Buying Power
In addition to the tools discussed above, effective use of advertisements costing hundreds of thousands of dollars was and is still being used to advance war and greed.
The Baltimore Sun July 29, 2001 reported on Israel hiring of Rubenstein Associates, a New York public relations company "to spruce up its image in the deadly conflict with the Palestinians." This is a company that had worked successfully with Weight Watchers, Yeshiva University, the New York Yankees and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. One of the recommendations made to Israel according to the paper is to paint the Israeli military assault rifles that shoot rubber bullets purple or orange -- to make it clear to television viewers that soldiers are firing non-lethal rounds. "This is not a fashion statement,'' said Emmanuel Nahshon, deputy spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The idea is to convey to the public that our soldiers are firing rubber bullets, and not live ammunition. It is a daily fight for Israel's image.'' the paper added:" Officials at Rubenstein declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Sharon; Questions were referred to the foreign minister's office and to the Israeli consul general in New York, Alon Pinkas. Pinkas said that the cosmetic changes being recommended are only part of the strategy and that the company first and foremost told the Israelis to quickly release accurate information about daily events."
Joel C. Rosenburg wrote in his "Flash Traffic: political buzz from Washington" on Aug 18, 2001 in the online magazine the "World on the Web":
A group of American business and political leaders are building a pro-Israel media "war room" in Washington, D.C. The group will be called "Emet" which in Hebrew means "truth." Emet will try to address biased media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also make the case that the conflict, while serious and important, pales in comparison to the larger geo-strategic threat posed to the United States and the West by Iran and Iraq, both of whom are trying to build and/or acquire weapons of mass destruction. Funding Emet is Leonard Abramson; he sold U.S. Healthcare to Aetna in the mid-1990s for $8.9 billion. Abramson has recruited a powerful board of directors, including Bernie Marcus, founder of Home Depot; Les Wexner, founder of the Limited; Edgar Bronfman Sr., who once owned Seagram's; and Lou Ranieri, a major Wall Street player who now co-owns one of Israel's largest banks. Also joining the board are Jeane Kirkpatrick, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and Jack Kemp. (Source: http://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/08-18-01/opening_5.asp)
This was not the only recent effort at even closer media manipulation. Emanuel Nachson of the Israel Foreign Ministry told AFP that Israel is engaged in a major propaganda efforts to ensure favorable coverage (see Exhibit xxxx for the AFP Story).
The Jewish Telegraph Agency reported in Sept 18, 2002:
"The ads will roll out in 100 major cable TV markets in the coming weeks. The two 30-second spots -- which together cost at least $1 million for production and air time -- are the centerpiece of an unprecedented public relations effort by American Jewish organizations to improve U.S. public perceptions of Israel.....The ads' imagery and message are nearly identical: Israel is a pluralistic democracy and shares bedrock cultural and political values with the United States.
....That was the central theme of a public relations strategy laid out this summer by the Israel Project, a campaign led by Washington Democratic political consultant Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg and Republican pollster Frank Luntz."
("After tussle with CNN, ad campaign trumpeting Israeli democracy on air" Joe Berkofsky (http://www.jta.org) . |