USA Today reported this morning on a “whisper campaign” launched by Burson-Marsteller on behalf of an unnamed client that targeted Google’s Social Circle feature for Gmail. (The USA Today article and this one from Business Insider has a bit of detail about the feature, which taps into your info to make “social connections.”)

Citing consumer privacy concerns and Google’s issues with the Federal Trade Commission, two of Burson’s high-profile publicists — former CNBC anchor Jim Goldman and former political columnist John Mercurio — sent a pitch to reporters suggesting an op-ed slamming Google. One of those pitched reporters, Christopher Soghoian, a former FTC researcher and blogger, posted the pitch online. And, actually, according to the email, Mercurio said, “I’m happy to help place the op-ed and assist in the drafting, if needed. For media targets, I was thinking about the Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, Roll Call or the Huffington Post.”

USA Today says Goldman was in contact with them about the story. And the paper writes, “After Goldman’s pitch proved largely untrue, he subsequently declined USA TODAY’s requests for comment.”

We were in touch with the firm to find out if this is standard practice and how the firm will address the obvious ethical issues this situation raises. We received this statement from the firm: “The situation that led to the USA Today story is highly unusual and does not represent standard practice at Burson-Marsteller. We regret that it was not handled well and we are reviewing it thoroughly.”

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Ogilvy PR has added three to its New York office. Parris Bowe joins as SVP in the consumer marketing practice reporting to Alyssa Garnick, EVP of the practice. Bowe has previously worked for Lippe Taylor and Edelman. David Hanon joins as VP of that consumer marketing practice as well. He was most recently at Waggener Edstrom for more than a decade where he worked with tech consumer clients including Microsoft. And Ryan Aynes has joined the 360⁰ Digital Influence Group as a VP. He was previously director of social media at the JAR Group.

Rep. Darrell Issa‘s (R-CA) former spokesperson Kurt Bardella has landed at Tucker Carlson‘s The Daily Caller. He was fired by the Congressman after an investigation was launched into whether he shared emails with reporters. Bardella starts his new job today as director of communications, The Huffington Post writes.

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While sitting on a panel at the SXSW conference with three other executives from Japanese mobile and social networks, Takahito Iguchi nearly broke down when he got to a slide on his deck that said “SAVE JAPAN.” According to the New York Times story about the panel discussion, “the executives described in interviews how mobile and social sites became vital when the earthquake struck because landlines went down, as did voice and e-mail services on cellphones.”

Tak Miyata, SVP of global business at Mixi says, in the story, that his site’s traffic went up 800 percent.

SXSW attendees have demonstrated their awareness of the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, with donations to SXSW4Japan nearly reaching its $50,000 goal.

Social networks, media outlets, and other businesses and organizations have been getting the word out about news and philanthropic efforts following the quake and tsunami. After the jump, a few examples.

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