On September 28, The Wall Street Journal published a story titled "Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank." The story touched on the relationship between President Bush and family members of Osama Bin Laden through the Bin Ladens' investments in the Carlyle Group, which employs George Bush Sr. and other prominent Republicans. Its publication prompted conservative muckraker Larry Klayman to comment, "This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of the President's father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11 is horrible. President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group." Immediately thereafter, the Wall Street Journal dropped the story like a hot potato, and it has received scant mention in the rest of the media, but an enterprising (and anonymous) journalist has compiled a list of links to currently available information.

According to O'Dwyer's PR, James Carville, former political advisor to Bill Clinton, and his partner Stanley Greenberg will be working to "spruce-up" the image of Israel in the U.S. Carville and Greenberg met with Israel foreign ministry officials, but are to be paid by a group of American Jews who believe Israel's PR "needs improvement," according to The Jerusalem Post. O'Dwyer's says it is unclear whether the Israeli government will contribute to the PR effort. Carville and Greenberg have worked for former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar has reportedly announced a bounty of $50,000 to any Afghan gunmen who shoot a western journalist. With the roads of Afghanistan becoming ever more perilous, some journalists have made a "hasy retreat" from dangerous areas, partly to register protest with victorious Northern Alliance commanders who have failed to guarantee security. While the casualty count among western soldiers from almost two months of war is one death, eight journalists have been killed in Afghanistan in three weeks. Worldwide, 53 journalists have been killed so far this year, prompting a statement of concern from the International Press Institute.

The Publicity Club of Chicago's November luncheon featured TV journalists including Jay Foot of WLS, Pam Oliver of NBC 5-TV and Chaz Parker of WBBM. They were the featured speakers, there to tell the assembled PR flacks the best ways and times to pitch them and to get their PR aired as news. Such meetings are typical nation-wide and help explain how so much PR becomes "news."

The bold announcement from Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) that it had taken steps to create human embryos through cloning was more hype than reality. The methods used had already been done in animals, and some scientists insisted it wasn't cloning at all. Also, the few embryonic cells it had created had died. "This was a public relations campaign," said Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "It was aimed at investors and the public, but not scientists." As ACT's president later acknowledged, the company deliberately by-passed prestigious scientific journals like Science and Nature in order to find a second-rate academic outlet that would agree to publish the study simultaneously with U.S. News & World Report. Reporters bit like fish nevertheless, running breathless headlines about "The First Human Clone" and speculating about miracle cures and the ominous possibility of cloning Osama Bin Laden.