SAUDI ARABIA HIRES QORVIS

Saudi Arabia has hired Qorvis Communications for message development work in the U.S. The firm will conduct a poll to gauge American sentiment toward the Kingdom, which has been hammered by the media for its alleged failure to sever financial ties with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

Qorvis, which is headed by former Shandwick North America CEO Michael Petruzzello, also will arrange meetings with Congressional leaders for Adel Jubeir, chief foreign policy aide to Crown Prince Abdullah.

Saudi Arabia hired Burson-Marsteller three days following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

H&K GETS $2.2M HIGHWAY PROJECT

The Illinois Dept. of Transportation has awarded Hill and Knowlton a $2.2 million contract to handle communications for the rebuilding of Interstate 74 near Peoria, according to Gene Reineke, COO of H&K/USA. The firm beat out Golin/Harris International and KemperLesnik Communications.

Reineke said ten firms responded to the RFP, and final presentations were made in Springfield on Sept. 11, the day of the terror attacks.

The $320 million "I-74 Project represents the largest downstate road construction in Illinois," said Reineke. It is expected to be completed in 2005. H&K, said Reineke, will inform motorists of potential bottlenecks during construction, and tell them about alternative routes.

I-74, designed in the late '50s, is one of the oldest stretches in Illinois' interstate system. It serves as the main commuter route to and from Peoria's downtown area and its industrial center in East Peoria.

Alan VanderMolen has been named Asia Pacific president at Edelman PR Worldwide. The 13-year Burson-Marsteller veteran joins next year. Edelman is relocating that regional headquarters from Singapore to Hong Kong in anticipation of increased business from China and Taiwan as both have just joined the World Trade Organization...Jim King has left Edward Howard & Co. for the IR/corporate communications director slot at client the Scotts Co. Heyman Assoc. did the placement...Elizabeth Sheppard, who was senior VP-marketing at Hallmark Entertainment, is now senior director-marketing and communications at Girl Scouts of the USA headquarters in New York.

BUCHWALD, UNGER LEAVING MS&L

Monita Buchwald, vice chairman of Manning, Selvage & Lee and with the firm since 1980, and Lonny Unger, executive VP and with it since 1981, are leaving the firm. They will become consultants to MS&L, effective Dec. 31. There have been several previous staff cutbacks at MS&L.

CEO Lou Capozzi has established an office of the chairman consisting of John Bellizzi, CFO; Mike Marino, managing director of MS&L/New York; Joe Gleason, head of MS&L's corporate practice, and Ann Moravick, healthcare chief. Capozzi also has established a global policy board.

Buchwald is the daughter of Elias Buchwald, vice chairman of Burson-Marsteller.

B-M LED FIGHT VS. FED. AIRPORT SCREENERS

Burson-Marsteller advised the Aviation Security Assn. in its bid to thwart the federalization of airport security, which was endorsed by a House/Senate conference last week.

Brian Lott and Emily Richeda in B-M's Washington, D.C., office spearheaded the effort. ASA members are Securicor, Securitas and ICTS, which supply airport screening personnel.

The group's chief lobbyist Kenneth Quinn, who was Federal Aviation Administration general counsel, fears nationalizing the security force will "create immediate chaos in the system."

He said there was "absolutely no evidence linking the Sept. 11 hijackings to a breakdown in the security function itself."

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) led the fight for federalization.

HORN GRABS $30K-A-MONTH BLUEARC BIZ

The Horn Group picked up the $30,000-a-month PR account of BlueArc Corp., the San Jose-based high-tech company. Manning, Selvage & Lee, Golin/Harris International and Hill and Knowlton's Blanc & Otus unit also pitched the business.

CEO Sabrina Horn considers BlueArc a major win because of its leading position in the computer "network storage systems" space. The Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, last month, selected five BlueArc storage systems for use in its accelerated strategic computing initiative.

The Horn Group, with headquarters in San Francisco, has 57 staffers and will have fees in the $10 million range this year, according to Horn.

INTERPUBLIC HAS LOSS OF $477.5M

The Interpublic Group of Cos. reported a loss of $477.5 million or $1.29 a share for the third quarter vs. a profit of $90.8M or 24 cents a share in the same 2000 quarter. Earnings reflected $592 million in restructuring costs.

Revenues dropped 7.4% in the period to $1.6 billion from $1.7B with about 20% of this decline due to lower ad volume in the wake of 9/11.

