net new business and organic revenue declines remains difficult to fully explain," wrote analyst Lauren Fine in a report released Sept. 25. Fine wonders if the organic decline is a result of "continued cuts in spending from existing clients, lower than advertised spending from new wins or little to no increase in pricing." She applauds IPG for averaging $800M in "net new business wins" during each of this year's quarters. Wendy's, Qwest and Coors are the standouts. Fine does note that new business can take three to six months to start contributing to a firm's bottom line because it must first "be wound down with the former agency."

Though IPG has "underperformed the market," Merrill remains "neutral" on its shares because of a "fundamental weakness within its businesses as the company has endured a number of restructurings over the last two years. Account losses have exacerbated the organic declines, wrote Fine.

The analyst closes on a sunny note: "As new business typically provides a window into future revenue growth, there should be a decent support for the shares."

A.M. PRODUCERS OFFER PITCH TIPS

The Publicity Club of New York got its new "Meet the Media" season off to a start on Sept. 25 with a sold-out audience of 185 people, who came to hear four network TV morning producers tell them about pitching.

Peter Himler, PCNY president and panel moderator, said 146 had pre-registered for the luncheon on the club's new website.

The panel consisted of Carol Story of "CBS The Early Show"; Patty Neger, ABC's "Good Morning America"; Andrea Smith, NBC's "Today" show, and Matt Singerman of Fox News.

Story, who began her career as a publicist in Cleveland, said coping with all of the mail is her biggest problem. She brought along about a dozen photos, which she passed around to the audience. The photos showed large piles of unopened mail.

Watch the Shows

Story urged the PR people to watch a week's worth of shows to see where their clients can get on a program. "I don't want to hear a PR person say, `I can't because I have to work.' This is your work," said Story.

Neger, who was director of publicity for Prentice-Hall Publishers, before joining GMA, is its coordinating producer mainly responsible for producing live medical/health segments, book and author segments and animal/wildlife features.

She stressed the importance of getting information and guests on an exclusive basis before any of the other morning shows.

She also prefers to be told about a possible idea in a "short and sweet" e-mail memo, followed up by regular mail, containing supporting material, such as clips from a local newspaper.

Neger is looking for stories that are interesting and emotional. She said the interview with Heather Whitestone McCallum, Miss America of 1995 who had a successful cochlear implant, was "exactly the kind of story we want." Neger thanked the PR firm, (Kovak-Likly Comms.) for giving ABC access to her.

Singerman, a TV veteran for almost 15 years, has been executive producer for the last year of Fox News' national cable program, "Fox & Friends," which airs from 6-9 a.m. Mondays through Fridays.

He said the show, whose ratings have been rising steadily, is open to almost any "offbeat" idea as long as it has entertainment value.

"I am always looking for a good story," said Singerman, who can be reached at 212/301-3813.

The program focuses on the lighter news stories of the day with causal and spontaneous discourse by the three anchors. The show offers short, entertaining segments including celebrity interviews, tabloid trivia and live performances, many of which are conducted outside with crowds of passerbys that gather on the sidewalk adjacent to Fox's street level studios, he said.

Singerman said bookers get annoyed with publicists who show they are not familiar with the program. He compiled a list of ten "Things a PR Person Should Never Say to Fox & Friends Producers." He gave them in reverse order of importance:

10. Will this segment work for your show?

9. Do you have a minute?

8. I know you are a morning show, but can I have a later segment?

7. I can't do the show until tomorrow because I'm doing the CNN morning show today.

6. What are your hosts' names?

5. I love your show-Jim Ryan is great. (Ryan is host of Fox's morning program on the local New York channel.)

4. I sent a pitch letter two months ago. Do you have it?
3. What time is your show on?

2. I think this idea is boring and not right for your show but I'll pitch it anyway.

1. I have never seen your show can you tell me about it?

Smith, who has been Today's literary editor since 1991, is responsible for booking and supervising all author segments on the program and is also in charge of Today's Book Club.

Bookers and Beats

Here are the bookers and their beats at the four morning programs:

Good Morning America: Food, Margo Baumgart; General stories, Sue Carswell; Contributors, Lisa Sharkey; Tony Perkins/Weather, Gary Stein; Medical, Patty and Amy Schitz; Entertainment/celebrities, Mark Bracco.

Today: Lifestyle stories, Betsy Alexander; Weekend Today booking,Don Nash; Al Roker/Weather, Jackie Olensky; Books, Kim Gerbasi.

The Early Show: General stories, Alex Williams; Lifestyle/ parenting, Janice DeRosa.

Fox & Friends: Ron Messer, Lauren Sivan, Jess Todfeldt, Megan Abernathy and Paulina Krycinski.

