The PR company Ketchum boasts on its website that its issues and crisis management expertise "helps clients plan rational strategies to deal with difficult situations early -- before an issue or crisis erupts." In written responses to questions from PR Week about the firm's role in the

"In order to achieve long-term peace and stability in the Middle East, the youth need to be reached," explained the U.S. government, in an ad seeking artists for an "original comic book series" to help Middle Eastern youth "learn lessons, develop role models and improve their education." The U.S. Army's Fourth Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg in North Carolina has done initial character and plot development and will produce the series.

"The two dirty words of market research," writes Carl Bialik, are "sponsored by." One example is a recent Microsoft-funded study, which found that "Microsoft was the company respondents most associated with reliable, high-quality hardware peripherals." The problem is that "the other choices" survey participants were given "weren't household names. ...