Copied from http://www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html
Alicia Mundy writes that "I was about to go live on the Today show to
discuss my book on the fen-phen scandal when the host, Maria Shriver, leaned
forward and very kindly said, 'I'm really sorry about the way we're doing
this interview and the questions I have to ask. You understand, don't you?'
.... It seems that the pharmaceutical company, Wyeth-Ayerst, had been
calling. Wyeth, a major conglomerate, makes Dimetapp and Robitussin, as well
as hormone replacement products and other drugs, and was a huge advertiser
with NBC. They'd apparently been in negotiations with NBC's counsel over my
pending appearance. ... I left satisfied, but remained curious about the
dynamics behind the scenes. The answer came this summer in an
extraordinarily revealing panel at the annual convention of Investigative
Reporters and Editors, in Washington. ... The panel, titled 'PR Attacks and
Counterattacks,' was moderated by Mark Feldstein of George Washington
University. With him was a former local TV news colleague, Kent Jarrell, who
went over to the dark side to P.R. and 'crisis management' in 1996, and is
now a senior vice president for litigation communications at APCO Worldwide.
Jarrell was joined by Don Goldberg, a survivor of the Clinton White House,
who toils for the government relations firm Navigant Consulting." Source:
Columbia Journalism Review, September/October, 2003