If Rep. Gary Condit is looking for some PR advice, he could check out this column by Fraser P. Seitel, the former editor and publisher of Public Relations Strategist (the official publication of the Public Relations Society of America). Seitel advises Condit to give a public interview, following Monica Lewinsky's example: (1) Select a friendly interviewer. Lewinsky chose Barbara Walters; Seitel thinks Condit should try Larry King.

Editors at the world's most prominent medical journals, alarmed that drug companies are exercising too much control over research results, have agreed to adopt a uniform policy that reserves the right to refuse to publish drug company-sponsored studies unless the researchers involved are guaranteed scientific independence. The journal editors decided to act after several recent cases involving charges that drug companies tried to withhold research results or present them in the most favorable way.

In a major surrender to Israeli diplomatic pressure, BBC officials in London have banned their staff in Britain and the Middle East from referring to Israel's policy of murdering its guerrilla opponents as "assassination." BBC reporters have been told that in future they are to use Israel's own euphemism for the murders, calling them "targeted killings."