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...

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?

"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.