Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy

Analysis:

Considering that there have been few stories recently in the local TV news about the aftermath of Hurricaine Katrina, viewers should ask themselves to ask why WOOD 8 would they run this particular story. The local TV stations have, according to our monitoring work at GRIID, a marked tendency to show irrelevant, non-local stories if they are accompanied with video containing violence or people getting hurt. In these piece, no details are provided to explain what the causes of this school violence are, and more importantly, no information is given as to what plight of the citizens of New Orleans that have been displaced. Although it is not specifically mentioned, from the images shown in this story, it appears that most of the students fighting and being arrested are African American. In September of this year, GRIID hosted a public forum on the state of local media and gave people a chance to speak directly to representatives from both WZZM 13 and WOOD 8. In attendance was an African American man who had just arrived in Grand Rapids from New Orleans, and he pleaded with the local media to be more careful of how the depicted African American victims of Katrina. He spoke of seeing people there working together in very positive ways to overcome an incredibly difficult disaster situation, and yet, he felt the media focused primarily on negative images, such as the infamous “looters” and the unsubstantiated reports of the so-called “horrors” inside the superdome. This story of New Orleans students fighting illustrates what the man at the forum was talking about, a story painting Katrina victims in a negative light while giving the viewer no real information about their plight.

Story:

WOOD 8 Newsreader – A big brawl at a Texas High School today between kids from Houston and a group from Hurricaine Katrina. From New Orleans. Thirty students were arrested, some appeared to be resisting. School leaders say it all started in the cafeteria then spread throughout the school. Police arrested fifteen students from the Houston area and fifteen from New Orleans. A school district spokesperson said this is the twelfth or thirteenth fight involving Katrina evacuees at Houston schools.

Total Time: 30 seconds

Analysis:

This is a very brief but typical example of local TV news reporting in that it only presents one voice, that of a government offical. This piece serves as basically a soundbite for the president, providing no critical analysis of his comments. It is noted that he addressed the Council on Foreign Relations, a group that “has been critical of the president’s policies”, but it is not noted how or why they have been critical of the president’s policies. This adherence to “official sources” is common amongst all three local TV stations and is not limited to coverage of the President. On issues concerning governmental policy, the views of government officials are often reported uncritically, while the views of non-governmental organizations and people are often ignored.

Story:

WXMI Newsreader – A tough crowd for president Bush during his speech on Iraq today. The president spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Most of the audience has been critical of the president’s policies in the past. Mr. Bush told the crowd there have been stumbling blocks along the way to peace in Iraq, bat says progress is being made everyday.

Bush – We’re helping the new Iraq government reverse decades of economic destruction, reinvigorate its economy, and make responsible reforms. We’re helping Iraqis to rebuild their infrastructure and establish the institutions of a market economy.

Newsreader – President Bush’s speech comes a little more than a week before Iraq’s scheduled elections on December 15.

Total time: 38 seconds

Analysis:

The story is based upon the book of an Emory University neuroscientist named Gregory Berns. He has a new book out entitled “Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment,” but viewers wouldn’t know this because the channel 13 story never provides the source of the research they mention. They only quote one shopper and then end the story with an appeal for people to go to their website and vote on whether or not shopping makes them happy.

There is no real information to support the claim that shopping makes you happy, except that they said that shopping releases dopamine in your system. The news reader simply says that “Dopamine is a chemical that stimulates pleasure.” Later in the story they also say “But researchers say beware of the rush you get when you shop because in can lead to blowing your budget.” So while the story makes the claim that shopping gives you pleasure, it warns you about spending too much, which seems disingenuous since channel 13 then encourages viewers to send it shopping stories. Another aspect of this piece was that it appears to be a Video News Release. The video footage used does not appear to be local and when I looked online for the author of the book on this subject I came across his university, Emory, which had a link to recent video news releases that the school has produced based on their research.

Story:

Newsreader #1 – Well there is now medical evidence to prove that shopping makes you feel better.

Newsreader #2 – Now not necessarily the part where you pay, but the hunt for the perfect present actually creates higher levels of dopamine, which is the chemical that stimulates pleasure.