Total debt rose to $3.1B, equal to 63% of total capital, vs. debt of $2.1B, or 46% of capital at the end of 2000.

Cash and cash equivalents were $685M and total assets were $11.3B.

Interest expense rose to $46.9M in the quarter from $36.5M in the year earlier quarter, reflecting higher average borrowings.

IPG reported $592.8 million in severance payments, lease terminations and other costs in the quarter related to its acquisitions and told analysts that there would be no more such costs.

Analysts said it looked like IPG was taking "the big bath" (lumping costs in one quarter so that earnings in future quarters would be improved).

Reporting Habits Improve from "Terrible"

The analysts said IPG, its stock battered from a high of $58 two years ago to the low $20's and which now faces a grim future for ad revenues, is improving its information flow.

No balance sheet was provided to the analysts (it was supposed to be filed with the SEC on Nov. 14) but debt figures and interest costs were supplied, they noted.

IPG's disclosure practices have improved from "terrible" to "getting better," said the analysts. The company had to borrow $500M to pay for the restructuring costs of the True North purchase, they noted. Credit rating services have lowered the credit ratings of IPG but they still remain relatively high, analysts said.

The IPG conference call Nov. 13 was open to the public via IPG's website. Only analysts and not reporters were allowed to ask questions.

Deep Staff Cuts

CEO John Dooner and CFO Sean Orr told the analysts that even if revenues are flat in 2002 the company would be able to increase earnings by 15% because of the deep staff and other cuts in expenses.

They said overall staff cuts thus far are about 6,000, or 10% of the previous staff total of 60,000 worldwide.

IPG said it expects to save $300 million yearly by trimming staff and office costs.

Net for the third quarter, not counting the acquisition charges, would have been 15 cents a share vs. 29 cents a share in the 2000 quarter (also not counting restructuring charges in that quarter).

IPG owns PR operations whose combined net fees were more than $750 million in 2000. These include Weber Shandwick and Golin/Harris Int'l.

PRIMEDIA SELLS BACON'S FOR $90M

Primedia, which lost $503 million so far this year, has inked an agreement to sell its Bacon's Information unit to Sweden's Observer AB for $90 million.

The deal is part of Primedia's program to unload $250 million in non-core assets in an effort to pare debt.

Primedia acquired Bacon's for $50 million in 1995. It claims the unit generated more than $50 million in operating earnings since then.

Primedia, which publishes more than 280 magazines including Seventeen, Fly Fisherman, New York and American Baby, has been hammered by the advertising slump.

CEO Tom Rogers said the company has not seen further deterioration in the ad market since the days immediately following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Primedia generated $1.3 billion in nine-month revenue. Its stock trades at $2.03. The 52-week range is $12.94 and $1.70.

Stockholm-based Observer is involved in media monitoring, polling, editorial services and various marketing intelligence activities.

The Bacon's deal marks its initial foray into the U.S.

Bacon's Clipping Bureau was founded in 1932. Observer has its own clipping service.

BRINK'S SHUTS DOWN PR DEPT.

Brink's, the nation's No. 1 armored truck company, has closed its corporate communications department. "No comment" is its official PR strategy, according to John Lowe, VP-global human resources.

Marven Moss, who was director-corporate communications, and D'arcy Lyons, communications assistant, have left the Pittston Co. division, following the decision to shut the unit to cut overhead costs.

Ed Cunningham, VP-global security, is now in charge of press or media inquiries, said Lowe in an internal memo sent Nov. 6.

Lowe, however, wrote "Our policy continues to be 'no comment.'"

He informed staffers that Richard Hickson, Brink's president, and Michael Dan, Pittston's president, "must approve any spokesperson, or any statement made on behalf of the company. Management must not comment externally either on the record or off the record," wrote Lowe. Cunningham was travelling, and could not be reached. His assistant confirmed the departures of Moss and Lyons.

Lowe was "too busy" to talk.

Brink's operating profit for the third-quarter slipped 33 percent to $21.7 million from last year's period.

ICKES PUSHES FOR $$ FOR SOFTWARE ASSN.

The New York Software Industry Assn. has retained Ickes and Enright Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm, to help NYSIA get a share of the federal money that is coming to New York to help businesses hurt by the terrorist attack on Sept. 11.

Harold Ickes, a co-partner of the firm, is a former deputy chief of staff in the Clinton Administration.

