The Wall Street Journal reports that Subway Restaurants "launched a new sandwich last night by having it written into the story line of NBC's 'Will & Grace'." Such advertising is increasingly spreading beyond television and movies, and into magazines and newspapers. According to a media consulting firm, "Revenue from product placements in magazine editorial copy - the stories and photographs - is expected to rise 17.5 percent to $160.9 million this year, and in newspapers by 16.9 percent to $65 million." The Christian Science Monitor points out, "Product placements, if done in exchange for payment, would violate the operating guidelines of most publications, which usually insist on a clear division between stories or 'editorial copy' and advertising as a mark of responsible journalism."

"At the State Department's invitation," former Voice of America director and current dean of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication Geoffrey Cowan wrote an opinion piece for USA Today praising Karen Hughes, the new U.S. public diplomacy head. Hughes "knows that we have to change our tone so that we sound less arrogant," Cowan wrote. "Importantly," during her recent Middle East "listening tour," Hughes was "accompanied ... by Dina Powell, her new deputy, who was born in Egypt and speaks fluent Arabic." Noting Cowan's "third-party endorsement" of Hughes, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reported that, while USA Today did disclose the State Department's role in the opinion piece, the newspaper didn't mention that "Cowan received a briefing from Hughes when she visited the campus on Sept. 21."

Karen Hughes "started her first week as the State Department's top public relations officer with a 'listening tour' of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey." After Hughes' meeting with Egyptian students on U.S. scholarships, one student said, "I'm glad she spoke to us, but I didn't find her answers very convincing." In Turkey, Fatma Nevin Vargun told Hughes, "War makes the rights of women completely erased." Turkish activist Hidayet Sefkatli Tuksal said there is "no chance for America to make its image better ... while the war in Iraq is still going on." Tuksal also said she was "feeling myself insulted" by some of Hughes' comments. In Saudi Arabia, several of the 500 women at an event with Hughes took exception to her wish that Saudi women be allowed to drive and "fully participate in society." An ob/gyn countered, "There is more male chauvinism in my profession in Europe and America than in my country."

"A Texas grand jury's decision to indict former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) may have caught many people in Washington off-guard, but those in DeLay's inner circle had spent the past few days bracing themselves," reports The Hill. "Minutes after the announcement came, DeLay's closest and strongest supporters began mounting a defense. By 2 p.m., a two-page memo condemning [Texas prosecutor] Ronnie Earle and the indictment was hitting Republican e-mail." The memo "turns the ethical spotlight on Earle and casts DeLay as the innocent victim." It "cites a Houston Chronicle article saying that Earle had started raising money for 'far-left' groups." Republicans "would not disclose the author," but the memo is similar to one written earlier this year by former Republican National Committee research director Barbara Comstock, in response to questions about DeLay's foreign travel and campaign payments to his wife and daughter.

The Rendon Group, a PR firm that has assisted U.S. military interventions in at least seven countries, continues to be a Pentagon favorite. The secretive firm recently won a year-long $6.4 million contract with the Army for "Strategic Communications Operations Support" in Baghdad. In April 2005, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reported that Rendon "is winding down its current $8.2M contract" with the Pentagon's Strategic Command. Rendon had been "handling foreign media analysis for about 15 months," with a whopping "56 staffers handling the account." The Rendon Group is no stranger to Iraq. Seymour Hersh reported in a March 2002 New Yorker article that the firm received close to $100 million from the CIA for work it did in Iraq in the five years following the Gulf War, which included launching the Iraqi National Congress.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which received bad press last year for funding an Environmental Protection Agency study that would have exposed children to pesticides and household chemicals, launched a "major public education campaign" called "essential2." The two-year, $35 million campaign will stress "how central chemistry is to the health and growth of our nation," said ACC President Jack Gerard. "The chemistry industry is America's leading exporter, accounting for 10 percent of all U.S. exports, and we generate more than half a trillion dollars for the U.S. economy each year." ACC hired Ogilvy Public Relations Worlwide, APCO Worldwide and the Ogilvy & Mather ad firm for "essential2." The campaign includes a new website, www.americanchemistry.com, "press, television, public relations, online and employee communications," as well as outreach tailored to seven U.S. geographic regions.

