DC PR Firms drove the memogate scandal?

PRWeek ^ | 09/17/04 | PRWeek

[DotIssues]

Two DC firms ramp up efforts over latest presidential controversies Written by Douglas Quenqua Published on September 17 2004

WASHINGTON: Two DC PR agencies eagerly fanned the flames of election-year scandal last week - one for the left and one for the right.

Creative Response Concepts (CRC), the VA-based agency promoting the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, used right-wing blogs and news sites to turn a CBS report casting doubt on President George W. Bush's National Guard service into a potential black eye for both the network and the Democrats.

A CRC client, the Cybercast News Service (CNS), was among the first to voice suspicion that documents suggesting Bush had received preferential treatment in the Guard were forgeries.

"After the CBS story aired, [CNS] called typographical experts, got them on the record that these papers were fishy, and posted a story by 3pm Thursday," said CRC SVP Keith Appell. "We were immediately in contact with [Matt] Drudge, who loved the story."

CRC worked with CNS and the Media Research Center, another media watchdog client, to push the story into the mainstream press.

"We've been communicating with bloggers and news websites to make sure they know it isn't just Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge who are raising questions," added CRC president Greg Mueller.

CBS News, which at first stood defiantly behind its reporting, succumbed to the pressure by Wednesday, releasing a statement conceding the papers might be false, but maintaining that the sentiments expressed in them were authentic.

"Enough media outlets were talking about it, and you can't deny that it's a big story, so we felt it was important to address it," said Sandy Genelius, CBS News VP of communications.

Meanwhile, Doubleday Press, which was on the defensive regarding claims in its new Kitty Kelley book that the President used cocaine at Camp David when his father was in office, used Ein Communications to ward off attacks from the White House and GOP strategists.

Jeff Ingram, VP of strategic communications, confirmed that Ein had been tapped in early August in anticipation of the controversy over The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty.

[DotIssues]

And quickly too. Too bad about Buckhead. That's the part that has me concerned more than the damn memos. It sucks that the times reconstructed him from old postings like that. I sort of agree with other posts I've seen that suggest limiting to 6 mos or so the posts available from users.
msl

[occutegirl]

Mainstream Media Gets Their Smear On

The inept LA Times effort to smear bloggers—GOP Activist Made Allegations on CBS Memos—has now been picked up and promoted by Editor and Publisher, with a really dumb title: ‘I Am Buckhead’: Newspaper Exposes Blog Folk Hero. “Folk hero?” Please.

His identity, the Times says, “is likely to fuel speculation among Democrats that the efforts to discredit the CBS memos were engineered by Republicans eager to undermine reports that Bush received preferential treatment in the National Guard more than 30 years ago.” GOP officials have denied this.

Note to Editor and Publisher and to the clueless LA Times: there is no “effort” to discredit the memos. The memos have been discredited. Period. Full stop. They are forgeries. No amount of idiotic finger-pointing and lame conspiracy theorizing will erase that simple, damning fact.

I had a telephone conversation with the author of the LA Times hit piece (Peter Wallsten) last week, and he asked me several times if I knew who “Buckhead” was (no), or if I had been in contact with anyone from the RNC (no), or if I knew of any other bloggers who had been in contact with the RNC (no). His agenda was clear even then.

Here’s another interesting fact. I’ve now spoken to at least a dozen newspapers, and had my words quoted many times. In every conversation I’ve made sure to point out that I’ve voted Democratic my whole life, but that I now support President Bush. Not one of these papers thought this was noteworthy enough to print, and with the publication of this LA Times smear job we see why: it doesn’t fit their program.

(littlegreenfootballs)

[Uncle Miltie]

Who are these guys at awolbush.com?

Sharp Advisors Inc, 3030 Bridgeway # 315, Sausalito, CA 94965-2810, 415-332-3895

Source: http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234%257E27281%257E,00.html

Digging. Can you tell me why we care? If you want some legwork on these guys, I can put in some time. Is there a scoop in this somewhere?

[Uncle Miltie]

Bad address. Cancel that.

[Uncle Miltie]

Better hit:

Randall Funding and Development, Inc.
Three Harbor Drive, Suite 315 Sausalito, CA 94965
Attention: Don Duncan, Chief Operating Officer

Source: http://www.belmont.gov/localgov/clerk/CC_Reports_2003/CC08262003/4F-CC-08262003.pdf

[longtermmemmory]

and british airways thinks the ads about "stupid americans" getting british history wrong actually makes people want to take ba.


and the IBM commercial with the French woman saying her office dumped the old computers on the stupid americans at the NY office will somehow help IBM sell computers. Someone should talk to IBM about french wine sales.


The DNC used a PR firm to fuel the butterfly ballot scandal in 2000.

[Uncle Miltie]

Homepage of the people co-located with awolbush.com:

http://www.randalldevelopment.com/who.html

[Uncle Miltie]

Tracking:

Daniel J. Randall, Chairman/CEO
Mr. Randall has over 30 years' experience developing and managing companies in the United States and abroad. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Fort Horse, Ltd., located in Hong Kong. During his career in international business, Mr. Randall has developed and run a variety of companies in the United States, Asia and Europe. These companies include the Santa Fe Investment & Trading Corporation and the Global International Group.
Mr. Randall received his Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina and a Master's Degree in International Finance from the American Graduate School of International Management. He was also a First Lieutenant in the United States Army and a pilot during the Vietnam War, and was twice decorated for valor.

[Uncle Miltie]

Tracking:

Daniel J Randall
Hemet, Ca usa
wizkid2001@aol.com
I am thankful for this venue and resource. It has allowed me time to explore my religious disbelief without annoying my loving wife.
Signed on: Thursday, May 13th at 1:11AM CDT

http://www.americanatheist.org/guests91.html

[VoteHarryBrowne2000]

Wow, you dug up a lot more information on the awol group! If there is a scoop or some leads here it's not clear, but it might just be a dead end. It's a bit odd that they've been humping the story since 2000 and that it is breaking now. There was another thread that mentioned that the awol group had the same memos as cBS but that's a given that they would post them too, but if they had them before 60 mins then that's news.

If there were some way to connect some dots with these guys in California and the jokers in Texas then we might have something worthwhile. Of course it looks like there's a fall guy in place for the memo leaks to 60 mins.

Tomorrow I'll make some calls and ask a few questions about awol and what they've been doing.

[Uncle Miltie]

Dan Randall is busy at Topplebush.com here:

http://www.topplebush.com/photos138.shtml

[cmotormac44]

Note----this guy just came on Free Republic 4 days ago--wonder if it was to "blow his own horn" and "drum up future business"?---trolls, trolls, and other such assorted garbage