"In September, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes ... took 16 reporters on her first trip to the Mideast," Al Kamen writes. "We all know how well that trip turned out. So this time, Hughes, heading later this week for Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Germany, has reduced the media contingent ... to zero." Hughes did grant an interview to Time magazine, in which she described the State Department's new media monitoring unit. In addition to live Arab TV broadcasts, she says, "We have a young man who's watching the blogs, the Web chats." Hughes also describes public diplomacy plans around the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament: "We're going to have our embassies very involved in inviting kids to come watch the games this summer."

From a school exercise

A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that the tobacco industry "recruited and managed an international network of more than 80 scientific and medical experts in Europe, Asia and elsewhere in a bid to avoid regulations on secondhand smoke." In 1991 alone, the industry spent $3.3 million (2.8 m Euros) on the program, according to company documents. The program's goal was "to influence policy makers, media and the public" by having industry consultants attend conferences, present papers and lobby, all while hiding or obscuring the tobacco industry's role. The program began in 1987. By 1991, "every member of the organising committee of an international conference on indoor air quality in Bangkok ... was a tobacco industry consultant." And, "as of early 2004, no document has been located indicating that the program has been terminated."

Reporter Tim Harper notes the Bush administration's shift from "War on Terror" to "The Long War." Communications professor Christopher Simpson explains, "The War on Terror brand had gone sour." Moreover, "if it is a Long War," then expanded executive powers "will be needed not just this year, but next year and for decades." Harper writes, "Although the first use of the term 'Long War' is credited in 2004 to Gen. John Abizaid ... it really had its public coming-out Jan. 31 in the U.S. president's State of the Union address." The new name is also used in the Pentagon's Quadrennial Policy Review. Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations says the administration doesn't "want this to be defined as a conventional war where the entire burden will fall on the military and they will be expected to win quickly." Heritage Foundation fellow James Carafano, who co-authored the 2005 book "Winning The Long War," says the Pentagon considered "The Protracted War," but "'protracted' is a five-dollar word."

The nonpartisan investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), released a report on the media contracts of seven agencies -- Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs. (These departments "account for nearly all the obligated federal dollars for public relations and advertising activities in fiscal year 2003.") The departments self-reported on 343 media contracts, worth $1.62 billion, from fiscal year 2003 through the second quarter of 2005. The Defense Department spent the most on media contracts, at $1.1 billion. Fifty-four contracts, worth $197 million, were with public relations firms. Fourteen contracts, worth $1.2 million, involved video news releases, for the Census Bureau, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Transportation Safety Administration, National Park Service, and U.S. Mint. The top recipients of federal media contracts were Leo Burnett, Campbell-Ewald, GSD&M, J. Walter Thompson, Frankel & Company, and Ketchum.

On February 13, full-page advertisements in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, along with a media stunt involving a dinosaur, announced a new union-bashing front group called Center for Union Facts. Who is behind the ad and their UnionFacts.com website? Nothing in the advertisements or the webpage mentions Rick Berman, but -- Bingo! -- that's who owns the website domain name. Rick Berman is a right-wing lobbyist who has built a lucrative career establishing industry-funded front groups including FishScam.com, the Center for Consumer Freedom, the Employment Policies Institute, the Employment Roundtable and ActivistCash.com. Berman specializes in personal attacks, smear tactics and playing loose with the facts. He has raised millions of dollars from tobacco, booze, biotech, fast food, grocery and other businesses eager to pay Berman to do their dirty work. Another Berman connection to the Center for Union Facts is Sarah Longwell, the group's PR contact, who has also worked for Berman's Employment Policies Institute.