Syngenta PR’s Weed-Killer Spin Machine: Investigating the Press and Shaping the "News" about Atrazin

[xchrom]

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/11277/syngenta-prs-weed-killer-spin-machine-investigating-press-and-shaping-news-about

Syngenta PR’s Weed-Killer Spin Machine: Investigating the Press and Shaping the "News" about Atrazine

Documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, recently unsealed as part of a major lawsuit against Syngenta, reveal how the global chemical company's PR team investigated the press and spent millions to spin news coverage and public perceptions in the face of growing concerns about potential health risks from the widely used weed-killer "atrazine."

This story is part of a new series about this PR campaign to influence the media, potential jurors, potential plaintiffs, farmers, politicians, scientists, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the midst of reviews of the weed-killer's potential to act as an endocrine disruptor, over the past decade or so.

Dealing with Meddlesome Reporters

Reporter Danielle Ivory (Source: UC)Reporter Danielle Ivory (Source: UC)Two years ago, on March 2, 2010, Huffington Post Investigative Fund (HuffPo) reporter Danielle Ivory contacted Syngenta Corporation Director of Corporate Communications-North America Paul Minehart and asked, as reporters do, a few questions.

Little did she know her questions to Syngenta—which reported sales of over $11 billion that year, almost half of which, $5 billion, was profit—would provoke the creation of a secret dossier on her.

[DCKit]

1. Have the studies of the effects of these chemicals on fish and amphibians ended?

Or did Syngenta and Monsanto end them?

[drm604]

2. Notice the comment at the bottom of that article?

Well done guys, you've
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on February 7, 2012 - 4:49pm.

Well done guys, you've managed to catch PR people doing their job. Yes, we brainstorm on how to present clients in a positive light. Yes, we pull background information on reporters before taking interviews. Wouldn't you rather be prepared than blindsided? As they say, knowledge is power.

A PR person spinning PR.
I wonder how much Syngenta paid for that post.

[xchrom]

3. i caught it -- and i thought it was amusingly bizarre.

you can spin PR from here to Hell and back -- you still don't get to poison me.
oh -- and probably tell me it's really good for me.