McConnell's fishy deal revealed at SpinWatch launch conference
by Emma Miller
Over 60 activists and academics, from Australia, the US, Germany, Holland and the UK, attended the launch of SpinWatch at a conference at Strathclyde University on 18/19 November.

SpinWatch is a new collaborative venture between academics and investigative journalists that aims to counter government lies and corporate spin.

Andy Rowell, a co-founder of SpinWatch, opened by demonstrating how effective corporate spin can be in persuading the media and public, with a case study of climate change. 

Earlier this month, a major four year study into the effects of climate change in the Arctic was published by 300 climate scientists, eight governments and indigenous groups. The Arctic was rapidly warming and sea ice disappearing, threatening the future of wildlife such as polar bears and the survival of indigenous groups.

The world's media quickly picked up the story. The dissenting voice was The Guardian, whose headline ran "Climate Change Claims Flawed, Says Study". 

Guardian readers were not told that the article was based on a spoiler report by the International Policy Network, a right-wing think tank based in London, that received $50,000 from the world's largest oil company Exxon in 2003.  

David Miller, co-founder of SpinWatch, and researcher Angela Millar spoke about another example of spin in Scotland. 
On 8 January 2004 a prestigious scientific journal, Science, reported that Scottish farmed salmon contained high levels of toxins. Using corporate front groups, the salmon industry quickly moved to spin the story to discredit the research.
David Miller argued that the PR campaign implicated Jack McConnell in a conflict of interest.

The Executive pumped £1.5 million into the campaign to convince the public that salmon was safe. The biggest gift McConnell received as First Minister was a pair of gold cuff-links given to him by Marine Harvest, a fish farm multinational who benefited from the PR campaign. McConnell's brother also runs a Marine Harvest fish farm.

The conference brought together many people fighting propaganda, amongst others: Bob Burton from Australia who talked about Disinfopedia, an online database on the PR industry; Andy Higginbottom on Coke's spin campaign in the face of a growing boycott; Olivier Hoedemann, from Corporate Europe Observatory on the Brussels "Lobbyocracy" and James Marriott from Platform on the con of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Spinwatch needs help with research, writing, information and campaigning to counter government and corporate spin and propaganda.

Check out www.spinwatch.org This article originally appeared in the Scottish Socialist Voice