Eoghan O Neachtain: Ireland top spin doctor to resign

After working with Taoiseach Enda Kenny through the first 100 days in office, government press secretary Eoghan O Neachtain is standing down this weekend.

Mr O Neachtain worked as a spindoctor for a record three Taoisigh — starting out with Bertie Ahern in 2007, continuing with Brian Cowen in 2008 and then working with Mr Kenny since March.

The Taoiseach’s decision to ask him to stay on for the initial period of the Fine Gael — Labour Party coalition was unusual as Mr O Neachtain had worked for the previous Fianna Fail administration.

The former Defence Forces press officer worked with the new Government on Mr Kenny’s first two EU summits and visits to Washington and New York and the media strategy and organisation of the visits of Queen Elizabeth II and US President Barack Obama.

Career

Mr O Neachtain will be taking time off and has not revealed his next career move.

He left his position as ESB public affairs manager to take up the government press secretary post, but is expected to return to the semi-state company later in the year.

Alastair Campbell involved in a fight with singer Tom Parker

We’re not used to see Tony Blair’s notorious spin doctor Alastair Campbelle in this type of fight. No bloody political battles. but a football pitch and a good old man to man fight…

This time the former Downing Street media bruiser was in the thick of a real scrap between his team and a boy band in a charity tournament.

Campbell, 54, had some harsh words for Tom Parker over a tough challenge by The Wanted star.

It sparked ugly scenes as Parker and one of Campbell’s team-mates locked heads in the celebrity six-a-side clash at Turf Moor, home of the spin doctor’s beloved Burnley.

An onlooker said: “No one was sent off but you could cut the tension with a knife. Campbell was not happy at all.”

Parker, 23, from Bolton, had to be carried off on a stretcher in a later match with a leg injury.

He tweeted afterwards: “A fight with Alastair Campbell (yes the MP) and a twisted knee..paiiin!”

Campbell, who had turned out for a celebrity team representing Burnley, said of the fracas: “It was all a bit handbags.”

Putin kicks Medvedev’s spin doctor out

The Kremlin has dropped prominent adviser Gleb Pavlovsky over his publicly stated preference for Dmitry Medvedev in next year’s presidential vote, highlighting sensitivities over apparent rivalry with Vladimir Putin, Vedomosti reported Wednesday.

Pavlovsky had “openly bet on Dmitry Medvedev, offering to discuss his modernization agenda within the election campaign,” an unidentified Kremlin official told the daily.

Pavlovsky runs the Foundation for Effective Politics, a think tank that advised the Kremlin in an unofficial capacity. Kremlin officials told the paper it would no longer be working with Pavlovsky’s foundation, effectively severing ties with him.

In the lead-up to State Duma elections in December and next year’s presidential vote, political figures have not shown preference for any one member of the ruling duo but expressed growing nervousness over the uncertainty.

Pavlovsky threw his weight behind President Medvedev over the past year in interviews with several media outlets. He first broke a taboo two years ago when he speculated about a possible coup against Prime Minister Putin from within.

A Kremlin official on Wednesday denied a political motive behind Pavlovsky’s departure, telling Interfax that he had played a minor role in drafting Kremlin policies and resigned voluntarily.

“He did not provide any special political consulting lately,” the unidentified official said. “His responsibilities were mainly limited to reviewing regional media, which, in the age of the Internet … is hardly a unique service.

“He was kept in the job mainly because of his past achievements,” the official added.

But Pavlovsky insisted that he was removed from the Kremlin for his vocal support of a second term for Medvedev. The tandem’s refusal to announce their candidate “has dragged on for too long and weakens the whole party of power,” Pavlovsky told Rusnovosti.ru.

“Putin has done all he could, and now he has to help Medvedev with his future presidency,” Pavlovsky said.

Neither Putin nor Medvedev has commented on the issue.

But Putin said Tuesday during a trip to Denmark that the tandem would not take Western advice into account when deciding on the candidate.

“Future candidates for president of the Russian Federation do not need support from abroad,” Putin said when asked by a reporter about calls by some in the West for him to stay out of the election.

“Future candidates for president of Russia need the support of the Russian people,” he said, without elaborating.

In a poll released this week, 39 percent of Russians believe that Putin will become president in the 2012 poll, while 28 percent are predicting a victory for Medvedev, Vedomosti reported, citing the independent Levada Center.

Danish opposition leader hired Obama’s spin doctor

While the opposition is preparing the allocation of ministry posts, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Social Democrat leader, is leaning back in mental preparation for becoming the next prime minister.

