Reading and hearing about the shootings in Tucson, Arizona I am more and more struck by the awful ironies of this tragic event. That Gabrielle Giffords should be a pro-gun Democrat is strange enough, but the fact that her life has been saved by a trauma surgeon just back from Iraq, whose skills have been…
A couple of first nights have grabbed my attention in the last few days, and both of them have presented interesting conundrums to consider. The first is the production of Yes, Prime Minister that has just transferred to the West End. It’s a great show; very funny, very well acted and rather more radical than…
If any politician was going to pull off the greatest stunt of a generation, it really had to be Tony Blair. And, by committing all the proceeds from his memoirs (as well as the £4 million advance) to the Royal British Legion’s Battle Back challenge centre, a project that will provide state-of-the-art rehabilitation services for…
Yesterday’s Asian Cup Final in Jakarta and the repercussions in Iraq, provoked news correspondents from the BBC to claim that Iraq’s defeat of Saudi Arabia had temporarily united the divided country. Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 yesterday and celebratory gunfire was heard in Baghdad. Thousands of Iraqis had been following the match in Indonesia on…
Flyposting is a thing of the past. Thanks to Camden Council. Pete Strange, the oddly titled Boulevard Project Manager, Camden Council, managed to get Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) served on those heroic street guerrillas a couple of years ago that made our streets less interesting According to the Guardian at the time ” Camden employed…
Is it a coincidence that the verdict and sentencing to death of Saddam Hussein have arrived two days before the pivotal U.S. Congressional Elections? I would argue that the timings are not only fortuitous, but constructed to create maximum PR. Well prepared forward planning indicates that forethought was given to where the President would be….
I notice that a leaked memo that fell into the hands of the Associated Press tells of The Pentagon instigating a public relations operation like a political campaign. Allegedly they are building a war room as Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld faces escalating criticism over the Iraq war. The public affairs and news teams will…
Oh how we lapped it up. It was just before Christmas 2003, and I’m sure the US administration felt it deserved a lovely present. I know the British tabloids did. ‘Eight months after Baghdad fell, US soldiers found the dishevelled former leader of Iraq six feet under, hiding in a hole in the ground.’ claimed…
A Dubious Doc By Eartha Melzer, In These Times. Eartha is a writer and videographer in Washington. A ‘groundbreaking’ pre-election documentary on the ‘real story’ in Iraq smells like propaganda and has the pr muscle of Manning, Selvage & Lee behind it. Just before the election, a film about Iraq hit art house theaters around…
This came to my attention this morning from www.editorandpublisher.com. It’s interesting how the ’embed’ game is being played out… ‘They may not get many takers, but Iraqi insurgents in the besieged city of Fallujah on Saturday invited journalists to “embed” with them to report their side of the war. E&P reported Friday that the Pentagon-run…