The 3rd Quarter 1994 issue of PR Watch featured an article by Sheldon Rampton titled "Hustling for the Junta: PR Fights Democracy in Haiti." Now that Aristide has been removed from power by force for a second time, we've added the 3rd Quarter 1994 issue to our online archives. We've also added the text of the article to our Disinfopedia, where you can edit it yourself if you wish to add new information.

"When George W. Bush and members of his administration talk about environmental policy, the phrase 'sound science' rarely goes unuttered," Chris Mooney writes in the Washington Post. "On issues ranging from climate change to the storage of nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, our president has assured us that he's backing up his decisions with careful attention to the best available research. ... It all sounds noble enough, but the phrases 'sound science' and 'peer review' don't necessarily mean what you might think. Instead, they're part of a lexicon used to put a pro-science veneer on policies that most of the scientific community itself tends to be up in arms about. In this Orwellian vocabulary, 'peer review' isn't simply an evaluation by learned colleagues. Instead, it appears to mean an industry-friendly plan to require such exhaustive analysis that federal agencies could have a hard time taking prompt action to protect public health and the environment. And 'sound science' can mean, well, not-so-sound science."

Britons continue to debate the Blair government's now-discredited claim that Iraq was 45 minutes away from launching chemical or biological weapons. Glenn Frankel and Rajiv Chandrasekaran British review in detail the history of the 45-minute claim and Blair's failure to "disclose that the claim had come secondhand from a single, uncorroborated source, and that some of the government's own experts believed it was questionable."

A Seattle forum on "Fixing Radio" focused on the fallout from Janet Jackson's exposed breast and Clear Channel Communications' suspension of Howard Stern. (Clear Channel executives were shocked, shocked to discover that Stern's show features sexually explicit talk.) But panelist Bruce Wirth of KBCS 91.3 FM commented, "What I think is really indecent is that we're focusing on this and Janet Jackson's (breast) ... We're obsessed about sex when the same stations like Clear Channel were out there rah-rahing a war that has wound up killing hundreds of American soldiers, not to mention Iraqi civilians. Now that's indecent. We're so obsessed about sex in this country, and the typical strategy of the right is to divert our attention to sex issues."

The U.S. government is threating legal action against anyone who edits manuscripts from Iran and other disfavored nations, on the ground that it amounts to trading with the enemy. "Anyone who publishes material from a country under a trade embargo is forbidden to reorder paragraphs or sentences, correct syntax or grammar, or replace 'inappropriate words,'" reports Adam Liptak. "Adding illustrations is prohibited, too. To the baffled dismay of publishers, editors and translators who have been briefed about the policy, only publication of 'camera-ready copies of manuscripts' is allowed." The policy has drawn protests from the publishing community. "It is against the principles of scholarship and freedom of expression, as well as the interests of science, to require publishers to get U.S. government permission to publish the works of scholars and researchers who happen to live in countries with oppressive regimes," said Eric A. Swanson, a senior vice president at publisher John Wiley & Sons.

When planning war, one of the most important targets for military officials is public opinion. "This holds true especially in a democracy, when one is fighting a war of choice - as in invading another country - instead of fighting a war of national survival," observes David Isenberg. "In such wars, issues like human rights and civilian casualties loom larger. Since such casualties are inevitable, special pains must be taken to explain them away. But how to do so? In a word, spin." This is the topic of a recently-released study,"Disappearing the Dead: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Idea of a New Warfare" by Carl Conetta of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA). Conetta looks at the "public information battlespace" and shows how the military and the media framed events such as marketplace bombings in Baghdad, coining misleading phrases such as "precision warfare" and using "casualty agnosticism" to avoid counting civilian deaths.

The United States' 'don't look, don't find' policy on mad cow disease is beginning to crumble under the weight of the international boycott of US beef. AP, UPI and here the New York Times are all reporting that "a beef producer in Kansas has proposed testing all its cattle for mad cow disease so it can resume exports to Japan, but it is encountering resistance from the Agriculture Department and other beef producers. American beef exports have plummeted since Dec. 23 when a cow in Washington State was diagnosed with [mad cow disease], a fatal disease that can be passed to humans who eat infected cattle tissue. To assure the safety of its meat, the company, Creekstone ... wants to use rapid diagnostic tests that are routinely used in Japan and many European nations." This is potentially great news for American farmers and consumers if other companies break ranks with USDA and the meat lobby and test their cattle. However, any private testing regime must use the most sensitive tests and publicly report any mad cows discovered to have credibility. The two Canadian and US mad cows found so far are the tip of an iceberg of unknown size; only testing of millions of cattle will reveal the extent of this crisis.