As part of this preparation, Thorning-Schmidt has reportedly received advice from John Podesta, who chaired Barack Obama’s transition team after Obama’s election victory in 2008 and served over two years as Bill Clinton’s chief of staff.

“Of course it’s not right make direct comparisons between Denmark and the US, but we have some experience that Helle could draw on,” Podesta, who has advised Thorning-Schmidt to spend no more than 45 minutes a week discussing a takeover with public officials, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

Thorning-Schmidt and Socialist People’s Party leader Villy Søvndal have also reportedly agreed that the Social Democrats will be given around half of the cabinet seats, while SF would get two thirds of the remaining seats, and the Social Liberals would get the remaining third.

Meanwhile, a group of officials from the Social Democrats and the SF is working on a joint proposal for a long-term economic plan for Denmark, which would function as the basis for a left of centre government.

It recently emerged that the two parties are planning to create a number of new ministries, including a new ministry that would coordinate efforts between ministries.

In addition, the most powerful ministers would be advised by a team of three spin doctors.

A newly-published book claimed that the Social Democrats have made a “death list” of top civil servants whose functions the party believes are too characteristic of the current government’s policies, and who the party would seek to replace. The Social Democrats have, however, denied that claim.

Alastair Campbell to advise South Africa

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell on Tuesday said he has noticed a definite tension between government and the South African media.

Campbell has been invited to share his expertise at a two-day Government Communicators’ Forum which started in Midrand on Monday.

He said he will be offering strategic advice.

“I actually met people from the south African government a few years ago in London where they started to explain to me how they did want to try and modernise government communications. They have asked me to give them strategic advice having been involved in processes in modernisation of communications,” said Campbell.

Craig Oliver: David Cameron’s spin doctor dirty little secret

David Cameron’s new chief spin doctor runs a legal tax avoidance scheme to manage his TV presenter wife’s earnings.

Ex-BBC news boss Craig Oliver was paid £2,999.99 as company secretary of his wife’s TV company, through which her salary is paid.

The set-up let her to claim earnings as “turnover” – not taxable pay.

But he said he had not received a salary since the 2007/8 tax year and will quit the position when he replaces Andy Coulson.

World Cup spin doctor hired by a SA mobile company

MTN has appointed former World Cup Organising Committee chief communications officer Rich Mkhondo as the new head of its corporate affairs department.

He replaces Nozipho January-Bardill, who has left MTN.

The emerging markets cellphone group says Mkhondo will be MTN group spokesman and will also be responsible for “implementing MTN’s communications and stakeholder relations strategies throughout its operations in Africa and the Middle East”.

A Rhodes University journalism graduate, Mkhondo is a former journalist, having worked as a correspondent for Independent Newspapers in Washington and Reuters news agency, where he covered Southern Africa.

He is a former spokesman for SAA and former MD of Ogilvy Public Relations.  — Staff reporter, TechCentral

John Helmer: Journalist or Oligarchs’ PR Man?

Has John Helmer stayed too long in Russia? So long that he has adopted the country’s journalistic practices? Observers may wonder…

John Helmer is an Australian journalist and blogger who has been covering Russian business and living in Moscow for over thirty years.

His opinionated articles and blog posts, his cold irony and his numerous connections throughout Russian business networks have gained him a controversial reputation in Moscow.

Pitiless and ruthless when he writes about businessmen and companies he dislikes, Helmer also demonstrates curious restraint with others.

Vladimir Potanin’s Norilsk, for instance, has never had cause to complain about Helmer’s work. Oleg Deripaska, on the other hand, has not been so lucky. For many years Deripaska has been the subject – on an almost weekly basis – of aggressive articles on Helmer’s blog.

Foreign journalistic sources in Moscow often discuss Helmer’s perceived “protection”, with one source commenting: “He couldn’t write half of what he does if he wasn’t somehow in touch with powerful people.”
 
Some sources even claim that Helmer has “done a deal” with the Russian secret services. The FSB allegedly passes information to Helmer and offers its protection in exchange for positive coverage of key figures in Russia… Hard to believe? Try to find an article hostile to Vladimir Putin on Helmer’s blog…

Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s American lawyer and lobbyist Robert Amsterdam notes that Helmer “is much gentler with Deripaska’s main business partner, Vladimir Putin”.

Amsterdam also doubts Helmer’s version of a failed assassination attempt by hitmen who Helmer claimed were working for a Rusal subsidiary.

As Amsterdam points out: “The only problem is that all of this information comes only from Helmer himself (…) All I am saying is that it would be good to see the police go on record or some other third party statements on the incident”.

