Who controls the Main Stream Media (M S M)? And why should we care if we really like Coke Zero?

[Approximately] 118 people Control the "Mainstream Media". A research team at Sonoma State University has recently finished conducting a network analysis of the boards of directors of the ten big media organizations in the US. The team determined that only 118 people comprise the membership on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. This is a small enough group to fit in a moderate size university classroom. These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate boards of 288 national and international corporations. In fact, eight out of ten big media giants share common memberships on boards of directors with each other. NBC and the Washington Post both have board members who sit on Coca Cola and J. P. Morgan, while the Tribune Company, The New York Times and Gannett all have members who share a seat on Pepsi. It is kind of like one big happy family of interlocks and shared interests...

From Daily KOS: http://www.dailykos.com/story/20...6/27/23291/ 0890

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And now for something completely -- different! Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds

Yes, this was the Ford Futuracar, which became the famous Batmobile. The production still and trailer are from "It Started with a Kiss" (1959)

Of course, after refreshing my memory of our own much more subtle “war”
with A.M.P.A.S. trying to secure a long overdue Oscar for Glenn Ford a couple years back, I suggested to Virgil that what he really needs is some well-orchestrated HighViz attention focused on this festering land-grab problem that the Keepers have fallen victim to. Perhaps if you have a chance to vacation in Vermont again this summer or fall, we could finally meet and give you the Grand Tour of the Keepers site so that you might see the possibilities for yourself first-hand that exist at the Keepers’ site in Rotterdam Junction.

The photo below is Anne Francis talking with Virgil January at the Keepers during the film festival at the Glove Theatre in June 2003.

Thanks for all of the favors past and future.

Tom

###

Now you've gone and done it! WMAL, you better prepare to duck and cover!

Mention was made on this morning's TODAY show regarding racial profiling and profiling any and ALL Muslims. This is incendiary. But it is also bosso-profundo HighVizPR -- ride the wave, baby!--[Bloomquist] -- but prepare for backlash.

Once again, from DCRTV's Dave Hughes:
http://www.dcrtv.org/rant.html

MALer Calls Islam "Terrorist Organization" - 7/26 - Michael Graham (above, right) has again gotten himself into hot water with area Muslims for comments he made on his late morning WMAL show. The DC-based Council On American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has asked the ABC-owned news talker to take disciplinary action against Graham, who repeatedly described Islam on the air as "a terrorist organization" that is "at war with America." According to the DC Post, WMAL Program Director Randall Bloomquist said Graham's comments were "amped up" but justified within the context of the program. And he said the station has no plans to reprimand Graham. "The problem is not extremism," Graham said on his show, according to both CAIR and the station. "The problem is Islam." CAIR denounced the comments as "hate-filled" and "Islamophobic" and asked its members to contact the station's advertisers to express their dismay. The Post-Democrat (as Graham calls it) adds that Bloomquist said he received more than 100 e-mails protesting Graham's comments. CAIR has made other complaints in the past year about Graham's on-air rants. WMAL is clearly enjoying the controversy - repeatedly hyping the story during Tuesday's "Grandy And Andy" morning show. More at cair-net.org and at wmal.com.

DCRTV's take is in our 7/26 Rant.....

###

Shameless AbbeBuckPR blogging - I sing. Really. I sing like a thrush.

www.abbebuck.com/amazon.html*

Chanteuse is the French term for a “girl singer”, “canary”, “thrush”, “warbler”,

“female vocalist” and in some cases, “Diva”, which is overrated and misunderstood….for more, see www.abbebuck.com

###

DRCTV.com is on-target - and David Burd is the best light commentator in town!

Buck's PR POV: Yes, I second DRCTV -- WMAL, just FIX IT. Randall Bloomquist, no matter how many hard-hitting marketing promos you have, content is still content. People get tired of the flutter and sputter of Fred Grandy's tired congressman jokes and Andy Parks' buffoonery. Plus, all of the local paid-for programming? No, thanks. You did lose a grand guy in the Burdman. And here's what Mort Sahl has to say about Sean Hannity: "Isn't it possible for them to get a real fascist instead of this guy who plays one on radio and TV?" So my dial is set to 107.7 again for Dave --and to XM Radio, to listen to television news. Go figure.

I do believe there is hope for Chris Core. He is warm, and a real guy. Has been for years.

Just my two cents -- the Buck stops here, too, ya know.

Abbe B.

---from WWW.DRCTV.COM

Rant - 7/23 - Another installment in my occasional "How I'd Fix" series. Well, after seeing the latest ratings and how far righty news talker WMAL continues to fall, let me offer some suggestions for rebuilding this once noble station.

First, fire Grandy and Andy. The morning show needs a complete makeover. Think young. Think female. Think ethnic. Sure, politics is fine. But make it more of a fair fight - righty AND lefty voices. And don't make it so shrill, so hackish and partisan.

If I was running MAL, I'd put late morning talker Michael Graham back on the bus to Richmond. There are smart conservatives and stupid conservatives. He's the latter. But, maybe if you paired him with an equally dopey liberal you'd be able to salvage the show.

Evening talker Chris Core is the best thing WMAL has going for it. And the station desperately needs to localize its afternoon drive. So, take Sean Hannity's last hour and move it to 8 PM, and start Core's local show at 5 PM.

And, please don't over "infomercialize" the weekends. Canning the weekend "morning news" and letting the brilliantly funny David Burd go to WTOP was a huge mistake(!)

Also, add more sports to the station's mix. Bid for the Nationals next season. The Orioles work well for Baltimore news talker WBAL.

Never forget - WMAL sits in the middle of a "blue state" zone, Democratic territory. Almost all of the DC area's major localities voted for John Kerry in the last election. If you want ratings - and respect - you simply can't alienate this core group of potential listeners. And that's exactly what WMAL has been doing.


###

AP: "The Sound and The Fury" -Updated from 1929 to Today, wins (faux) Faulkner Prize

ole Bill Faulkner would be proud. Have another tumbler of whiskey, old man.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050723/ap_en_mo/faux_faulkner

The characters take on a whole new dimension. They echo the current administration. Bush is now slow...in the head...and Saddam in Mississippi...

Only in America.


###

Sometimes you just need to take a donut break...

...and go to carbohydrate heaven - but it's all about the BRAND. It must be Krispy Kreme!

Oh, Krispy Kreme, I love you so.

Take the "challenge" and the box of the best donuts on the planet is on me!

###

PAGE SIX: Nicole was a Scientologist? Yes?

PAGE SIX.COM: July 18, 2005 -- DID Nicole Kidman become deeply immersed in Scientology before she became disenchanted and quit the quirky "religion"? Scientology insiders tell PAGE SIX Kidman didn't just "take a few courses" while married to ex-husband Tom Cruise, as was commonly assumed, but actually reached an elite level of the religion called "OT II" that only select Scientologists attain. The extent of Kidman's involvement was kept under wraps, our spies tell us, because Scientology elders worried it looked bad to have a public figure delve so deeply into the religion and suddenly bolt. Kidman's alleged disillusionment with the faith would explain her friction with Cruise over Scientology, which many people close to the couple blame for their 2001 divorce [among other things...] One major issue was whether the couple's two adopted children would be raised in the sci-fi-based religion — which seems to be happening. As we reported last week, 12-year-old Isabella Cruise has begun taking courses in the celeb-obsessed sect. [Nicole, save your children!] A rep for Kidman did not return calls.

###

Fly the friendly skies? Got any Topamax? Lexapro?

AP: Pilots Arrested for Disability Payments - [or - BUNCHA fake Section 8's up in the air, I reckon -- glad I wasn't behind that control panel--suppose one of those nutty fly guys flew over THE WHITE HOUSE!]

