Public Relations

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer today ended his two-and-a-half-year tenure as the President's top spokesperson. The man who New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller wrote "often displayed the charm of a cold glass of water behind the briefing room lectern" looks forward to becoming a well paid after-dinner speaker and starting his own Washington consulting firm, Ari Fleischer Communications, that will advise corporate executives on handling the news media.

"Kraft Foods grabbed the PR high ground in the public debate about obesity and America's unhealthy eating habits by announcing a series of planned changes in how it will make and market its products," PR Week reports. "The changes include increased communications with various groups interested in the obesity issue, as well as proactive efforts to encourage improved child fitness and nutrition." But the Guardian's Mark Borkowski calls Kraft's move "PR at its shabbiest and most shameful.

Former celebrity publicist Lizzie Gruman has changed careers. Grubman spent 37 days in jail following an infamous temper tantrum in which she backed her Mercedes SUV into a crowd outside a Hamptons nightspot, injuring 16 people. She now works as a gossip and entertainment reporter for a New York radio station.

Frustrated by survey results showing that "the bottom has fallen out of support for America in most of the Muslim world," Congress is asking the State Department to explain why U.S. image-enhancement efforts are failing. "When you consider that the State Department (DoS) has devoted more money and attention to public-diplomacy efforts in these regions in the past two years than anywhere since the Soviet Union's collapse, it's a sign that something's not working," writes Douglas Quenqua.