A British public relations executive is cautioning PR professionals not to release bad news in wake of Michael Jackson's death. "No-one can ever trump Labour aide Jo Moore's debacle during the September 11 attacks, but there'll be cynics out there watching very carefully for companies releasing stuff under cover of global mourning," said Dougal Paver, Managing Director of Paver Smith. (Moore, a media adviser to the Transport, Local Government and Regions Secretary, infamously wrote on September 11, 2001 that "It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury.") The Australian government, however, couldn't resist. Hours after the news of Jacksons death, late on a Friday afternoon, the Australian Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, Craig Emerson, announced that he was axing the establishment of a website comparing grocery prices between retail chains. Most major supermarkets objected to the proposed website, which would have been run by the consumer group Choice.

U.S. Army officials have barred a reporter with the military newspaper Stars and Stripes "from embedding with a unit of the 1st Cavalry Division that is attempting to secure the violent city of Mosul" in Iraq. In the refusal letter to Stars and Stripes reporter Heath Druzin, an Army public affairs officer wrote that "Mr. Druzin refused to highlight" good news about "Iraqi Army leaders, soldiers, national police and Iraqi police display[ing] commitment to partnership." The newspaper has "spent more than three weeks appealing Druzin's banishment to senior commanders in Iraq as well as public affairs officers at the Pentagon, but had been repeatedly rebuffed." In his appeal of the decision, Stars and Stripes editorial director Terry Leonard wrote, "To deny Mr. Druzin an embed under the reasons stated ... is a direct challenge to the editorial independence of this newspaper ... an attempt at censorship and it is also an illegal prior restraint under federal law. ... The military cannot tell us what stories to write or not write." The Army would only allow a different Stars and Stripes reporter to embed with a different military unit in a different Iraqi city, Kirkuk. The president of Military Reporters and Editors blasted the decision, writing to Army and Pentagon officials that barring Druzin "violates both the spirit and the letter of the embed guidelines that Military Reporters & Editors and many other journalists have worked so diligently to implement."

Following a December 2008 massive coal ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) Kingston coal-fired power station in Roane County, Tennessee, local officials want a three-year, $1.9 million public relations campaign. The Roane County Long Term Recovery Committee is asking the TVA to bankroll the campaign, which would be carried out by a Nashville PR firm, McNeely Pigott & Fox. "The campaign would feature tracking polls to gauge current perceptions about Roane County," with "two years of advertising and a 'news bureau' that would cost $726,000 each year," reports the Knoxville News Sentinel. One of the PR firm's partners said the goal would be "overall reputation building for Roane County to the tourism and economic development industries." Another Nashville firm, Cooley Public Strategies, would assist with the campaign. "Soon after the ash spill, TVA contracted with The WadeGroup Inc., of Washington, D.C.," but "TVA has not provided a copy of the WadeGroup's contract despite several requests from the News Sentinel." TVA had earlier "agreed in principle" to fund a longer PR push. The coal ash spill released 5.4 million cubic yards of sludge, 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

First, it was British Petroleum. Then, after a multi-million dollar rebranding as "green," the oil giant renamed itself Beyond Petroleum, or simply BP. Now, BP says its "number one priority" is responsibility. BP spokesperson David Nicholas described the change as "an evolution and expansion of green as a brand value rather than a replacement. ... 'Responsible' encompasses BP's original aspirations towards the environment, in addition to ... safety and social welfare." But environmental groups think BP is further distancing itself from renewable energy. Greenpeace climate change adviser Charlie Kronick called the change "classic smoke and mirrors," saying BP is giving itself "carte blanche to sell off its unprofitable green energy arm." BP never spent more than "1.5% of its budget on solar power," recently cut renewable projects and is invested in Alberta's tar sands, an especially dirty source of oil. One thing is certain -- BP's new emphasis on responsibility is meant to help "regain the trust it lost following the 2005 Texas City explosion, which killed 15 people and injured more than 170 others," reports BBC. BP consultant Tom Woollard said BP's "new brand value" is "a promise to potential partners that another Texas City is not on the cards."

Ben Smith reports on the Common Purpose Project, a new group formed to enforce message discipline among liberal organizations supporting the Obama Administration. It meets every Tuesday and brings together liberal organizations including major unions and MoveOn.org. The group has an overlapping membership with a daily phone conference run by John Podesta's think tank Center for American Progress and David Brock's Media Matters, the organizations behind Progressive Media, another part of pro-Obama PR and strategy coordination. "Unlike those other groups, however, the Common Purpose meeting has involved a White House official, communications director Ellen Moran, two sources familiar with the meeting said. It's aimed, said one, at 'providing a way for the White House to manage its relationships with some of these independent groups.' The group's founder, political consultant and former Gephardt aide Erik Smith, described it in general terms after others had confirmed its existence. ... Its political director is another former Obama aide, Miti Sathe. Part of the group's role is to enforce a kind of message discipline" and it "shares some aspects with Grover Norquist's long-running Wednesday Meeting of conservative activists, but is more focused on messaging day-to-day politics and doesn't include journalists and academics."