By KIM CURTIS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 22 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - Forty pilots were arrested after an investigation found they were licensed to fly but were receiving Social Security disability payments for a variety of illnesses, federal officials said.

The pilots, who include commercial and transport pilots, claimed to be medically fit to fly airplanes. However, they may have been flying with debilitating illnesses that should have kept them grounded, ranging from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to drug and alcohol addiction and heart conditions, said Marlon Cobar, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office in Fresno.

An 18-month review of 40,000 pilots in Northern California began in July 2003 as a
Homeland Security project to look into the fraudulent use of Social Security numbers.

When dozens of names turned up in both Social Security Administration and
Federal Aviation Administration rolls, "they realized there was probably criminal wrongdoing — either lying to the FAA or wrongfully receiving benefits," Cobar said.

The FAA immediately revoked 14 pilots' licenses and medical certificates, which are necessary to maintain a valid license, the U.S. attorney's office said. Others were referred for administrative revocation.

"We chose the most egregious," Cobar said Monday. "You can't really fly a plane if you're telling the Social Security Administration you have a disabling back condition or bipolar disorder."

Other pilots not yet charged were found to be lying about having illnesses in order to collect the Social Security payment, Cobar said.

FAA spokesman Donn Walker said it was unclear how many of the pilots flew for a living, but that at least a dozen of them held commercial or airline transport licenses.

Thirty pilots are charged with making false statements to a government agency, and 10 are charged with making and delivering a false official writing.
___
On the Net:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can

###

Danielle Iverson, Publicist: The Next Level

My story in Washington Woman must be very small potatoes compared to this. Ahhhhhh, I can dream, can't I?

Just doing that PR thing
Rebecca Eckler, National Post, Toronto

She spends over 900 minutes a month on her cellphone, but Danielle Iversen still calls the cab dispatcher 'Sweetie'

During the hour I spend with Danielle Iversen, at her home office in Yorkville, on the first day of the Toronto International Film Festival, her cellphone rings 17 times, her land line rings nine times, and the doorbell rings five times. I see that she has 50 e-mails waiting on her computer. I'm standing in her kitchen, and before I know it, I have three new party invitations in my hand. Iversen has lovingly -- if you can say that -- become known as the Lizzie Grubman of Toronto, a well-known publicity woman who not only publicizes people or their products, but organizes parties and events as well. [Ah, Yes, we all know our Lizzie!--Grubman is the famous New York publicist to the stars who was embroiled in scandal when she allegedly backed her SUV over a lineup of people waiting outside a nightclub in the Hamptons, and went to jail. Now bigger than ever! The celebrity publicist!]

Danielle Iversen, 31, will be throwing parties for everyone from Harry Rosen to Ron Jeremy (in the movie Porn Star) during the film festival.

"I've heard that Lizzie comparison a lot, especially since she's become that 'famous Lizzie.' Of course, I don't drive over people. I drive like Lizzie, though, which is aggressively. But I don't hit people."

At 31, Iversen is the type of person you want to hate. And not only because she is beautiful, blond and green-eyed, with a body to die for. ("I golf, play tennis, swim, but no aerobics. My life is my aerobics," she says.) When I first called her, asking to do a profile, she asked me to hold on the phone, for what seemed like half an hour. On her end, she was carrying on a conversation with someone else -- while they were having lunch.

When we meet, she's answering phones, putting on mascara, making me coffee, booking new clients, aiding present clients and, at one point, doing it all while running around in her bra. When she answers the door to greet me, my hair is a mess, and I'm wearing wrinkled clothes. Iversen tells me I look "fantastic." I know I look like crap. Still, I can't help but be pleased, even though, I'm sure, in Iversen's world, everyone looks "fantastic." Without knowing it, I start to smile at her compliment.

Damn, I think, this girl is good.

Iversen is the founder and head of her own company, called That PR Thing. On any given week, I'll receive at least five e-mail invites to parties thrown by Iversen. I find out I'm one of 1,500 people on her e-mail list.

"When people asked me what I do, I would always say, 'Oh, I do that PR thing.' So I decided to name my company that." [hear, hear viva la HighViz-ability!]

People like Iversen fascinate me. They're the type of people who can do a million and a half things at the same time. During the film festival, Iversen does three and a half million things at the same time.

While the rest of us can live happily with the three basic necessities -- food, clothing and shelter -- Iversen's three basic necessities are her Palm Pilot, her cellphone and her business cards. In fact, on the back of her front door is a reminder: "Danielle, before you leave, make sure you have your Palm Pilot, your cellphone, your business cards."

Iversen makes me laugh, telling me the story of how she got her latest cellphone, the newest one on the market from Nokia. "I went through so many cellphones. But I needed one that could vibrate, has call display, call waiting, all with a headset. I needed it all." [same here]

She talks "way over" the 900 minutes given to her a month. She has 5,000 names in her Palm Pilot, also the latest on the market.

And ... yet ... she ... never ... seems ... to ... get ... frazzled. Ever.

Lying on her made bed, featuring nine -- count 'em, nine -- pillows, are clothes from Danier leather (including a $595 black leather jacket). "They hired me for the film festival to get the word out on their product. Aren't they beautiful? I'm going to wear Danier all through the festival."

The phone rings ...

"Oh, I'd love to do it," she says into the receiver. "I have really great ideas already for it. I can do a really great party for you.

Home and Garden TV wants her to host a party. Iversen makes arrangements to talk with them next week and moves on.

"You don't understand who's coming to this party. Everybody," she says, handing me an invite to a party next week for Ron Jeremy, the subject of the movie Porn Star. "In an hour, over 100 people RSVP'd to me." She's doing the Harry Rosen and the Global TV parties during the film festival as well.

The phone rings again.

"Lunch? I'd love to. Where do we meet?"

The doorbell rings.

"Oh my God," she laughs. "It's the guy from Bruno's. Every year he sends me a fruit salad and cheese on the first day of the film festival."
Why? I ask, ready to give the delivery boy my address. I mean, I like fruit salad and cheese.

"Oh, when I was doing my first film festival, I ran in there like a madwoman for some food," she says. "So now he knows what it's like for me and just sends food over. Isn't he fantastic?"

We're waiting for a cab to come over to deliver a shirt from her dry cleaners. "Thanks, sweetie," she says into the phone.

"Uh, did you just say 'sweetie' to the cab dispatcher?" I ask.

She did. The thing about Iversen is that, through all her Hollywood lingo, she honestly means well. "I love helping people. I'll do anything for anybody."

I want to play a game with her just to see how plugged in she is.

"Can you get Kate Hudson's PR woman?" I ask.

"Yep."

"Can you get Eugene Levy's publicist?"

"Yep."

"Can you get Brad Pitt's publicist on the phone?"

"Yep."

"When was the last time you stayed in for a night with Roger -- meaning Rogers Video?" I couldn't help but ask her.

"Probably about three months ago," she says. "I got home at 2 a.m. last night, which is early during the film festival. Usually I don't get home until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m."

As I'm leaving her home, I look into her red Jetta parked in her driveway.

"Do you know what colour that car is?" she calls out. "It's called Tornado Red. Like me."

[And to think I drive a green Jag X - LOL!]

###

NYT: EPA allowing ghostwriters and PR - why not?

NYT PR NEWS: PR Campaign for EPA includes ghostwriting articles - business as usual(?)

Public Relations Campaign for Research Office at E.P.A. Includes Ghostwriting Articles

The New York Times
By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: July 18, 2005

WASHINGTON, July 17 - The Office of Research and Development at the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking outside public relations consultants, to be paid up to $5 million over five years, to polish its Web site, organize focus groups on how to buff the office's image and ghostwrite articles "for publication in scholarly journals and magazines."

