"President Bush has decided to transform the administration's temporary wartime communications effort into a permanent office of global diplomacy to spread a positive image of the United States around the world and combat anti-Americanism, senior administration officials said today. ... While discussions are at a preliminary stage, officials said there was general agreement in the administration that the intense shaping of information and coordination of messages that occurred during the fighting in Afghanistan should become a permanent feature of national security policy. ...

The First Quarter 2002 issue of PR Watch has been sent to subscribers. It features several articles looking at the public relation's industry's use of the Internet, as PR pros continue to develop new cyber-techniques for spreading propaganda and for combatting activism. On the other hand, the Internet has opened new vistas to corporate PR specialists. Some PR firms now specialize in using the Internet to spy on activist groups so that they can figure out how to neutralize them early.

The PBS NewsHour aired a report tonight titled "Public Diplomacy: U.S. Outreach to the Muslim World." 'Public diplomacy' is a euphemism for government propaganda, and this report is an overview of US efforts already reported elsewhere, with no new insights or perspectives.