"Earlier this year, McDonald's Corp. unveiled plans to enlist rap artists to produce several songs that would integrate the Golden Arches' iconic Big Mac sandwich into lyrics," as "part of the company's ongoing strategy to court the youth market, especially young men, through hip-hop," reports AdAge. Although McDonald's promised to pay artists $1 to $5 each time promotional songs air on the radio, and hired the entertainment marketing firm Maven Strategies to oversee the effort, no Big Mac tracks have yet been recorded. "We have not identified the right opportunity," said a McDonald's spokesperson. "We have not yet identified the match that we've been looking for." McDonald's has also not launched its new "hip street wear" uniforms, designed with input from Russell Simmons' Phat farm, Sean "Diddy" Combs' Sean John, Tommy Hilfiger, Fubu and American Apparel, according to AdAge.

"Riding a wave of concern over high energy prices triggered by Katrina" - and following a plan drawn up by the House Republican Study Committee at the Heritage Foundation - "congressional Republicans are rushing to ease environmental rules on refineries and looking for ways to open new coastal waters to oil and gas development," as well as Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The lawmakers say "the measures were needed to address the vulnerabilities exposed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the nation's energy system." Environmentalists and city and state officials counter that the Republicans are "exploiting the tragedy that has hit the Gulf region to pursue a slew of pro-industry measures that Congress rejected earlier this year when it passed a broad energy bill." The measures would "dismantle environmental laws that are not barriers to rebuilding the affected Gulf states," said the head of the National League of Cities.

Corporate social responsibility "may work under certain conditions," writes Deborah Doane, but CSR efforts "are highly vulnerable to market failures, including such things as imperfect information, externalities, and free riders. Most importantly, there is often a wide chasm between what's good for a company and what's good for society as a whole." Although CSR efforts "offer good PR," sometimes they're just that. "Corporations use the United Nations to their public relations advantage, such as posing their CEOs for photographs with Secretary-General Kofi Annan," while flaunting the UN's CSR agreement, the Global Compact. After describing what she calls "the four key myths of CSR," Doane concludes that CSR "is a placebo, leaving us with immense and mounting challenges in globalization for the foreseeable future."

After the industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) issued a voluntary code of conduct for direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising, drug companies "are hoping to skirt the issue" by "getting more executives and experts quoted in major newspapers and magazines and sitting across from Katie Couric on 'The Today Show'," reports Advertising Age. The voluntary guidelines include waiting "an appropriate amount of time" after a drug is approved before companies advertise it, to give health professionals time to learn about the new medication. "We don't view these types of activities as 'skirting' the code of conduct," said PhRMA's Ken Johnson. "The new PhRMA guidelines are aimed at improving the educational value of DTC advertising, but there have been numerous other ways that companies, scientists and the medical community have reached out to patients."

Although their city hosted last month's White House conference on "cooperative conservation," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch isn't impressed. In an editorial, the newspaper wrote, "The most concrete example" of the Bush administration's new environmental philosophy "appeared in Congress this week in a bill that would revise the landmark Endangered Species Act." The bill, sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo, "would make it more difficult to provide federal protection for land critical to the health of endangered species. It would also impose an unrealistically quick 90-day limit for the government to object to development plans. And it requires the government to pay 'fair market value' for critical habitat if it steps in and blocks development on environmental grounds." The editorial continues, "Like Pombo's new bill, the conference was perfect for those who believe the only thing wrong with nature is the people trying to protect it."

