Representing the Right

What do former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig, Jr., former CIA director James Woolsey, White House advisor Richard Perle, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, American Enterprise Institute's Michael Ledeen, and dissident Iraqi nuclear scientist Dr. Khidir Hamza have in common? For one thing, they all have the PR expertise of Eleana Benador behind them. According to WorkingForChange columnist Bill Berkowitz, Benador, who "runs a high-powered media relations and international Speakers bureau called Benador Associates," gets her clients "maximum exposure on cable's talking-head television programs, and in placing their op-ed pieces in a number of the nation's major newspapers." But it's not as simple as sharing the same publicist, suggests Berkowitz. Benador and her clients have assumed a prominent role in shaping the public debate over U.S. Middle East policy.