The strategy, laid out in a May 26 exploratory proposal notice and further defined in two recently awarded public relations contracts totaling $150,000, includes writing and placing "good stories" about the E.P.A.'s research office in consumer and trade publications.

The contracts were awarded just months after the Bush administration came under scrutiny for its public relations policies. In some cases payments were made to columnists, including Armstrong Williams, who promoted the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind and received an undisclosed $240,000. In January, President Bush publicly abandoned this practice.The governmentwide public relations strategies, however, continue to include the preparation of TV-ready news reports on government policies.

An E.P.A. spokeswoman said over the weekend that the effort to raise the profile of the agency's research had a worthwhile goal: calling attention to the work of 1,900 scientists and staff members. Noting that the office's annual budget is $600 million, the spokeswoman, Eryn Witcher, said, "We would like to use less than 1 percent of that to make information accessible to the public."Three similar contracts - one of which was abandoned, the agency said - and the broader $5 million proposal were provided to The New York Times by the environmental group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Its director, Jeff Ruch, said he had received them from an agency employee who believed that research money was being inappropriately diverted to a public relations campaign."The idea that they would take limited science dollars and spend them on P.R. is not only ill advised, it's just plain stupid," Mr. Ruch said in an interview.Ms. Witcher responded: "It's not spending money on communications at the expense of research but rather in support of it. This allows the results of E.P.A. research to be shared with the general public."While the scope of the exploratory proposal is new, Ms. Witcher said, the two smaller contracts "are standard. It's standard to get more help with skills that folks don't have. It's very common throughout the entire federal government."One of the smaller contracts asks the contractor to "develop feature article research and strategy" and to "write the strategy to support a new unit that will be identifying feature story ideas, creating slant, identifying consumer magazines to target and polishing the final article."That contract, for feature articles, was awarded to JDG Communications of Falls Church, Va., for $65,692.62, Ms. Witcher said.

The second smaller contract was also awarded to JDG Communications, for $85,829.06. It calls on the contractor to develop two "perception specific indicators" that "must show whether public relations efforts to create awareness and improve the reputation of E.P.A.'s research and development, its labs and its top-quality scientists has favorably influenced public perception."The more extensive and expensive plan seeks help from public relations agencies to, among other things, "provide research, writing and editing of Office of Research and Development articles for publications in scholarly journals and magazines."

Donald Kennedy, the editor of Science magazine and a former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said in a telephone interview on Saturday that he found the idea of public relations firms ghostwriting for government scientists "appalling."

"If we knew that it had been written by someone who was not a scientist and submitted as though it were the work of a scientist, we wouldn't take it," Mr. Kennedy said. "But it's conceivable that we wouldn't know, if it was carefully constructed."He added that the practice of putting public relations polish on scientific work has already been practiced by industry. "We had seen it coming in the pharmaceutical industry and were sort of wary about it," he said. "The idea that a government agency would feel the necessity to do this is doubly troubling."Speaking of ghostwriting, Mr. Kennedy said: "If the ghostwriting is the kind of ghostwriting that most of the good mentors I knew did with Ph.D. students on first paper, it could be a good thing. But I sincerely doubt if any for-profit P.R. firm hired in the interest of improving a scientific publication is going to be the right person to do that."

The contract for assessing the office's image states that the public relations research data "will also be used to show E.P.A.'s relative position with its competitors." The contract's list of competitors included the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, private industry and academia.Mr. Ruch, of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, suggested that the notion of a government science agency having competitors might reflect an increasing push across the government to solicit outside support, often from industry, for federal scientific research.

But Ms. Witcher of the environmental agency rejected that hypothesis, saying that the other federal agencies mentioned in that contract were not thought of as competitors. "They are looking at other federal agencies that also do science and research to see how they are communicating to the public," she said.As for the issue of ghostwriting for journals, she said:

"Nothing's been done. Nothing's been awarded. What they envisioned is looking at this very technical" material presented by scientists and making it accessible to laymen. The ghostwriters, should they ever be hired, she said, "can't make up the material. They are taking scientists' work and making it more understandable."

[--isn't this part of our job, as publicists, as writers(?)]

###

Abbe Blogging = PR run amok (it should NOT be all about ME!--but it is my blog, damnit!)

Welcome to the wacky world of a PR woman-- viva la HighViz-ability! Salut!

Seeing double? No, I need two phones with keyboards - no blackberry for me!

Want to hire me? Call 1-800-380-2825 or e-mail highvizpr@yahoo.com --let's talk about promotion!

###

Consider this: a movie about Rove and Novak, starring Gannon, produced by Abramoff - it could happen

NOTE: must link to www.highvizpr.blogspot.com - file under "politics = show biz"

PITCHES: - from Jesus (Hay-soos) General website/blog:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Apuzzo, Mrs. Apuzzo's guest column in the LA Times made me very angry. It doesn't surprise me that Hollywood liberals are rejecting scripts written by god-fearing patriots like yourself, but one has to wonder why we haven't fought back by creating our own filmmaking infrastructure. Certainly, the Jack Abramoff produced film, Red Scorpion, proves that conservative propaganda films can be successful.

Financing shouldn't be a problem. There are millions of patriots out there who'd be very willing to kick in a few bucks if asked. A few blogathons at the Free Republic, Powerline, and Little Green Footballs should take care of it--a mention that you're current script takes on Islamo-fascism should guarantee millions from LGF, alone.

You should also ask the newly elected College Republican Chair, Paul Gourley, for fundraising advice. He raised more than 17 million as treasurer for the CRs during the last election cycle by very aggressively targeting patriots in the 80-100 years old age bracket. Certainly, his advice could prove very helpful to you.

Like I said, financing is the easy part. Picking the right film is much more difficult. While I agree that we need to see more Islamic villains on the big screen, I'm not sure your "realities of Islamo-fascism" script is the best way to go.

A large number of our leaders are in trouble right now. Perhaps we should create films that will provide them with a little help. Here are a few pitches for films that would do just that.

National Security -- A top White House aide teams up with a columnist to defend the president's honor by exposing a CIA agent and a CIA front company. Think All the President's Men with the President's men being the good guys. I see Jeff Gannon as Karl Rove and Shelly Winters as Bob Novak. Mrs. Apuzzo could play the positive immigrant maid who lets Mr. Rove's late night visitors into the White House.

[More]
---------------------------------------------------------------

LETTER: Dear General Jesus (Hay-soos),

Question: Would you like to speak with Mr. Gannon about appearing in your film [as Karl Rove], or Mr. Abramoff about producing it? I worked for Mr. Abramoff just last year, and perhaps he may entertain speaking with you. Things have been stranger than fiction with scandals and all.

As for Mr. Gannon, he may have an agent by now. I have spoken with him in the past, e-mail him daily, and am not adverse to having a conversation with him on your behalf.

You may also want to consider hiring on the "David Mamet Mafia" to submit a treatment ala "Wag the Dog". Also, I have a casting director pal who can find someone to play Scottie McLellan. This would make a damn fine movie, don't you think? I do!

Please feel free to contact me, and keep up the glorious communication of yours!

Cordially,

Abbe Buck, Publicist
HighViz Consulting Group, APR
www.highvizpr.com

Abbe Buck, Publicist Homepage 07.13.05 - 9:13 pm #

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Tina, Tina, Tina! - Stars who get political - and there is no stopping them!

This woman is fantastic! She nails the culture every - single - time! I always feel like such an insider when I read this stuff!

Beyond Rummy, the Stars
By Tina Brown - Thursday, June 30, 2005; Page C01

Bono looked very much at home on NBC's "Meet the Press", Sunday talking about Third World debt. So much so that the future path for Sunday morning talk shows became blindingly obvious: Dispense with politicians altogether. They have passed their sell-by date. They don't smell so good.

