PENTAGON DRAFTS RENDON FOR WAR PR

The Pentagon has given The Rendon Group a "sole source" four-month contract worth $397,000 to help shape the military's message about the War on Terror, according to Lt. Col. Kenneth McClellan.

The Pentagon didn't have the luxury of putting the contract up for bid because the "war on terrorism started without notice."

TRG, according to the Pentagon PA officer, was selected because of its "experience in message development and delivery strategies and tactics used by the government in similar wartime situations."

The firm represented the exiled Kuwaiti royal family (the so-called Citizens for a Free Kuwait) during the Persian Gulf war and the country's Ministry of Information. It also has run USAID programs in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

McClellan told this NL that CEO John Rendon is the person to talk to about who is working on the account and what specific things the firm plans to do for the military. Rendon could not be reached for comment.

The Pentagon, however, has given the firm the mission to communicate around the world to various groups in real time and across all media.

TRG has done PR in 78 countries. Its Pentagon contract has an option to extend up to one year.

Rendon was executive director and national political director of the Democratic National Committee. He has served as an news analyst for CBS News, BBC World Service TV and CNN's Crossfire.

OGILVY HITS THE BOOKS

Ogilvy PR Worldwide has picked up a $945,000 six-month contract to promote READ California, which stresses the importance of reading and encourages parents and caregivers to read with their children, according to Alicia Ritter, a staffer on the account.

Ritter said Ogilvy will pitch "reading as a key to life and the responsibility of all Californians" to embrace. There also will be a "teen component" to the campaign, she added.

Channa McNeil, VP in Sacramento, and Cattalya Snider in Los Angeles are key staffers on the account.

Incumbent Porter Novelli and Phelps Group also pitched the business.

The PR firm will coordinate its efforts with ad firm Lawrence, Mayo & Ponder which is responsible for the $3M campaign to stress reading that is funded by the Gov.'s Office of the Secy. for Educ.

WPP GROUP SLICES SIX PERCENT OF STAFF

WPP Group has cut six percent of its staff since the beginning of this year to deal with the "sharp deceleration in the growth rate of the world economy," said CEO Martin Sorrell in releasing the company's financials.

WPP, the parent of Hill and Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe and Ogilvy PR Worldwide, employed 49,834 on Sept. 30.

WPP felt the economic slowdown mainly in technology, media and telecommunication sectors of the economy though, Sorrel noted, "there was some spill over into the 'old' economy" clients.

Sorrell said the Sept. 11 terror attacks cost WPP at least $30 million in lost revenues "without any opportunity to reduce operating costs."

Combined WPP and Y&R "constant currency revenues" dropped more than three percent due to the terror attacks. WPP could report a two percent decline in full year revenues if the fourth quarter shapes up as bad as the third period did.

The holding company, according to Sorrell, will be hard-pressed to reach its 15 percent operating margin this year.

MAKOVSKY COUNSELS CONSULTANT BA&H

Makovsky & Co. picked up the Booz Allen & Hamilton account in a pitch against four other firms, according to Mike Bulger, PR head at the New York-based management consultant firm.

BA&H, said Bulger, had used WPP Group's Robinson Lake Montgomery unit but "our needs changed."

Tim Wallace, EVP at M&Co., leads the account.

He said M&Co. will pitch BA&H's intellectual capital and offer its executives as resources to the business and financial media.

M&Co. also will promote BA&H's strategy + business quarterly magazine to top executives and key "influencers." That quarterly publication is edited by Randy Rothenberg, who once wrote the New York Times' advertising column.

BA&H's more than 10,000 staffers generate $2 billion in annual revenue from commercial and public sector clients.

Fleishman-Hillard laid off a "handful" of staffers in New York last week, according to Peter Verrengia, regional president. Less than 10 staffers were let go. F-H has made cuts this year throughout its office network to cope with the economic slump.

IPG DELAYS EARNINGS REPORT

Interpublic, which controls PR firms with nearly $1 billion in reported fees in 2000 (Weber Shandwick, Golin/Harris), is delaying releasing its earnings report until Nov. 13 in order to provide balance sheet information, according to analysts.

IPG has for many years released its quarterly earnings within a day or two of rival Omnicom's earnings announcements.