"Philip Morris, the manufacturer of Marlboro ... created a crack team to transform the insides of Britain's upmarket bars and music events, in an attempt to boost its profits," reports The Observer. Marketing documents from 2004 that the newspaper obtained detail how Philip Morris offers gift certificates to bar owners for displaying furniture, ashtrays or vending machines with Marlboro's logo. In a "subliminal" approach, bar lounge areas the company calls "installations" or "Marlboro Motels" include no logos, just "comfortable red sofas in front of video screens showing scenes redolent of Wild West 'Marlboro country' to convey the essence of the cigarette brand while circumnavigating sponsorship bans." Philip Morris also specifically targets young, affluent smokers at "high-profile music events where attractive female 'Marlboro models' would sell cigarettes." But Philip Morris isn't alone; now that Britain bans tobacco ads, "all that former advertising money had to go somewhere," an industry insider told The Observer.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has back-tracked on a decision to prevent No Free Lunch - a group dedicated to curbing drug industry marketing to doctors - from hiring booth space at its annual scientific assembly. In his September 14 decision, AAFP Executive Vice President Douglas Henley stated that, "while the AAFP respects the mission of No Free Lunch, their desire to eliminate information-sharing by exhibitors with our members clearly negates the purpose of the Exposition Hall." The British Medical Journal noted that the "conference exhibitors and corporate supporters of the academy's conference include the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Abbott Laboratories, Coca-Cola, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, and Pfizer. Following protests, AAFP reversed its position and issued a statement agreeing that No Free Lunch could hire booth space.

After being deported by the Australian government, U.S. peace activist Scott Parkin has ridiculed claims against him in The Australian. "If I am such a threat, why have the FBI not even phoned me since my return from Australia to follow up [Australian intelligence]'s silly allegations? ... As I always say and sincerely believe, it is unprincipled to do anything violent at any time, including in a protest situation." Under the front-page headline "Deported activist was to teach tactics of violence," The Australian's Foreign Editor, Greg Sheridan, and co-author John Kerin reported claims from anonymous intelligence sources that Parkin's civil disobedience training was "likely to increase violence" at demonstrations. It is not the first time Sheridan has breathlessly reported spin from an intelligence source. On July 12, 2003, he wrote that "well-informed sources" told him U.S. troops had discovered what they believed to be "decisive proof of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs."

PR giant Edelman has hired RedState.org blogger Michael Krempasky "for his ability to connect with conservative audiences," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "Krempasky, on his site, refers to the Edelman gig as his 'day job' versus his blogging hobby. His first mission is to play up Wal-Mart Stores' contribution to Hurricane Katrina. The world's largest retailer, which had over $282 billion in sales last year, has donated a total of $17 million for hurricane relief and is opening up "mini Wal-Marts" in effected areas to distribute food, diapers, clothing, water and other items to those in need. According to Edelman, Krempasky's hire demonstrates the firm's "leading role in trying to harness the power of the blogosphere for its clients."

"Mainstream media and most liberal-minded Americans are blaming the Bush administration's failure to manage Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath on racism, that word that has been itching under our skin for decades. The focus is on 'racism,' though, with a very specific, definition: white versus black. This analysis is good as far as it goes -- unless, of course, your skin is brown," Marissa Kantor reports on TheRevealer.org. "Approximately 150,000 Hondurans live in Lousiana, most in New Orleans. Estimates of Mexicans living in or around New Orleans range from 40,000 to 100,000. And other groups, including Salvadorans and Brazilians, also number in the tens of thousands. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates (conservatively) that 20,000 to 35,000 of these Latinos are illegal immigrants or undocumented workers." After an extensive look at media focusing on race in the hurricane's aftermath, Kantor writes that the coverage hasn't even dignified Latinos "with a place at the racism-discussion table."

In the wake of the Philippine government's cancellation of the $75,000 per month contract with the Washington D.C. law firm and lobbyshop Venable, Malou Mangahas from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism has shifted the spotlight onto other contracts. "Since 2001, the Arroyo administration has spent at least $3.7 million ... on eight multiple, loosely monitored, and largely secret consultancy contracts for eight US-based lobby and law firms," he writes. Mangahas reveals that the Arroyo administration also has a $1-million per year deal with Burson-Marsteller, a $216,000 a year contract for lobbying with Bannerman & Associates and legal advice from White & Case LLP. There have also been four other agreements, including one with Patton Boggs.

