This new initiative by one of the world's largest PR firms features "a research tool called the Mad Cow Monitor."

Former Naderite Richard Pollock (more recently a flack for Shandwick PR and the anti-environmentalist Global Climate Information Project) has been hired as the new vice president of communications for the libertarian Cato Institute, in which capacity he plans "to be more aggressive in using communications to help Cato seize credit on issues such as Social Security privatization and school choice."

Does Nike have a First Amendment right to publicly claim that it is a leader in fighting sweatshops -- or is that false advertising? The California Supreme Court may soon decide. In a lawsuit that could have far-reaching implications for corporate "greenwashing" campaigns, environmental activist Marc Kasky has sued Nike Inc., charging that the company's public claims about conditions in its Asian factories amount to false advertising under California's consumer-protection laws.

"Why would the Guardian provide moral and medical justification for the multiple murder of innocent Israeli civilians?" That's the question that appeared in hundreds of emails to the Guardian of London, accusing it of bias in its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After some sleuthing, Guardian reporters discovered that the correspondence was generated by HonestReporting.com, a website established by Aish HaTora, an international group promoting orthodox Judaism. The Guardian's report generated a response in turn from HonestReporting.com, which is available on the Aish HaTora website.

Margery Kraus of APCO Worldwide has been named "International PR Professional of the Year" by PR Week magazine - a fitting honor to a woman whose company specializes in the worst sleaze the industry produces -- from helping the tobacco industry promote "sound science" to orchestrating a phony "grassroots" campaign for "tort reform" as a way of making it harder for citizens to sue corporations.

Philip Morris is spending more to publicize its good deeds than it's spending on the good deeds themselves. Last year, the company spent $115 million on charity and $150 million on these TV ads. So if Philip Morris is so concerned about giving back to the community, why doesn't it take the $150 million spent last year on ads and give that to charity?

The old 30 and 60 second ads we know and love may be obsolete in the future, thanks to the miracle of product placement. We've all seen lingering, seductive shots of consumer products in movies...and in the future, "you probably won't know where the commercial stops and the programs begin," says Bob Kuperman, President of New York ad agency TBWA.

When Bill Clinton was president, it was an open secret that his government favoured agricultural biotechnology and actively promoted it. But the strength of the genetically modified food lobby in George Bush's new cabinet, and its links with the GM global leader, Monsanto, are greater than anything that came before. The secretaries of defence, health and agriculture, the attorney general and the chairman of the House agriculture committee all have links with the firm or the wider industry.