Grains Oilseeds

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Good article...abstracted from an article by Guy Crittenden that appeared in the 31 October, 1998 Globe and Mail
Online source:
http://env.chass.utoronto.ca/env200y/ASSIGN/media4.htm

Flack Attack

A new class of professional influence peddler, most of them former journalists and political aides is manipulating public attitudes about everything from the Persian Gulf War to Garth Drabinsky. That they do this in almost complete secrecy hold disturbing implications for democracy in the Information Age

When Monsanto Inc. went looking for Canadian approval for its recombinant bovine growth hormone, it didn't fool around. The U.S. multinational knew it needed hired guns in Ottawa to lobby Health Canada for fast-track approval - people with good connections who could get the attention of Health Minister Allan Rock and his senior aides.

The company hired S.A. Murray Consulting Inc. and its lobbyist Michael Pearson, whose pedigree as a grandson of prime minister Lester B. Pearson and son of Senator Landon Pearson gives him insider status in prominent circles in the Liberal government. Along with a team of lobbyists and public-relations consultants from Hill & Knowlton Canada Ltd., Mr. Pearson advised senior Health Canada officials on biotechnology development, cost recovery and regulatory reform.

We know the result. Health Canada scientists say their managers pressured them not to express their concerns about the potential health risks of Monsanto's rBST drug. Exposure of this case, which came when three scientists recently appeared before a Senate agriculture committee, has given Canadians a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the stunning power that corporations now wield in Ottawa, as a result of these public relations pitchmen. In an era of government downsizing, contracted-out services and federal "cost recovery" programs, this new class of professional influence peddler is insinuating itself into every aspect of public policy making and media spin-doctoring in Canada.

They're the PR flacks - most of them former journalists and political aides - and these days they're not just advising government: In many cases they're also writing its press releases. The flacks, who work for such firms as National Public Relations, Media Profile, Earnscliffe Strategy Group and GPC Communications, to name just a few, also manipulate the media and consequently public attitudes about everything from the Persian Gulf war to Garth Drabinsky. That they do all this in almost complete secrecy hold disturbing implications for democracy in the Information Age.

The story of Monsanto's lobbying for rBST - the Senate committee heard testimony about missing or locked-up files and Monsanto's alleged offering $1-million in research funding (denied by Monsanto) - has Silkwood overtones. But, whatever the scientific outcome, what is most disturbing is the alleged reluctance of staff in Health Minister Allan Rock's office to offend Monsanto's flacks.

A document leaked from the ministers office reveals that the department planned to "engineer" the appearance of the scientists' boss at the hearings in order to control their testimony. In the document, Health Department officials express concern about what "Monsanto lawyers in St. Louis and its Government Relations representatives in Ottawa" will think if confidential information comes out at the hearings.

It appears that fears about public perception and the opinions of agents for a foreign agrochemical company are more important to senior government staff than potential health dangers posed by the company's product.

None of this comes as an surprise to John Stauber, an rBST opponent and director of the Centre for Media and Democracy based in Madison. Wisconsin. The United States is the only country in the world that has approved the drug. Says Mr. Stauber, "Monsanto's winning U.S. Food and Drug approval in 1993 was a direct consequence of its use of public-relations firms."

TV producer and magazine writer Liss Jeffrey is associate director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto. She warns that "journalism, business, government and public relations are converging within a fundamental culture of marketing that's so pervasive it's invisible. The people who are best at selling succeed the most in such a culture."

Academics have estimated that 40 percent of all news today stems from virtually unprocessed print and electronic press releases. Services such as the American PR Newswire and the new Canada NewsWire look like traditional wire services, but companies and other private interests pay them to have information disseminated. The pressed-for-deadline media - particularly in small and under-resourced media outlets - reprint or rebroadcast 80 percent or more of this information. This included the entirely canned radio programs they produce and video news releases (called "VNRs") that present scripted actors and paid experts shilling for industry and other groups VNRs are frequently shown on TV news unedited and without attribution.

Today the 130,000 reporters in the U.S. and Canada are outnumbered and outgunned by an army of 150,000 PR consultants. No one knows exactly how much is spent on public relations each year, but estimates of $10-billion may be conservative. Some PR firms are hired by the most repressive regimes on the planet. For example, both Turkey and Indonesia have been clients of Hill and Knowlton. the Sawyer/Miller group created a successful campaign to transform Columbia's image among Washington politicians from that of the home of drug lords to that of a steadfast partner in the war against cocaine (without any change in the status quo).

Some issues may seem fairly innocuous, like whether or not soft-drink companies have to charge a deposit to pay for the collection and recycling of their cans and bottles. Or they may be a serious as the introduction of an unlabelled, genetically altered food in the supermarket. But wherever they sit on the risk spectrum, special favours granted to private interests behind closed doors almost invariably contradict the public good.

Though we may be shocked by the testimony that Health Canada pressured its scientists to approve Monsanto's rBST drug, it's the situations that we don't hear about we should fear the most. How many other instances of private interests supplanting public ones never make the morning paper or the 6 o'clock news? When they do, which quotes from what pundits, experts or politicians can we trust? Will we even be told for whom these people are working? In the merging world of public relations, party politics and commercial news, the answer stems from another question: How much are you able to pay?