OMC reported on Oct. 23 that its third quarter net was up 8% to $92.4 million, or 50 cents a share, as expected by analysts. As usual, OMC did not provide a balance sheet. That will be available from SEC filings on Nov. 13, 45 days after the close of the quarter. OMC distributes the earnings statement but not the balance sheet to the press.

IPG's earnings report will be released after the New York Stock Exchange close at 4:30 Nov. 13.
A press release from IR specialist Susan Watson gave no reason for the delay.

However, analysts and investors said they complained to IPG management after the last conference call, saying management was unable to supply vital data including the status of IPG's borrowings.

Fitch, Standard & Poor's and Moody's have lowered their credit ratings of IPG in recent months. IPG stock has declined from a high of $58 nearly two years ago to the $22 level, chipping about $10 billion from its capitalization. Its sales ($7.2 billion in 2000) are now larger than its capitalization.

Have Far-Flung Operations

Analysts said OMC and IPG have operations around the world and that it takes a long time to collect the information. Balance sheets are usually not filed with the SEC until the last possible day.

While OMC and IPG make press releases of their earnings, they do not do this for the balance sheets, which show the debt owed by the companies.

Analysts are looking for IPG to take at least a $550M charge for costs related to its acquisition of True North and other restructurings and acquisitions.

IPG does not want to release earnings without having a full discussion of its balance sheet, said the analysts. Investors and the public can listen to the conference call via www.interpublic.com.

RUBIN IS LEAVING INTERPUBLIC

Bruce Rubin, a principal of Rubin, Barney & Birger, Miami, which was sold to Interpublic in 1997, is leaving the company to open his own PR practice specializing in crisis, emergency and litigation management. Offices will be in New York and Miami.

Rubin, 54, said he is not leaving IPG voluntarily. He has been executive VP of IPG's Weber Shandwick Worldwide with offices in Miami and New York and CEO of Latin America for Weber Shandwick.

IPG has been downsizing its staff lately in the wake of reduced ad revenues. Its stock has gone from a high of $58 nearly two years ago to about $20. Credit rating services recently lowered their ratings for IPG.

RB&B was sold to IPG when IPG's stock was $48. Rubin, who was chairman of the Counselors Academy of PRSA in 1987, said he received stock from IPG and sold it but would not say at what price.

He will continue to be "of counsel" to Weber Shandwick for the next six months. He and his wife, Cheryl, have an apartment in New York City but he said he will open a separate office for what will be a one-person firm.

He would not discuss the final financial arrangements he has made with IPG.

RB&B had 47 employees when it was sold to IPG in 1997 and now has about 20. It had a large healthcare unit and reported $3.4M in fees in 1996.

Rubin acquired experience in litigation PR while working for the three major tobacco companies on various lawsuits. He founded his own firm in 1975. It was owned by the Beber, Silverstein ad agency from 1990-92.

S&H UNVEILS RESTAURANT ADS

The National Restaurant Assn. has tapped Alexandria, Va.-based Smith & Harroff for an ad campaign to encourage Americans to dine out as a boost to the economy, the food service industry, and as a return to daily life after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Business in restaurants in cities such as San Francisco is down up to 40 percent in wake of the terror attacks.

More than 15,000 restaurant workers in New York (and another 85,000 nationwide) have been laid off due to the collapse of business.

S&H's ads are tagged "Help America Turn the Tables" and tout the restaurant industry as a $1 trillion "cornerstone" of the U.S. economy, saying "every dollar spent dining out generates more than two dollars for other industries."

Brian Smith, CEO of S&H, says the goal of the ads is to "demonstrate how integral restaurants are to our way of life" as well as to the economy.

MT INKS $420K TRADE PACT WITH NIGERIA

Manchester Trade is helping Nigeria line up investors to develop its non-energy sector under a contract worth $420,000 a year. Mining, textile production and food processing are the country's leading industries.

MT president Steve Lande is also drawing up a list of Nigerian companies that either have the capability or potential to export their goods to the U.S.

The country is eager to reap trade benefits offered under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

Nigeria, which is Africa's biggest energy producer, exported $15 billion in goods in 1996. Forty percent of that went to the U.S., while European Union countries took in 21 percent. Cocoa and rubber are Nigeria's leading non-petroleum exports.

Lande reports to Nigeria's Commerce Minister Mustapha Bello.

PRN UNVEILS ONLINE MEDIA DATABASE

PR Newswire has unveiled an online media database that it says will put an end to the animosity between publicists and news people that stems from pitches to the wrong journalist.