In a sign of "close tactical coordination with the White House" and "at a time when Sen John Kerry has surged ahead of Bush in the presidential popularity polls," Republican Senators planned a surprise debate on Iraq today. Majority Leader Bill Frist and Jon Kyl are leading the estimated six-hour rebuttal of Democratic criticisms. Bush-Cheney campaign officials also plan to meet "with Senate GOP press secretaries and speechwriters." According to The Hill, "many Republicans are incensed that Democratic lawmakers have used floor time scheduled for their so-called morning business remarks to attack the president." The GOP hopes to reframe national security issues and put pressure on Kerry for "flip-flopping on the war."

Diebold Election Systems has launched a five-year, $1 million "outreach campaign" to educate Maryland residents about its voting machines. The campaign, which will include radio and TV commercials, a website, more than 1.5 million brochures, and voting demonstrations, begins just prior to Maryland's March 2 primary. "The money would be better spent making the system more secure instead of trying to win voter confidence through public relations," replied Johns Hopkins computer science professor Avi Rubin. A study co-authored by Rubin identified serious security flaws with Diebold machines. Strong criticisms of electronic voting led machine manufacturers to form an industry lobbying group late last year.

We've developed a study guide for classroom use by teachers interested in using our 2003 book, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq. The study guide includes summaries of the key points, discussion questions and recommended classroom exercises for each chapter, as well as news clippings and other useful handouts. (If you have a dialup Internet connection, be warned: the study guide is several megabytes in size, which may take awhile to download.) Parts of the study guide are also available in our Disinfopedia, where you can contribute your own writing and research to expand upon themes explored in the book.

"Found: A Smoking Gun," declared the headline by New York Times columnist William Safire, which claimed that a "clear link" had recently been found between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. But what did Safire base his case-closed pronouncement upon? A New York Times story that had appeared a day earlier. But the original Times story reached the opposite conclusion from Safire, stating that the recent discover not evidence of a link between al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam. "So Safire ignored what his paper's own reporters reported," writes David Corn, "and he juggled a highly selective set of factoids to make a rather serious charge. ... This was not a first for Safire. He has often hyperbolically exclaimed, 'case closed, in discussing the supposed Al Qaeda-Iraq connection, frequently pointing to the so-called Prague connection" - even though, once again, the Times's own reporters have debunked it. "If a newspaper columnist writes articles that defy the reality reported by the paper's own correspondents, how should the paper's editors and publisher respond?" asks Corn. "Columnists are certainly entitled to their views," he writes. "They are free to speculate and suppose. ... But Safire's recent work--unburdened by factchecking, unchallenged by editors--shows he is more intent on manipulating than interpreting the available information. ... Under the cover of opinion journalism, he is dishing out disinformation. How is that of service to the readers of the New York Times?"

According to New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney,"Senator John Edwards said yesterday that his proposal to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact he has repeatedly blamed for economic distress, would not significantly cut the flow of jobs abroad." As Zachary Roth observes in on the Columbia Journalism Review's campaign weblog, that's not what Edwards said. "If you're in any doubt that the piece may do damage to Edwards," Roth adds, "consider this: John Kerry's campaign sent an e-mail to reporters this morning, consisting of nothing but Nagourney's story."

In a refreshing display of common sense, the American Psychological Association condemned television advertising aimed at young children as "by its very nature exploitative." Since youngsters' critical thinking skills are not developed, the APA suggests tighter limits on advertising during children's shows, more clear distinctions between ads and programming, or even banning ads on shows for children 8 years old or younger. The president of the youth marketing firm KidShop called the APA stance "a dangerous precedent." This week's Holmes Report quotes marketing academic James McNeal as saying: "The median age of when children begin influencing parents' [consumer] choices is 24 months."