Shopper – You’re on a hunt and you’ve been to every store to find a certain product and then all of a sudden you go and find it and you not only find it, you find it in your size. That is, that’s victory.

Newsreader #2 – But researchers say beware of the rush you get when you shop because it can lead to blowing your budget and you may eventually feel guilty after adding up those receipts. So what do you think? Does shopping make you happy? Let us know how you feel when you are hunting for the perfect gift or just shopping for yourself. Log on to WZZM 13.com and click on the poll 13 to vote, and we will have the results right after sports.

Total time: 50 seconds

Analysis:

On December 2nd, 3rd and 4th the Grand Rapids Press ran three stories about a local man kidnapped in Haiti. These stories were told primarily through the perspective of the Kidnapped man’s family and co-workers. Several quotes were provided in which the family members talk about what kind of work the kidnapped man was doing. At one point in the article the daughter and mother are quoted as saying that they hope the kidnapping “will serve as an awareness for the situation in Haiti and more people will want to help out down there.” Unfortunately, there is little contextual information provided in the two Grand Rapids press articles about the situation in Haiti. The only information given is that Haiti is dangerous and “gang-infested”, that “There have been more abductions since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February 2004 and that in 5 weeks elections will be held to “restore democracy.”

Except for these three articles about the kidnapped missionary, events in Haiti seldom receive much coverage in the local media. One important topic relating to Haiti that was substantially under reported in both the local and national press was the 2004 coup against then-president Jean Paul Aristide and the US government’s role in that event. Independent news sources reported at the time of the 2004 coup that the US government had been covertly supplying the rebel forces and that they failed to take any action to stop the rebels until Aristide was out of power. Furthermore, journalists such as Amy Goodman reported that US agents actually kidnapped Aristide and flew him out of the country against his own will. So it is important to note that the US government is complicit in creating the current unrest caused by the departure of President Aristide. According to the media watchdog group “Project Censored”, U.S. involvement in the destabilization of Haiti was one of the top twenty five unreported stories of 2004. It should also be noted that the situation in Haiti, that is the extreme economic deprivation, is not solely a result of poor planning or bad luck on the part of the Haitians. Over the last two hundred years Haiti has been the victim of external manipulation by various governments and more recently international organizations like the International Monetary fund and World Bank. And yet these facts, which would help the reader have a better understanding of why Haiti is in the situation it is in, are very seldom reported on in the mainstream media.

Story:

Family buoyed by missionary’s release
Friday, December 02, 2005
By Theresa D. Mcclellan
The Grand Rapids Press
ZEELAND — Missionary Phillip Snyder, 48, of Zeeland, was released by kidnappers in Haiti shortly after 3:30 p.m. today, according to family members.

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra confirmed the FBI told him Snyder has been released.

Snyder, whose family has been doing missionary work in Haiti for more than 30 years, was abducted earlier in the week. He had been shot in the arm during the abduction.

The FBI had responded and was part of the negotiations, as was Snyder’s son, Chad, 29, a missionary who relocated his family to Haiti three weeks ago.
The Zeeland missionary had been held in a gang-infested portion of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was kidnapped by unknown assailants who demanded $300,000 in cash, his family said.

The kidnappers also seized a 7-year-old Haitian boy named Chelton, who later was released. The boy’s father escaped the kidnappers.

Snyder, 48, is leader of GLOW Ministries, a Zeeland-based mission he created with his mother, Bettie, who has been involved in Haiti for more than 30 years. He visits Haiti every couple months, his family said.

Snyder’s wife said she received a call from him about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the family’s home. He told her he had been kidnapped and shot, she said, adding the Red Cross was allowed to examine him.

“The Lord has been miraculously buoying me up,” said Amber Snyder. “I am standing back amazed at the peace my kids and I have. We know that Phil is safe and will stay safe. There is no doubt in our minds, and I am amazed I have not broken down today.”

Phil Snyder was en route to the American Consulate with the child and the boy’s father to finalize a travel visa when they were abducted on a road north of the capital. The youngster has an eye bulging from its socket, and Snyder arranged for surgery at Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus in Grand Rapids.

