PR Czar Earns E's

Newly minted propaganda czar Karen Hughes' "listening tour" of the Middle East "turned into a near feeding frenzy directed at her by the western media," writes John Brown, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer. "Hughes's PR failure with her home media would be of little importance if it did not lead to a simple but troubling question: If the administration's Under Secretary in a key foreign policy post can't demonstrate to western reporters that she's a serious professional, how will she ever be able to convince the rest of the world ... that her official assignment - winning hearts and minds abroad - is worth any attention or respect?" Instead of the four "E's" of public diplomacy - "Education, Empowerment, Engagement and Exchanges" - Brown lists several different "E's" that Hughes communicated on her tour: Evangelical, Erroneous, Evasive, Eccentric, Egocentric and Escapist.