"Strategic Communication Laboratories, a small U.K. firm specializing in 'influence operations' made a very public debut this week with a glitzy exhibit occupying prime real estate at Defense Systems & Equipment International, or DSEI, the United Kingdom's largest showcase for military technology. The main attraction was a full-scale mock-up of its ops center, running simulations ranging from natural disasters to political coups," Sharon Weinberger writes for Slate. The elaborate booth included actors, flashing computer screens and a "a dark-suited man with a wireless microphone [pacing] like a carnival barker, narrating the scenarios." One of which features a "sophisticated campaign of mass deception" that uses a fictitious chemical plant accident as a ploy to minimize the spread of smallpox."If your definition of propaganda is framing communications to do something that's going to save lives, that's fine," says Mark Broughton, SCL's public affairs director. "That's not a word I would use for that."

"K Street," the Washington DC street famous for its lobbying firms, "has tinkered with its traditional business model in recent years," reports The Hill. "Lobbying firms are branching out to related but different business areas as a way to attract more clients and revenue." For example, Patton Boggs recently launched a "risk-management practice to help corporate clients understand the potential pitfalls in Washington that may await a planned merger or acquisition." Quinn Gillespie & Associates' new division, QGA Communications, is a PR practice offering "spokesperson training" and "forming alliances with other groups with similar interests," according to QGA's Terry Holt. Jefferson Consulting Group is a lobbying firm focused on federal marketing, or matching "client products with federal-agency needs." JCG founder Julie Susman said business is booming. It may grow even more, due to Hurricane Katrina. "FEMA called us the day of the disaster," said Susman.

"For decades, corporations have known that, if they lobby for their own interests, public opinion won't take them seriously," begins the Independent's article on the "most influential" third party groups that have aligned with businesses to oppose action on climate change. They include the Congress of Racial Equality, once "the 'shock troops' of the civil rights movement" but, after accepting funding from ExxonMobil "to assist with 'global climate outreach'," now notorious for shouting down "environmentalists picketing an Exxon Mobil shareholders meeting." Other U.S. groups are the conservative think tanks the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation, the American Petroleum Institute, and Dick Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group, which, "despite the energy sector's record profits," successfully pushed "a $20bn handout to oil, coal and nuclear industries." British groups on the list include the Scientific Alliance, Supporters of Nuclear Energy, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Confederation of British Industry.

The Worth1000 website recently sponsored a "fun with propaganda" contest, inviting people to contribute their own Photoshop-remixed versions of propaganda posters from various countries and wars. Submissions include Joseph Stalin as a pitchman for FedEx, as well as the example here, in which a Chinese communist poster was turned into a call to "gouge imperialist gas guzzlers."

Iraqis "find themselves under a propaganda bombardment from all sides," reports the Associated Press. One recent anonymous advertisement, "aimed at Arab sensitivities to family and tribe," denounced al-Qaida in Iraq as "followers of the devil." AP couldn't find out who paid for the ad, though a senior editor at the paper that published it said "it was placed by an advertising agency." The Iraqi government "routinely televises interrogations in which alleged insurgents confess their brutal crimes while encouraging citizens to call anonymous tip lines to report insurgent activities." U.S. officials flood reporters "with good news of schools opened after U.S. military refurbishment, water systems repaired and al-Qaida leaders captured." And insurgents "have used the Internet to show brutal hostage beheadings and to declare war on Iraq's Shiite majority, U.S. forces and the American-backed government."