As job loss and unemployment become campaign issues, George W. Bush is struggling to whitewash his economic record. The Daily Mis-Lead writes, "Just days after Bush reneged on his pledge to create 2.6 million jobs and said with a straight face that '5.6% unemployment is a good national number,' the New York Times uncovered a White House report showing that the president is considering re-classifying low-paid fast food jobs as 'manufacturing jobs' as a way to hide the massive manufacturing job losses that have occurred during his term." The inflated employment statistics would also mask the fact that fast food McJobs pay less and have fewer benefits than traditional industrial manufacturing work.

"The chief executive of the Halliburton Company, Dave Lesar, never imagined that he would be the star of his own television commercial. But there he is, on the airwaves in Washington and Houston, assuring viewers that his company has billions of dollars in contracts to rebuild Iraq and feed American troops 'because of what we know, not who we know.' The unnamed 'who' is, of course, Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton's chief executive from 1995 to 2000. ... The advertising, Mr. Lesar added, will continue until the end of the presidential campaign 'because I don't believe we're going to disappear as a political story.' But at a time when President Bush's own campaign commercials have yet to start, the Halliburton spots - two are on the air so far - have created an awkward situation for the White House, which has not fallen over itself to embrace them. ... Donny Deutsch, chairman and chief executive of the Deutsch advertising agency in New York, called the commercials 'insane. ... 'This just puts a spotlight and a megaphone on the issue. ... It's a bizarre media strategy.' "

"If you are a 'metrosexual,' you might also be into 'manscaping.' If you're a 'flexitarian,' no doubt you've tried 'tofurkey. These are among the top words of 2003, so named by the American Dialect Society at its annual conference in Boston recently. To translate: 'metrosexual,' the winner of 'the word or phrase which most colored the nation's language,' is a fashion-conscious heterosexual male, preoccupied with money, clothes and style, and 'manscaping' is male body-shaving. 'Flexitarian,' winner in the most useful category, is a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat; and 'tofurkey' is a faux turkey created from tofu. Every year boasts its own vocabulary, says Dennis Preston, a Michigan State University linguist and past president of the dialect society. ... While 2002's winner was 'weapons of mass destruction,' 2003 brought us 'weapons of mass deception,' an entry Preston says he specifically voted for because it reflected a desire to lessen the nation's collective anxiety. Just how many of these terms have the staying power to make it into U.S. dictionaries in the future is not known; the jury is still out on previous years' words, such as 'chad,' 'blog' and 'Iraqnophobia.' But, despite the cringing of grammar purists, our love affair with slang lives on."

"[San Francisco] Mayor Gavin Newsom's (D) decision to allow same-sex marriages has been hailed by many as courageous, while still derided by others as shocking. Yet many agree that the decision, and the resulting media coverage, was a brilliant PR move by those wishing to force a public debate on this contentious issue," PR Week writes. LGBT advocates say they're pleased with the mayor's decision and the resulting media attention, which boosted several gay-rights groups' Valentine's Day campaigns. The move also impressed political watchers. "I think it's one of the best political and public relations moves of the new administration, and will be looked back upon in history as a significant moment in the gay rights movement," Sam Singer, president of San Francisco-based Singer Associates, told PR Week. "This is a key issue that resonates with one of the leading constituencies in San Francisco."

"Sometimes one wonders if campaign reporters could write a declarative English sentence if they were stripped of their cliches," complains the Columbia Journalism Review's Susan Q. Stranahan. She cites numerous examples of reporters declaring that presidential candidates' wives are (or are not) "Stepford wives"; the pervasive use of "horse race" as a metaphor for elections; and stereotyping of voters as "angry white males," "Joe Six-Pack," "NASCAR dads" and "soccer moms." Echoing George Orwell's lament in "Politics and the English Language," Stranahan points out that "What's sacrificed is accuracy and fairness to readers. Cliches blur distinctions and homogenize issues, eventually assuming a meaning of their own long after their original context has been forgotten."

A secret Pentagon report on global warming strongly contradicts White House claims about climate change. The report obtained by the Observer of London "warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world." Longtime Defense Department adviser Andrew Marshall commissioned the study that says climate change "should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern." The Observer writes, "The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority." The report -- authored by Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network -- was suppressed for four months by the Bush administration according to the Observer.