Also Thursday, gunmen hijacked a school bus carrying 14 children Port-au-Prince. The separate kidnappings came five weeks before national elections are to be held to restore democracy and stability in this strife-torn, impoverished nation. But police said they did not appear to be politically related.

Police Commissioner Francois Henry Doussous spoke with Snyder’s kidnappers and Snyder by phone. Doussous said police believed the kidnappers brought Snyder to the Port-au-Prince slum of Cite Soleil, a base for armed gangs blamed for much of the violence in the capital.

“This is purely criminal activity; the gangs need money,” he said.
Snyder grew up in Haiti with his parents.

“He is a man who loves the people of Haiti,” said Ray Renner, of Anderson, Ind., vice president of GLOW’s board. Renner is a longtime friend of Snyder’s mother, who remains in Haiti and has e-mailed Renner.

Amber Snyder, 38, said this was the first time her husband was to bring someone out of Haiti for medical purposes. She is a Zeeland native and is being supported by friends and family, including her parents, Bob and Cathy Tift.

The Snyder’s daughter, Kimberly, 19, said people came to her family’s Zeeland home Thursday to pray and bring food.

Kimberly Snyder believes her father was taken because he is American.

On Nov. 22, the U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning to Americans regarding Haiti. The alert warned of potential looting, roadblocks set up by armed gangs, carjackings and assaults in what is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
“Kidnapping for ransom remains a particular threat with over 25 American citizens, including children, kidnapped over the past year,” the travel warning stated.

On Nov. 2, Haitian police rescued three young children of Oklahoma missionaries kidnapped by gangs dressed as police.

Kidnap victim kept faith
Saturday, December 03, 2005
By Shandra Martinez
The Grand Rapids Press

ZEELAND — Before he left this week on his trip to Haiti, Phillip Snyder told a staffer at his family’s ministry he would see her when he got back — unless he was kidnapped.
Snyder, 48, who was released by armed attackers Friday after being held for two days, knew kidnapping for ransom was an everyday occurrence in the impoverished nation where he has worked for decades.

And if he was taken, Snyder said, it would be part of God’s plan.

“He always said God would use him to witness to the kidnappers,” said Teresa Prange, who runs the downtown Zeeland office of GLOW International Ministry.

The nonprofit organization’s focus is on community development, working with Haitian pastors and community leaders to provide education and meals for more than 2,000 children there.

The father of nine was shot in the shoulder and kidnapped Thursday by assailants demanding $300,000 from his family. He was freed nearly 36 hours later after his oldest son, Chad, and a team of a Haitian and U.S. officials negotiated his release.

While the kidnappers did receive money, it was a small amount, said his 72-year-old mother, Bettie Snyder, who has been a missionary in Haiti for more than three decades.
Bettie Snyder, reached on her cell phone there Friday, credited her grandson with playing a key role in his father’s quick release. She said she believes the kidnappers understood Snyder’s commitment to helping Haitians.

“I think it’s because of his work here,” she said of her son, who first went to Haiti 30 years ago to join his late father in mission work.

It was not disclosed who paid the ransom, but it did not come from GLOW, she said.
“There is no way we could have paid that money when we are feeding children with every dollar we have,” she said.

With the kidnapping behind them, the family has no plan to abandon their life’s work.
“We couldn’t leave our children. We love Haiti and these children. We have raised so many,” Bettie Snyder said.

This isn’t Phillip Snyder’s first brush with danger in Haiti. He left the country in 1991 after living there for 12 years because of threats to his life.

But he couldn’t forget the Haitians. In 1998, he, his wife, Amber, and his mother founded GLOW. Bettie Snyder lives most of the year in Haiti, while her son makes several trips there a year.

Local residents who have accompanied him are amazed at how revered Snyder is by Haitians.

“You go through Haiti on a truck and everybody yells ‘Phillip,'” said Prange, who, after her mission trip, joined the GLOW staff.

Bettie Snyder believes her son was kidnapped because he was driving down the wrong road at the wrong time of day.