The Society of Environmental Journalists has criticized the government's "tight-lipped approach" in responding to requests for information about the toxic gumbo left by Hurricane Katrina. SEJ President Perry Beeman says the government is "denying the public crucial information collected with taxpayers' money on behalf of taxpayers in the first place. ... What we need to know is what exactly is in the water. Which bacteria and how much? Which gasoline and oil constituents and how much? Which carcinogens? Which pathogens? Americans need to know what specific threats exist and what the government is doing about them. They are paying for the raw data, and they deserve to see it." SEJ has prepared a timeline showing how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has responded to reporters' requests, as well as a new report on environmental reporters' experiences with the Freedom of Information Act.

Wal-Mart Stores "is enjoying its best publicity in years as even its harshest critics laud the retailer's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts," reports Emily Kaiser. And the company is planning a "secret spin strategy to counter a union-backed, anti-Wal-Mart media blitz" that accuses the company of paying poverty-level wages and driving competitors out of business. PR executive Eric Dezenhall, who specializes in corporate responses to activist campaigns, called ongoing criticism of Wal-Mart by organizations like Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart "tone-deaf." He said, "It strikes me as a rather graceless time to launch an attack because it's just a matter of time before this halo burns off. If I were Wal-Mart, I would be glad that my adversaries were attacking in this cycle."

The American Gaming Association (AGA), a lobbying group for U.S. gambling casinos, is working on a PR campaign to improve its image. According to AGA chief executive Frank Fahrenkopf, the group wants to persuade state officials that current casino taxes are too high in the states where its members operate.

"In today’s economy, you can have incredible marketing for your company for free rather than spending an enormous marketing budget," writes Steven Warren for IT Managment. "How is this possible? Corporate blogging." Warren encourages corporate bloggers to "be honest and forthright. Don’t just blog about your products with a PR spin. ... Use the blog to capture your audience with your personality and your passion for what you do. ... A passionate blog will reach more people than any high-dollar ad campaign." It's not just corporations that are blogging, but trade associations too. The National Association of Manufacturers' blog recently commemorated the attacks of September 11 with a post to "remember the innocent who died and those that are protecting our country, including the manufacturers who are developing innovative products for our troops to fight the War on Terror, to building democracy and keeping us safe."

Jackson, Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger newspaper concluded, after obtaining an email the Justice Department sent to various U.S. attorneys' offices, that "federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups." The email read, in part, "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans?" A Justice Department spokesperson refused to comment, "because it's an internal e-mail." In related news, Senator James Inhofe introduced a bill that would allow Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen L. Johnson to "suspend any law governing air, water or land in responding to Hurricane Katrina." Environmental groups are concerned the measure could be applied broadly and inappropriately; "Mr. Bush has declared 41 states disaster areas as a result of the storm."

California's November 8 elections on "several controversial propositions" dealing with state redistricting, the school system, budget and drug prices "could be one of the biggest political scrapes of the year, involving $125 million in ad spending," reports Advertising Age. Supporters of Proposition 79, which would require pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug costs for lower-income patients, have hired former Howard Dean adviser Joe Trippi "to launch a grassroots, viral Internet campaign." Pharmaceutical companies are countering with Proposition 78, which would establish a "voluntary system of drug discounts." Their $75 million campaign for Prop. 78 includes television ads claiming that Prop. 79 would create "a costly new bureaucracy." Union groups have raised nearly $50 million to fight two other measures, Prop. 74 and Prop. 75, which would make it easier to fire new teachers and would restrict union spending on politics, respectively.

In a report for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Malou Mangahas reveals that in late July 2005, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo entered into a $75,000 per month contract for lobbying services with Venable, a Washington D.C. law firm. The contract specifies that Venable's work will include "securing grants and congressional earmarks for Charter change." Mangahas notes that Venable will also lobby for "Philippines re-inclusion in the credit facilities of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, secure a Philippine credit ratings upgrade in the US Eximbank, 'create a capability enhancement program for the Armed Forces' and acquire up to $800 million in credit under the U.S. Defense Loan Guarantee program, and 'achieve a similar upgrade program' for the Philippine National Police." The chairman of the Philippine Senate committee on ways and means, Senator Ralph Recto, defended the contract. "Lobbying is a necessity, not a luxury," he told the Manila Standard Today.

