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Public relations has always been a part of politics. And Fraser Seitel wrote the book on P.R.... literally. He's a Republican, but gives an emphatic two thumbs down to the Bush Administration's P.R. prowess.
I just added this segment as a reference in the Wikipedia article "Worst in history" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worst_in_history ). Because that link leads to this page it should be noted here that the reference is to the audio file, not the summary and comments.
(My name is pronounced SWA-sing, and I live near of Seattle).
Thank you, Michael, for making this information available to more people. It seem incredulous to me that this administration seems as unaccountable as any I have seen and I have been watching since Jack Kennedy was president.
Charlie
I suspect that the Bush Administration does not see itself as less accountable than former administrations, but rather it is the first administration to have to contend with the "new media reality" and is simply not capable of dealing with this reality.
Having said that, the administration as provided lots of examples of what not to do, and has been a tremendous teaching aid to my Applied PR class.
Keep in mind that PR is not easy and what you don't know can hurt you a whole lot.
Gaetan Giannini
Assistant Professor
Cedar Crest College
Allentown, PA
www.cedarcrest.edu
This administration does not view it's own reality to be a problem, but rather that they have an image problem.
A case in point: when confronted with Abu Ghraib former Sec. of Def. Rumsfield said that the problem is all these cameras people have now.
No, the problem is not that light is shining into the dark places. The problem is the reality that is brought into view.
Michael J Swassing
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