The French Connection to the Palin Smears
The Jawa Report’s outing of public relations man Ethan Winner as the poster of a professionally-produced anti-Sarah Palin smear video to YouTube has brought the company Publicis to the American public’s attention.
As Rusty Shackleford and his colleagues have shown, Winner and several other members of the Los Angeles-based Winner & Associates public relations firm — including company CEO Chuck Winner — appear to have been involved in a concerted effort to make the anti-Palin video “go viral” on the Internet. Winner & Associates is a 100% owned subsidiary of French giant Publicis.
And what is Publicis? By its own account, Publicis is the fourth-largest communications group in the world, having generated some €4.7 billion (or $6.9 billion) in revenue in 2007. With its distinctive postmodern headquarters on Paris’ Champs-Elysées just a stone’s throw from the Arc de Triomphe, Publicis also happens to be one of those highly politically-connected French firms that are so characteristic of the upper echelons of the French economy.
The principal shareholder in Publicis is Élisabeth Badinter, the daughter of company founder Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet. According to the Publicis 2007 financial data (p. 73), Badinter controls some 10% of the shares in the company and nearly 17% of the voting rights. A joint venture between Badinter and the Japanese Dentsu Corporation controls another 5% of the capital and 7% of the voting rights.
Ms. Badinter is well-known in France as a “feminist” philosopher and the author of numerous books. Her husband is none other than Robert Badinter, a renowned French jurist and Socialist Party politician, whose career is closely intertwined with that of the late French president François Mitterrand. From 1981 to 1986, during Mitterrand’s first seven-year term as president, Robert Badinter served as the French minister of justice. In 1986, he was then appointed by Mitterrand to head France’s Constitutional Council, a sort of “committee of wise men” — not all of them necessarily jurists, oddly enough — that is the country’s highest authority on constitutional matters. Badinter is probably best known in France nowadays for having spearheaded the campaign to abolish the death penalty. Although less known to the broad public, he also played an important role in shaping European policy during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s: namely, as the head of the so-called “Badinter Commission,” which was established by the then-European Community to provide legal “opinions” on events in the former Yugoslavia. The rulings of the “Badinter Commission” have been criticized by international law scholars (such, for instance, as Barbara Delcourt of the Université Libre de Bruxelles) for, in effect, dressing up political decisions in pseudo-legal garb. Mr. Badinter is presently a member of the French Senate.
Publicis Consultants, the public relations division of Publicis to which Winner & Associates belongs, counts several French government ministries and the European Commission among its regular clients. Indeed, as Rusty Shackleford notes, Ethan Winner’s bio page on an English-language Publicis Consultants website states that Winner is “presently heading an international team in creating a Europe-wide crisis and communications campaign to promote the European Union.” It must be said that it is rather implausible that Ethan Winner from far off Los Angeles would be attributed such a responsibility. After all, among his European colleagues, there are surely to be found numerous persons who are better situated and better qualified to perform the task. Take, for instance, Philippe Le Corre, who from 2004 to 2007 served as the international and public affairs adviser to Michèle Alliot-Marie, the former French minster of defense (and current French minister of the interior). This raises the question of just what exactly Winner in fact does for Publicis on the European front. His bio goes on to note incongruously, but more plausibly, that in the United States “he is leading efforts to promote gaming and thoroughbred racing in numerous statewide campaigns in order to counter the attendance crisis that is plaguing the industry.”
Publicis Consultants is presently handling communications for the “European Cultural Season” (French link) in connection with the French EU Presidency and on behalf of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture. The advertising division of Publicis, moreover, recently won a major contract to promote the “international image” (French link) of the Franco-German armaments and aeronautics firm EADS. Publicis previously won a major contract to promote EADS’ Airbus 380 “superjumbo” jet. As I have discussed in detail on PJ Media here, the French state is one of the principal shareholders in EADS. As so happens, Publicis CEO Maurice Lévy recently served on a high profile commission tasked by French President Nicolas Sarkozy with preparing a “white book” on the priorities of French foreign policy.
As Rusty Shackleford and others have pointed out, the notion that Ethan Winner and his cronies — all of them PR professionals — are just “concerned Americans” who attempted to make the Palin smear video “go viral” out of personal conviction is patently absurd. The obvious question, then, is for whom were Winner and his “associates” working? The most obvious answer is: the Obama campaign. Another and at least equally troubling possibility, however, is that they were working for one of Publicis’s high-powered European clients.