PRN said its Online MediaAtlas will provide more than 433,000 journalists and 138,000 media outlets in 172 countries, making it the largest global database of journalists.

The company developed its database of newspapers, radio stations and programs, TV stations and programs, consumer magazines and trade publications over the past year through a team of 60 researchers, who update the system daily.

The Online MediaAtlas lets users send news releases to reporters and editors in the manner the journalists have requested. While the database may provide other contact data, news releases may only be sent from the system in the journalists' preferred method.

PRN said the service also is the only web-based media management system that contains global data and allows multiple ways of searching.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Mutual Funds is adding new sections, starting with the January number, to provide additional information on investing and financial planning options.

John Curran, who is managing editor of the monthly magazine, said the new departments will focus on investing directly in stocks, sector analysis, and financial and retirement planning.

As a result of acquiring subscription lists from the now-defunct Consumers Digest and its sibling Your Money, Mutual Funds will increase its rate base to 825,000 in January.

Prevention, a health magazine published by Rodale's Women's Health Group, has started a new website with iVillage Network, a women's online media company.

The magazine will own and produce the new Prevention Center.com site as well as provide reports on health and wellness issues and give advice on how to solve them. iVillage will host the Prevention Center.com message boards and sell ads.

Elizabeth Crow is editorial director for RWHG, based in Emmaus, Pa. 610/967-5171; fax: 967-7654.

Valiente, a Latino lifestyles magazine published monthly in English, will begin statewide distribution this month in Texas.

The magazine, which was started a year ago, had been available in Dallas and Fort Worth. It will now be sold in Houston, Austin, El Paso, Corpus Christi and San Antonio.

Editorial content includes features, profiles and departments in business, culture, fashion, home decor, cuisine, health, the arts and more.

The magazine's offices are at 6000 Custer rd., Plano, TX 75023. 972/517-2700; fax: 429-0020.

NETWORKS LET RELEASES PILE UP

From fan mail to press releases, letters to networks are being trashed in the wake of anthrax contamination, according to Broadcasting & Cable magazine.

John Higgins, a reporter for B&C, said there are giant piles of unopened mail behind MSNBC.com's studios in Secaucus, N.J., a New York suburb.

"Pretty much the same thing is happening at Fox News Channel and mail now sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw isn't making it into 30 Rock at all anymore," said Higgins.

Post Is Not Tossing Mail

Media Distribution Services, a leading mailer of press releases, said The New York Post is not burning or throwing out its mail due to the anthrax scare, as rumored.

MDS checked with the Post after a client said they wanted to pull their address from any future mailings to the paper.

What MDS found was the Post is installing a new system to scan mail better. In the meantime, the paper's mailroom has been holding mail longer before it is distributed throughout the company.

MDS also found other big papers will deliver mail if it is addressed to a specific editor with a return address and is not handwritten.

As far as sending packages that contain video tapes or products, the mail department will scrutinize more carefully and handle with care, MDS said.

The New York Times closed down its mailroom on Oct. 23 after a mailroom employee opened a letter containing a white, powdery substance.

Catherine Mathis, Times spokeswoman, said the envelope, which was postmarked Glasgow, Scotland, was sent with no department or individual at the paper specified, and had no return address.

She said the employee will be tested for exposure for anthrax. The mailroom will remain closed until those test results and one on the letter come back.

MEDIA BRIEFS

FHM, a quarterly magazine aimed at young men, will increase its publishing schedule to 11 times yearly, starting with its July/August number.

FHM, which was launched in March 2000 by British publisher Emap, will guarantee advertisers a circulation of 1 million, up from 750,000, beginning with the January/February issue.

The American Assn. of Advertising Agencies has suspended publication of its quarterly magazine, Agency, for economic reasons.

John Wolfe, who is editor-in-chief of Agency, said the fall 2001 issue will be the last one until the economy gets better.

Agency, which had a circulation of about 40,000, was published by Forbes Custom Communications Ptrs., a division of Forbes Inc.

(Media news continued on next page)

AL JAZEERA TELLS THE WAR STORY

Al Jazeera, an Arabic-language TV station based in Qatar, has emerged as a key opinion maker because of its independent editorial policy.

The Arabic-language network has grown so popular that it is considering recording broadcasts in English and expanding its office in New York. The network has 40 million viewers, including 150,000 Americans.

