AT&T C.E.O. Switch

Link to story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/27/ap/hightech/main2735358.shtml

Link to company response: http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=23738


Edward E. Whitacre Jr., has announced that he will resign from his position as C.E.O. of AT&T. He is to be succeeded by AT&T's chief operating officer, Randall L. Stephenson, effective June 3. There is a very obvious difference in the tone of the two releases. The company release is written very professionally, and focuses on the success of AT&T and what good things will come of this change. The news story is written in a very lax style, and seems to hit most on the fact that this change is "unexpected" and that the reason of Whitacre's resigning is unknown, when the company release confirms that he is retiring. The CBS coverage also hits on the money that Whitacre's makes, and will continue to make after retirement, while again, the company release focuses on the success of the company as a whole.
Both releases do however give information on Whitacre and Stephenson's previous experiences with AT&T and other companies, and the stories are pretty similar with the exception of the reason for Whitacre's leave. While the news story is written in a very laid back, everyday manner, the use of language to describe what happened is similar. The company release supplies a substantial amount of information that the CBS release does not, and contains more direct quotes from Whitacre and Stephenson. These two releases are similar in their context, but their tones and style show the differences between how a company wants to portray a change or crisis to it's consumers, and how a news team will portray it.

Grassroots vs. Astroturf

According to sourcewatch.org, astroturf "refers to apparently grassroots groups or coalitions which are actually fake, often created by corporations or public relations firms. Groups that use astroturf use deceptive methods in order to receive public support for their point of view. An example of this would be members of the "group" dialing around America on a variety of public issues, searching for citizens who can be persuaded to endorse the political objectives of clients such as Mobil Oil and US Tobacco.
Grassroots, on the other hand, is the honest organizing and lobbying by methods such as: putting up posters, talking with pedestrians on the streets, meetings, going door-to-door, etc. I consider the Rain forest Action Network (RAN) to be a grassroots organization. Found in 1985, this international organization is an international group of environmental activists that work to protect the environment. Using education, non-violent direct action, and grassroots organizing, RAN delivers hard-hitting campaigns that convince multinational corporations, such as Home Depot, to change their policies to protect endangered forests. Their website gives great information about their past, present and future accomplishments and goals. It is easy to see that RAN is a sincere grassroots organization that is successfully working to make changes that will be beneficial worldwide.


Sources:
-The Rain Forest Action Network website: http://ran.org/
-Sourcewatch.org
-Wikipedia.org

Waterways lead

The Waterways Conference is a program that aggregates scientists, philosophers, politicians, artists, managers, etc. to make the public aware of water issues. This three day program, held from Tuesday March 13 to Thursday March 15, contains a slew of events giving the public insight to world-wide water issues such as: water-scarcity, quality of reserves, etc. The focus of this year's conference is river basins, specifically the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin. The conference contains debates, panel discussion, exhibits, and guest speakers, two of them being Natarajan Ishwaran and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. All sessions are free and open to the public, and will be a great source of information for those interested in this important issue.