Defying diplomatic custom, European leaders have, after all, made no secret of their preference for Obama. As I discussed on World Politics Review here, Obama’s German-taxpayer subsidized appearance at the “Victory Column” in Berlin almost certainly amounted to an illegal in kind campaign contribution. And even a supposedly “pro-American” European leader like Sarkozy did not refrain from giving Obama his — indeed all of France’s! — tacit endorsement during the latter’s brief stopover in Paris. “If it’s him,” Sarkozy said slyly (French link), “France will be very happy, and if it’s not him, France will be a friend of the United States.”
This sounds to me like speculation at its least impressive. Work and client development are well separated from ownership in large service firms, and the Winner links to Democrat campaigning are far more direct.
Get some evidence before writing a story – this is thinner than the MSM alleging McCain affairs!
I believe “follow the money trail” IS an appropriate cause for concern… if there’s anything we know about the George Soros, MoveOn.org leftist crowd, it is that they try to hide their affiliations and and every way they can. Thank you for revealing it.
Chris, I would trust that you have been to KOS, Obama site, et al myriad times with the same complaint!
The socialist ties keep popping up everywhere for Obama. When will people wake up the fact that this guy is an extreme left-wing socialist?
Poeple won’t wake up because they refuse to educate themselves about the facts and they are spoonfed liberal bullsh*t from the MSM and don’t bother to question it. The vast majority of Americans today have gotten lazy and complacent, they can’t be bothered to get out in front of their TV long enough to worry about the direction our country is headed in. It may very well take something like the complete collapse of our financial system for people to be b*tch slapped back into reality. It makes me absolutely sick that the majority of people my age (24) that I talk to could care less about the elections. We’ve had it so good for so long that the “live-and-let-live” attitude is finally coming home to roost. I’m not saying I’m a fan of the consequences but I think a “long and painful recession” might be the best medicine for the disease of complacency that has spread across America.
The Euroweenie Tranzies want Obama to bring America into their fold. If they succeed, look for an American Union of Canada, Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador with a corps of bureaucrats headquartered in Havana feasting over the corpse of what used to be the United States. If you like the EU you’ll love the AU.
Let’s be sensible about this stuff.
I have no doubt that there was some degreee of coordination between the Obama campaign and Loser, um, Winner, but this article is pushing things into the ridiculous. I’ve worked for these kinds of multi-national firms and confidentiality agreements notwithstanding there’s simply no way that a corporation this big would incur the risk of this kind of conduct getting out. I don’t see how this could have been anything other than elements within a fairly autonomous subsidiary engaging in extra-curricular sleaze.
“Follow the money” worked during Watergate. Either Winner crafted this video for free, with the donated talents of a professional voice-over artist who worked on it out of the goodness of her heart, or somebody paid for it.
Assuming it was done for hire, do any laws require disclosure of where the money came from? If so, who has the legal right to demand disclosure of that info?
provide “legal “opinions” on events in the former Yugoslavia” (…)
It’s well known PR firms were involved in the Bosnia war. They were prominently at work in the Kosovo abomination on behalf of Albania; which led to the recent Georgian crisis in which they also are rumored to have been involved. If PR corporations are hired guns, doing the dirty work for foreign governments, insinuating Winner into the Presidential elections, ostensibly ‘as a loose gun’ is all in a day’s work to them. Wake up!
“…there’s simply no way that a corporation this big would incur the risk of this kind of conduct getting out.”
Jose, I think that used to be the case, but the old rules are slipping. Leftists don’t worry so much about those risks anymore. They believe they have enough power now that the consequences of such disclosures won’t be serious. Plus, they think “the cause” is more important than the business (c.f. Hollywood, the MSM, etc.).
I don’t see a “French Connection” as much as a Transnationalist liberal Jewish connection, honestly.
Two liberal Jews in Los Angeles, the Winners, living at Hollywood addresses – do the work for David Axlerod. They in turn are a subsidiary of a firm run by daughter of a Leftist Jewish founder, Elisabeth Blaustein-Badinter, whose Jewish husband is a prominent lawyer and Transnationalist. The work of the Winners, in turn, may have been paid by European arms of the most prominent Jewish Left-Transnationalist of all, George Soros, through Publicis to Team Axlerod.