On that same "Meet the Press" there was more credibility in Bono's earnest simplifications of the African aid issue than in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld blowing off Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel's assertion that the White House is "completely disconnected from reality." And at least the Bono "get" was an exclusive. Rumsfeld had already perpetrated his patronizing twinkle on ABC's "This Week," patiently explaining to George Stephanopoulos that "progress has been solid" in Iraq despite the rising violence, the ever grimmer news bulletins and the on-the-record misgivings of the military.

***Bono last Sunday on "Meet the Press": A celebrity for every issue***

There's no need anymore for TV news to suffer the ratings death guaranteed by triple-booked administration officials and wearisome, dome-headed "experts." Sean Penn is already out there as a foreign correspondent. Brad Pitt can be booked as an old Africa hand. Tom Cruise can be tapped for pharmacology updates. It's the solution Viacom co-president Les Moonves has been looking for as he retools CBS News. If you look hard enough, there's a celebrity for every issue that someone needs three minutes of talking-headery about. It wouldn't take long for an old pro like Clint Eastwood to get himself a backswept hairlift and do a creditable Joe Biden. And there's a lot to be said for putting Halle Berry in to pinch-hit for Condi Rice and letting the secretary of state get on with playing the piano.

Some of the rampant identity exchange is simple job protection on the part of movie stars. With box office receipts down, video game receipts up and the weekly flashmags disseminating images that can no longer be controlled, celebrities are forced to look for new avenues of conquest.

On top of that, there's the massive displacement caused by Hollywood's Great Unmentionable: the war. Managers, agents and studio heads have hammered home to stars that protest politics is too much of a hazard in this vindictive political climate. After the red-state message of the election, no one in Hollywood is about to risk going postal on Iraq. War angst, a natural cause for that community, is being channeled into less politicized humanitarian agonies like Africa.

Of course, Bono apart, it's a bit of a problem when the nation increasingly depends for information on people who know very little about what they're talking about. The visuals don't entirely make up for it. Celebrities tend to be flawed as foreign correspondents because, like politicians, when they travel people know who they are.

However sincere his motives, the good-hearted Brad Pitt, aka The Sexiest Man Alive, will learn about as much in Africa about the issues at stake as Rumsfeld learns about how the troops really feel when he goes to get "on-the-ground intelligence" in Iraq. Pitt isn't straphanging between malarial villages in a stinking bus any more than Rumsfeld is being shot at in a Humvee armored with pieces of scrap metal. Global celebrity will always be as much of a barrier to authentic experience as the defense secretary's custom-made Rhino Runner, described in Sunday's New York Times as a "rolling fortress of steel."

I keep hungering for the old-fashioned kind of witness who's rarely booked as a TV guest these days -- the eccentric seasoned traveler who's there not to make a point but because he or she is curious. I love looking at Angelina Jolie (and I believe that she cares), but on Africa I'd rather hear from Paul Theroux. Theroux, world wanderer and author of "Dark Star Safari," has traveled overland from Cairo to Cape Town, paddled the length of the Zambezi in a kayak and lived in the bush as a schoolteacher.

"People have always loved to see Africa as unfinished, as something that can be fixed," he told me on the phone from his summer home on Cape Cod. "Celebrities are empowered and vitalized by seeing Africa as helpless. But there is plenty of expertise there. . . . The real story of Africa can be summed up in a shot of all the qualified doctors and nurses rolling their suitcases through the airport in Zambia leaving to work in hospitals in the U.K. Very talented and educated Africans choose to leave. And the reasons for that are complex."

In Britain, Tony Blair has been shrewd at working the entertainment beat for political advantage. The prime minister, always assiduous in cultivating celebrities, has outdone himself this week on the eve of the G8 conference by allowing a celebrity to take center stage. He and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown have brilliantly made Bob Geldof's Make Poverty History campaign their own. Peter Oborne, writing in Britain's Spectator magazine, is surely right that the surprising political salience of the poverty agenda is related to the collapse of traditional party politics. What Blair understands is that for the ADD generation, hot-button single-issue campaigns have increasingly supplanted the slow-form tedium of political parties, processes and programs. Harnessing the right one builds the base. In buzzword politics, celebrities will increasingly be the branding tools.

President Bush could use one right about now. In his address to the nation Tuesday night he stressed that it is the political momentum inside Iraq, not America's military might, that will guarantee the mission's success. Let's hope so, because he's left us with no alternative. When he returned as always to the shopworn inference that we will win the war because right is on our side, he sounded like Tom Cruise on the "Today" show beating on Matt Lauer with his certainty that all psychotherapy and its medical remedies are bad. "Matt, Matt. You see, here's the problem. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do."

That kind of pronouncement is okay for a movie star in the clutches of some undefined hypermania, but the presidency itself today is defined by the conviction that conviction trumps everything. Belief is all. Evidence is nothing. Faith-based is everything. Reality-based is suspect.

We are all Scientologists now.

2005 - Tina Brown

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HighVizPR gives Bush Architecht Karl Rove advice---passing the point of damage control(?)

If there is anyone who reads this blog, (It has been visited by CJR, and a couple of others :-), I want to send this link/page out openly to Karl Rove. I do believe that the man is going to be in more than just a tight spot -- if pressured hard enough, he may need to change careers. I have placed differing points of views on my main web log, HighViz PR, see:HighVizPR + Promotion = the new journalism. Politics = Show Biz! I have been thinking, if he needs a second act/career, he can always become a chef on a cruise liner. The Rove Omeletta will go over big!

MORE ON DAMAGE CONTROL: http://www.highvizpr.com/reputation_management - movie stars, atheletes, CFO's, and Political Operatives ALL need it! Just ask Jeff Gannon, Paula Jones, Dick Morris, Monica Lewinsky, Mike McCurry, General Al Haig, Ollie North, Gordon Liddy, Arnold Schwartzenegger, and the late Helen Gallaghan Douglas.

MEANWHILE, for real news on what's cooking in Rove + Plame + Wilson + Novak + Cooper + Miller controversy, see: SEARCH KARL ROVE

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Advice for MoveOn.org: Stay on message kids, and watch out who you invite!

Move On's Chaz Fazio could be saying this right now: "You go to our party, you drink our booze, and then you post our talking points and OUR ENTIRE agenda?"

--- Leave it to DRUDGE, that rapscallion!

DRUDGE REPORT REVEALED: INSIDE A MOVEON SUPREME COURT HOUSE PARTY; TAKE 'BUSH LIAR' T-SHIRTS OFF - GOSSIP-GOSSIP-GOSSIP!

Sun Jul 10 2005 20:29:27 ET **Exclusive** Over the weekend, the liberal activist group MOVEON.ORG hosted over a 1,000 house parties across the nation to stop President Bush from nominating a “radical right judge” -- and the DRUDGE REPORT obtained an exclusive invite to one of their hottest parties. Charles Fazio of Alexandria, VA was the host of one of the most widely attended MOVEON parties in the Washington, DC area. The DRUDGE REPORT has learned because of Fazio’s registration success, his party was chosen to be a finalist on the WASHINGTON POST’s list of house party events it would use in its Monday edition to cover MOVEON’s weekend efforts. In a desperate bid to sanitize his house party and control how its attendees would be perceived by the POST, the MOVEON host emailed talking points to his guests. A copy of those talking points was obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT. Fazio warned his guests: “Its very important that if you talk to the reporter, you stay on message. Remember, it is quite possible that our event will be the one the POST uses to represent the entire MoveOnPac effort this weekend.” The key message for the event: “The momentum is finally shifting away from extremism. We will not accept a extremist nominee. This is not about conservatism vs liberalism or Republicans vs Democrats, this is all about extremism vs moderation and we're on the side of moderation.” The MOVEON host reminded his guests: “We don't want to come across as leftist, liberal activists. We want to come across as we are- regular folks who are finally saying enough is enough to the extremists; that we're not falling for their extremist rhetoric anymore and we're finally going to expend the effort necessary to get our country back.”Fazio: “Please stay on message and just know that ANYTHING you say can be taken out of context and used against the effort.” One last suggestion from Fazio to his liberal MOVEON party-goers: “Oh, because a photographer will be here, might I suggest we put away our ‘Bush is a Liar’ t-shirts. Let's look like they do. [Oh. A middle of the road approach] ”

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Media Honchos consider online strategies -- just in time?

