Alarmed at its rival Google's proposed purchase of the internet marketing firm DoubleClick, Microsoft is seeking to stoke opposition to the deal through its PR firm, Burson-Marsteller (B-M). B-M sent emails "to a number of top UK businesses," reports The Observer, urging board members "to raise the issue of Google's dominance of search engines with politicians, regulators and the media." The email, from B-M director Jonathan Dinkeldein, also invited companies "to join a new organisation -- Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplaces -- which in the next few weeks will make a series of announcements on Google, internet privacy and copyright." Dinkeldein later admitted that the group was formed by Microsoft, though his email did not disclose Microsoft's role. In the U.S., B-M pitched cautionary stories on the Google-DoubleClick deal. The Wall Street Journal received an email from B-M warning about "what is not known about Google's handling of personal data and their related privacy practices." The email, which also didn't disclose the Microsoft connection, went on to say "it would be a powerful consumer service to delve into these issues with journalistic vigor."

Global warming skeptic William Gray, from the TCS Daily VNR

A White House "personnel announcement" states: "The President intends to nominate James K. Glassman, of Connecticut, to be a Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, for the remainder of a three-year term expiring 8/13/07 and an additional three-year term expiring 8/13/10." President Bush will also nominate Glassman to be BBG Chair. Glassman is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute conservative think tank, the author of the wildly inaccurate book "Dow 36000," and the founder of Tech Central Station (TCS), a corporate-sponsored news and opinion site published by the Republican-associated lobbying firm DCI Group until last year. TCS has been accused of "journo-lobbying" or online fake news, for its tendency to not fully disclose its corporate sponsors (which often have a direct financial stake in the issues covered on the site). TCS also runs "TCS Daily," which received significant funding from ExxonMobil and paid for a video news release denying the evidence that global warming is causing more severe hurricane seasons. If confirmed by the Senate, Glassman would replace controversial BBG Chair Kenneth Tomlinson.

O'Dwyer's has more revelations about the multifaceted fakery engaged in by Wal-Mart and its PR firm, Edelman. Edelman staffers have been posing as "grassroots" bloggers on two Wal-Mart websites, for the Working Families for Wal-Mart front group and paidcritics.com, which -- rather ironically -- slams the "paid critics [who are] smearing Wal-Mart." The paid bloggers are Edelman's Miranda Gill, Brian McNeill and Kate Marshall. A post by Marshall praises a Wall Street Journal editorial for exposing "Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch as front groups of the union leaders." If you can take more hypocrisy, read Advertising Age's article on how Edelman "is being aligned with a newly coined word for its present crisis" over walmartingacrossamerica.com: "flog," for "fake blog." AdAge points out that Edelman helped write the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's (WOMMA's) code of ethics, which states, "Never obscure your identity." Asked why WOMMA is not sanctioning Edelman, WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz said, "We aren't the police. Associations don't punish. And look, PRSA didn't even say a word, and they are the PR association." Maybe that's because PRSA is too busy defending undisclosed fake news.

Richard Edelman, the CEO of the Edelman PR firm, "issued an apology for his agency's role in creating a blog for client Wal-Mart that did not properly disclose its origins or funding," notes PR Week. The walmartingacrossamerica.com website "chronicled a couple's journey across the country in an RV while stopping at various Wal-Mart parking lots." The trip was funded by Working Families for Wal-Mart, a front group funded by the giant retailer. Edelman told PR Week, "We still have a job to do about explaining to our staff their [disclosure] obligation in old media and new media." Worse, one of the fake bloggers was Washington Post photographer James Thresher, who later agreed to repay Working Families for the $2,200 cost of his and his girlfriend's airfare, RV rental, gas and food during the 10-day trip. Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., who also asked that Thresher's pictures be removed from the pro-Wal-Mart website, called Working Families "a special-interest group," reports Howard Kurtz. Even worse, filmmaker Ron Galloway recently resigned from Working Families' steering committee, reports O'Dwyer's. Galloway said he disagreed with Wal-Mart's new wage caps; Wal-Mart says the split's because Galloway's new movie is about "the so-called myth of global warming." Even worse again, Wal-Mart is being criticized for a holiday-themed website that allows kids to email gift wish lists to their parents, reports Advertising Age.

Back in March, Common Cause released "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing," which detailed the activities of nine groups masquerading as think tanks and public interest organizations when in fact they were front groups for telephone and cable companies in the net neutrality debate. Now they've added another five groups to the list: "For example, Hands off the Internet sounds like activists wanting to protect the Internet. Actually, it's a telecommunications industry-backed organization that was spending $20,000 a day on television commercials aimed at eliminating long-standing net neutrality protections so that telephone and cable companies can maximize profit and minimize competition on the Internet."

When it comes to stealthy PR campaigns, the biotech industry has spared no expense. For the past six years, the UK-based public interest group GM Watch has been tracking and documenting biotech's dirty tricks, learning that the PR web reaches further than just GM food. Encompassing a broad range of front groups, industry-funded researchers, and internet campaigns, GM Watch's new website LobbyWatch provides a who's-who of PR operators in Europe and the rest of the world. LobbyWatch's groundbreaking research details how the Living Marxism network is bringing a "Wise Use"-type environmentalism (read: industry friendly) to Europe, how the European Science and Environment Forum was founded with money from tobacco giant Philip Morris, and many other stories.

"So desperate are Bush Republicans to kill Michael Moore's latest
film, Fahrenheit 9/11, they have hired a public relations firm to
set up a web site attacking Moore," the Alternative Press Review writes. "The site,
MoveAmericaForward.com, claims to be 'non-partisan,' but a glance
at the 'About' page of the site reveals the director and staff of
Move America Forward are all diehard Republicans, anti-tax
activists, and former legislative staffers. The PR firm is Russo
Marsh & Rogers. Thanks to the detective work of WhatReallyHappened.com, it was
revealed that Move America Forward's web site was registered in
the name of Russo Marsh & Rogers. ... In short, Move America
Forward's campaign is a Republican dirty trick designed to smear
Moore and pressure move theater owners not to run his film." Meanwhile, Moore has hired Democratic political strategists Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane "to fire off rapid responses to the conservative attacks," according to Salon.com.

The Center for Consumer Freedom, a front group for the restaurant, alcohol and tobacco industries, has been forced to give up the domain names of two web sites used to attack the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), in what CSPI called an "Orwellian" effort to create confusion among Internet users looking for CSPI's websites. CCF, part of a "shadowy trio of tax-exempt front groups run by Washington lobbyist Richard Berman" has been involved in several other failed attempts to impersonate web sites owned by health, consumer and enviromental groups.

Industry apologist Steven Milloy, formerly a tobacco lackey at The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition and currently a self-proclaimed expert on "junk science," is hiding behind yet another front group. StopLabelingLies.com claims to be dedicated to exposing "examples of false and misleading food and other product labels and their associated marketing campaigns," but its real mission is to attack organic foods on behalf of the biotech industry. As is usually the case with Milloy's web sites, StopLabelingLies.com does not disclose the identity of any of its staff members or financial supporters, but an Internet registry search shows that the domain name is registered to Citizens for the Integrity of Science, a paper organization that Milloy sometimes lists as the sponsor of his other web site, JunkScience.com. By way of content, StopLabelingLies.com prominently features "The Fear Profiteers," which first appeared on yet another, now-defunct Milloy Front Group called NoMoreScares.com, which we debunked in the 3rd Quarter 2000 issue of PR Watch.