Now of course, if such domestic-foreign manipulations of the US election process had been done by, say, Indian-Americans, or Italian-Americans using international resources of such Indians or Itaians overseas in the same positions…..the discussion could be frank and honest…without anybody fearing anybody screaming “Bigotry!” about mentioning the ethnicity of the Parties involved.
Mentioning it is liberal Jews here and abroad possibly behind the manipulation is “touchier”.
Because of some immunity from criticism for “past historical suffering” no other ethnicity suffered from?
This sounds to me like speculation at its least impressive.
No, that would be #85 (Palin was once blessed by a visiting preacher who mentioned witches and Satan) or #94 (Black musician remembers Sarah Palin by name shutting him down when she belatedly noticed he’s black. Eighteen years ago.)
What “smear”? In what respect, Charlie? Who needs smears when your “maverick” is unable to conduct herself freely in normal conversation without giving viewers the feeling she’s acing a quiz? Forget about aerial wolf hunting and earmarks for crab lovelife — the woman herself is her own, live, three-dimensional caricature. It’s a stunt gone bad — much like the stunt that’s turning on McCain this afternoon. He may be the first Republican in 30 years to figure out a way to lose Mississippi…
If Sarah Palin has been inaccessible, its only because there has been so much said by the press that is simply untrue or repeats or rumors rather than facts. There has been no less than an “intense” effort to smear Palin & anyone who denies this, is already in the tank for Obama & will always refuse to see such.
As for international connections on this video, it was obvious long ago that European socialists & their government & non governmental organization connections, have been deeply involved in trying to manipulate American elections.
Who investigates??? Only the very same bureaucrats who have been pushing for their favored candidates from behind the scenes for the past three presidential elections.
International influence in our elections is part of the world wide effort to socialize the world under a one world UN government. Think this is paranoid…. wait & see because in less than 20 years, it will all come true!
By then, it may be too late to save the freedoms we currently still enjoy!
The latest financial mess has just as many international ties & the same players are just as involved. Think Soros for one!
J.Rosenthal,
This article is a bit far-fetched.
That the Badinters may be Obamists sounds plausible, and I’m fully willing to believe S. Palin is not E. Badinter’s ideal female Model. But from here on – Publicis runs on money, not on sentiments.
Rubicon:
I agree with you. I also am suspicious of the internet money that Obama raised. Somehow, I believe that he is getting money from outside the country in order to help him win and the internet plays a big role in it. Also, I agree that Soros and company are involved somehow in the financial crisis. They were probably behind-the-scenes players in shorting stocks on the market to help drive it down.
The truth is that people who run for election in our country really need to be investigated. If Obama was properly investigated, he wouldn’t be where he is now. I don’t trust him at all.
Hmmmmm. Well, until a few days ago, Hunter Biden, son of Joe, was a lobbyist for internet gambling concerns.
This just gets better and better. Or more and more stupid, actually.
In 2002 Sen. John McCain worked for Winner & Mandabach, a subsidiary of Winner & Assoc.
http://tinyurl.com/4cq9rr
Does this make John McCain a mouthpiece for a liberal left Marxist French company??
Strange the way Shackleford never sees it fit to mention anything about McCain’s ties to Winner & Associates and publicis.
Why is he hiding that?
If Axelrod supposedly has such damning a connection, however slight to Winner & Assoc. from 1996 and did not work WITH or FOR Winner & Assoc., but in tandem on unrelated media pieces.
What could it mean that McCain did work with and for Winner & Mandabach in 2002. a mere 6 years ago helping them to craft their strategy in getting prop 202 passed (Aside: which it did BTW and denying Arizona $300 Million dollars annually and loosening regulations and oversight and begging the question, what sort of reward did McCain get for this act of Senatorial largesse? Indian tribes need not report the amount of or number of politicial contributions they give to a political party and McCain was the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee twice, 1995 to 1997 and again in 2005 to 2007. Interesting right> End aside)
So obviously, using the logic here McCain does the bidding of French Jewish liberals.
Non? Oui?
D’uh.
Yes, a lot of Obama campaign money does come from overseas. That has been investigated and found to be true, but the MSM did not cover it. The alternative media did. Just as these ties between the transnational elites are cited in this article. It is no secret that Obama’s policy platform is a menu that is cooked in the Eurosocialist kitchen. They want us to be drawn into their template. An independent and exceptional America is frightening to them and I think I know why. They are terrified that our attitude to confront Islamic terrorists puts them in the bulls eye, since there are so many of them in Europe.