'TODAY' SHOW HAS BIG AUDIENCE LEAD

More people watch NBC's "Today" show than any of the other TV morning news programs, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Nielsen's totals show how many people were watching on average for the third quarter of 2002 through Sept. 22.

Who's Watching:

NBC's "Today" show.......................5,626,000
ABC's "Good Morning America".......4,226,000
CBS' "Early Show"..........................2,338,000
Fox News' "Fox & Friends"..............705,000
CNN's "American Morning"..............464,000
CNBC's "Squawk Box".....................71,000
"MSNBC Live".................................218,000

Early Show numbers are for the 7:47 a.m. to 8:34 a.m. block; Squawk Box numbers are for the 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. block.

(Media news continued on next page)

TEEN BUSINESS MAGAZINE TO DEBUT

Earl Graves Ltd., parent company of Black Enterprise magazine, is starting a new business magazine aimed at African-American teenagers.

Called Teenpreneur, the first issue is packaged as a special editorial section with the October issue of BE, which has a paid circulation of 450,000. A stand-alone magazine will be published in the next year or two.

Teenpreneur will include stories about teenage business owners, careers and investing and celebrity features about what the stars do with their money.

BE previously published two related newsletters, Black Enterprise for Teens and Kidpreneur News , which had a total of 25,000 subscribers. These publications will be discontinued.

Alfred Edmond Jr., SVP/editor-in-chief of BE, will also oversee the editorial direction of Teenpreneur. He is based in New York at 212/242-8000.

PODER STARTS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION

Poder, a Portuguese and Spanish-language business magazine, has begun an English-language version. It is aimed at U.S. decision-makers with ties to Latin America.

Poder, which has a circulation of 70,000 in Latin America, is published by Zoom Media Group, Miami.
Cathleen Farrell is general editor of the new English edition.

MEDIA BRIEFS

TechTV, the San Francisco-based network, said that according to Nielsen Media Research it now reaches more than 35 million households in the U.S.

The network, which marked its fourth year in May, continues to widen its program offering with the addition of "Thunderbirds," a fantasy adventure series, and the expansion of "Extended Play," a guide to videogames, to seven days a week.

TechTV also recently increased its content sharing agreement with ABC News to offer feature news segments as well as expert Leo Laporte as a regular guest for "World News Now."

TechTV is owned by Vulcan Inc.

E.W. Scripps is developing a new Spanish-language cable network for the U.S. market. It will provide useful "how-to" lifestyle information for Latino viewers in the U.S. along the same lines of Scripps' other networks HGTV, The Food Network, DIY (Do it Yourself) and Fine Living.

No launch date has been scheduled.

Al-Jazeera, a satellite TV news channel based in Qatar, which has been criticized by the West as a mouthpiece for Osama bin Laden, is planning to expand its presence in New York, which is currently covered out of its Washington, D.C., bureau.

The channel, which has 48 reporters in 30 nations, also wants to add correspondents in Jerusalem, Spain, South America and the Far East, and reopen a bureau in Kabul.

Al-Ali, the channel's managing editor, said Al-Jazeera no longer gets financial help from the government of Qatar.

Men's Health magazine's editor-in-chief David Zinczenko said he and his staff are planning to start another magazine, Best Life, for men in their 40's and 50's.

PLACEMENT TIPS

CenterWatch, a Boston-based unit of Thomson Healthcare, and The HealthScoutNews Service, a division of ScoutNews, have formed an alliance to disseminate news and information about clinical trials and the development of new medical treatments.

CenterWatch will provide updates on recently initiated clinical trials and on FDA drug approvals to support a new "Clinical Trials Update" feature available from HealthScoutNews Service to its clients, both on the Internet and in print.

In addition, the CenterWatch website will offer clinical trial-related news stories provided by HealthScoutNews reporters. The HealthScoutNews Service reaches about 10 million readers a month.

Barry Hoffman is editor-in-chief of HealthScout News, a Norwalk, Conn.-based news and information company.
More than 40 newspapers worldwide use the news service, which is syndicated in print by The New York Times Syndicate and is a daily health news component of Associated Press Digital.

Hoffman can be reached at 203/855-1400 ext. 102, or [email protected].

Bennett & Co. offers these five tips on "How to Better Communicate with Journalists":

1. Use web resources-sites like AJR.org offer tips and links to publications, broadcasters, associations and organizations to effectively communicate with the media.

2. Provide links to more information-Keep e-mails short and include only the main ingredients. Offer links with quick and easy access to in-depth information such as high-resolution images and graphs.

3. Customize communications-Research archived articles so that you know coverage trends. Don't repeat what was already reported. Insert your pitch into the story offering new angles or specific points.

4. Personalize the subject line-Make sure the reporter's name, publication or beat is in the subject line. That often determines whether an e-mail is opened. Make it obvious why the story is important.