LOCAL NEWS EXECS FEEL AD PRESSURE

Fifty-three percent of the 118 TV news directors who were surveyed in a poll conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said they have been pressured to kill negative stories or run positive ones.

The local TV news directors said they are being pressed to produce more news for less money at the same time advertisers are increasingly trying to dictate the content of their shows.

Car dealerships and restaurants were particularly interested in stopping negative stories about their industries, some news directors said.

Many news executives say they frequently are pressured to run "puff pieces" about sponsors.

The smaller the market, the more acute these problems are, the survey found.

The survey shows one in four stories done on local news is about crime. Health stories are done far more often than other social issues. Stories on poverty or the arts are rarely done, the survey found.

The survey of a random sample of news directors at the nation's 850 news outlets was conducted in August.

FEMINIST LOBBYING GROUP BUYS MS. MAG.

Ms. magazine has been sold by Liberty Media for Women to Feminist Majority Foundation, a non-profit lobbying group, which will close the New York office and move it to Los Angeles.

At least 14 New York-based editorial staffers have been laid off.

The final issue, which is due out in early December, will be Ms.'s 30th anniversary edition.

Eleanor Smeal, who is president of FMF, said the new Ms. will adopt an activist tone when it appears early next year.

The group has been active on a number of issues, including support for the abortion pill RU 486 and support for the plight of women in Afghanistan.

Smeal said the magazine will continue to chart literary and pop trends, but will also feature in-depth features on the plight of women internationally and give readers tools to turn information into action.

Ms. was started in 1972 by Gloria Steinem, who will become a consulting editor.

MEDIA BRIEFS

The House of Representatives voted 405-2 on Nov. 7 to create Radio Free Afghanistan to beam U.S. news and entertainment programs to Afghans in their local languages, attempting to combat Taliban propaganda.

Pentagon officials said American troops stationed in central Asia will remain mostly off-limits to U.S. reporters because leaders in countries there worry that publicity could cause political unrest.

Dow Jones is merging the news operations of its two Asian publications, The Asian Wall Street Journal newspaper and the Far Eastern Economic Review weekly magazine.

Fortune's website will be used for the first time to augment a feature that appears in the Nov. 26 edition of the magazine.

The special feature, called "The New Future," is the result of a Fortune conference held in Aspen in August.

The American Assn. for Cancer Research, headquartered in Philadelphia, will start a journal to disseminate important findings for preventing and curing cancer. Daniel Von Hoff, M.D., is editor-in-chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

CMP Media's Web Techniques magazine will become New Architect, beginning with the March 2002 issue. The new monthly publication will be aimed at technology leaders who are "architecting" their organizations' e-business foundations, said Amit Asaravala, who is editor-in-chief.

CHANG NAMED EXEC. EDITOR OF PC MAG.

Stephanie Chang was named executive editor of PC Magazine. She was previously founding editor of the now-defunct newspaper magazine supplement, Access, which covered the 'Net/personal technology.

Chang joins executive editors Ben Gottesman and Stephanie Izarek in leading the editorial operations of the magazine, which is published 22 times a year and continuously on the web by Ziff-Davis Media.

PEOPLE

James Gray has resigned as executive director of the Society of Professional Journalists and its fund-raising Sigma Delta Chi Foundation for unspecified reasons. Julie Grimes, Gray's deputy, was named acting executive director while the group conducts a national search for his replacement.

Wayne Koberstein, editor-in-chief of Pharmaceutical Executive magazine, will give an address at the Pharamaceutical Industry Conference, sponsored by The Wall Street Transcript, that will take place Dec. 6 at The Princeton Club in New York.

Frank Ahrens has written his last "Radio Listener" column for The Washington Post. He will join the Post's financial section next month.

Pete Taras, 24, formerly senior photographer at Surfing magazine, was named photo editor of Time4 Media's TransWorld Surf magazine, located in Oceanside, Calif. Taras will also run the magazine's new photo agency.

Christopher Byron, a financial columnist for the past six years at The New York Observer, a weekly paper, is joining The New York Post.

(Media news continued on next page)

BLOOMBERG MADE FORTUNE IN BASEMENT

Mike Bloomberg, the mayor-elect of New York City, made his $4 billion fortune by creating a financial information service that he built into a major provider of financial news and information.

Bloomberg, a Republican, started his company in 1981 after he was fired from Salomon Bros. He ran the company for several years in the basement of his Princeton, N.J., home, near where the company's main news operation is now based.

