The Bush administration will escalate "its information war against Islamic extremism" by beaming "Arab-language satellite-television broadcasts to Europe." Later this year, the Virginia-based, "U.S.-backed TV channel Alhurra expects to transmit 24-hour programming to European Muslim communities." The $3.5 million in start-up funding will come from the $81 billion supplemental military budget request. The chair of the Broadcasting Board of Governors said, "The 9/11 hijackers came largely from Europe. It's a significant gap that we were not broadcasting in Arabic to Europe." U.S.-funded media is seen as a "so-called soft-power tool for building good will" internationally.

Due to health concerns, European countries are adopting more stringent salt regulations and U.S. consumer groups are calling for the same. But last spring, the Salt Institute industry group "joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in suing the Department of Health and Human Services in federal court," alleging that "government scientists were advising Americans to eat less salt without enough evidence." When the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee considered cutting the recommended daily intake of salt from 2,400 to 1,500 milligrams, the Grocery Manufacturers of America warned there was no acceptable substitute. The committee decided on a slight decrease to 2,300 milligrams. "You could almost hear the industry exhale," said a former Cargill executive.

Communications professor Nancy Snow deconstructs GOP pollster Frank Luntz's memo titled "The 14 Words Never to Use." Luntz writes, "Effectively communicating the New American Lexicon requires you to STOP saying words and phrases that undermine your ability to educate the American people." Included on the blacklist are "privatization" ("it evokes images of fat cats on Wall Street picking our pockets," explains Snow), "global economy / globalization / capitalism" (these words remind us "of a world of winners and losers," writes Snow), and "outsourcing." Instead of discussing "outsourcing," suggests Luntz, "we should talk about the 'root cause' ... 'over-taxation, over-regulation, too much litigation, and not enough innovation or quality education.' Because it rhymes, it will be remembered."

More than 4,000 pages of "documents relating to the communications strategy of the Social Security Administration," reveal that the SSA "has markedly changed its communications to the public over the last four years," reports the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform. "While estimates of Social Security's long-term solvency have improved over the last four years, the [SSA's] rhetoric has moved in the opposite direction." Previously described as a program that keeps seniors "out of poverty" and is in "no immediate crisis," Social Security is now portrayed as an "unsustainable," "underfinanced" program that "must change." The differences "reflect a growing politicization of the [SSA]" and raise "questions about [its] political independence," states the report.