The Canadian province of Alberta, which promotes the development of its tar sands oil, "has hired a team of consultants to improve [its] image in Washington ahead of climate-change talks." The lobbyists, who Alberta is paying $40,000 a month, include former Michigan governor James Blanchard and former U.S. ambassador and Canadian diplomat Paul Fraser. "We can't rely on anyone else to tell our story," explained Alberta's premier. Alberta is concerned about U.S. president Barack Obama's "Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate," to be held in Washington, DC on April 27 and 28, and about COP15, the United Nations' next major climate change meeting, in Denmark in December 2009. Extracting oil from the tar sands emits significantly more greenhouse gases and pollutes more water than traditional oil development. National Geographic recently covered the tar sands in an in-depth article and photo essay described by one Canadian commentator as "public relations hell" for Alberta.

From McDonalds kids' Web site, "HappyMeal.com"In 1954 cigarette manufacturers ran an historic "advertorial" in over 400 U.S. newspapers called the "Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers" in which they stated their overriding concern for public health and promised to "cooperate closely" with authorities over concerns that cigarettes caused cancer. Instead, cigarette companies followed the ad with decades of deceitful actions that cost millions of lives. Today, the food industry appears to be following the tobacco industry's playbook on how to respond to concerns that its products cause harm. The strategy's main features include cultivating fears that government action infringes on personal freedom; focusing on personal responsibility as the sole cause of unhealthy diets; characterizing studies that hurt the industry as "junk science"; promoting the idea that there are no good or bad foods (thus no particular foods should be targeted for change); vilifying critics by portraying them as "food police" and leaders of the "nanny state"; forming front groups to advocate industry positions; engaging in self-styled "corporate social responsibility" programs and promoting self regulation as the best answer to the public's concerns. Will the food industry choose to take real actions that promote public health, or will it "supersize" past tobacco industry strategies?

The oil company Shell -- which is heavily invested in Alberta's tar sands, an especially dirty and greenhouse gas-intensive source of oil -- has launched a blog about climate change issues. It's "the first time a major oil company has used social media to make a public policy case," reports Siobhan Hughes. Shell climate adviser David Hone authors the blog, making him "the public face of Shell's climate agenda." Hone said the blog is "about recognizing that the paradigms have shifted and we have to shift with it and therefore it's about a solution and, whether we like it or not, that solution is going to come." Shell has previously courted public opinion, including by sending then-president of U.S. operations John Hofmeister on a 50-city tour in 2006. Hofmeister said "the tour helped improve public perceptions" of Shell, "even if there were some 'dicey moments.'" The Center for Media and Democracy's Diane Farsetta cautioned that Shell's messaging has "to be put in context. ... What we need ... is a totally independent discussion" of climate change issues that is "very critical of major oil companies."

Countrywide Financial, the company infamous for its role in the subprime mortgage crisis, is now called "Bank of America Home Loans." Bank of America, which purchased Countrywide in July 2008, is using the name change "to separate itself from Countrywide's reputation," reports the Wall Street Journal. "The company hopes the new brand will simplify its relationship with customers while also emphasizing that Bank of America is a 'responsible lender' and 'accountable' for sustained homeownership." Bank of America is also trying "to showcase its contributions to an economic recovery after receiving $45 billion in U.S. aid." Ironically, "new mortgage applications" are "one of the few bright spots in banking right now," since the collapsing economy had led to low interest rates. Bank of America "plans to hire about 1,000 people" for its newly-renamed mortgage unit, "and move 500 employees to mortgage processing from home-equity processing."

Karen Hughes is backWondering what former Bush advisor Karl Rove and former public diplomacy czar Karen Hughes have been up to lately? They're part of an "ongoing Bush legacy project that's been meeting in the White House," according to Stephen Hayes on CNN. The project also includes "current senior Bush administration advisers," and is focused on "how to sort of roll out the President's legacy," he added. George Bush's remarks in recent interviews (the "exit interviews" of his presidency) include "criticism of his own party." Hayes predicts, "We're going to be seeing a lot more of this," as it's part of the "legacy project." In October, the Washington Post reported that federal agencies were asked to start documenting "the Bush record" of "accomplishments over the past eight years."