Bush Creates "Office of Global Communications"

The Bush administration has decided to create a permanent, fully staffed "Office of Global Communications" to "coordinate the administration's foreign policy message and supervise America's image abroad, according to senior officials," writes Karen DeYoung. The office will allow the White House "to exert more control over what has become one of the hottest areas of government and private-sector initiatives since Sept. 11. Known as 'public diplomacy,' it attempts to address the question President Bush posed in his speech to Congress the week after the terrorist attacks: 'Why do they hate us?'"