Ever hear of Ed Gillespie? If you're in PR, you definitely can take a lesson from this guy.
From the Open Left blog:
Another new arrival in the West Wing set up a rapid-response PR unit
hard-wired into Petraeus's shop. Ed Gillespie, the new presidential
counselor, organized daily conference calls at 7:45 a.m. and again late
in the afternoon between the White House, the Pentagon, the State
Department, and the U.S. Embassy and military in Baghdad to map out
ways of selling the surge.
From the start of the Bush plan, the White House communications office had been blitzing an e-mail list of as many as 5,000 journalists, lawmakers, lobbyists, conservative bloggers, military groups and others with talking points or rebuttals of criticism. Between Jan. 10 and last week, the office put out 94 such documents in various categories -- "Myths/Facts" or "Setting the Record Straight" to take issue with negative news articles, and "In Case You Missed It" to distribute positive articles or speeches.
Wikipedia lays out Gillespie's history. He's incredibly well-connected -- not just with Republicans but also with Congress and multinational corporations. And at 46, he's young enough to influence U.S. media for another 20 years.
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