In 1989, he got Merrill Lynch to buy a 30% stake by selling the brokerage firm, whose president at that time also lived in Princeton, on a simple concept: Instant access to financial data on traders' desks anywhere in the world.

To sell his Bloomberg data boxes, he started a financial news service called Bloomberg News. Then he branched into TV and radio-Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio.

Bloomberg, who remains CEO and retains a 72% stake in the company, Bloomberg L.P., has not said what he will do with his share or the CEO title. There were reports that the company may be sold, or he may put his ownership in a blind trust.

Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, said there "will have to be much greater scrutiny on our part just to make sure there is no potential for the appearance of conflict. Every word, every headline, the order of every paragraph will be scrutinized."

CEO IMAGE ANALYZED AT PR FORUM

Stanton Crenshaw Communications hosted a forum on Nov. 12 on "Communicating from the Top: Lessons from Today's Leaders."

The panel consisted of Carol Hymowitx, senior editor of The Wall Street Journal; Lalia Rach, associate dean of NYU's Tisch Center; Sari Kalin, senior editor of Darwin magazine, and Martin Jones, the former CEO of Allied Domecq Spirits USA.

Garrett Glaser, CNBC's advertising/marketing reporter, who moderated the discussion, said "the question of whether a company's public image should be synonymous with that of its CEO is of growing concern in an uncertain business and economic environment."

Glaser said: "Certain CEOs, like Bill Gates and Jack Welch, have enjoyed success through close identification with their companies. On the other hand, I've interviewed executives whose poor communication skills adversely affect their company's image and can obscure a strong business story."

Kalin said executives who adopt an aggressive stand often end up bashing the competition or making up defensive answers for tough questions.

"As a result, they can appear agitated and directionless, which is the last message a CEO should be sending in tough economic times," said Kalin.

According to a survey commissioned by Stanton Crenshaw prior to the forum, an executive's delivery is just as important as the message being delivered.

More than 70% of respondents said communication "skills and style" influenced their perceptions of a leader's competence. When asked which business and world leaders were excellent communicators, respondents ranked Bill Gates and John F. Kennedy first, and Lee Iacocca and George W. Bush second in their respective groups.

The forum also addressed the recent political successes of some corporate leaders, such as New York mayor-elect Mike Bloomberg. There was agreement among the panel members that a CEO or businessperson's image offers more credibility with voters than that of many career politicians.

The panel also discussed the importance of proactive senior officer communications as a "business-as-usual" tactic, not just in times of crisis.

"At a time when CEOs are often treated as-and expected to present themselves like-celebrities, those who aren't natural communicators need to make quick adjustments to meet these inflated expectations," said Alex Stanton, CEO of the PR firm.

"Our challenge, as experts, is to help executives prepare and develop the communications skills they need to be effective, without changing who they are or hiding the qualities that got them where they are today."

'CELEBRITY CEOs' KNOCKED BY AUTHOR

Jim Collins, co-author of "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies," a national bestseller for five years, says in The Conference Board's new Annual Report "There is no more corrosive trend to the health of our organization than the rise of the celebrity CEO."

Collins, whose new book is "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't," notes that some of the greatest CEOs in the last 40 years are relatively unknown. "The leaders in our study quietly went about building greatness step by step, without much fanfare or hoopla, while generating extraordinary results by any standard," said Collins.

He cites Darwin Smith of Kimberly-Clark as a major example of a CEO who shunned any attempt to shine the spotlight on him, preferring instead to direct attention to the company and its people.

In contrast, the comparison leaders in Collins' study-people like Al Dunlap of Scott Paper-garnered vastly more attention. Some of the comparison CEOs became wealthy celebrities-covers of magazines, best-selling autobiographies, massive compensation packages-despite the fact that their long-term results failed to measure up to the quiet, unknown CEO.

The Conference Board has posted a complete listing of economic and business experts on its website at www.conference-board.org/whoweare/mediacontacts.cfm.

GLOBALIZATION WILL SURVIVE-DROBIS

Globalization is being questioned at a greater level in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, but it's far from dead, David Drobis, chairman of Ketchum and chairman of the Int'l Communications Consultancy Organization, told the "Global Summit" meeting of ICCO in San Francisco last week.

Drobis, addressing about 140 principals of PR firms from 22 countries, said the globalization movement needs the assistance of PR in order to reposition itself.

