Public Relations

The First Lady's Steely Public Diplomacy

"At a time when the U.S. is eager to repair its image around the world, the administration has found a willing envoy in Mrs. Bush," who traveled to Afghanistan, the West Bank, Rwanda and Tanzania in 2005. "Increasingly convinced the war on terror won't be won at gunpoint, the administration hopes Mrs. Bush's trips can draw on her domestic popularity to make inroads abroad," writes Christopher Cooper. U.S.

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Fighting to Keep New Jersey Toxic

"If builders and polluters are on the dark side of New Jersey's environmental wars, Michael Turner is Darth Vader," writes Alexander Lane. "A public relations man and lobbyist, he has fought for the Windy Acres development in Hunterdon County, the Xanadu project in the Meadowlands and a strip mall near Edison Township's beloved Oak Tree Pond. He represents Shieldalloy Corp.

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It Was a Very False Year: The 2005 Falsies Awards

As Father Time faded into history with the end of 2005, he was spinning out of control.

Groucho maskOver the past twelve months, the ideal of accurate, accountable, civic-minded news media faced nearly constant attack. Fake news abounded, from Pentagon-planted stories in Iraqi newspapers to corporate- and government-funded video news releases aired by U.S. newsrooms. Enough payola pundits surfaced to constitute their own basketball team -- Doug Bandow, Peter Ferrara, Maggie Gallagher, Michael McManus and Armstrong Williams. (They could call themselves the "Syndicated Shills.")

Freeport Fronts Its Way into Activists' Emails

The New York Times reports that the Louisiana-based mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold worked closely with Indonesian military intelligence officers to monitor the email and phone calls of environmental activists concerned about the impacts of the company's Grasberg mine in Indonesia's Papua province.

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Coke's PR Connects Canada and Colombia

After students at two Canadian universities, McMaster and the University of Guelph, voted down campus exclusivity deals with Coca-Cola, "the world's largest soft-drink company has launched a counter-offensive in hopes of heading off further boycotts." In December, Coke reps visited McMaster and the University of British Columbia.

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'Hearts and Minds': U.S. Wins Some, Loses Some

Wall Street Journal editorial board member Bret Stephens writes that U.S. assistance to Pakistan following the devastating October 8 earthquake is "one of America's most significant hearts-and-minds successes so far in the Muslim world. ... The Chinook has become America's new emblem in Pakistan, a byword for salvation in an area where until recently the U.S.

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Mexico to U.S.: Tear Down This Wall!

Following the U.S. House's passage of an immigration bill that would, among other things, extend walls along the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexico is fighting back. "Mexico ... will not allow a stupid thing like this wall," said its Foreign Relations Secretary. The Mexican government has hired Republican campaign consultant Rob Allyn who has long also been Mexico President Vincente Fox's campaign advisor.

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