Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
San Francisco Chronicle reporter David Lazarus is questioning whether Marc Bien, who he interviewed as telecommunications giant SBC's vice-president of corporate communications (as Bien's business cards indicate) broke ethical guidelines when he neglected to tell Lazarus that he's actually an employee of major PR firm Fleishman-Hillard.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
As a top engineering and construction contractor, the Bechtel Group has had a leading role in a number of controversial public works projects, including Boston's "Big Dig," the failed privatization of Bolivia's water system, and the rebuilding of Iraq. "The bad public relations from just one these projects could sink a lesser firm, but somehow the well-connected, privately held corporation always seems to emerge unscathed and ready to score more big-ticket public works jobs," A.C. Thompson writes.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Popular Science writer William Weed "spent a day ... recording every scientific claim he encountered in stores, in ads, in newspapers and on TV, radio and the internet. Then he enlisted experts to help him evaluate their veracity." He concluded, "A good number were patently false. ...
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"Ahmed Chalabi is a treacherous, spineless turncoat. He had one set of friends before he was in power, and now he's got another," says L. Marc Zell, a former law partner of Douglas Feith, now the undersecretary of defense for policy, and a former friend and supporter of Chalabi and his aspirations to lead Iraq.
Submitted by John Stauber on
Was it the horrifiic images of US soldiers torturing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners that caused the announcement? If so, no mention was made of it when "Margaret D. Tutwiler, the State Department veteran who was summoned from abroad to overhaul the public diplomacy effort, said Thursday that she was resigning to take a position at the New York Stock Exchange.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
The controversial Iraqi National Congress will be the subject of a probe by Congress' General Accounting Office for using U.S. taxpayer money to convince U.S. citizens to support an Iraq invasion, according to Knight Ridder reporters Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"Flanked by 'Survivor' champions Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca and two Washington Redskins cheerleaders, a leading D.C. environmentalist took time on Earth Day to thank Wichita-based Koch Industries," reports Alan Bjerga. Doug Siglin, head of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Anacostia River Initiative, praised Koch for helping pick trash out of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. But while Koch colleagues heaped praise on the company, critics wondered whether the event wasn't designed to clean up Koch's image as much as the river.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
"The Pentagon has hired the Rendon Group to counsel and coordinate communications for Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"A California elections panel examining computerized voting machines has unanimously recommended that machines using touch-screen technology be banned in some California counties," reports W. David Gardner.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
The Public Relations Society of America has issued a statement saying that video news releases (VNRs) should no longer use signoffs like the one that got Karen Ryan into hot water: "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting." According to the PRSA statement, "This has caused some confusion among people who question whether someone who is not actually a reporter should be identified in a manner that could suggest that he or she is a journalist.
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