He said PR must move away from "relationship building," which has occupied the profession for the past few years, and shift to "confidence building."

He said the "New Global Imperative for PR" is "Confidence Building to Save Globalization."

"The events of the past two months have challenged our profession like never before.

"In so many ways," he continued, "it is hard to imagine another time when communications in all of its dimensions was in such dire need. One could argue that we're in a global communications crisis and this summit should mark a major turning point for us."

The 9/11 attacks accelerated the recession that was already under way and has led to "extensive corporate retrenchments," said Drobis, who addressed the three-day conference at the Westin St. Francis Hotel.

"With clients cutting costs, PR has been negatively impacted," he added.

Economist Predicted End of Globalization

Drobis noted that Morgan Stanley chief economist Stephen Roach recently wrote in the Financial Times of London that certain forces may bring about "the demise of globalization."

Roach said that the disruption to the international flow of goods and services caused by the terrorist attacks amounts to a "terrorist tax" that will boost the cost of doing business for multinationals and, "may bring about the demise of globalization."

Roach noted that there was a wave of globalization in the 1920s but it was brought to a halt by the Depression and a renewed outbreak of war.

"This is powerful stuff and certainly gives one pause," commented Drobis.

"The real tragedy," he said, "is that globalization, while flawed in many respects, is a force for good, benefiting business and the world at large."

JACKSON HONORED BY INSTITUTE

Pat Jackson, longtime leader of the PR industry and PR Society of America, was posthumously given the Alexander Hamilton Career Achievement Award of the Institute for PR at its annual dinner Nov. 15 in the University Club. He died March 22.

Isobel Parke Jackson, his former wife and partner in Jackson, Jackson & Wagner, Exeter, N.H., accepted the award in his behalf. It was presented by Ward White, VP, Northwestern Mutual.

Parke said the longtime PR counselor, a student of history, would have especially liked receiving an award named after one of the Founding Fathers of the country.

She described Jackson's belief that the purpose of PR was to bring about changes in behavior in target audiences. She called him "an incredibly disciplined person" who had boundless energy.

Jackson, who was president of PRSA in 1980, had led a revolution in the electoral process of PRSA that shifted power from New York to across the nation. He said power would never again return to New York, which had dominated the Society during its first few decades.

Some members of the Institute thought it ironic that Jackson, who had opposed the Institute breaking away from PRSA in 1990, should now get the highest award of the group.

The IPR split with PRSA on the issue of accreditation. PRSA demanded that all directors of the IPR be APR and the IPR complained that this made it impossible to recruit the directors that it wanted. Paul Alvarez, who was then the president of Ketchum, led the insurrection.

PRSA, embittered by the revolt, set up a new non-profit group (the PRSA Foundation).

Novelli Gives Annual Lecture

Bill Novelli, executive director/CEO of AARP,gave the annual Institute Lecture, describing problems and opportunities of America's aging population.

One-half of AARP's 35 million members still work, he noted, which led to the group changing its name to initials only, from American Assn. of Retired Persons, thus avoiding use of the word "retired."

There are 77 million "Baby Boomers" (those between 46-64) and they have "an attitude," he said.

Their main concerns are their earnings, Social Security, savings and health insurance, he said.

Rising healthcare costs are one of their biggest worries, he said.

AARP advises aging Americans to remain active. Worksite wellness and exercise programs are becoming increasingly popular, Novelli said.

PNI TAKES EFFEXOR FROM EDELMAN

Porter Novelli International has snatched Wyeth-Ayerst's Effexor XR antidepressant from Edelman PR Worldwide. A W-A executive confirmed the switch, but would not say why it was made.

Effexor competes with industry leader Paxil, which is produced by GlaxoSmithKline. It is targeted at the eight-to-22 million Americans who are said to be suffering from "generalized anxiety disorder."

Edelman had planned a "Goodbye Anxiety Days" PR program for Effexor. It was to be a "light-hearted program" to "educate the public about the difference between every day anxiety and GAD."

Edelman reassessed the "appropriateness" of the campaign following the Sept. 11 attacks. The planned 10-city media tour was trashed.

Susan Isenberg, Edelman's EVP/managing director/ healthcare worldwide, headed the Effexor account.

Coming out of Grand Central Terminal in New York last week, we couldn't help but notice a nearly block-long outdoor display ad featuring the face of an attractive young woman with her tongue out and a giant picture of someone's tongue.