5. Don't send attachments-Many journalists won't open e-mails with attachments. Lose the decorative borders and provide links. E-mails with large attachments clog mailboxes and may transfer viruses.

GREED TRIGGERS CORPORATE CRIME WAVE

Eighty percent of Americans working at public companies blame executive greed for the accounting scandal wave, according to a Fleishman-Hillard survey. Sixty percent cite an emphasis on short-term financial results as the reason for corporate shenanigans.

More than ninety percent (91 percent) of the 200 people surveyed said corporate crime is a serious problem for the nation's economy.

Peter Verrengia, F-H Eastern president and co-chair of its corporate credibility practice, blamed managers and investors for "short-termism," which has prevented companies from setting reasonable goals.

CEOs, he said, must assume the role of change leaders to convince investors and employees that they have a long-term stake in a company's success.

One recommendation from F-H is for the creation of an "owner manual" for institutional shareholders, small investors, employees and other stakeholder groups to spell out the company's goals, competitive environment and overall strategy.

The corporate crime wave combined with the economic slump, however, may not shape up to be the best time to deliver that pitch.

Verrengia said CEOs and management teams should hold off on long-term visions until management's right to talk about the future has been restored by a company meeting two quarters of "more realistic expectations."

He said companies need to earn the right to talk about the future by producing value today.

STRESS 'THIRD-PARTY CREDIBILITY'

Jack Trout, author of Differentiate or Die, Big Brands Big Trouble , and other marketing books, told the Westchester/Fairfield chapter of PRSA Sept. 19 that PR should emphasize the third-party credibility that editorial coverage can provide to products.

This is something that advertising cannot supply, he noted.

Trout said PR people should be part of the process of defining and articulating product differences. A product's unique properties must be identified and translated into customer benefits, he told the chapter.

Once dominant companies are losing their clout because they are failing to make their products stand out against the competition, he said.

AT&T, he said, missed an opportunity to tout a new technology that gave it a reliability advantage over MCI and Sprint while Levi Strauss failed to capitalize on its heritage when imitators crowded into the jeans market.

PR, rather than emphasizing the amount of newsclips it obtains, should emphasize the relevance of certain clips, he said.

Companies should strive to "own" an attribute, according to Trout. Visa is "everywhere" while Michelin tires are "safe." He feels that Nokia would be better off calling itself "The No. 1 cell phone" than using the slogan, "Connecting people."

FRIENDS FETE BOB WEINTRAUB

Friends and business associates of New York PR counselor Bob Weintraub, who is retiring after a 50-year career in PR and journalism, gave him a going-away party Sept. 24 at the offices of Barbara Burns & Assocs.

Among those present was Bob Greenwald, former executive VP of Ruder Finn, who hired Weintraub for that firm in 1970.

"Bob was the quickest study I ever saw," said Greenwald. "He was able to grasp a problem and get right to the solution."

Weintraub will continue as a PR consultant in the Jacksonville, Fla., area. He will have a home in nearby Amelia Island, which served as the locale for a spring meeting of the PRSA Counselors Academy. Weintraub, who was president of PRSA/New York in 2001, said he hopes to teach in north Florida.

(His new address is 67 Woodstork lane, Marsh Lakes, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034. Phone: 904/491-6817. E-mail: [email protected].)

PRSA/NY conducted more than 40 events during the year that Weintraub headed it. He was a strong advocate for expanding PRSA governance to non-APRs, an issue that will be on the agenda of the Nov. 16 PRSA Assembly in San Francisco.

Before entering private practice in 2000, Weintraub was a senior strategist at Makovsky & Co. Prior to that he had his own company, Paladin PR, for eight years, after serving as SVP at RF from 1970-78.

NEW YORK FISHES FOR HIGH-TECH TIPS

New York State has awarded AngelouEconomics a $150K one-year contract for its expertise in technology-based economic development. The Empire State Development Corp. is particularly interested in luring high-tech firms to the Albany region.

It hired Angelos Angelou's firm because he is credited with putting Austin, Tex., on the high-tech map when he served as director of international business development for that city's chamber of commerce.

Austin-based International Sematech announced in July that it will build a $400 million-plus semiconductor research facility at the "Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics" at the University of Albany.

Sematech was launched in 1988, and is owned by a consortium of firms including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, Motorola, Intel, Philips and Advanced Micro Devices.

Angelou, as director of business development at the Austin Chamber of Commerce, is credited with attracting more than 400 companies with a combined 70,000 workforce to the city. That helped double Austin's population to 1.2 million since 1990.

AE, which was formed in 1995, will provide the Empire State Development Corp. with "lessons learned" from its Austin work.