"The U.S. may control the Afgani air space, but in this war the airwaves belong to Al Jazeera," says Hussein Ibish, who is communications director, and Ali Abunimah, a member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The two men said Al Jazeera's coverage and its audience have become more important than any other in the world.

"If CNN was made by the 1991 Gulf War, the current conflict represents a similar global coming of age for Al Jazeera," they wrote in the Oct. 22 edition of The Los Angeles Times.

The writers lashed out against the Western press for criticizing Al Jazeera's coverage, while relying on the station for almost all hard news coming from the war zone.

The station, which broadcasts free of government restrictions all over the Arab world, has become known for airing taped statements by Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S., and by the spokesman for bin Laden's organization, al-Qaida.

Recently, the station has also presented comments from President George Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, the top White House national security advisor, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Station Has New York Bureau

Ghida Fakhry, an Arab journalist who covers New York and the United Nations for Al Jazeera, said criticism of the network is unfair.

"I'm surprised at the charges about the network being biased, because Al Jazeera has been criticized in (Arab regions) for being too pro-American and too pro-Israeli," she told a reporter.

Fakhry, who is 31, said most people in the Middle East believe American TV news reporting is biased in favor of Israel.

"Anyone you speak to in the Middle East will tell you American TV is definitely biased. You'll never find the word 'assassination' in the American press when it's about the Israeli policy of assassinating political activists. It's always called 'a targeted killing,'" she said.

Fakhry, who has been covering New York for two years, believes her reporting has been even-handed.

Michael Moran, a senior producer for special projects at MSNBC.com, also believes the attacks on Al Jazeera's correspondents are "wrong."

The TV channel, which is funded by the Emir of Qatar and other Arab moderates, is the "lone Arabic broadcast outlet to put truth and objectivity above even its survival," said Moran, whose views appeared Oct. 23 on MSNBC.com.

Einstein Communications, in London, was recently retained to handle PR for Al Jazeera.

DOW JONES TO KEEP SOME STAFF IN N.J.

Dow Jones plans to permanently relocate about 250 jobs to its South Brunswick, N.J., production facility, where it moved much of its staff after the company's New York headquarters was badly damaged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

As part of the move, the copy desks of the Wall Street Journal and its overseas editions would be combined and moved to New Jersey.

Other departments would be moved around as well, including WSJ.com, which would have its operations consolidated in office space in downtown Manhattan near Canal st.

Reporters and editors of the WSJ have been at two locations in Manhattan since the attacks, with the editorial center remaining in a temporary newsroom in the New Jersey facility on Route 1, near Princeton.

DJ plans to move the Journal's editorial headquarters back into its former office space in the World Financial Center as well as its corporate headquarters and the editorial offices of Barron's.

After all the moves are made, DJ expects to occupy just three floors in the WFC compared with seven before the attacks.

American Media's building in Boca Raton, where Bob Stevens, a photo editor, contracted a fatal case of anthrax, has been declared a Superfund site. The designation will allow the federal government to pay for the cleanup costs.

PEOPLE

Susan Binford has resigned as executive VP of PR and chief spokeswoman for CNN News Group.

Carole Simpson, a news correspondent and weekend anchor for ABC News, was suspended for two weeks for spreading false information about an anthrax investigation while speaking at the International Women's Media Foundation in New York on Oct. 16.

Steve Oswalt, 48, a reporter for KCCI-TV, Des Moines, was fired after he jokingly sprinkled face powder around the newsroom in front of co-workers.

Jean Ryan, managing editor, and Dale Seth, city editor of The Oneida (N.Y.) Daily Dispatch, were fired Oct. 17 as a result of repercussions from a Sept. 19 editorial that quoted an unidentified Pakistani as blaming Jews for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

REPORTER SAYS KIDS LURED/SHOT IN GAZA

Chris Hedges, investigative reporter for the New York Times and Mid East bureau chief for the Times from 1991-95, said in an article in the October Harper's that he witnessed soldiers in an Israeli outpost next to the Khan Younis refugee camp enticing children into rifle range and then shooting them with rifles equipped with silencers.

HonestReporting.com, a website dedicated to rooting out what it perceives to be anti-Israel bias in the media, called the story "one of the worst pieces of reporting from the Middle East in recent memory." This NL asked the site to analyze the Hedges piece.