Mel Gibson's controversial movie "The Passion of the Christ" is using a unique "surgical marketing campaign that has zeroed in on the Christian market and built a deafening buzz," according to the Wall Street Journal. "The promotional campaign got its start last year as Mr. Gibson hit the road and visited Christian leaders across America." Now, religious leaders are showing movie trailers and selling tickets to their congregations. But "passionate" marketing isn't just for churches. The hood of Bobby Labonte's racing car featured an ad for the movie during the Daytona 500. The chair of Interstate Batteries, which owns the car, said he was "taken aback" by the movie.

"We are heroes in error," says Ahmed Chalabi, whose Iraqi National Congress was the source for much of the now-discredited information that served as the Bush administration's justification for war. "As far as we're concerned we've been entirely successful," Chalabi said. "That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important." Joshua Micah Marshall begs to differ. "Chalabi seems to be at the point of all but calling us suckers to our faces," he says. "If we were scammed, you'd think we'd be a bit angry about it -- right? -- even if we helped bring it on ourselves and even if some of our leaders were complicit in the scam." Christopher Albritton adds, "I can't accept that Iraqi 'patriots' -- as Chalabi and his people no doubt call themselves -- should pocket American taxpayers' money while American soldiers are dying. And I really can't stomach those American 'patriots' at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. not only allowing that to happen but actively colluding with a convicted con-man."

The Bush administration loves to wrap itself in the mantle of "sound science," but as we've reported in our book Trust Us, We're Experts, "sound science" is a buzz-word for science with a pro-industry bias. Now, "More than 60 influential scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, issued a statement yesterday asserting that the Bush administration had systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home and abroad. The sweeping accusations were later discussed in a conference call organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an independent organization that focuses on technical issues and has often taken stands at odds with administration policy. On Wednesday, the organization also issued a 38-page report detailing its accusations. The two documents accuse the administration of repeatedly censoring and suppressing reports by its own scientists, stacking advisory committees with unqualified political appointees, disbanding government panels that provide unwanted advice and refusing to seek any independent scientific expertise in some cases."

The 2004 elections may be "a new day" for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Hill reports: "The group has never made a presidential endorsement, recognizing that it must work with whoever wins." But John Edwards has them nervous. As a trial lawyer, Edwards "represented victims of medical malpractice during a 20-year career in North Carolina." Moreover, the Center for Responsive Politics reports that over half of Edwards' campaign contributions are from lawyers and law firms. Chamber political director Bill Miller said: "John Edwards in the White House, whether it's as No. 1 or No. 2, should be a great concern" to the pro-tort reform, anti-class action, pro-business group.

"The New York Times offered a sharp editorial Tuesday critiquing the indisputable role of the White House in distorting the intelligence on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, and in stampeding Congressional and public opinion by spinning worst-case scenarios -- 'inflating them drastically' -- to justify an immediate invasion last March to repel an alleged imminent threat to the United States. Indeed, the logical implication of the editorial might well have been to charge senior officials -- in particular the vice president -- with an impeachable offense. However, strangely missing from the paper of record was any indictment of the national press, starting with the Times, for its obvious role in gravely misleading the institutions of government and the public when hyping the WMD threat. Times reporters and editors bear a heavy responsibility, as far back as September 2002, for having raised the nuclear specter that could materialize in the form of a 'mushroom cloud.' National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney took some of their talk-show lines on the nuclear danger from the Times article of Sept. 8, 2002 by Judith Miller and Michael Gordon, 'US Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts.' "

"A new dirty tricks campaign to embarrass the Democratic frontrunner, John Kerry, backfired ignominiously yesterday when it emerged that a widely circulated photograph of a protest against the Vietnam war was a crude forgery," reports Suzanne Goldenberg. "The photograph, falsely credited to Associated Press, combined two separate images to make it appear as if Mr Kerry shared a stage at an anti-war rally in the early 1970s with the actress, Jane Fonda." The fabricated photos are not the only recent attempt to smear Kerry. Republican gossip-monger Matt Drudge recently concocted a story which claimed that Kerry had an affair with a 27-year-old woman. Our Disinfopedia has a page devoted to documenting and debunking new smears as they emerge.