While the Australian government has successfully deported U.S. peace activist Scott Parkin, the public backlash grows. A friend of Parkin's, Iain Murray, told journalists, "There's about as much evidence of Scott representing a threat as there's been evidence found of weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq]." After citing "national security" grounds for the decision, a spokesman for Attorney General Phillip Ruddock told a journalist that while Parkin had peacefully protested the U.S. military contracting company Halliburton, he encouraged "spirited" protest action. The Age cited sources who said Parkin was being deported because he taught "techniques for preventing police from taking protesters away for arrest." Former Australian Office of National Assessments analyst Andrew Wilkie said "if he was genuinely any sort of security threat, well they wouldn't just send him out of the country, ... he'd be charged."

The San Francisco Examiner and Independent "agreed Friday to label as advertising a regular restaurant news column the newspapers had used to reward advertisers and solicit ads from eating establishments." Previously, ad salesperson George Habit had written food columns identified only as "special to the Examiner" or "Independent Newspapers." Habit admitted, "I use the column as an initiative to get advertisers to run an ad. ... We do favor the accounts that are advertisers. Even if the food is not good, the atmosphere is good. You can always find nice things to say about a restaurant." That's been true even for restaurants receiving multiple health-code violations, according to Grade the News. Habit said past editors had tried to end his column due to ethical concerns, but publishers "ruled in my favor" because "I'm responsible for over a half million dollars a year in advertising."

"The U.S., which saw positive PR results from the millions donated to Indonesia after the tsunami devastation in May, wants a PR firm to spread awareness that Uncle Sam has given over $1 billion to the archipelago over the last 50 years." The U.S. Agency for International Development requested proposals for a $350,000 to $370,000 campaign promoting American efforts "in partnership with Indonesians to generate prosperity and a better quality of life." The contract includes research, polling, public service announcements and "other aspects of a social marketing campaign." APCO, Ogilvy and Weber Shandwick already work in Indonesia, a majority Muslim country and key U.S. ally in the "war on terror." In Britain, rights campaigners are criticizing their government for inviting Indonesia and other countries with "dubious human rights records" to the Defence Systems and Equipment International arms exhibition. Indonesia was on the "uninvited list" from 1999 to 2004.

Entering the race to win hearts and minds, China has begun an image campaign to bolster its global economic and political ambitions. "Beijing has already opened 27 branches of the Confucius Institute around the world in less than a year, and it has a budget of $200-million (U.S.) annually to teach Chinese to foreigners," Canada's Globe and Mail reports. As part of China's "charm offensive" led by President Hu Jintao, the effort includes plans for 70 more culture and language centers in the next five years. "China is starting to develop a public diplomacy strategy, and it includes not just diplomatic finesse but also public relations and the export of Chinese culture and values," Yuen Pau Woo, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, told the paper. "It's what you would expect of a rising power. It's the soft architecture of being a global player."

The Australian Government is facing a legal challenge to its decision to revoke the six-month visitors visa of Scott Parkin, an environmental and peace activist from the Houston Global Awareness Collective. On Saturday Parkin was arrested, six weeks after he arrived in the country, on "character grounds" and imprisoned pending deportation. Government officials have refused to explain the basis for re-assessing his status. Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown suspects Parkin was arrested because of his campaigning against the military contractor Halliburton. Two weeks ago Parkin spoke at a protest outside the Sydney office of KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary. A barrister representing Parkin, Julian Burnside, has indicated he will lodge an appeal against his re-classification with the Migration Review Tribunal. "If all Mr Parkin has done to be assessed a security risk is to peacefully protest his opinions, then we are in serious trouble," Burnside said.

