The Publicity Club of Chicago's November luncheon featured TV journalists including Jay Foot of WLS, Pam Oliver of NBC 5-TV and Chaz Parker of WBBM. They were the featured speakers, there to tell the assembled PR flacks the best ways and times to pitch them and to get their PR aired as news. Such meetings are typical nation-wide and help explain how so much PR becomes "news."

The bold announcement from Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) that it had taken steps to create human embryos through cloning was more hype than reality. The methods used had already been done in animals, and some scientists insisted it wasn't cloning at all. Also, the few embryonic cells it had created had died. "This was a public relations campaign," said Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

In the aftermath of September 11, the United States will have to abandon its "go-it-alone" Fortress America policies, according to PR executive Robert Dilenschneider.