U.S. Government

Tucker Eskew, director of the White House Office of Global Communications, is leaving his job to set up a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. Eskew was a key player in the Bush administration's campaign to sell the Iraq invasion. O'Dwyer's writes, "He told USA Today in December 2001 that his job was to 'stop big lies and to promote great truths.'" According to the Associated Press, Eskew plans to advise and serve as foreign policy surrogate for Bush's reelection campaign.

"The Senate confirmed longtime Republican spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs," PR Week reports. Tutwiler steps in to fill an eight-month vacancy left when ad queen Charlotte Beers resigned the post for health reasons. Tutwiler reportedly left her post as ambassador to Morocco only after "much cajoling by the Bush administration." During her confirmation hearing she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that America needs to do a better job of listening to foreign audiences.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "has transformed himself from corporate henchman to a crusty old guy who can say anything any time with few repercussions," writes James Ridgeway. "Last year he wanted to set up a special propaganda bureau called the Office of Strategic Influence, but he had to close it down amid reports it was putting out false information in an effort to sway public opinion.

Now that Private Jessica Lynch has told the truth about the conditions of her capture and rescue in Iraq, right-wing telebabbler Joe Scarborough is complaining that she "started whining about the Pentagon PR machine and the fact that they told parts of the stories that may have made her more of a hero than she considered herself to be. ... Well, Jessica, I've got bad news to break to you. It was because of the Pentagon PR machine that turned you into an American hero -- that got book publishers interested in paying you $1 million to tell your story. It was the Pentagon PR machine that told America how you were a hero that got NBC interested in doing a movie about your story. It was the Pentagon PR machine that's turned you into a millionaire."