The State Department Inspector General has released a report finding that Kenneth Tomlinson, the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll. Tomlinson was ousted from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting last year when another inquiry found evidence that he had violated rules meant to insulate public television and radio from undo political influence. Congress is currently considering Tomlinson’s renomination to a new term as chair of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the State Department office that oversees foreign broadcasts, including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

The U.S.-led military force in Iraq is asking for bids on a two-year, $20 million PR contract. The goal is "to effectively communicate Iraqi government and coalition's goals, and build support among our strategic audiences." The work includes monitoring "Iraqi, pan-Arabic, international and U.S. national and regional markets media in both Arabic and English," including U.S. TV, wire services and newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. News of "security, reconstruction activities, 'high profile' coalition force activities and events in which Iraqi security forces are 'in the lead'" will receive special attention. An anonymous PR practitioner told the Post that military commanders want news "to be received by audiences as it is transmitted ... they don't like how it turns out." O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports that the contract is currently held by the Rendon Group, and "appears to mirror efforts initially handled by the Lincoln Group."

"It seems what young student journalists would be 'learning' from this experience is how to take a free trip and meals from one of the company's larger corporations," wrote University of North Carolina business journalism professor Chris Roush. He had just received an email from one of General Motors' PR people, asking for help in promoting GM's "First College Journalists Event," in Las Vegas on September 9 and 10. "GM will pay for travel, hotel and meals for students that attend," GM's Diedra Wylie wrote. "While in Las Vegas the college journalists will have the opportunity to meet with professional journalists and GM executives." The event might be an extension of GM's previous efforts to buy favorable news coverage. Three of the 36 video news releases tracked in the Center for Media and Democracy's "Fake TV News" report were from GM, making it the most frequent fake news client of the report.