Free Republic

Forth In A Series Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Unlike any leader before him, Napoleon Bonaparte engineered his rise to power, almost out of nowhere, not only through military prowess — but also through his mastery of propaganda to stir the public. "What strikes one almost immediately is the depth to which Bonaparte understood the art of propaganda and the degree to which he was personally involved in its creation," wrote historian Wayne Hanley in "The Genesis of Napoleonic Propaganda, 1796-1799." That's what led to Napoleon — almost a foreigner — to reach the heights of power and secure...

Former President George H.W. Bush will return to the White House next Monday as President Obama’s guest to honor the Points of Light Foundation, the nonprofit organization Bush founded in 1990 to promote volunteerism...

Workhouse Publicity, a PR firm that has promoted the Occupy Wall Street protests, represents clients including stalwart capitalist brands Mercedez-Benz, Versace and Virgin Megastore, The Daily Caller has learned. The boutique luxury communications firm’s president also offered his services to the famed hacktivist collective, Anonymous. Workhouse president Adam Nelson insisted in a phone interview Tuesday that while he does work with Occupy Wall Street, neither his firm nor the movement opposes capitalism. Indeed, he made a guest appearance on billionaire real-estate mogul Donald Trump’s TV show, ‘The Apprentice,” in 2004. Now, however, Nelson’s two worlds — the capitalist client list...

DEVELOPING: NEW CASTLE, Del. -- Police on Friday afternoon came to the home of a 17-year-old high school junior to ask her about direct online communications she has had with Rep. Anthony Weiner. Two officers from the New Castle County Police Department arrived at the girl's home around 4:30 p.m. and asked to speak with the girl's mother about the daughter's contact with Weiner. Another officer appeared at the home a short time later. A FoxNews.com reporter was at the home when the police arrived. The girl, whose name is being withheld because she is a minor, told FoxNews.com, "I'm...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — One of the D.C. area's largest mosques is holding an open house this weekend that it hopes will promote trust between Muslim Americans and the community at large. The open house Saturday at Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church had been scheduled before Osama bin Laden's death. But the mosque's outreach director, Imam Johari (juh-HARR-ee) Abdul-Malik, says bin Laden's death presents a unique opportunity to build relationships. Abdul-Malik said Monday that American Muslims want to see how the public will respond to them in the wake of bin Laden's death. Dar al-Hijrah has at times...

"We went down in solidarity with them... I saw the invitation on the Internet. Security forces were beating the girls because they were holding up photos and they were refusing to take them down ... so I came to help them out of the hands of the security, and they took me with them." Badawie, arrested along with 33 others, was hauled into a bus and driven to a detention facility, where she shared a cell with 10 other demonstrators... "We tried to reach a conclusion from the statements carried on state television," she said. "We took the news and...

Latter-day Saints themselves are the new face of public relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, several presenters said during last week’s Mormon Media Studies Symposium on BYU’s campus. “The most authentic and transparent ways to dispel myths about the Church is through the lives of our members,” said Joel Campbell, associate professor of communications at BYU. SNIP The two-day conference was the first of its kind and brought together scholars and practitioners to discuss a variety of topics relating to Mormonism and media. SNIP Scott Swofford, who previously coordinated media for the Church and is now...

  I. The New NewsroomToday, a completely revamped Newsroom goes live on the Internet, providing more flexibility and immediacy in presenting news stories, commentary and insights about issues of public interest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.What do these changes mean for Newsroom’s audience, and how does this website fit into the chorus of voices that seems never to tire of debating Mormonism from every perspective?Never before has mass communication been so easy. Yet perhaps never before has understanding been so elusive. News sources are rapidly proliferating. Traditional journalism, with its once-clear system of ethics and...

Influencing Public Opinion by Ari Bussel I am reminded of many elections ago in the city where I grew up. It is a small, yet most powerful city, and the then-mayor was running for re-election to the City Council (mayorship is done by rotation between the five councilmembers). I was on the Mayor’s Steering Committee, thus very close to the events. The person who headed the committee is a person of the highest level of integrity. It was thus known that any action approved by her would withstand the strictest scrutiny and adhere to the most honorable practices. There were...

The current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is, of course, a first degree public relations nightmare for beleaguered British multinational BP. Many pundits and financial analysts have debated whether or not the company will be able to survive this environmental disaster. Whether BP can and does survive this ordeal financially remains to be seen. Certainly their financial survival will depend on how many claims are filed, the aggregate value of those claims, the legitimacy of the claims, and how long the claim filing goes on. All of which remains uncertain. But what seems to me to be more...