At first we thought this was some kind of fashion ad but then we saw the word "cancer" and we knew the "health terrorists" had struck again.

This is the fourth major current ad campaign featuring the word "cancer." The others are by Sloan-Kettering, America's Pharmaceutical Cos., and Novartis.

Americans are barraged with warnings about dreadful diseases that can afflict them. The newsweeklies regularly have cover stories and special sections devoted to diseases and Time mag once turned over an entire issue to a drug advertiser.

The May 6 New York Times magazine combed the world for rare and horrible diseases and came up with "brain fag," "hyperstartle syndrome" and "fatal familial insomnia," among many others. This won it 17 full pages of drug ads.

The floodgates for this healthcare pornography were opened when the Government let drug companies pitch prescription drugs directly to the public. No media will dare complain about this promotional pestilence since so many ad dollars are involved.

The American Dental Assn. campaign, bankrolled by Oralscan, which makes a diagnostic tool, is running in outdoor media in 10 other major cities. PR is via Manning, Selvage & Lee.

Our gripe is that the level of terror and anxiety on the streets of New York is already high enough in the wake of 9/11. The atmosphere around Grand Central (National Guard, streets blocked off, concrete barriers, pictures of the victims of 9/11, etc.), is frightening enough without a giant billboard in poor taste publicizing a disease that will strike 30,000 Americans this year out of a population of 281 million.

Honestreporting.com, which monitors the media for anti-Israel pieces, is drawing attention to an article in the November Atlantic by P.J. O'Rourke that is flagged on the cover as a report from Israel "on the triumph of normalcy over terror." Honestreporting had blasted a first-person report in Harper's on conditions in Palestine by Chris Hedges of the New York Times as "vile" and "anti-Israel."

O'Rourke visited Israel in April and found that life was mostly normal except for an obvious decline in tourism, plenty of soldiers in the streets carrying weapons, and traffic jams resulting from the hostilities (bottlenecks on Routes 2 and 4 along the coast). His guide, a retired Israeli colonel, told him, "Our worst enemy is CNN." O'Rourke, in an editor's note in the front of the magazine, said he finished the article on Sept. 10 and after what happened on Sept. 11, had some second thoughts about it. "I didn't want the article to be published. It wasn't grim enough," he wrote.

The New York Financial Writers' Assn.'s "Follies" Nov. 16 was a subdued event in recognition of the 9/11 disaster that hit Wall Street so hard. The black tie audience of 870 (off 30% from last year's crowd of (1,250) sang "America the Beautiful" and the first number had the tune and theme of "Pick Yourself Up." Budget reductions were evident (no TV screens in the audience). The cast was in black tie, reflecting the subdued mood but also saving money on costumes. Morgen-Walke, which had 14 tables last year, only had six this year. Biggest turnout (at $3,000 a table) was by Burson-Marsteller, which bought eight tables. Bloomberg took four; Citigate (Dewe Rogerson and Sard Verbinnen), three; and two each for Hullin Metz, Weber Shandwick and The Dilenschneider Group. The show was a brief 45 minutes, leaving plenty of time for networking.
--Jack O'Dwyer

The route of the Taliban last week showed how out-of-touch the media were in their dire predictions about the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban were portrayed as fierce warriors ready to die for their fanatical religious beliefs and their benefactor and mass murderer/drug-runner Osama bin Laden. A steady drumbeat of stories told how bombing would never work. A massive deployment of ground troops was the only way to smoke `em out of the hills and caves of Afghanistan, said the crackerjack pundits. And just as the word "quagmire" (e.g., as in Vietnam) began popping up in reports, the Taliban tally-hoed in utter retreat. What about those civilian casualties that the media expected after they were escorted to various bomb damaged targets by their Taliban hosts? It turns out there weren't many, according to Patrick Tyler, in the New York Times Nov. 14.

Jumps into the Saudi PR frying pan. Qorvis Comms. is the latest PR firm enlisted by Saudi Arabia to burnish its soiled image. When the U.S. gets finished with bin Laden and the Taliban, it should turn its attention to our fairweather ally, Saudi Arabia. The royal family has "laughed off" any effort to democratize the country, wrote Michael Kramer in the New York Daily News on Nov. 15. His view is that the Saudis are "living on borrowed time." Sooner or later, they will face their own Taliban. Saudi Arabia hired Burson-Marsteller three days following the terror attacks.
--Kevin McCauley