“His problem is he left too early. In the morning, (kidnappers) lay in wait,” she said.
Amber Snyder, 38, said she never feared for her husband’s safety after he called her Thursday to tell her he had been shot and kidnapped.

“I explained that I had such a supernatural sense of peace, and there was no doubt in my mind he would be OK,” she said. “He said it was a good thing because he didn’t. He said ‘I thought I was going to be killed.'”
Although his capture was violent, he wasn’t abused physically during his ordeal, he told his wife.

He was held hostage with a 7-year-old Haitian boy he was preparing to bring back to West Michigan for eye surgery. With the exception of the first two hours, the two were together the entire time, Snyder told his wife.

They were driving to the U.S. Consulate in Port-au-Prince to complete paperwork for a medical travel visa when they were ambushed by the captors who riddled the recently purchased truck with bullets.

Since April, 28 Americans have been kidnapped in Haiti, according to U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland.

“It is a business in Haiti to kidnap people and hold them for ransom,” said Hoekstra, who visited the country five weeks ago.

Snyder couldn’t believe his kidnapping made national headlines.

“Everybody has been praying for you … literally from around the world. I even heard people in Africa were praying for you,” Amber Snyder told her husband Friday as she stood in the living room of their home.

Snyder told his wife he will need further medical treatment on his wounded shoulder. He plans to return home next week, along with the Haitian boy in need of surgery.
Haiti’s children always will be a priority for the Snyders.

“They are family to us. You don’t turn your back on your family,” Amber Snyder said.

Missionary’s passion for Haitians shared
Sunday, December 04, 2005
By Shandra Martinez
The Grand Rapids Press

ZEELAND — Phillip Snyder, the missionary who was shot, abducted and released in Haiti, is delaying his medical treatment so he can bring a boy to West Michigan for eye surgery.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Heather Medema, of Grand Rapids, a physician’s assistant who has led medical missions to Haiti as part of Snyder’s GLOW Ministries International, which stands for God’s Love for Orphans and Widows.

Snyder, of Zeeland, needs to have shrapnel removed from his shoulder. His abductors shot him Thursday when they ambushed his truck as he was traveling to the Haitian capital to secure a travel visa for the boy, 6. Snyder was released Friday.

Those who have accompanied Snyder on mission trips say they understand his passion for helping Haitians, especially children. It comes from seeing suffering up close.

Rick Kasten, of Holland, visited a village where Haitians were so sick, they could barely take care of themselves. The children’s severe malnourishment was evident by their orange hair and bloated stomachs.

“You go to a place like that and you are confronted about whether you are going to make a difference or not,” said Kasten, who provided money to open a school and support a program that feeds more than 200 children.

Medema said she organized mobile medical clinics during her mission trips. The painful part, she said, was being able to treat only a portion of the hundreds who waited hours seeking help.

Her goal is to start health clinics at GLOW-supported schools and expand the service to acute and chronic medical needs.

“We need to feed the kids first, get clean water, and then help train Haitians in health care so, if there is political unrest and Americans can’t come, their own people can take care of them,” Medema said.

There have been more abductions since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February 2004. Authorities believe the kidnappers are members of gangs based in Cite Soleil, a sprawling seaside slum.

“The gangs need money,” Commissioner Francois Henri Doussous, head of Haiti’s anti-kidnapping unit, told The Associated Press.

Snyder’s captors were paid a small ransom, relatives said.

Despite the headlines, Medema said she hopes to take another mission trip to Haiti in the spring.

“It waxes and wanes as far as incidents,” she said. “The only thing this has done is open people’s eyes to what has been going for years.”

Analysis:

This story is in many ways a promotional piece about the new Microsoft X-Box. The area stores have sold out according to the reporter, who relies on comments exclusively from business such as Microsoft and Target stores. How does reporting to viewers that these new video games systems are selling out constitute as news? The reporter could have talked to gamers to find out about the popularity of the game and even more importantly the reporter could have spoken with the cultural/social impact of video game use or even looked at the working conditions in China, especially since the workers might have to put in extra hours to meet the demands.