By SETH SUTEL, AP Business Writer Fri Jul 8, 3:13 PM ET

SUN VALLEY, Idaho - As they work to come to grips with the Internet, entertainment moguls have a very clear goal: don't let what happened to the music industry happen to the rest of the entertainment industry.

The burgeoning age of digital distribution means movies, video and TV are being delivered to the consumer in new ways, through high-speed networks in the home and even over portable devices like cell phones. It's presenting the same potential for piracy and file-swapping that have severely weakened music copyrights.

On Friday, top media executives attending an annual Sun Valley retreat did some listening, thinking and talking about the issue. They included incoming Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger, Time Warner Inc. CEO Dick Parsons and Viacom Inc. co-president Les Moonves.

On the day's agenda at the plush mountain resort was a panel talk with several U.S. soldiers and a presentation from Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates' "Living the Digital Lifestyle at Home and at Work."

In a brief interview with reporters following the presentation, Gates said that it involved Microsoft's new Xbox 360 and its applications and use in the home.

He declined to describe the reactions of the media executives present, but said, "It's a good crowd to hear about it."

Like all official events at the retreat, it was closed to reporters, who watch from a distance as CEOs mill around, sporting name tags and squinting in the bright sunlight beside placid ponds stocked with large white swans. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has been seen this week chatting with Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone over a barbecue lunch, while Washington Post Co. Chairman Don Graham had a long chat with billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who sits on his board, and with Google Inc.'s CEO Eric Schmidt.

Emboldened by a recent Supreme Court decision against Grokster, a file-sharing service that was deemed to be encouraging piracy, media executives are considering ways to deliver movies over the Internet in legal, easy ways that could not only avert piracy but also make extra money for the studios.

Intel Corp. presented media executives with its vision of a high-speed entertainment network for the home, and actor Morgan Freeman announced that Intel had agreed to invest in a new company he was starting that would allow consumers at home to view first-run movies delivered over the Internet.

In interviews Friday, several guests at the conference, sponsored by the Allen & Co. investment firm, said that figuring out creative and profitable ways to get media delivered over the Internet was a top priority for media and entertainment companies.

"Our challenge is to come up with hassle-free and reasonable-cost technologies for the consumer," said Dan Glickman, CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, a Washington-based trade group representing the major movie studios.

"You're beginning to see a lot of relationship-building between the cable, telecom and content industries" on forging deals to deliver media online, Glickman said. "I think the opportunities will explode over the next four to five years."

Glickman also said the recent case against Grokster, in which the MPAA was heavily involved, should encourage new technologies, not stymie them, as some technology executives have warned, by making it easier and more practical to make legal offerings of movies. The Supreme Court ruled last week that the movie and music industries can file lawsuits against technology companies like Grokster that encourage piracy over the Internet.

Tom Freston, co-president and co-chief operating officer of Viacom Inc., said he thought media companies were making good progress in making their content available online.

"I think it's going well, particularly as we see the movement to video on broadband, which suits all these media companies really well," Freston said.

Before he became a top executive at Viacom, Freston was a longtime leader of MTV, which has been moving aggressively to build up its offerings of video and other material online.

Freston said it was too early to count out media companies in the race to draw in readers and viewers online — and the advertising dollars that go with them — even as Internet powerhouses like Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. continue to offer more services and content to Web surfers.

"I don't see the game being over any time soon," Freston said. "All the media have great assets — they can build, they can buy, they can partner. There's a lot of options."

The recent emergence of Google as a major power has caught the attention of many media honchos as they continue to grapple with strategies to make money online.

Google now has a stock market value of more than $80 billion, even more than that of the largest media company, Time Warner Inc., the owner of HBO, CNN, People magazine and the Warner Bros. studio as well as America Online.

How traditional media interact with Internet powers like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN network is one of the most compelling strategic questions facing the media giants, says Michael Wolf, head of the media and entertainment division at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

"For the first time, media companies recognize their power, and not just their financial power but also their ability to move huge amounts of advertising time and people," Wolf said. "The media guys need to find ways either to partner with them or compete against them."

For the moment, building online strategies remains very much a work in progress for many major media executives as talk business here over rounds of golf and other outdoor activities.

"I think there are more questions than answers at this point," said Ivan Fecan, president and CEO of Bell Globemedia Inc., a Toronto-based media company that owns The Globe and Mail newspaper and Canada's top private TV network.

###

Who is Abbe Buck, PR, anyway, and what does she do?

So, did you want to see who I am? Here I am, a relentless showboat!

http://www.tvworldwide.com/showclip.cfm?ID=4982&clip=2

and this is what I do --(*click on link!*) -- somebody has to do it!

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The great cowboy humorist Will Rogers once said, "We are living in an age of Publicity". Let me update the 1924 quote by adding "24 x 7". --AB, PR

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Author "Sweet Smell of Success" dies, leaves movie as legacy!

Ernest Lehman: In Memoriam. 1915-2005

What a good run he had. He won the honorary Oscar a few years ago, well deserved. (((Glenn Ford really needs to get this award while he is still with us!))) Ernest Lehman wrote the screen adaptations for "Sabrina", "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" and "Hello, Dolly!", but I will always remember "The Sweet Smell of Success", the best damn movie Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster ever made! What an inspiration!

He became a freelance writer, and his first sale was a profile of entertainer Ted Lewis to Colliers magazine. Freelancing was, he claimed, a "very nervous way to make a living," so Lehman went to work writing copy for a publicity firm specializing in theatrical productions and celebrities.

That experience later informed 1957's "The Sweet Smell of Success," which he scripted with Clifford Odets based on one of Lehman's novellas, "Tell Me About It Tomorrow." Starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, the movie focused on the relationship between a powerful gossip columnist and an unscrupulous press agent and has come to be considered a classic dissection of the underside of show business. In 2002, it served as the basis for a Broadway musical.

[Reuters]

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SOON to be yet another TV Movie --or -- Whatever happened to the "good samaritan" in these united states? There ought to be a law -- against cops!

Grrrrrrr -- makes my blood boil, too ! from the goodpr_badpr web blog:

YOU CANNOT BE A GOOD JOHN Q. PUBLIC CITIZEN ANYMORE --

Why am I posting this? It's personal with me. To the AP it's National. To the average citizen, it will be yet another reasson NOT to get involved but get nmore self-involved and go into their own "reality" *(or, yes, make that sub-non-reality) shows. Move over, Andy Warhol, here come Mister and Missus Nutz! NEXT: TV Movie - Police VS Citizens of Texas, on the USA Network!

----------------------------------------------------

AP: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue

Dave Newman, 48, disobeyed repeated orders by emergency personnel to leave the water, police said. He was charged with interfering with public duties.

"I was amazed," Newman said Monday after his release on $2,000 bail. "I had a very uncomfortable night after saving that guy's life. He thanked me for it in front of the police, and then they took me to jail.

"Abed Duamni, 35, of Houston, said he had just finished eating at a restaurant Sunday when he decided to go for a swim in a nearby river. Duamni said he didn't see any signs warning swimmers of dangerous currents.Newman said he pulled Duamni out of the water, swimming under a waterfall and over to the shore opposite from the restaurant. He could hear law enforcement personnel telling him to come back to the other side.