Our 1997 book Mad Cow USA, which foresaw the emergence of the deadly dementia disease in America, is now available in a new paperback version. The Bush administration is failing to put into place the measures necessary to stop the spread of mad cow in humans and animals: a complete ban on feeding slaughterhouse waste to livestock, and testing of millions of cattle. Eight years ago British scientists announced that mad cow disease was killing young people in Britain in the form of a new variant strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). Now, new research is raising concern that mad cow disease might also cause sporadic CJD seen in older people. Dr. Michael Hansen of Consumers Union criticized the failure of the US to adequately test both animals and people for mad cow-type diseases. Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Project has provided information to Congress contradicting claims by the US Department of Agriculture that the US mad cow was a 'downer' unable to walk. GAP points out that it was a fluke that the cow was tested for mad cow disease, underscoring the need to test millions of cattle in the US, not the 40,000 the US says it will test in 2004.

"Like this image of Arabian stallions at full gallop, the new Alhurra Arabic-language television network is off and running this week with news coverage beamed at the Middle East, despite significant competition and mounting controversy," Television Week writes. Top branding and advertising specialists hope their work for the US-funded Alhurra ("The Free One" in Arabic) will grab the attention of Arabic viewers, already skeptical of the network's content. Middle East Online reports that the United Arab Emirates newspaper Al-Khaleej said, "If US policy in the region were healthy and convincing, they would not resort to cosmetic means to improve their image." The Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the new satellite channel as well as Voice of America and Radio Sawa, says its latest project -- costing $62 million in its first year -- will provide independent news and information. Reuters reports Alhurra's slogan running between programs says, "You think, you aspire, you choose, you express, you are free. Alhurra, just as you are."

"Washington lobbyists, having endured nearly as much verbal abuse this year from the Democratic candidates as President Bush, are fighting back against what they call unfair characterizations," PR Week's Douglas Quenqua reports. The American League of Lobbyists (ALL) asked Democratic Presidential hopefuls to stop demonizing "government relations professionals." In a letter ALL writes, "[Lobbying's] one of the major ways that politicians are held accountable to the people. Lobbyists represent all points of view on the major issues that confront the country and the Congress -- environment, labor, the elderly, teachers, veterans, as well as businesses, to name just a few." Criticizing recent campaign-trail, anti-lobbyists remarks, ALL president Deanna Gelak told PR Week, "This is over the edge. ... These comments are really exploiting outdated stereotypes and playing on some people's lack of understanding for political purposes -- and we want young people to go into government relations."

"Pharmaceutical makers have already found a major loophole in the Food and Drug Administration's new draft guidelines for direct-to-consumer advertising," reports Advertising Age. The guidelines were meant to clarify risk information and increase "disease awareness" spots, those not touting any particular drug. But drug company and ad executives discovered that using the same spokesperson in product and "disease awareness" ads is technically OK. "Even the village idiot is going to make the connection between the disease and the specific product," rejoiced one marketing executive. In related news, PR Week has some advice for drug video news releases: "Always include a physician... use graphics to demonstrate the magnitude of a disorder... [and produce] in the style of television news."

"The Food and Drug Administration is looking to hire a PR firm to help it celebrate its 100th anniversary on June 30, 2006," O'Dwyer's PR writes. "It is looking for a campaign based on the 'Protecting and Advancing America's Health' theme. The PR firm is to use the campaign to celebrate the FDA's accomplishments and further its 'mission to promote and protect the public health for future generations.'" Before FDA knocks itself over patting itself on the back with its tax-subsidized PR campaign, let's look a little harder at its record versus its mythology. We have exposed many serious instances of FDA failing as protector of public health, including dragging its feet to ban silicone breast implants, caving to Monsanto by approving bovine growth hormone, ignoring public support for and right to the labeling of genetically engineered foods and failing even at this late date to ban the feeding of slaughterhouse waste to livestock, allowing the spread of mad cow disease. Come to think of it, no wonder they need to hire a PR firm!