Story:

WOOD TV 8 News reader – Long lines to get the latest version of the X-box today. Released just in time for the holiday shopping season, the trouble tonight most stores are out of them.

Reporter – We Sue if you are looking for the new X-box 360 you can stop looking for now. Retailers across West Michigan, including Target stores tell us they have sold out. Now earlier today 24 Hour News 8 asked Microsoft when the next shipments will arrive.

West Michigan video gamers were out in force, out in the cold and waiting in long lines, hopeful to land the newest X-box 360. Many getting the cold should when supplies of the console ran out. At the Target on 28th street the first guests were handed a ticket to keep order.

Business spokesperson – Oh man, those went in minutes it seems like. We had folks in here at 10:00 in the evening time, waiting and the stores doesn’t open up until 8:00 in the morning.

Reporter – It is a nationwide sellout. Microsoft, a console maker tells 24 hour news 8 that it’s 2 facilities in China are making X-box 360s as fast as it can. Loading them up headed for the US.

Microsoft Spokesperson – In the first 90 days we think we will sell 2 million to 3.75 million consoles.

Reporter – However that is not enough to meet the overwhelming demand. Games with better power and more graphics will have to wait for most X-box fans. Microsoft says retailers can expect deliveries every week, but it will be up to each retailer to decide how those new units will be allocated.

Now if you want the new 360 it will come on a first come first serve basis. When I spoke with Microsoft they said call retailers ahead of time and ask how many they plan on receiving and oh it might not be a bad idea to wait and save your money. These things are going for $300 to $400 depending on the model unit.

Total Time: 2 minutes and 5 seconds

Analysis:

This news story was nothing more than a 2 minute and 30 second commercial for a local Travel Agency called Travel by Gagnon and Royal Caribbean. The story is basically about a local woman who decided that she can’t make family vacation plans on her own, so she calls Travel by Gagnon. The local travel agent is the main news source in this story and her role is framed as someone who offers travel tips. The reality is that no real tips are offered when she says things like this “We know the ins and outs, we know what rules to follow, we know where the great deals are and the computer is not as smart as we are.”

A question for news viewers to ask here is how does this story present useful information for consumers? The travel agent was basically saying that the number one family vacation these days is to take your family on a cruise. Much of the story uses video footage provided by Royal Caribbean (such as the still photo from the news story) of people on cruise ships or in exotic tropical locations. The only information that is provided that might be beneficial for consumers is a price break down for a Caribbean cruise before and after the New Year, which is a difference between $2700 and $3800 dollars. The question for listeners is this, which families can even afford this type of a vacation? And what does this say about who WXMI 17’s target audience is?

Story:

WXMI Reporter – It is quite a process finding the perfect holiday vacation. Lots of things to consider, where to go, when, and the most important question how much is it going to cost? Lots of travelers search the web for answers. Pat Gruen used to be one of them.

Consumer – We decided after taking a little walk through the Internet, that perhaps we weren’t as good as we thought.

Reporter – That is when Gruen and her family turned their vacation plans over to a professional.

Consumer – When you go on the Internet you don’t have somebody to sit there across from you and ask you questions about where you want to go, what you want to do, what are you trying to accomplish.

Reporter – Joanne Kochnoeff, the owner of Travel by Gagnon, she is now helping the Gruens.

Business – We know the ins and outs, we know what rules to follow, we know where the great deals are and the computer is not as smart as we are.

Reporter – The next step, when to get away.

Business – If they are a little flexible on the dates when they can go, if they don’t have a vacation that is cut in stone, we can very often find a much better price just by looking at a different time frame.

Reporter – Here is an example of what Kochnoeff is talking about. Say you want to take a 7 night Caribbean cruise for 2, round trip airfare from Grand Rapids over Christmas. It will cost $3884.00, over New Year $3124.00, but look at this in January, $2735.00.

Business – If you go perhaps the week after New Year. You can save sometimes a thousand dollars on your vacation, just by tweaking that vacation, just a little bit. Computers don’t tell you that, travel agents tell you that.

Reporter – The Gruens will be cruising this holiday season.

