Reportedly hoping to land "a nice local technology story," a partner in the Washington DC area firm Rock Creek Creative "issued a news release touting the company's role in (Ukraine's) Orange Revolution." Instead, Russian media "seized on Rock Creek's release as proof that the United States had meddled in the Ukrainian presidential election." The firm later backpedaled, saying it had been hired by the nonprofit Global Fairness Initiative just "to develop a Web site and strategy for a February 2004 conference in Kiev called 'Ukraine in Europe and the World.'" The incident, which "embarrassed the Yushchenko regime," was "a catastrophe," said Global Fairness Institute's director.

Speaking as the co-chair of FreedomWorks on CNBC last December, Dick Armey "spoke glowingly of 'Rx Outreach,' a national mail order program for low-income people that had just been launched by Express Scripts." FreedomWorks was "working with Express Scripts' public relations firm," Fleishman-Hillard, at the time, and "issued a press release praising Rx Outreach" the following week. Now, "Express Scripts says it plans to donate money to Armey's group." As a result, some are questioning "FreedomWorks' tax-exempt status because it appears that the group was a 'mouthpiece' for hire." The incident "highlights the often ambiguous role that some Washington think tanks and nonprofit groups play in political advocacy and their often-undisclosed connections to those who would benefit."