According to police, Newman smirked and seemed annoyed by officers' requests. He stood in the water for about 15 seconds before swimming downstream."When he came across the river, the officer stuck out his hand like he's going to help him out of the water, and he put cuffs on him," said John Parnell, pastor of St. Augustine Old Roman Catholic Church in Fort Worth.

###

There may be a method to his madness - Spielberg and Cruise teamup, W O T W, makes 113 Million at the Boxoffice, Movie is # 1!

Cartoon courtesy of T-ShirtHumor.com - [Eating crow for not admitting Cruise trying to crazily think out of the "on message" box -- pass the tabasco, please!] As for Mission Impossible #3, Tune in Tomorrow....

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TVWeek.com - enough already! TOO MANY "stars"? No, not for us!

{{{Come on, you love it, don't you? Admit it! ESCAPISM! Live vicariously - no, wait, YOU can be the diva!}}}

Blinded by the Star 'Lite' - TOM SHALES
One of our celebrities is missing! Call out the Botox-sniffing dogs! Or maybe the cocaine-sniffing dogs, though they tend to get distracted and forget about the assignment at hand. The truth is-can you handle the truth?-we can actually afford to let a star or two, or three or four or more, go missing, because we have too darn many as it is.

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I am a publicist, I am not a magician! But is a journalist a blogger?

Reporters Eye Blogs
Published: June 27, 2005

A new study shows that while journalists may not see blogs as highly credible, they read them.

Most journalists use blogs to do their work, even though only 1% believe blogs are credible, according to a survey by Euro RSCG Magnet done in partnership with Columbia University.

The study finds that more than half of journalists use Weblogs regularly, with 28% relying on them for day-to-day reporting. By comparison, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that only 5% of the online population reads blogs regularly.

"The findings of the study validate what we have known for some time: that blogs are playing a more significant role in the way information is transmitted to readers and journalists alike, and may profoundly alter the media and communications landscapes," said Aaron Kwittken, CEO of Euro RSCG Magnet. "The fact that the media are using blogs for reporting and research also demonstrates that blogs have an enormous potential to not only influence the general public, but to influence the influencers — journalists and the media — as well."

The study finds that some 70% of journalists who use blogs do so for work-related tasks. Most often, those work-related tasks involve finding story ideas, with 53% of journalist respondents reporting using blogs for such purposes. But respondents also turn to blogs for other uses, including researching and referencing facts (43%) and finding sources (36%). Fully 33% of journalists say they use blogs as a way of uncovering breaking news or scandals.

"As blogs continue to gain in popularity, quality and influence, it is becoming imperative that journalists and journalism students continue to integrate blogs, especially blogs that cover technology, into their reporting practices," said Steven S. Ross, associate professor at Columbia University and a partner in the study.

Although many journalists use blogs, few post to blogs or publish their own. The report noted that such activities might be seen as compromising a journalist's objectivity and credibility — not to mention that reporters are paid to write, so writing for free might not be a good career choice.

Other highlights of the study include:

> 45% of journalists are less trusting of the professional behavior of their own colleagues — up from 34% in 2003.

> 93% note that they are less trusting of colleagues who are paid to act as spokespeople.

> 79% believe that recent revelations about journalists taking payment from third parties has had a strong effect on media credibility.

> 78% believe that Rathergate has profoundly altered the media's credibility.

> 93% of journalists said they are being "excruciatingly careful" in fact-checking their stories in 2005 — a huge increase from 59% in 2003, likely a reflection of the press's declining credibility.

Journalists agreed that Weblogs have a healthy future in the coming year for spreading information on the corporate level and functioning as watchdogs: 68% of them say blogs will become a more popular tool for corporations seeking to inform consumers, while 56% agree that blogs will remain an independent and unorthodox means of disseminating information.

For an in-depth look at how blogs are being used by corporate America, read eMarketer's The Business of Blogging report.

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PAGE SIX: 4 little words - some things should never change

.

SAVE THE PLAZA HOTEL

.

The battle over the landmark Plaza Hotel isn't over quite yet.

..

The son of the late cosmetics queen Estee Lauder wrote an impassioned column last week stating his fear that the hotel will go the way of the old Penn Station, the McKim, Mead & White masterpiece demolished 44 years ago.

.

A rep for Lauder said: "We want transparency, we want to see the plans and we want adequate opportunity to review their designs for the future of the Plaza before changes are instituted that will kill this grand hotel."

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Cannes: those gueriila paparazzi! Divas love them (come on, admit it!)

Reuters - Mon Jun 27,11:38 AM ET
They're cursed at, knocked down and have objects thrown at them. They're loathed by their subjects. Yet the demand for the photos they shoot is stronger than ever. Welcome to the world of the paparazzi: the guerrilla-like photographers who will go to any length -- from renting a helicopter to dressing up like a llama -- to get the 'money shot' like those rare, candid pictures of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt frolicking on a Kenya beach that fed on the public's obsession with the stars and sold for an estimated $500,000.
Press photographers work during a photocall for the film 'Lemming' in Cannes in this May 11, 2005 file photo. (Eric Gaillard/Reuters)

NYT: Frank Rich and the State of Public Broadcasting - just give PBS, NPR and CPB a frontal lobotomy, that should do it!

.
Op-Ed Columnist
The Armstrong Williams NewsHour
By FRANK RICH
Published: June 26, 2005

HERE'S the difference between this year's battle over public broadcasting and the one that blew up in Newt Gingrich's face a decade ago: this one isn't really about the survival of public broadcasting. So don't be distracted by any premature obituaries for Big Bird. Far from being an endangered species, he's the ornithological equivalent of a red herring.

Let's not forget that Laura Bush has made a fetish of glomming onto popular "Sesame Street" characters in photo-ops. Polls consistently attest to the popular support for public broadcasting, while Congress is in a race to the bottom with Michael Jackson. Big Bird will once again smite the politicians - as long as he isn't caught consorting with lesbians.

That doesn't mean the right's new assault on public broadcasting is toothless, far from it. But this time the game is far more insidious and ingenious. The intent is not to kill off PBS and NPR but to castrate them by quietly annexing their news and public affairs operations to the larger state propaganda machine that the Bush White House has been steadily constructing at taxpayers' expense. If you liked the fake government news videos that ended up on local stations - or thrilled to the "journalism" of Armstrong Williams and other columnists who were covertly paid to promote administration policies - you'll love the brave new world this crowd envisions for public TV and radio.

There's only one obstacle standing in the way of the coup. Like Richard Nixon, another president who tried to subvert public broadcasting in his war to silence critical news media, our current president may be letting hubris get the best of him. His minions are giving any investigative reporters left in Washington a fresh incentive to follow the money.
That money is not the $100 million that the House still threatens to hack out of public broadcasting's various budgets. Like the theoretical demise of Big Bird, this funding tug-of-war is a smoke screen that deflects attention from the real story. Look instead at the seemingly paltry $14,170 that, as Stephen Labaton of The New York Times reported on June 16, found its way to a mysterious recipient in Indiana named Fred Mann. Mr. Labaton learned that in 2004 Kenneth Tomlinson, the Karl Rove pal who is chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, clandestinely paid this sum to Mr. Mann to monitor his PBS bête noire, Bill Moyers's "Now."

Now, why would Mr. Tomlinson pay for information that any half-sentient viewer could track with TiVo? Why would he hire someone in Indiana? Why would he keep this contract a secret from his own board? Why, when a reporter exposed his secret, would he try to cover it up by falsely maintaining in a letter to an inquiring member of the Senate, Byron Dorgan, that another CPB executive had "approved and signed" the Mann contract when he had signed it himself? If there's a news story that can be likened to the "third-rate burglary," the canary in the coal mine that invited greater scrutiny of the Nixon administration's darkest ambitions, this strange little sideshow could be it.