"Most Americans believe President Bush either lied or deliberately exaggerated evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify war, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey results, which also show declining support for the war in Iraq and for Bush's leadership in general, indicate the public is increasingly questioning the president's truthfulness -- a concern for Bush's political advisers as his reelection bid gets underway. ... Questions about Bush's use of pre-war intelligence, in addition to feeding doubts about his honesty, have sent his job rating plummeting. ... But the president's declining ratings related to Iraq were most striking. Approval of his handling of the situation there has fallen to 47 percent, down eight points in the past three weeks. About half of Americans -- 51 percent -- said they would prefer a report evaluating the accuracy and use of pre-war intelligence before the election, while 35 percent favor what Bush has ordered: a broader study of the overall accuracy of U.S. intelligence gathering operations that reports its findings after the election."

"Rep. Billy Tauzin delivered a $540 billion prescription-drug benefit for Medicare. Now, the Louisiana Republican is leaving Congress for a $2 million-a-year job in the drug industry. When it comes to exposing your principles, Rep. Tauzin makes Janet Jackson look coy," the Palm Beach Post writes. Tauzin, who chaired the House Science and Commerce Committee, pushed through the early morning passage of the Medicare bill in December. Resigning his position this month, Tauzin is now expected to become the top lobbyists for the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a $2 million-a-year job. PhRMA played a key role in shaping the Medicare bill, spending millions in hidden PR and lobbying activities.

The New York Times has obtained a June, 2002, memo written by the Iraqi National Congress, the CIA front group that has been tutored and advised by John Rendon's PR firm and instrumental in the propaganda campaign advocating war with Iraq. ( The INC's leader Ahmed Chalabi was most recently seen sitting in the balcony during the State of the Union address.) The Times reports that "many officials in the American intelligence community have said that much of the information provided to Washington by the Iraqi National Congress before the war was suspect, and some have questioned whether the group provided disinformation to the United States. ... The fact that the Iraqi National Congress was disseminating information about Iraq to the United States government and the Western news media before the war has been previously reported. Less widely known is that the effort was carefully coordinated through a special analytical unit the group established in Washington that was paid for by the United States." The article fails to mention that the New York Times itself and its reporter Judith Miller were guilty of using INC propaganda and other misinformation in their own inaccurate and misleading reporting about Iraq's supposed WMDs.

Survey after survey documents how the Bush administration has squandered the international outpouring of sympathy after 9/11, turning it into an outpouring of fear and hatred toward the US and its foreign policies. But actions of Mexican soccer fans spoke louder than poll numbers in Guadalajara today. "The boos nearly drowned out The Star-Spangled Banner , and a few dozen fans chanted "Osama! Osama!" as the United States was eliminated by Mexico in Olympic men's soccer qualifying. A loud anti-American crowd hollered as Mexico beat the United States 4-0 Tuesday night in the under-23 tournament, claiming a berth in the Athens Olympics. As U.S. players left the stadium for their bus, several fans

"In recent months, US news organizations have rushed to expose the Bush administration's pre-war failings on Iraq," notes Michael Massing. "Watching and reading all this," he says, "one is tempted to ask, where were you all before the war? Why didn't we learn more about these deceptions and concealments in the months when the administration was pressing its case for regime change -- when, in short, it might have made a difference? Some maintain that the many analysts who've spoken out since the end of the war were mute before it. But that's not true. Beginning in the summer of 2002, the 'intelligence community' was rent by bitter disputes over how Bush officials were using the data on Iraq. Many journalists knew about this, yet few chose to write about it." Massing's examination of the media's role echoes a reader's complaint several months ago to the Washington Post: "Why shouldn't Bush cling to dubious allegations? He gets to repeat them over and over in prime time in front of a huge national audience and your analysis of their truthfulness is tucked away on page 13. No wonder such a large percentage of Americans believe that Hussein was directly tied to 9/11."

The "apparatus of public diplomacy" (the official government euphemism for overseas public relations) "has proven inadequate, especially in the Arab and Muslim World," says Harold Pachios, a commissioner on the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Pachios noted that "everything our leaders say and do is of consequence to ordinary people everywhere." Moreover, "international public opinion does have the power to interfere with our foreign policy objectives." Nevertheless, he concluded, "I do not suggest that we modify the direction this government takes based on international public opinion. However, if we are going to succeed in a global media market, we must understand that we can utilize a different phrase or a different word to make a great deal of difference in a foreign land."