Hedges, in one passage in the 11-page article in Harper's, said that he was at the refugee camp on Sunday afternoon, June 17, when a voice came over the Israeli loudspeaker saying, "Come on, dogs, where are all the dogs of Khan Younis? Come! Come!"

Boys, most no more than ten or 11 years old according to Hedges, responded to the taunts by throwing rocks over an electric fence at two armored Israeli jeeps. The fence separates the camp from a Jewish settlement where the "whitewashed villas and manicured lawns and gardens look as if they have been lifted out of a southern California suburb." A percussion grenade scattered one group of boys, writes Hedges.

Children Shot with M-16s

The soldiers, shooting with M-16 rifles equipped with silencers, sent bullets that "tumble end-over-end through the children's slight bodies," killing 11-year-old Ali Murad and seriously wounding four more, three of them under 18, according to Hedges.

On the previous day, he writes, eight were shot under similar circumstances, six of them under 18.

Hedges writes he has seen children shot in El Salvador, Guatemala and Sarajevo, and mothers with infants lined up and massacred in Algeria, "but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport."

Hedges said the doctor in charge of a local hospital told him he has records of 1,206 Palestinians killed and wounded including 655 under 18 yrs. old.

Pure Propaganda, Says HonestReporting.com

The October edition of Harper's magazine contains one of the most biased anti-Israel reports by an American reporter in recent years, says HonestReporting.com, a pro-Israel site.

Why do we consider "Gaza Diary" biased? There are many points:

Hedges bemoans the Palestinian's horrible living conditions. Had Arafat chosen the path of peace, tens of thousands of Palestinians would be employed in Israel today, would be working in jointly owned job-intensive jobs, would be building projects funded by international investors. Israel offered land adjoining Gaza for Palestinian additional housing as part of a land swap on the West Bank. But Arafat rejected it all.

Hedges chronicles a day-by-day death toll of Palestinian teens in Gaza during his week visit. But nowhere does the reporter present the Israeli casualties on those very same days - an Israeli teenager wounded and four men killed in four drive-by shootings by Palestinians. Nor does Hedges report that the day after he visited one of his despised Israeli checkpoints a suicide bomber killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint.

Hedges' strongest words are left for alleged Israeli shootings of Palestinian teens. He makes no mention of the Gaza disturbances orchestrated as a diversion to draw attention from a massive Palestinian arms smuggling operation through tunnels from Egypt.

M-16s Are Filled with Blanks

Hedges claims Israeli soldiers used silencers on their M-16s when they shot Palestinian teens. Pure ignorance or deliberate disinformation. The cylinders he saw on the end of the rifles are not silencers; they are rubber projectile kits. When used, it means lethal bullets have been removed from the magazine and blank cartridges are shot to project the rubber pellets. Is the veteran Hedges simply ignorant, or is this another case of deliberate misinformation?

Hedges accuses the Israeli army of indiscriminate fire on Palestinian civilians. Buried in his story, however, is evidence that the Israeli troops are actually firing in self-defense. Hedges describes how the soldiers "fire down on the roofs" of the Palestinian shacks. But later he adds, "Bands of Palestinian gunmen, who often initiate the shooting, fire back."

PRSA CONFERENCE DRAWS 1,500

The PR Society of America conference in Atlanta Oct. 27-30 has drawn about 1,500 registrants, off 800 from last year's total of 2,306 in Chicago and about 500 less than the average annual conference.

The Chicago total included 335 who came because the meeting was held jointly with the International PR Assn.

The 1999 PRSA conference in Los Angeles drew 1,398 registrants and the 1998 conference in Boston attracted 2,500.

Also present in Atlanta are 1,100 members of PR Student Society of America.

Last year's conference, which had 71 exhibits, lost $195,000. Estimates of this year's financial results were not yet available.

PRSA had 19,279 members in November 1998 and currently has "nearly" 20,000 members.

The Assembly, reversing a decision of the Boston Assembly, restored the title of president to the highest elected officer of PRSA, dropping "chair."

Fleishman-Hillard's High Road Communications is promoting the Ottawa Economic Development group, which is trying to attract investments from high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, Calif.

High-Road, based in Toronto, said Ottawa is home to 1,000 high-tech companies employing 70,000+.

"U.S. Appears to Be Losing Public Relations War So Far," said a headline in the Oct. 28 New York Times. The story, by Times reporter Susan Sachs based in Cairo, said appearances on Arabic TV by Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice in recent days have been no match for images of wounded Afghan children and Israeli tanks rolling into Palestinian villages.