Recently, a brochure letterboxed around New Zealand and authorised by the previously unknown group New Zealand Advocates for Timely Healthcare urged a vote against the Labour Party in the September 17 election. Another, titled The Green Delusion, railed against Green Party policies. Subsequent investigations revealed the Exclusive Brethren, a fundamentalist Christian group who last year endorsed George W. Bush, were behind the $NZ500,000 campaign. The conservative Opposition National Party's leader, Don Brash, first denied knowledge of the campaign. He later confirmed he had met with the group, but insisted it was for prayer only. He subsequently confirmed he had advance knowledge of the leaflets. The anti-Green Party leaflet distributed in New Zealand is nearly identical to one distributed in Australia before last year's federal election.

The Lancet, a leading medical journal, has requested that its parent company, Reed Elsevier, divest itself of business interests that "threaten human health." The magazine's editor made the request after learning that Spearhead Exhibitions, a Reed Elsevier subsidiary, organised the Defence Systems and Equipment international (DSEi) arms fair, which opens this week in London. At the 2003 DSEi exhibition, some of the arms merchants displaying their wares sold cluster bombs. While the company promotes its corporate social responsibility credentials, Reed Elsevier Group spokesman Stephen J. Cowden was unmoved by The Lancet's appeal. Citing its role as a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, Cowden wrote that "it is our view that the defence industry is necessary for upholding national security for the preservation of democratic values." He did not address specific concerns about cluster bombs.

When George W. Bush's long-time spin doctor Karen Hughes was sworn-in as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, she said "that our ability to differ freely, openly and respectfully is, in itself, something to be celebrated." But during a "town hall" meeting for State Department employees, she described her plans to improve US image abroad in militaristic phrases, outlining a "rapid-response unit" and "forward-deploy regional SWAT teams" to "formulate a more strategic and focused approach to all our public diplomacy assets." The Washington Post's Dana Milbank writes, "One of her underlings rose to ask how this effort squared with the administration's famously tight control over its message. … Hughes replied that ambassadors are free to talk -- if they use the talking points she sends them. 'If they make statements based on something I sent them,' she said, 'they're not going to be called on the carpet.'"

The Lincoln Group, one of three firms helping "to put more creativity into the Pentagon's psychological operations," is hiring. The firm just completed "a three-month image campaign with Iraq-based Al-Wathba Group to develop collateral material and a messaging strategy to introduce U.S. Marines to 'friendly neighbors' and promote good will." Now, they're looking for senior media and PR staff with Middle East experience, "to guide an advertising and PR campaign to inform the Iraqi people of 'the Coalition's' goals and to gain their support," reports O'Dwyer's. They're also hiring "polling and trend analysis pros to analyze media and compile statistics with the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies."

"The unusual reporting environment [caused by Hurricane Katrina] allowed journalists in both print and television to exercise muscles that had long grown stiff," the New York Observer writes. Several reporters described to the Observer dramatic contradictions between what officials were saying and what they, the reporters, were seeing with their own eyes. “In some ways, it’s refreshing in a way to not have the official line, where your only choice is just to see it in front of you,” The New York Times’ Kate Zernike told the Observer after reporting for her paper from Gulfport, Miss. “We’ve all gotten used to doing Google searches and so forth. This was the unfiltered experience,” Zernike said.

Following Hurricane Katrina, corporate lobbying of Congress dramatically increased, even on issues that "have little to do with hurricane relief," reports the Wall Street Journal. "Major U.S. airlines are asking Congress to suspend federal jet-fuel taxes. Oil and gas companies want drilling rights in new parts of the Gulf Coast." The energy industry is also "pushing to permit oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." In more hurricane-related lobbying, "Insurance companies want the ability to use tax-free funds to create a multibillion-dollar industry fund to cover future claims from natural disasters. Shipbuilders such as Northrop Grumman Corp. want billions of dollars to help rebuild shipyards in Mississippi. Even small chicken farmers are asking Congress for low-interest loans to fix or replace hundreds of damaged or destroyed chicken coops in Mississippi."