As political unrest grows in Haiti, the United Nations warns of an impending humanitarian crisis and dozens of people are killed, there is some good news for Jean Bertrand Aristide: "Global Market Solutions, which is based in Washington, DC, is rallying to the side of [the] beleaguered Haitian president." The PR firm "has promoted Aristide's willingness to talk with the rebels and commitment to democracy." Robert Maguire, Director of International Affairs & Haiti Programs at Trinity College, says "the underlying cause [of the recent violence] is both economic and political." Amnesty International called on "all actors, whether in government, opposition parties or in armed groups... to halt the breakdown in the rule of law."

"For those in the business of masterminding public-relations stunts... Janet Jackson's big expose during CBS's airing of the Super Bowl has raised a serious issue: how to top it," reports Claire Atkinson for Advertising Age. Desiree Gruber, whose firm Full Picture handles PR for Lisa Marie Presley and Arnold Schwarzenegger, agreed that the uproar is benefiting Jackson. "Janet is a brand, just as much as Frito-Lay is... She sells and she sells directly to the public," she explained. Sometimes more directly than others.

In Margaret Tutwiler's first public appearance as the State Department's public diplomacy head, she admitted that America's international standing has fallen so far that "many years of hard, focused work" are needed to restore it. This week, the al-Hurra ("Free One") network begins broadcasting from Virginia. The $62 million project will tell "the truth about the values and the policies of the United States" to Middle Eastern countries and overcome "hateful propaganda... in the Muslim world," according to George Bush. Aljazeera reports that its new competitor has already been discounted. "Until the United States does something about [the Palestinian situation], all the PR in the world will not make a difference," said Richard Curtiss of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

What went wrong in the Howard Dean campaign, which looked like a winner until voters showed up at the primaries? Maybe Dean was never really ahead, says Clay Shirky. A senior Dean campaign aide agrees: "Even though we looked like an 800-pound gorilla, we were still growing up. We were like the big lanky teenager that looked like a grown man." And why did the media think otherwise? According to Jay Rosen, "the way campaign coverage was organized helped inflate and sustain a news bubble. ... The press bubble was blown around the figure, 'front runner in Iowa and New Hampshire,' a narrative device activated by Dean's poll numbers and bank account."

"You've heard a lot of Halliburton lately. Criticism is okay. We can take it." Thus opens a new television ad, part of the oil and gas services company's first public PR campaign. With the slogan "Proud To Serve Our Troops," Halliburton hopes to overcome negative "war profiteer" charges stemming from reports of kickbacks, overcharging for gas and food in Iraq, and no-bid government contracts. "Halliburton gets beaten up every day by people who don't have the facts," said company spokesperson Wendy Hall. The PR campaign seems to echo talking points in a leaked 2003 company memo, in which CEO David Lesar asked employees to write letters stressing that "Halliburton makes our troops more comfortable in a difficult environment."

A Republican effort to suppress the black vote may be linked to black preacher Al Sharpton's campaign in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary. Sharpton has postured as a radical firebrand, accusing other Democratic candidates such as Howard Dean of racial bias. According to reporter Wayne Barrett, "Roger Stone, the longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative who led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount and helped make George W. Bush president in 2000, is financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al Sharpton. ... Sharpton has a little-noticed history of Republican machinations inconsistent with his fiery rhetoric. ... [A]ny Sharpton-connected outrage against the party could either lower black turnout in several key close states, or move votes to Bush." Stone conceded to the New York Times that he had been behind several of Sharpton's most visible campaign tactics, including scrutiny of Dean's record of minority appointees when he was governor of Vermont.