They want us to be appeasers like they are.
This sounds to me like speculation at its least impressive. Work and client development are well separated from ownership in large service firms, and the Winner links to Democrat campaigning are far more direct.
Get some evidence before writing a story – this is thinner than the MSM alleging McCain affairs!
The connection between Publicis and Winner, and Winner’s attempted concealment of his astroturfing, and the general aims and directions of Publicis, are sufficiently established. Rosenthal is to be commended for doing the work that the MSM refuses to do. The rest of us can take it from here and draw our own conclusions – Rosenthal has ‘framed the debate’ and ‘set the agenda’ and ‘raised the concerns’ by the same methods used by the MSM.
So what if a French-owned firm did make the video? American PR firms have aided political movements in Eastern Europe, including Serbia, Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine by making ads, organizing the pr, and even organizing campaigns. Shall we make a big nationalist fuss over it or accept that it is a quality of globalization? Does it even matter?
seems like they make money better than GOP run banks!
ROFLMGO
Soros.
End of discussion.
Obama is Soros’ lawn jockey.
Their French connection is nothing compared to the PR work they’ve done for the Chinese.
Some examples:
http://www.pcplusag.com/inthenews.php?sub_page=latestnews&inthenews=latestnews
Like someone else said, this is reaching just a bit too far. Until something else is found, I suggest concentrating on the U.S. I also suggest looking at the IPs of those who visited pages on this topic shortly after they were created; I got a visit from DC lawfirm connected to BHO within an hour after posting the item at my name’s link. And, one of their attys has the last name Winner; whether that’s just a coincidence isn’t known.
I am disgusted by the leftist smear machine in the US, but linking an essentially automomous PR agency that is under the Publicis umbrella to the political learnings of its senior management overseas is a stretch.
Actually, Mr. Rosenthal, that is very good work. An investigation into the hierarchical structure and organization of which the Winner family is a part is a worthwhile exercise.
Although explicit (read: actionable) conclusions cannot be drawn without further evidence, we have gained some insight into the corporate philosophy behind what the Winner family has attempted to do.
Thank you for sharing your work.
Jesus, the point here, folks, is to explore the connections and ultimately get to some answers. Just because everything is not spelled out for you in gigantic neon letters and wrapped up with an explanation at the end like an episode of CSI doesn’t mean there’s nothing here worth investigating and discussing.
I don’t understand what is so amazing about this article.
First, most (if not all) the information it contains can easily be found on-line. Just use Google. This is probably what John Rosenthal did anyways.
Second, even if the article is accurate (and it looks like it is), what’s the point? Are you implying that the French are using propaganda to push for their own agenda, or something along those lines? Big surprise. Because, guess what, this is exactly what everybody else does, the US, China, Bhutan. Oh, but maybe the French should be the only ones not doing it. Makes so much sense.
Third, Palin doesn’t need the French to be ridiculed. She did a great job herself with Katie Couric:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/25/palin-talks-russia-with-k_n_129318.html
Hey, Couric, sounds French, no? John, why don’t you Google this or check Wikipedia to find new info?
GM Roper said:”Chris, I would trust that you have been to KOS, Obama site, et al myriad times with the same complaint!”
I would if I saw it there, but I am a Pajamas/Instapundit regular and RWDB, not a Kos reader.
Insufficiently Sensitive:”The connection … are sufficiently established… The rest of us can take it from here and draw our own conclusions – Rosenthal has ‘framed the debate’ and ’set the agenda’ and ‘raised the concerns’ by the same methods used by the MSM.”
Rosenthal, poor bastard, is damned with the faintest of praise.
May I suggest a slightly closer association?
Winner & Associates currently count International Edison and Consolidated Edison as their clients. These are two very large energy companies in the United States. They have, as their top ten holders, JP Morgan, Goldman-Sachs, UBS, State Street and Barclay’s UK. Some of these investors are also on the top ten holders list for Commonwealth Edison/Exelon, the electricity company that is a large sponsor of Obama to the tune of $74k.
Goldman Sachs, UBS and JP Morgan are among Obama’s top donors with Goldman Sachs topping the list.
