Several years ago the Governator starred in a tourism ad that was one wild ride of commercial propaganda. The theme was to poke fun at the California laid back lifestyle and make double entendres about work versus play in the land of fun and sun. It's beautifully shot, with all...

In the fall of 1995, I ventured out on my first full-time academic position. I had moved from Washington, DC to an Our Town-like village in New Hampshire called Henniker, still known as "the only Henniker on earth." Then teaching political science at New England College, I waxed nostalgic for...

Ben Bagdikian is one of my media heroes. The 7th edition of his classic book, The Media Monopoly, was published by Beacon Press in 2004 as The New Media Monopoly. Bagdikian is one of those authors whose predictions earned him the Chicken Little label of credulity. When he first published...

Americans are uniquely obsessed with our good name the world over. After all, we invented the persuasion industries from advertising to public relations and no other country has a more recognized image, good and bad, across the planet.

This makes it all the more puzzling why the position of...

Larry Tye is the author of The Father of Spin: Edward R. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations. He is currently writing a book about the legendary baseball player, Satchel Paige. I sat down with him last week at the Newhouse School, Syracuse University, to talk about Edward Bernays,...

In May 2004 I gave a speech at an ACLU fundraiser in Los Angeles. Beforehand I was told that the actor James Whitmore would introduce me. He said words to this effect: "Now ladies and gentlemen, I work as an actor and play different roles. But we have a great...

Last night I was watching some of the commentary that followed President Obama's first primetime news conference. I skipped from CNN to Fox News Channel where O'Reilly was doing his shtick, a supercilious run-down on the "non-news" conference. To be air quote fair-and-balanced, he had Dick Morris and then Alan...

President Obama is not an open book but a semester course. It's Day 15 in Obama's First 100 and I have the lucky job of overseeing a group of graduate students at Syracuse University who are enrolled in my Persuader-in-Chief course. The full title is "The President, Public Opinion and...

"We're after the same rainbow's end, waiting 'round the bend." --Moon River

Mickey Rourke stars in the 2008 critically acclaimed The Wrestler, a low-key version of Raging Bull complete with an over-the-hill body, plenty of blood streaming down the face, and an addiction to fandom. In this case, Rourke...

Today is a celebration of ginormous caloric consumption, male testosterone, car and beer commercials. It's fitting that the Super Bowl XLIII Halftime Show features Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen. The football field in Tampa, Florida will feature many would-be bosses, gladiators, and men-who-would be king of the 100-yard field. Only one...

Dick Meyer is the editorial director of digital media for National Public Radio. He is also the author of Why We Hate Us (Random House, 2008), a book that reminds me why I love Aldous Huxley's Brave New World Revisited, published the same year that Meyer was born in 1958....

I am a child of the Sixties, just like the president. We grew up in the seventies and took on our adult responsibilities in the eighties and beyond. Just knowing that this president was probably listening to a lot of the same R&B and Classic Oldies that I listened to...

Snowtracks

The Snub

The GOP House members did it their way and snubbed President Obama's stimulus package a week and a day after the big party. Not a one voted for the popular Democrat. Some House Democrats joined the no vote.

We shouldn't be surprised. The GOP is feeling...

President Barack Obama gave his first sit-down interview this week with an Arabic language television news channel, al-Arabiya (alternatively Al Arabiya). Imagine. He could have talked to Katie, Matt, or even Al. Barbara and Whoopi would have welcomed him on "The View." Instead he chose Hesham. I'm referring to the...

"Like it or not, you are a negotiator."
-Getting to Yes

No doubt young Harvard Law School student Barack Obama was familiar with the national bestseller by the Harvard Negotiation Project called Getting to Yes. The 1981 book is the most popular book on...

Xin Yang, a graduate student in accounting from Beijing, China, arrived on the Virginia Tech campus Thursday, January 8. