Spin - The Art of the Prank

July 23, 2007January 15, 2019

The more things change, the more they stay the same

From Media Lens: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media:

Media Alert: From Blair to Brown – The Killing Will Continue
July 23, 2007

The first truth of American foreign policy is that it is formulated to maximise corporate profits and state power. The second truth is that it is perennially sold to the public as a mission to spread freedom, democracy and human rights. The third truth is that the first two truths apply regardless of whether the Republicans or Democrats hold power.

But this cannot be true. After all, America led the 1999 Nato campaign to stop “the Serbian genocide machine” in Kosovo, as the Guardian observed in April of that year. (Peter Preston and Patrick Wintour, ‘War in the Balkans,’ The Guardian, April 4, 1999)

Although the word genocide is rarely used now that the basic facts have become undeniable, Kosovo continues to be almost universally acclaimed as an example of “humanitarian intervention”. Indeed it is used as circumstantial evidence for the purity of US-UK motives in Iraq. In reviewing the “legacy” of Tony Blair, Polly Toynbee wrote:

“Abroad, Blairism was a noble ideal of liberal interventionism: sheer force of moral argument brought a reluctant US to the rescue of Kosovo and the downfall of genocidal Milosevic.” (Toynbee, ‘Regrets? Too few to mention any in particular,’ The Guardian, May 11, 2007) Continue reading “The more things change, the more they stay the same”

July 8, 2007January 15, 2019

More from Moore

From CommonDreams.org, July 6, 2007:

BlueCross Secret Memo Re: ‘Sicko’
by Michael Moore

Friends,

An employee who works at Capital BlueCross has sent us a confidential memo written and circulated by its Vice President of Corporate Communications, Barclay Fitzpatrick. His job, it seems, was to go and watch “Sicko,” observe the audience’s reaction, and then suggest a plan of action for how to deal with the movie. [Ed: You can watch a “Sicko” movie trailer at the end of this post.]

The memo, which I am releasing publicly in this email, is a fascinating look at how one health care company views “Sicko” – and what it fears its larger impact will be on the public. The industry’s only hope, the memo seems to indicate, is if the movie “flops.” Continue reading “More from Moore”

May 13, 2007January 15, 2019

Mother’s Day: A Great Hook for Fake News

Bridget Behe, from her earlier VNR

On behalf of Procter & Gamble, DeVries Public Relations is promoting a video news release (VNR) from MultiVu that uses Mother’s Day to sell Vicks. How, you ask? The VNR features “celebrity stylist” Aly Scott, who says, “Vicks Baby Rub provides a soothing way to give your baby a massage, relax and calm both of you, and making an easier way for you to bond with your child.” The accompanying press release is titled, “Make Every Day Mother’s Day.” The PR firm Medialink Worldwide has other Mother’s Day-themed fake news. One VNR from defense contractor Honeywell proclaims, “Mother’s Day 2007: The Stay-in-the-Car Mom Generation is Here.” It uses “Mom expert” Stacy DeBroff to sell Honeywell’s “Blink” cleaning products. Another VNR offers “Mother’s Day Flowers Do’s and Don’ts for Dads,” on behalf of FlowrMD, starring “flower doctor” Bridget Behe (who you might remember from CMD’s “Fake TV News” report). Lastly, there’s an audio news release from the non-profit Ploughshares Fund, informing listeners that Julia Ward Howe founded Mother’s Day as “a plea for peace.” Will peace sell as well as flowers, wipes or Vicks?

Website: MultiVu and Medialink Worldwide, May 3, 2007

URL: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/tipsfornewmoms/27526/

Originally from Center for Media and Democracy – Publishers of PR Watch on May 11, 2007

May 4, 2007January 15, 2019

Keep the Sticks and Stones Away From O’Reilly

From PR Watch:

“Using analysis techniques first developed in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis,” Indiana University media researchers analyzed six months’ worth of Bill O’Reilly’s “Talking Points Memo” editorials, which are aired on his TV show on Fox, posted on his website and printed in newspaper columns. The researchers found that O’Reilly “employed six of the seven propaganda devices nearly 13 times each minute in his editorials.” The seven propaganda techniques are name-calling, glittering generalities, card stacking, bandwagon, plain folks, transfer, and testimonials. O’Reilly “called a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute,” according to the University’s press release. Not surprisingly, “the people and groups most frequently labeled bad were the political left,” along with illegal aliens, criminals and terrorists. “He’s not very subtle,” journalism professor Mike Conway said of O’Reilly.

Source: Indiana University press release, May 2, 2007

March 15, 2007January 15, 2019

The New Virtuality, and Truth is Stranger than Fiction

Strom writes his “Web Informant” blog about current trends in technology and Internet marketing. This appeared in the fall of 2006, and was originally published for the site TidBITS.com, a site geared towards Apple computer users. The article is updated for ArtofthePrank.com.

The news in the fall of 2006 has me confused; so let me see if I have this straight. MTV is now doing a game where you can play as one of the characters from one of their reality TV shows, a show that employs script writers. These are different writers from the ones who not too long ago were protesting that they weren’t paid enough and had to falsify their time sheets to show that they worked fewer hours.

Then there are people making money off of selling Second Life businesses that sell virtual goods to others inside their virtual world. Continue reading “The New Virtuality, and Truth is Stranger than Fiction”