Most importantly, though, Commonwealth Edison, from Tom Ayers to current CEO, and registered lobbyist, Frank Clark have been Obama’s backers from the outset. Frank Clark is currently listed as a bundler for Obama under his trustee position at University of Chicago. Where Michelle works. Strangely, no mention of his ComEd/Exelon position.
David Axelrod, owner of ASK and currently Obama’s campaign manager, worked with ComEd to create C.O.R.E. (Consumers Organized for Reliable Energy) a front group for ComEd that presented itself as a “grassroots” organization to promote higher energy rates in Illinois when the rate freeze was about to expire in 2007 and Illinois was considering expanding it for another three years. The extension did not go through, but CORE was outed and made to go public with its association.
Also of interest, Avis Lavelle, Media Liaison for CORE and founder of Lavelle Cousins consulting was recently paid $24k by the Obama campaign in their August reporting.
ASK and Lavelle have worked with Winner&Associates in the past to create similar “front groups” on numerous issues, usually within the Illionois/Chicago millieu.
In 2005, Obama participated in one of his few votes in support of the 2005 Energy Bill that included many of these subsidies, loans and tax breaks discussed. According to a Harpers story on Obama, his presence was assuredly at the request of ComEd/Exelon.
There are other connections that tie Obama to the CORE/ComED and energy people.
Why is this important? The Gang of Ten was attempting to push through a comprehensive energy bill that included substantial subsidies, loans and tax breaks for energy companies, like ComEd, International Edison and ConEd, that would have benefited them greatly. It included below market loans for automakers and other subsidies (that were recently passed through the emergency spending bill to keep the government operating until the budget could be approved).
This bill from the Gang of Ten, as you know, would also have limited off shore drilling to 50 miles or more off shore. As many noted, that is the least likely place for oil to exist per surveys. The importance of limiting drilling would have kept supplies off the market and allowed oil prices to continue to remain high and provided the “fuel” for consumers to demand more electric and hydrogen vehicles as well as “alternative” heating and electricity based on hydrogen plants, wind farms and even nuclear plants. All of which these energy companies own or are attempting to build at this time.
At the time that the Gang of Ten was doing a last push to get support for their bill and enlisting more Republicans, McCain introduced Sarah Palin, the queen of “Drill here, Drill Now”. The RNC featured numerous speakers discussing the availability of oil in the United States and drilling.
Shortly thereafter, this video appeared trying to associate Palin directly with the AIP, secessionist and an organization that had a Chechnyan rebel website linked to theirs. A clear implication of terrorist relations as the world generally associates Chechnyan rebels with Al Qaeda.
There are, to my knowledge, no direct implications of payment from any or one of these groups to Winners&Associates for this video. Unless someone can get a public view of W&A accounting or of Ethan Winners bank statements. For that matter, it does not have to be a direct payment for the video. The more succinct point is that multiple employees and the owner of a known PR firm with these links to energy companies and the Democrat party may have, indeed, decided to do it on their own and felt that it served both their clients and their political aspirations.
As you know, the Gang of Whatever dissolved and were unable to push through a total ban. However, in the emergency bill to keep government running passed on Saturday, they did push through a provision that a) keeps oil leases from being granted until 2011 and b) keeps the east coast of the Gulf of Mexico off limits (west coast of Florida).
So, I believe that the issue with the video and Winner&Associates is more germane to local politics and relations.
George Washington was a Socialist from the Empire’s eyes.
Socialist have soul. Conservatives just look for themselves (and they think they’re Xtians).
Socialists want to heal human pain. Right wingers give a damn.
Socialist countries in Europe, Cuba and others have higher literacy and health care rates than the richest (?) nation in the World. They are not paradises, but gets them closer to a humane State.
remember if obama gets in it will be hell to pay in the united states in more ways than one. all liberal women are going to look like hell in the abyas and men in their raghead get-up. i will bet my life he is not the second coming… so idiots get over it! healthcare sucks because we have illegal aliens taking it…airhead. deua if you think other countries have it so great live there.
As a former employee of the Publicis Groupe network I can tell you that you’re deeply mistaken if you think they’re some kind of left-wing socialist bastion. While the majority of people who work in advertising could definitely be described as liberal, the company itself probably the most cold & pragmatically profit-driven network in the business. It only makes sense that its Officers and principal shareholders would be equally so.
I see no evidence or link to a widespread leftist conspiracy here. Sorry dude.