Helmer’s blog often makes for entertaining reading. However, his clear bias towards certain members of the Russian business elite and his increasingly outlandish claims call into question both his journalistic integrity and his commitment to truthful and balanced reporting.

British PM’s top spin doctor to be called as witness at Sheridan trial

The Prime Minister’s top spin doctor could be called to give evidence at the Tommy Sheridan perjury trial after his name was included on a new list of witnesses.

• Spin doctor Andrew Coulson is on Sheridan’s witness list

Andrew Coulson, Downing Street’s director of communications, is on a list of people whom Sheridan has indicated he might want to call to the witness box.

Mr Coulson is a former editor of the News of the World, the paper which Sheridan sued successfully four years ago. It was that civil litigation which has led to the current trial, where Sheridan and his wife Gail deny giving perjured evidence on his way to being awarded £200,000 in damages.

The drafting of a new witness list was one of Sheridan’s first tasks since deciding to sack his counsel and conduct his own defence. In another early foray into his new forensic role, he tried to leave the dock to conduct a cross-examination, but was quickly informed by the judge that he should remain in his accustomed position.

Evidence at the High Court in Glasgow, on the seventh day of the trial, centred on a claim by a former political colleague that Sheridan had confessed to attending a sex club when he addressed the Scottish Socialist Party’s hierarchy.

Joanna Harvie, 33, told the jury there was no doubt in her mind about what Mr Sheridan had said. Questioned by Sheridan, Ms Harvie rejected a suggestion that she had not cared about a party member going to the News of the World about Sheridan because it was to “do him in”.

The court has heard that the News of the World made lurid allegations about an unnamed MSP in 2004, and that an emergency meeting of the SSP’s executive was convened to discuss the article.

Ms Harvie, a journalist who edited the party’s newspaper, the Scottish Socialist Voice, and now works on a newspaper for refugees in Glasgow, said Mr Sheridan was “an incredibly high-profile figure” and someone with “an immense reputation.” It was the first time an emergency meeting had been called. Before attending, she had spoken to Alan McCombes, another senior figure in the SSP.

“Alan explained the story about an unnamed MSP referred to Tommy. I was hugely concerned. (At the meeting] Tommy explained that the unnamed MSP was him. He said he had attended a sex club on two separate occasions. He said he was sorry for it. He said he did not know what it was that made him do it … said it was reckless behaviour,” Ms Harvie told the court.

“He did not believe the News of the World could prove it was him and if they did name him, he would sue them. Even though Alan had explained to me the day before what the meeting was going to be about, I think I was still shocked all over again to hear Tommy explain it.

US heated healthcare debate takes over top lobbyist

Top lobbyist and former House republican leader, Dick Armey, had to quit his job with the lobbying firm DLA Piper becoming the first PR victim of the US healthcare debate which seems to me as the first communication “faux-pas” of the Obama administration.

We might talk about it another day, but today’s news is that Armey had to resign for his public involvment in the debate. He is of course rejecting the Obama plan and spoke a little to loud according to the company which works for a medical company… supporting the plan.

Read this extract:

To review the odd facts of this case: the drug companies who helped defeat the Clinton administration’s health care effort 15 years ago have turned on Mr. Armey, who then was one of their most important Congressional allies. Now, having cut a deal with the administration to limit their share of the costs, the drug companies are on the other side. Foreseeing new profits from the expansion of health coverage, they are spending as much as $150 million on advertisements to support it.

To their embarrassment, however, Mr. Armey has continued to oppose the idea as the chairman of the independent conservative group FreedomWorks. The group has helped turn out rowdy demonstrators at at town hall-style meetings with lawmakers around the country. And some liberal Web sites have begun connecting Mr. Armey’s fight against the health care legislation to his other work for DLA Piper’s drug company clients.

One of DLA Piper’s biggest clients is Medicines Company, which paid DLA Piper $240,000 in lobbying fees in the second quarter. Another drug maker, Sanofi Pasteur, paid the firm $30,000 during the same period, according to its latest disclosure forms.

FreedomWorks did not respond to requests for comment.

Frank Burch, chairman of DLA Piper, said in a press release that firm appreciated Mr. Armey “taking the initiative to clear up confusion concerning FreedomWorks.”

“Despite some unfounded media suggestions attempting to link DLA Piper to FreedomWorks’s opposition to health care reform, the firm has not, on its own behalf, or on the behalf of any client, directly or indirectly opposed any of the pending health care reform bills,” Mr. Burch said. “On the contrary, DLA Piper represents clients who support enactment of effective health care reform this year.”