Governor George Pataki's SEMI-NY program is designed to entice semiconductor plants to New York.

IBM recently opened a $2.5B wafer fab facility in East Fishkill. It employs more than 1,000 workers.

An important clue as to how ad people regard "branding" is contained in the 16-page essay on the topic in the annual report of the WPP Group. Jeremy Bullmore, former London creative head of WPP Group's J. Walter Thompson unit, says most brand information is "passively acquired...processed at very low attention levels and we generally do not work very hard to learn or understand what we are being told about the brand...we process brand communication using an automatic mental process called low involvement processing...learning that takes place without you knowing that you are learning."

He further says it is the "perceptions and simple concepts, repeatedly and `implicitly' reinforced at low levels of attention, which tend over time to define brands in our minds...these brand associations, once learned, are rarely forgotten."

One can see why an ad person would be quite upset at the prospect of a PR person giving full access to facts about a product or company to a journalist with no guarantee as to what the writer will say about the product or company. Such an article would engage the consciousness and judgment of readers--the opposite of how branding works.

A consumer's opinion or feelings about a product, built up at great expense over the years, could be permanently dislodged in a few minutes. Brand builders, like those building sand castles, fear a wave of conscious attention will wipe away their efforts.

Another clue to advertising's attitude was given by Foote, Cone & Belding chief executive Brendan Ryan to the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies April 19 at Dana Point, Calif. There is an "inexorable trend to integrating all channels of communication--all touch points--(and) this has to be a source of great growth for us," he said, adding: "Who else is going to do it. It's got to be us. I don't mean to be arrogant here, but we are the ones that better than anybody understand the brand, understand how to translate and sell that brand to different audiences, reaching them through all different channels of communication."

There is a lot of branding taking place on Madison ave. and in the business world but it's of a different type. Anyone who speaks out publicly about their client or employer or who shows any skepticism about the conventional wisdom can be branded as a malcontent or even traitor and their business careers placed in jeopardy. An analyst who puts out a "sell" on a stock can be branded as "too negative"..Lawyer Alex Elson, in a letter to the New Yorker Sept. 23 , praised the mag's 9/9 article on securities lawyer Bill Lerach (9/11 NL) and said the passage of the "Safe Harbor" act in 1995 "served as a prelude to Enron, Worldcom and the other scandals of the past year" because it "eroded the class action as a remedy for fraudulent conduct on the part of management." An enthusiastic backer of the act was the National IR Institute. Fourteen of NIRI's 16 directors are now from the corporate side since counselor Vickie Gorton of Addison, Texas, has joined Carreker Corp. The board has only one counselor from a major firm, Mary Dunbar of Dix & Eaton, which works for Diebold. Don Eagon, chair of NIRI, heads IR at Diebold. The other counselor director is Donald Allen of Laguna Hills, Calif. NIRI, which would like its members to have more power over PR, has started a "Center for Integrated Communication." It will help IR people to learn about PR (and vice versa). It will maintain a body of knowledge about the IR/PR function and advocate integrated communications to the CEO...we have suggested that NIRI, with its $4.6 million bank balance, start a glossary of financial terms on its website for use by reporters and investors... "USS Liberty Dead in the Water," a 68-minute show for the BBC of London on the June 8, 1967 attack on the USS Liberty stationed off the coast of Gaza, says the "inescapable conclusion" is that Israel knew it was attacking a U.S. ship and wanted it "sunk fast" with "no one left to tell the tale." The video, researched by Peter Hounam, is more detailed than the History Channel show on the same topic. All U.S. ships were ordered from the war area except for the Liberty, whose only armament were a couple of machine guns. The show theorizes it was to be a sacrificial lamb. If Israel started to lose the war, the U.S. could attack Egypt after claim ing that Egypt had sunk the spy ship. Surviving crew members note the New York Times put the story on page 29 although 34 sailors were killed and 137 were injured. BBC aired the show June 10 and fall showings are planned. Hounam has authored Operation Cyanide , which continues the investigation of the attack. The BBC tape is being sold by Friends of Lib erty for $29.85 via P.O. Box 373164, Satellite Beach, FL 32937...analyst Lauren Fine of Merrill Lynch noted Sept. 24 that Interpublic claims strong net new business but also shows organic revenue declines. This constitutes a "disconnect," she says. Fine theo rizes the new biz could be taking 3-6 months to come on line, that existing clients could be cutting budgets, and that the new clients are not spending as much as promised. Lehman Brothers (8/28 NL) said investors should be "cautious" about any "net new business" claims of ad agencies because the amounts are often exaggerated and documentation is lacking. "Net" means that account losses have been subtracted. But Lehman points out that if a client cuts or stops spending, which is the equivalent of an account loss, this is not subtracted.
--Jack O'Dwyer