President Obama's Oval Office speech last night focused on the Gulf oil catastrophe, but its true purpose was impossible to miss: shoring up the president's tanking popularity. Some 57 days after the BP oil rig blew -- triggering an underwater oil gusher that's yet to be contained -- a majority of Americans, polls show, think Obama's been too detached from the crisis. Thus, the president is taking a new tack: huffing and puffing. "Tonight, I've returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we're waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our...

<p>In a province in which a breakaway sect of Mormon fundamentalist polygamists...draws continuing controversy, the mainline Mormon Church realizes it has to work hard to show its wholesome face to the world.</p> <p>Because of a history of tense relationships with conventional Christians...Latter-Day Saints have been going out of their way...to dispel outsiders' suspicions...they are a "secretive" religion.</p>

There is a huge new public relations offensive being unleashed by the Democrats and their allies in the progressive left, one designed to limit their short term election losses and defeat any significant ObamaCare repeal efforts. It is imperative that all conservatives and opponents of government-run health care understand the Democrats' and progressive left's short-term political strategy so that we do not inadvertently aid them or fall victim to the new health care myths that they will be propagating. The new plan is designed to accelerate the public through a mass analogue of the "seven stages of grief" (shock, denial,...

White House honchos and others use the term “communication failure” to explain the inability of Congress to pass healthcare legislation and other key parts of President Obama’s agenda. Such reasoning assumes the bills deserve passage in their current forms. That, however, is another topic. This week’s topic looks at why, from a communication standpoint, some of politics’ brightest operatives failed to present a comprehensible message. To do this, we start with the basic communication model taught in high school: Message => Sender => Medium => Receiver Interpretation of the message and feedback complete the process. Any glitch along the way...

Texas Tech University's firing of head football coach Mike Leach has launched what I predict will be a heated public relations battle involving YouTube videos and aggressive personal injury lawyers.

A celebrated Goldman Sachs partner, Gus Levy, coined the maxim that long defined the bank, the savviest and most influential firm on Wall Street: “Greedy, but long-term greedy.” But these days that old dictum is being truncated to just “greedy” by some Goldman critics. While many ordinary Americans are still waiting for an economic recovery, Goldman and its employees are enjoying one of the richest periods in the bank’s 140-year history. Goldman executives are perplexed by the resentment directed at their bank and contend the criticism is unjustified. But they find themselves in the uncomfortable position of defending Goldman’s blowout...

Drowning in Quicksand Many of the best PR firms in New York are Jewish-owned, but Israel is yet to master the skill set necessary to present her case in the court of public opinion. If one only realized the critical importance of public diplomacy, all these firms would have joined forces to create a super think tank to save the drowning Israel. If the true nature of the threat and the need were properly understood, the IDF would have created a new front, like the Home Front or the Northern, Central or Southern Commands. Israelis themselves, led by cues from...

Check out Edward Bernays book 'Propaganda'. He is related to Sigmund Freud and taught out CIA, Corporations, etc how to manipulate folks inot 'conforming'. Pretty scary how easily we are manipulated even when we are SURE we are not and that we have exhausted all resources searching for the truth. They call it Public Relations and it is frightening.

In Sderot, a correspondent summarized the concerns of residents that the government would agree to a cease-fire too soon, without definitively crippling the militant group Hamas' ability to fire rockets. The people of Sderot, he said, "would rather the [army] continue and finish this story once and for all." Israeli public opinion overwhelmingly supports the Gaza campaign, buttressed by frustration over years of rocket attacks on southern communities and by the widespread belief that Hamas has brought the bloodshed on its own people. Israeli media coverage has largely reflected that sentiment. "This is something we needed to do for a...

Palestinian PR Stunt Fails As Israel Allows Gaza Protest (photo)A Palestinian "Exodus"? The only thing missing was Steven Spielberg and democracy. By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem, Israel --- August 23, 2008 ... Israel's PR has always been lacking. One can find three very well substantiated reasons: lack of professional public relations manpower in government, lack of funds and lack of coordinated communications between the Israel Prime Minister's Office, the Israel Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Israel Defense Forces. But today was different. The terror group Hamas tried to stage a media PR event and failed big time. "We...