After Mr. Labaton's first report, Senator Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, called Mr. Tomlinson demanding to see the "product" Mr. Mann had provided for his $14,170 payday. Mr. Tomlinson sent the senator some 50 pages of "raw data." Sifting through those pages when we spoke by phone last week, Mr. Dorgan said it wasn't merely Mr. Moyers's show that was monitored but also the programs of Tavis Smiley and NPR's Diane Rehm.

Their guests were rated either L for liberal or C for conservative, and "anti-administration" was affixed to any segment raising questions about the Bush presidency. Thus was the conservative Republican Senator Chuck Hagel given the same L as Bill Clinton simply because he expressed doubts about Iraq in a discussion mainly devoted to praising Ronald Reagan. Three of The Washington Post's star beat reporters (none of whom covers the White House or politics or writes opinion pieces) were similarly singled out simply for doing their job as journalists by asking questions about administration policies.

"It's pretty scary stuff to judge media, particularly public media, by whether it's pro or anti the president," Senator Dorgan said. "It's unbelievable."

Not from this gang. Mr. Mann was hardly chosen by chance to assemble what smells like the rough draft of a blacklist. He long worked for a right-wing outfit called the National Journalism Center, whose director, M. Stanton Evans, is writing his own Ann Coulteresque book to ameliorate the reputation of Joe McCarthy. What we don't know is whether the 50 pages handed over to Senator Dorgan is all there is to it, or how many other "monitors" may be out there compiling potential blacklists or Nixonian enemies lists on the taxpayers' dime

We do know that it's standard practice for this administration to purge and punish dissenters and opponents - whether it's those in the Pentagon who criticized Donald Rumsfeld's low troop allotments for Iraq or lobbying firms on K Street that don't hire Tom DeLay cronies. We also know that Mr. Mann's highly ideological pedigree is typical of CPB hires during the Tomlinson reign.

Eric Boehlert of Salon discovered that one of the two public ombudsmen Mr. Tomlinson recruited in April to monitor the news broadcasts at PBS and NPR for objectivity, William Schulz, is a former writer for the radio broadcaster Fulton Lewis Jr., a notorious Joe McCarthy loyalist and slime artist. The Times reported that to provide "insights" into Conrad Burns, a Republican senator who supported public-broadcasting legislation that Mr. Tomlinson opposed, $10,000 was shelled out to Brian Darling, the G.O.P. operative who wrote the memo instructing Republicans to milk Terri Schiavo as "a great political issue."

Then, on Thursday, a Rove dream came true: Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, ascended to the CPB presidency. In her last job, as an assistant secretary of state, Ms. Harrison publicly praised the department's production of faux-news segments - she called them "good news" segments - promoting American success in Afghanistan and Iraq. As The Times reported in March, one of those fake news videos ended up being broadcast as real news on the Fox affiliate in Memphis.

Mr. Tomlinson has maintained that his goal at CPB is to strengthen public broadcasting by restoring "balance" and stamping out "liberal bias." But Mr. Moyers left "Now" six months ago. Mr. Tomlinson's real, not-so-hidden agenda is to enforce a conservative bias or, more specifically, a Bush bias. To this end, he has not only turned CPB into a full-service employment program for apparatchiks but also helped initiate "The Journal Editorial Report," the only public broadcasting show ever devoted to a single newspaper's editorial page, that of the zealously pro-Bush Wall Street Journal. Unlike Mr. Moyers's "Now" - which routinely balanced its host's liberalism with conservative guests like Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, Paul Gigot and Cal Thomas - The Journal's program does not include liberals of comparable stature.

THIS is all in keeping with Mr. Tomlinson's long career as a professional propagandist. During the Reagan administration he ran Voice of America. Then he moved on to edit Reader's Digest, where, according to Peter Canning's 1996 history of the magazine, "American Dreamers," he was rumored to be "a kind of 'Manchurian Candidate' " because of the ensuing spike in pro-C.I.A. spin in Digest articles. Today Mr. Tomlinson is chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal body that supervises all nonmilitary international United States propaganda outlets, Voice of America included. That the administration's foremost propagandist would also be chairman of the board of CPB, the very organization meant to shield public broadcasting from government interference, is astonishing. But perhaps no more so than a White House press secretary month after month turning for softball questions to "Jeff Gannon," a fake reporter for a fake news organization ultimately unmasked as a G.O.P. activist's propaganda site.

As the public broadcasting debate plays out, there will be the usual talk about how to wean it from federal subsidy and the usual complaints (which I share) about the redundancy, commerciality and declining quality of some PBS programming in a cable universe. But once Big Bird, like that White House Thanksgiving turkey, is again ritualistically saved from the chopping block and the Senate restores more of the House's budget cuts, the most crucial test of the damage will be what survives of public broadcasting's irreplaceable journalistic offerings.

Will monitors start harassing Jim Lehrer's "NewsHour," which Mr. Tomlinson trashed at a March 2004 State Department conference as a "tired and slowed down" also-ran to Shepard Smith's rat-a-tat-tat newscast at Fox News? Will "Frontline" still be taking on the tough investigations that network news no longer touches? Will the reportage on NPR be fearless or the victim of a subtle or not-so-subtle chilling effect instilled by Mr. Tomlinson and his powerful allies in high places?

Forget the pledge drive. What's most likely to save the independent voice of public broadcasting from these thugs is a rising chorus of Deep Throats [if they can make it in time before they lobotomize and dismantle PBS!]

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So you wanna book a rock star? Anybody can -- if the price is right.

Want Madonna? The Rolling Stones? Tony Bennett? (just like in a movie cameo!) Now you, Joe Middle America, can have them all -- for BIG BUCK$$$$$ !

FORBES:
"...From a pure business sense--and they don't call it the "music business" for nothing--private gigs are win-win for entertainers. Tacking a private show or two onto regular tour stop doubles a destination's productivity--one night at the Gund Arena plus one night in some wealthy dentist's backyard equals two paychecks from Greater Cleveland. Also, they're a great way to recoup the exorbitant costs of mounting a major tour. "Artists like doing private gigs quite simply because they pay," says Barry Weisblatt, head of WhiteLeaf Entertainment Group, a New York-based boutique event production outfit. "From a financial standpoint, private gigs pay the bills and can help subsidize the cost of a tour...."

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Don't bring Tinkerbell back! And I don't care who you are!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

from Today show blog:

June 22, 2005 4:15 p.m.
The poop on the pooch (Paris Hilton’s Tinker Bell, that is)
(---from Jennifer Long, “Today” show producer)

I knew I would get into Page Six someday but I was hoping it would be to announce my impending nuptials to George Clooney... (See the New York Post, “Paris’ Pooch Bites Producer”)

Here is the real poop, so to speak, and unfortunately, not nearly as dramatic - [more]

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Goodbye, Rev.Billy Graham

Newsweek: Point Man for the 'Kingdom'
Billy Graham's publicist thinks of marketing as his mission.

Thank you, Rev. Billy Graham. And thank you, PR man Larry Ross for taking care of him.

June 27 issue - So Moses turns for advice to his public-relations man as he's wondering how to cross the Red Sea, according to a story Larry Ross told in New York last week.

And the guy says, Here's what to do: stand at the water's edge and raise your staff, and the sea will part for you and then the Egyptians will all drown.

And Moses asks, Is that really going to work?

And the PR guy says, I don't know, but if it does, I can guarantee you two pages in the Old Testament.