Local papers have been "filled with reports on Israel's latest attacks on Palestinian towns," reported Sachs. Funerals of Palestinians killed in the conflict are the first item on TV news shows, she added.

The interviews with Powell, Rumsfeld and Rice have "often fallen flat," says Sachs, adding:

"The U.S., of course, started off at a disadvantage in the propaganda war because its Mid East policy was seen as blindly pro-Israel and Mr. Bush was seen as being uninterested in the plight of the Palestinians."

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on Oct. 11 made a similar statement and set off a torrent of criticism. His $10 million gift to the victims of 9/11 was blocked by Mayor Rudy Giuliani who "ordered the twin towers fund to nix the prince's donation" (quotation from the New York News Oct. 23). The donation was not made to or through Giuliani but he interjected himself to block the gift and condemn Alwaleed for supposedly saying the 9/11 attacks were justified by U.S. policies.

Alwaleed, who continues to be interviewed by Reuters, last week rephrased what he said Oct. 11:

"What took place was a wake-up call for America to help resolve this Mid East situation that is a breeding ground for extremism and terrorism." Balancing his previously one-sided remarks, he added it was also a wake-up call for Saudi Arabia to look at its own problems.

U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), who supported Alwaleed's comments, held a public forum Oct. 27 in which she said media are failing to air dissenting opinions on the Mid East crisis and the war in Afghanistan "They don't want you to hear the other voices out there, she said, complaining of "white noise" being put out "24 hours a day." She said there was no media coverage of a Washington, D.C., press conference Oct. 25 attended by Jewish peace activists who she said support her position.

The interviews with Administration officials on Al Jazeera may be the brainchild of Charlotte Beers, a former executive at J. Walter Thompson who was called "the most powerful woman in advertising" by the New York Post. She became the State Dept.'s undersecretary for public diplomacy and PA on Oct. 2. She is to develop a PR campaign aimed at foreign countries. Beers told her Congressional hearing she would "walk in the shoes" of foreign audiences in order to "know how to draft messages back to them." The Post said Beers is known among colleagues for her "winning personality, big Texas laugh and her trademark dramatic flair."
--Jack O'Dwyer

Burson-Marsteller has one of the toughest jobs in PR. That is burnishing the image of Saudi Arabia, a country that embraced B-M a mere three days after the terror attacks. Seymour Hersh, the veteran investigative reporter, wrote a damning piece about the House of Saud in the Oct. 22 New Yorker which highlighted the rampant corruption in the Kingdom. The royals, according to Hersh, pay protection money by bankrolling radical Islamic groups. They have "one constant and it's keeping themselves in power," an intelligence officer complained to Hersh when talking about the lack of Saudi Arabia's cooperation with the U.S. The zeal of the Saudi religious police is only exceeded by the Taliban in enforcing the strict interpretation of Islamic fundamentalism. The family is so hated it would only take "a group of 20 to 30 fundamentalist enlisted men" to seize control. Half of the population is under the age of eighteen. At least 5,000 American military personnel keep the Kingdom from imploding. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have run damaging pieces on Saudi Arabia.

President Bush made a world class PR blunder when he declared: "I don't have anthrax" following reports that anthrax was found on a machine at a distant White House mailing station. That's not a very reassuring message to a jittery nation. If the commander-in-chief contracts anthrax, nobody is safe... Bin Laden is no PR master. Reader Ernie Norris took issue with my take on bin Laden's PR skills (Oct. 17). "Let's not give bin Laden too much credit,"says Norris. His main PR masterwork so far has been to use America's already-too-open society to stab us in the back. The very thing that makes us great-our freedom-also makes us vulnerable, and bin Laden & Co. have merely shown us that they are only too ready to exploit those freedoms to annihilate us," commented Norris...Poor Neutron Jack Welch. "Germs," a book on bioterror, has knocked "Jack: Straight from the Gut" from the No. l perch on the New York Times best-seller list. The book, on the Times list for five weeks, is nothing more than an ego trip for former GE CEO Welch wrote reviewer Joseph Nocera, executive editor of Fortune. "His egocentrism is everywhere on display; there is a sense throughout that everyone and everything are supposed to orbit around his sun," he wrote in the NYT.
--Kevin McCauley