PRWeek's cover story focused on the CIA's
scandal involving the destruction of video tapes that showed agency employees using the controversial "waterboarding" interrogation tactics. The Justice Department launched a criminal investigation last week.
The Washington Times reports that there is a
second investigation by Congressional committees, which was initially delayed because of Attorney General Michael Mukasey's refusal to turn over records and witnesses of possible Justice Department involvement to Congress.
“Now that Mr. Mukasey has apparently relented, Sen. Joe Biden, Delaware Democrat, is right in calling for a special counsel because both these investigations lack credibility. For instance, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in its 2002 "torture memos" allowed the CIA to engage in such practices as waterboarding. Those 2002 permissions were withdrawn the following year but secretly reinstituted by the Justice Department in 2005.”
Also:
PRWeek reported on the new Lifetime Television's show
How to Look Good Naked and the multi-week
media campaign that led up to its premiere last Friday, including a satellite media tour in 25 separate markets and a huge publicity stunt in New York. The efforts might have
paid off. The show became the network's most-watched reality series premiere ever in the adult demographics of 18-49 (868,000 viewers) and among women 18-34 (344,000), according to the
Hollywood Reporter, via
Reuters. Overall,
Naked averaged 1.8 million total viewers in its debut.
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, unveiled his
new project, Wikia Search, yesterday and tech bloggers and industry experts were harsh with their reviews, as Wales might have expected. But some, including Barney Pell, co-founder of Powerset, a start-up focusing on natural language search, said Wikia Search could be leading efforts against Web site spam, which would improve search results for everyone.
PRWeek reported that Bite Communications is working with the company to handle
media relations surrounding the launch.
PRWeek covered the new
grassroots campaign by The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) directed at television political journalists, who they claim, have not pushed the issue of climate change at the forefront of the 2008 primary season. Over the weekend, members of the group took the message of the campaign from the Web to the streets of New Hampshire by
dressing up as Santa Claus, the Statue of Liberty, a polar bear, and a snowman, to gain attention outside of the presidential debates.