public relations

"Public relations firms across the country predict massive layoffs in the coming months due to recent legislation outlawing the firms' most lucrative practices," according to an article in a spoof edition of the New York Times, dated July 4, 2009. The real Times reports, "In an elaborate hoax, pranksters distributed thousands of copies ... Wednesday morning at busy subway stations around the city." The lead story of the spoof paper is "Iraq War Ends." Other stories detailed similar wonders, including "national health care, a rebuilt economy, progressive taxation, [and] a national oil fund to study climate change." The spoof "special edition" Times is also online, where it 'reports' that "new regulations carefully scrutinize government contracts with for-profit public relations companies. ... The new rules would have forbidden the creation of the National Smokers Alliance, a front group formed by Philip Morris with the help of P.R. giant Burson Marsteller." The spoof paper has been linked to the Yes Men, a political satire group that's previously targeted the World Trade Organization and Dow Chemical Company.

The Council's logoThe Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq is launching a public campaign in the United States, "to educate and raise awareness of the goals of the leading Shiite political party that opposes Muqtada al-Sadr's group." The Council will spend an estimated $20,000 per month, to educate U.S. policymakers and the general public on "Iraqi Islamic culture." The U.S. representative of the group, Karim Almusawi, "has appeared at various forums such as the U.S. Institute of Peace event earlier this month that dealt with Iraqi recommendations for the incoming Administration," reports O'Dwyer's. The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq maintains "a somewhat incongruous dual alliance with the U.S. and Iran," according to the International Crisis Group.

CMD's Diane Farsetta digs further into the Virginia-based Council for a Democratic Iran (CDI) and its major new contract with the Livingston Group lobbying and PR firm, which Lauri Fitz-Pegado is working on. CDI's founder, Dr. Behrooz Behbudi, "seems to be aligned with military hawks." In 2007, he "bought $250,000 worth of ads in major North American newspapers denouncing Iran's Muslims leaders and 'terrorists' and 'fascists' and warning they are a direct threat to the U.S. and Canada." Also last year, Behbudi said he opposed a military invasion of Iran, but warned that if President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders don't change their stance, "What happened to Saddam Hussein ... will happen in Iran, too." In 2004, Behbudi founded the "Iranian Democratization Foundation" with disgraced defense contractor Mitchell Wade, one of the people who paid bribes to former Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

"Barack and socialism? No, our country deserves better," implored Mark Williams.

Mark Williams addresses the rallyIt was only a few minutes into the October 22 rally staged by Our Country Deserves Better, a political action committee (PAC) formed to oppose the Democratic presidential candidate. But Williams, a conservative talk radio host from California, was just getting warmed up.

"Barack Obama represents people who are ashamed of this great country, who believe that this great country is the evil in the world and that, in their revisionist history, they cast us as the villain," Williams claimed. "And if we dare question them ... like Joe the Plumber: 'Mr. Obama, what are you going to do to my taxes?' That was enough for the dogs who support the ideological left to go after Joe the Plumber and shred him. ... There's no such thing as sacred, among the unholy left. They vilify this nation, and they vilify those of us who support it. ... [It's] the same kind of thuggery of the left that's used by totalitarian regimes around the world to silence opposition."

Towards the end of the rally, Williams invoked a long-discredited smear against Obama that seems designed to play on fears of his "otherness": that he's not really a U.S. citizen. "We all know that Barack Obama is not qualified to be president of the United States, beyond being above the age of 35 and probably an American citizen," said Williams, emphasizing the word "probably." He laughed and then repeated: "Probably. Even money."

Unlike his hypothetical conservatives cowed by leftist thugs, Williams will not be silenced.

The British government's second public consultation on nuclear power, "which was run by a company linked to the Prime Minister's personal pollster," has been criticized for material that was "inaccurately or misleadingly presented." In response to a complaint from the environmental group Greenpeace, Britain's Market Research Standards Board ruled that the Opinion Leader firm presented "imbalanced" information that risked leading focus group participants "towards a particular answer." Prime Minister Gordon Brown's pollster, Deborah Mattinson, used to co-chair the firm and "remains a senior figure in its parent company." The Brown government supports building new nuclear plants. The Liberal Democrat energy spokesman said the Standards Board ruling "shows that the Government isn't even competent enough to rig its own consultation." The Brown government says the ruling won't affect its nuclear plans, declaring that "the outcome of the consultation stands." The second consultation was launched after Britain's High Court ruled the government's first consultation on nuclear power a "sham."

Pete Yost reports that "Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse. In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by DCI of Washington were Republican senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. DCI's chief executive is Doug Goodyear, whom John McCain's campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September. ... The Republican senators targeted by DCI began hearing from prominent constituents and financial contributors, all urging the defeat of Hagel's bill because it might harm the housing boom. The effort generated newspaper articles and radio and TV appearances by participants who spoke out against the measure. Inside Freddie Mac headquarters in 2005, the few dozen people who knew what DCI was doing referred to the initiative as 'the stealth lobbying campaign,"' according to three people familiar with the drive. They spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying they fear retaliation if their names were disclosed."

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission "has bolstered its PR staff after the agency and its chair Christopher Cox have been criticized" over the current financial crisis, reports O'Dwyer's. Riding to the SEC's assistance are Erik Hotmire and Andrew Weinstein. Hotmire is "a former Bush administration and Senate communications aide" who left a position at the PR firm Clark & Weinstock to work for the SEC. Weinstein has his own firm, Ridgeback Communications, and also served as AOL's chief spokesman and vice-president of corporate communications. He previously was "spokesman for ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and directed media relations for Bob Dole's presidential run" in 1996.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's meteoric rise to prominence on the national political scene after only 21 months in office came about with the help of a media relations and marketing consulting firm hired to draw national attention to the state's proposed natural gas pipeline project. Alaska's Department of Natural Resources paid public relations expert Marcia Brier of Needham, Massachusetts $31,000 to pitch stories to the national media that promoted Palin as the driving force behind the pipeline and getting the state legislature to go along with it. Brier sent press releases to national media outlets portraying Palin as an "upstart governor" and crusader against Big Oil, the same story line Palin now uses in her campaign with John McCain. Some state legislators take exception to the portayal of Palin as the sole force behind the pipeline, when many other people worked on the project. Once the PR campaign began, Palin was away from the Legislature so much that lawmakers started sporting red and white "Where's Sarah?" buttons. Among Brier's past clients is a 23 year-old Saudi prince, Bader al-Saud, whom she helped to get a plea deal in a vehicular homicide case after he was arrested for drinking and driving in Martha's Vineyard in 2005.