"Mad cow disease probably has been established in North America for more than a decade, and Americans should be prepared for the discovery of more domestic cases as it spreads through herds. A panel of international experts released these findings Wednesday to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, also urging the Department of Agriculture to toughen protections put into place following the Dec. 23 discovery of an infected Holstein in Washington state. Those protections, while helpful, are not sufficient to keep mad cow disease from spreading further, or 'amplifying,' within the North American herd, the researchers concluded. 'We need more, much more,' said Ulrich Kihm, a Swiss scientist who led the advisory panel. 'If we don't accept and implement measures -- strong measures --then we have this amplification cycle going on and on.' ... Kihm also said he disagreed with a study from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis concluding that existing precautions, such as the feed ban, had arrested the spread of mad cow and eventually would eradicate the disease. 'The disease will spread, spread all over the place' if no additional steps are taken, he said."

"Same Medicare. More Benefits." is the theme of a publicly-funded $12.6 million advertising effort promoting the new Medicare law. Critics of the ad campaign include Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy and the conservative National Taxpayers Union, who called it "an election-year ploy." The Wall Street Journal reports that National Media, a firm already working for the Bush/Cheney campaign, is getting a piece of the new ad campaign pie. Firm partner Alex Castellanos "is well-known for creating sharp attack ads" including the one "in 2000 that subtly flashed the word 'RATS'" over Al Gore's picture. MoveOn.org is urging CBS, which plans to broadcast the Medicare ads, to "either pull the White House ads or run ours."

Today's issue of Hill profiles Chandler Keys, chief lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Keys, who "helped the industry steer clear of a public backlash" -- and adequate public health safeguards -- following the December discovery of mad cow disease in America, is described as someone who "talks tough with policymakers but harbors a sentimental side." During the interview, "Keys was interrupted by a phone call from the White House. Upset by what he was hearing... Keys barked into the receiver, 'You're giving us shit sandwiches! Shit sandwiches!'... The message was clear: Don't mess with the cattlemen." The Center's John Stauber, co-author of Mad Cow USA, has butted heads with the sentimental Mr. Keys in debates on CNN.

Our best selling book Weapons of Mass Deception was the first to expose the aggressive public relations campaign used to sell the American public on the war with Iraq. Recent revelations by David Kay inspired our publisher to put out a news release with this headline: "Chief U.S. Weapons Inspector: 'We Were Wrong'; Authors of Weapons of Mass Deception: 'We Were Right." Now, despite the continuing failure of the major US media to expose the deceptions that sold the war, more information is coming out. The current issue of Mother Jones magazine contains "The Lie Factory," an investigative report by Robert Dreyfuss and Jason Vest subtitled "how Bush's secret Pentagon unit produced the false intelligence that led to war." This must-read article "exposes the workings of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit and of the Defense Department's war-planning task force, the Office of Special Plans. It's the story of a close-knit team of ideologues who spent a decade or more hammering out plans for an attack on Iraq and who used the events of September 11, 2001, to set it into motion."

University of Kansas' journalism school will award its prestigious William Allen White Foundation Medal for "outstanding journalistic merit" to PR professional and former Reagan and Bush I White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater. Previous honorees include Charles Kuralt, Bob Woodward and Molly Ivins. "Marlin Fitzwater is not qualified to receive the award," protested former journalism professor and White Foundation trustee Bob Giles. Fitzwater joined the White House at the height of the Iran-Contra scandal, "making tasteless jibes about Mario Cuomo's Italian name and [later] leading the verbal attacks on Bill Clinton." He worked to keep Cold War tensions high in the late 1980's and said the first Gulf War defended "UN security council resolutions."

Leftists aren't the only dissenters from the war in Iraq to feel the consequences of the Clear Channel's pro-war tilt. Radio talk show host Charles Goyette, a Goldwater Reaganite, has been bumped from his slot and expects to lose his job because he criticized the Bush administration's shape-shifting case for war. "Management didn't like my being out of step with the president's parade of national hysteria, and the war-fevered spectators didn't care to be told they were suffering illusions," he writes. "So after three years, I was replaced on my primetime talk show by the Frick and Frack of Bushophiles, two giggling guys who think everything our tongue-tied president does is 'Most excellent, dude!'"

Everyone from the highway construction industry to the mining industry, environmental groups and the healthcare and tobacco industry has a stake in Washington politics. As a result, reports the Washington Post, "Pasting ads all over Capitol Hill has become a big business -- so big that Washington is the nation's second-largest public relations market after New York, even though the District is only the 21st-largest city in the country, behind places like Phoenix, Memphis and Milwaukee."