The point being, behind every great man in history, there's a public-relations consultant spinning posterity on his behalf. That, in fact, is exactly Ross's preoccupation these days, as his longtime client, the 86-year-old evangelist Billy Graham, prepares to lay down his burden after more than six decades of preaching. Graham takes his crusade to New York City for three days this weekend, and has no plans beyond that; he has been invited to England in the fall but says he won't make up his mind until after the New York revival. Ross refers to his efforts for Graham as "reputation management," which means assuring he's remembered for the millions of people he has brought to Christ, for his reassuring presence at the side of presidents at times of crisis and not for any embarrassing things he might have said in casual banter with Richard Nixon.

[More]

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Teen queen Lindsay Lohan goes diva route at Love Bug premiere

---first she fights the power paparazzi over banging up her Benz, which was a good thing -- and pow!--- her handlers shoved her into a ladies room at the premiere of "Love Bug Herbie: Fully Loaded" http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/lohanusatoday062105.html

"I was upset when I didn't hear my song ("First") during the race scene, where I originally thought it would be," Lohan said while signing autographs. "I was like, 'Whoaaa,' because nobody stays to hear the song in the closing credits."

"So I ran out."

"First" is especially important to her because "I recorded it right before I got sick (from exhaustion) and went to the hospital. And then I shot the video for it and re-sprained my ankle. I pushed myself to get it done for the movie when I probably should have waited."

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The Runaway Bride is on Today - Katie Couric splits woman in two with ReganBooks

You will not read about Jennifer Wilbanks here, other than see her name, and that there are unhealthy relationships goin' on in that there southern family. Judith Regan can find someone to write the book for her.

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There she goes...away? Is this Goodbye, Miss America? NO! WE MUST FIGHT FOR HER!

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No date set for Miss Atlantic City. SEE: "a dateless Miss America"

What's next? Mr. Peanut? Miss Universe? Help me, there is no sense of tradition, no vaseline, not even in a one-piece bathing suit! This is sad.

Please save the Miss America Pageant! You can e-mail the pageant. Call them. We don't want to lose another one of our American institutions, do we? HELL, NO! Think about it this way: what if you could never drink another 7-up? What if you couldn't vote? What if there were no Sears stores?

fyi* just in case you want to get ACTIVE! Art McMasters is Acting President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Miss America Organization
E-MAIL: pr@missamerica.org
The Miss America Organization
Two Miss America Way,
Suite 1000
Atlantic City, NJ 08401
Phone 609-345-7571
Fax 609-347-6079
info@MissAmerica.org

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Scarlett is NO Scientologist - MI-3 not for her

.
from the new Radar who wants to be "Spy" (smile)

http://www.radaronline.com/fresh-intelligence/2005/06/17/index.php#001291

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"The Pelican" is staying "up the river"

.
LA Times: Investigator charged with conspiracy, threats against reporter.

(P.I. to the stars convicted of conspiracy charges. No more tapes for Steven Seagal. (Sorry, Budda Boy.)

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This is NOT a Publicity STUNT - but it does involve stuntment and PR

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--AND THEY ARE TAKIN' IT TO THE STREET -- IN AN OSCAR PROTEST!

Hollywood's stunt community will take the action to the doorstep of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Thursday in a bid to get a long-desired Oscar category for stunt coordinators.

[MORE]

The stunt groups say they have wide industry support including Screen Actors Guild president Melissa Gilbert, directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and actors Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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Paris out of the spotlight>? Paris, is your PR flack running out of ITEMS?

Dear Paris-the-Heiress: How can you dance between humble credibility marrying the other Paris, and being good girl so that Mom Kathy has a hit tee-vee show, then do the slut run amok sabre car wash dance for Carl Jr's burgers? I'm confused?

enough of my streaming conciousness:

NEWSWEEK: Paris Hilton Plans to Give Up Public Life
Monday June 13 (online edition)

Paris Hilton plans to give up public life for family life.

The 24-year-old hotel heiress, star of "The Simple Life" reality series, tells Newsweek magazine that when she was younger, "I thought it was cute to play a dumb blonde. On TV, I do it because it's funny. I consider myself a businesswoman and a brand." [she has that right. The dog, too! This is good.]

But Hilton says she plans to give up her public life in two years, by which time she expects to become a mother with her fiance, Paris Latsis.

"I don't enjoy going out anymore," she says in the June 20 issue of the magazine, on newsstands Monday. "It's such a pain. It's everyone saying, `Let's do a deal! Can I have a picture?' I'm just, like, `These people are such losers. I can't believe I used to love doing this.'"

Paris and her mother, Kathy, were the grand marshals Sunday at the Los Angeles Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual & Transgender Pride Parade. Kathy Hilton wore a large white hat; Paris wore a tiara.

Kathy Hilton's new NBC reality series, "I Want to Be a Hilton," in which she coaches 14 contestants in taste and etiquette, premieres June 21.

Newsweek says Kathy and her husband, Rick Hilton, didn't want their name on the show. "We thought it was too cheeky," Rick Hilton is quoted as saying. "It does sound a little obnoxious."

Kathy Hilton says a sex tape of Paris and an ex-boyfriend that became a cyberspace novelty taught her a lesson.

"Well, that was very painful. Very painful. Very painful," Kathy Hilton tells the magazine. "But it taught me that I really can't trust everybody."

The sex tape surfaced in 2003 just before the start of Paris' reality series. She has said she was embarrassed and humiliated that the tape ever became public.

[In my opinion, this is a steady publicity ploy. Paris is NOT going anywhere]

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Mr. and Mrs. Smith is currently the Number One film in America

Hollywood Reporter: "Smith" on target with
$51 Million opening

Surprised? I'm not. These are smart people, at least, I believe from Pitt's vantage point they are (Angelina has had her moments). But Pitt is a smart man, as cool and unflappable as his character (the) assassin in this film. With a 60-page photo spread in "W" , to ""what affair?" , these are people, and those who "rep them" (Pitt's Publicist is the always top-notch Cindy Guagenti), who clearly know what they are doing, contradicting their relationship every step of the way, but this is control....leave your public wanting more! SEE: THR's Newsmags Take Note - Pitt may have a point:

Now let's go from great show-biz PR to entertainment publicity run amok: Tom Cruise getting married?(!) Let's see if this will sell tickets at the neighborhood multimplex. Speilberg or not, I am not buying. DVD's come out in less than 6 mos. I'll wait.

Watch for my HighVizPR case study "Cruise VS Pitt: Today's film stars in PR contrast"

In the meantime, I leave you with this bit of confirmation: THR: A Tale of two Publicists, on our sister blog HighViz PR's "GoodPR- Bad PR"


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Do Tina Brown and I know eachother? Wow! This is great!

.
To reference why I am being so tongue 'n cheeky, please read this short paragraph, then track
back-track to something I posted a couple of days ago:

Post: Brad Pitt, Zen Master of the Tabloids - This man is a class act, playing the ABC Network
Link: http://abbebuckpr.blogspot.com/2005/06/brad-pitt-zen-master-of-tabloids-this.html

Tina Brown writes: "Could it be that it will take celebrities themselves to break out of the prevailing cultural coma? Brad Pitt cannily insisted with "Primetime" ABC producers that his few evasive sound bites on his private life came at the price of four long segments about hungry kids in Africa. It may just be a brilliant PR move to counteract dumping America's girl next door for a luscious femme fatale, but it could also be a small sign that obliviousness is getting old."

I urge anyone who reads this web log (all six of you), to please read Tina's latest column. This is why she is exactly where she is today, a known entity, respected too, and I know she knows our celebrity-sodden culture better than anyone.

Fame is no excuse for the Rest of Us, by Tina Brown

(c) Washington Post, June 9, 2005

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/08/AR2005060802551_pf.html

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