Consumer – The expertise of having somebody know the ship, know what level of the ship to stay on, what rooms are available. They can describe the room to you.

Business – Cruises have become the number one family type vacation because they offer so many different options.

Reporter – and if cruising isn’t you then Kochnoeff says there are plenty of other popular destinations and these are calling your name.

Total Time: 2 minutes and 30 seconds

Analysis:

The article provides a summary of some of some of the things that the speaker presented, such as computer manipulations in the voting machines, voter roll purges and election rule changes. The article also mentions the person in Ohio responsible for some of this manipulation, J. Kenneth Blackwell, as well as mentioning Rep. John Conyers report and the government’s General Accounting Office study which also acknowledges that there was evidence of electoral fraud which led a loss of counted votes and a miscounting of votes in some cases.

The lecture presented many statistics and numerous examples of how the election was unfair on many levels, looking at instances in big cities like Toledo, Columbus and Dayton as well as smaller communities throughout Ohio, but none of those details were provided in reference to a specific community. The article does also mention the electronic voting machine company Diebold and its role in the voting results but referred to them as malfunctions. The speaker clearly said throughout the lecture that these were manipulations, as cited in the government’s own study. The article also refers to people who acknowledge voter fraud as “angry liberals unconvinced of the election’s legitimacy.” This is how much of the article was framed, by using language that dismisses the seriousness of the charges presented by Fitrakis. Even the headline reflects how the Press doesn’t take these claims seriously when it reads “Lecturer keeps conspiracy out there.”

Story:

Lecturer keeps conspiracy out there

By Steven Harmon

GRAND RAPIDS — Bob Fitrakis is accustomed to being labeled a conspiracy theorist and on the fringe. But that hasn’t stopped him from his relentless pursuit to keep alive the 2004 presidential election and the fraud he says occurred.
Fitrakis, an Ohio attorney and political science professor who observed the Ohio elections in 2004, accuses the Bush administration and Republican friends of stealing the 2004 election through a mixture of computer manipulations, voter roll purges and election rules changes.

He laid out his case to about 50 people at the Wealthy Street Theatre as part of the Community Media Center’s lecture series. Bush’s victory over U.S. Sen. John Kerry in Ohio by 119,000 votes put him over the top for his re-election, but sparked an underground movement of angry liberals unconvinced of the election’s legitimacy.

“What happened in Ohio was very well thought out,” said Fitrakis, a Columbus State University professor who attended Grand Valley State University in 1978. “It was no accident. Much can be linked to Karl Rove and J. Kenneth Blackwell,” President Bush’s senior political adviser and Ohio’s Secretary of State, who also was the state’s chairman of Bush’s re-election committee.

Much of Fitrakis’ work has been cited by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, who requested an investigation by the Government Accountability Office, which recently produced a report upholding some of the complaints.

The non-partisan GAO report found that, “some of (the) concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.”

Malfunctions in election computers, many of which were designed by Diebold Inc., whose owner promised to “deliver” Ohio to Bush, led to flawed vote counts, Fitrakis said. In one precinct with fewer than 700 voters, for instance, more than 4,000 votes for Bush were tabulated, he said. That mistake was corrected.

Fitrakis, who calls himself an independent voter, didn’t spare Democrats from his criticism. “Democrats have done little to challenge the obvious voter suppression,” he said. “It’s like they think if they behave well, this behavior will go away. It won’t. It will get worse.” Voters have a hard time believing “the corruption” of their votes because “we’ve been socialized to believe nobody would do that,” Fitrakis said.