The Director of Crisis Media for the PR firm Hill & Knowlton, Paul Clark, had a few words of advice on crisis management for public officials handling the Hurricane Katrina disaster. "One of the first concepts is to accept blame if it applies ... people forgive mistakes, but they don't forgive excuses," Clark told the St. Petersburg Times. "Make full disclosure of the facts, but don't speculate on things you don't know ... like death estimates." Several days earlier, the Associated Press reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Michael D. Brown, included a little PR advice in a memo seeking approval for the dispatch of 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the disaster area. In the leaked memo, Brown noted that the deployment of the employees would be expected to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public."

The Knight Professor of Journalism Ethics at Washington and Lee University, Edward Wasserman, worries that the PR industry is doing a better job of attracting "the next generation of idealists" than journalism. He recounts that at a recent media academics conference, PR's promoters were pitching the role of PR professionals as a "senior counselor not just on what is persuasive and effective, but on what is right -- as chief integrity officer." While noting that for students considering their academic options the pitch "seems to be working," he wonders "who's going to hire this new priesthood of in-house scolds" and "what do they know about ethics." Wasserman will be speaking at the Public Relations Society of America's 2005 International Conference in Miami Beach, Florida in late October on "Mission PR: Charting an Ethical Course for the Enlightened CEO."

In an article on "the PR industry's scattered but heartfelt response to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina," PR Week notes that Harrah's Entertainment is documenting their good works. The company converted "its Tunica, Mississippi casino into a Red Cross relief shelter" and "asked MultiVu to create b-roll of its efforts, and to capture the survivors' stories." MultiVu, which also produces video news releases, audio news releases and satellite media tours, "dispatched a camera crew to interview victims, Harrah's executives, and a Red Cross spokesman, creating b-roll footage and sound bytes. 'We believe it got great pick up, especially in Florida and Las Vegas, and we're re-releasing the content for it today,'" said Alberto Lopez, Harrah's corporate director of strategic communications. Harrah's plans to open an employee relief center in Gulfport, Mississippi; "MultiVu will also create footage of that effort."

"This is about managing images and not public taste or human dignity," said the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, after the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) refused to include reporters and photographers on post-Hurricane Katrina rescue missions and asked that "no photographs of the deceased be made by the media." FEMA officials said their policy was due to limited space on rescue boats and a desire to treat hurricane victims with "the utmost respect." Some media organizations likened FEMA's move to "the Bush administration's ban on images of flag-draped U.S. military coffins returning from the Iraq war."

After notifying "foreign Web sites that his newspaper colleagues had been instructed not to commemorate the then-pending 15th anniversary of China's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists," Chinese journalist Shi Tao received a 10-year prison sentence. According to Reporters Without Borders, the court that sentenced Mr. Shi "relied partly on evidence provided by a Hong Kong subsidiary of Internet company Yahoo Inc." The government of President Hu Jintao has repeatedly targeted the media. "Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Cisco and other major Internet service and equipment providers have come under scrutiny for helping China to monitor and censor content available to China's 100 million Internet users," notes the International Herald Tribune.

"The White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina," reports the New York Times. Led by Bush political adviser Karl Rove and communications director Dan Bartlett, the PR plan includes "visits by cabinet members to the region," leading up to Bush's Labor Day return (during "his first visit, on Friday ... the president had little contact with residents left homeless"). "Administration officials who went on television on Sunday were instructed to avoid getting drawn into exchanges about the problems of the past week, and to turn the discussion to what the government is doing now." And, in accordance with "Mr. Rove's tough political style, the administration is also working to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana who, as it happens, are Democrats."

An "angry op-ed" in the Dallas Morning News claimed the city's school system was "limiting the future and opportunities for our children" by not enacting policies mandated under the federal No Child Left Behind law more quickly. The author, Marcela Garcini, described herself as a "ninja parent," neglecting to disclose that the nonprofit organization she heads had "received two unsolicited grants, totaling $900,000, from the U.S. Education Department." USA Today reports, "Federal investigators probing the department's public relations contracts ... say the department has given nearly $4.7 million to groups including Garcini's