Analysis:

This article appeared in the business section of the Grand Rapids Press on Wednesday November 16. The article is a brief description of a speech given locally by an executive from the Altria Corporation on business ethics. Altria is the new name for Philip Morris, the largest producer of cigarettes in the United States. In the article the ethics “expert”, as the article labels him, is said to have discussed processes, policies and practices to make Altria “ship-shape”. The article does mention that Altria has been alleged to have deceived the public about the health risks of smoking. This claim is followed with a quote from the speaker who says that “I do not believe there were evil people in the company (a decade ago), but I think we were out of touch. We didn’t see how people perceived us.” He then goes on to say in the article that the company had worked to change its image and to promote an ethical culture with top-down commitment to “do the right thing.” The article ends with the speaker saying “We created the job thinking that we need to focus not just on our product, but on our broader responsibility.” Considering Philip Morris’s

Story:

Companies should promote ethics, expert says

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

By Matt Vande Bunte

The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — For the first few months in his new position, David Greenberg had a hard time describing exactly what a “chief compliance officer” did all day. Then, the Enron Corp. fiasco made headlines.

“Once Enron broke, I didn’t have to explain anymore,” said Greenberg, senior vice president and chief compliance officer for Altria Group, Inc., the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris USA.

“Enron and all the scandals helped people understand why this is important.”

Greenberg brought his corporate lessons to the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan on Tuesday at Aquinas College, talking about “Marlboros, Oreos and Integrity: Global Responsibility in a $100 Billion Multinational Corporation.”

He detailed some of the processes, policies and practices that Altria implemented to make sure things are in ship-shape among its 160,000-plus employees in more than 100 countries.

Altria has been at the fore of state and federal lawsuits alleging a cigarette industry conspiracy to deceive the public about the health risks of smoking and the addictive nature of nicotine.

“I do not believe there were evil people in the company (a decade ago), but I think we were out of touch,” Greenberg said. “We didn’t see how people perceived us.”

So the company worked to change its image inside and out, he said. Greenberg was hired in 2001 to create a new compliance and integrity program.

Because Altria cannot employ a corporate police force to monitor its employees, Greenberg said the company has tried to promote an ethical culture with top-down commitment to “do the right thing.” The alternative is to let the government intervene, he said.

The company held focus groups to write a code of conduct and created ethical training for employees.

“We created the job thinking that we need to focus not just on our product, but on our broader responsibility,” Greenberg said. “Over the long haul, that’s a recruiting tool, a marketing tool and a brand-builder.

“You ignore that stuff at your peril. Both businesses and reputations will be broken.”

Analysis:

The channel 17 story is framed just as an attempt by the Writers Guild of America to also make money off of the use of product placement in TV shows and films. The newsreader says “Actors and writers in Hollywood say they are forced to pitch products all the time on TV and in movies and now they want to be paid for it,” or later in the story it says “So at a Press Conference yesterday they said they want a piece of the pie.” This is completely misleading as to the intent of the Press Conference.

According to other news stories from that day, whether it was Yahoo news or the Guardian they all quoted someone from the Writers Guild of America. Here is what appeared in the Guardian “Major advertisers like Home Depot, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble are out of control,” said the WGA. “They’ll stop at nothing to insert their brand names into every TV plotline. These diabolical advertising fiends are turning our favorite TV shows into cheesy infomercials.” If you go to their website, you can read the entire Media Release, which is very clear as to their demand to have the FCC create a Code of Conduct around the use of product placement in TV programming and films. They are advocating for 4 basic principles: 1. Full and clear disclosure for both the visual and aural disclosure of product integration deals at the beginning of each program so the program’s audience knows ahead of time that it will be subject to hidden or stealth advertising; 2. Strict limits on the usage of product integration in children’s programming; 3. A voice for storytellers, actors, and directors, arrived at through collective bargaining, about how a product or brand is to be integrated into content; 4. Extension of all regulation of product integration to cable television, where some of the most egregious abuse is found. To top it all off they even issued a 9 page White paper on the problem of Product Placement called “Are you Selling Me?” Clearly the channel 17 story was completely devoid of what the Writers Guild of America actually said.

Story:

WXMI 17 News reader – Actors and writers in Hollywood say they are forced to pitch products all the time on TV and in movies and now they want to be paid for it. You’ve seen it, product integration and no apparently writers are being coached to write a specific brand of chips or soda into their scripts. So at a Press Conference yesterday they said they want a piece of the pie. The actors want a say in the products they’re hawking. TV companies are especially doing it to offset the impact of DVRs, which let viewers skip over all those big dollar commercials.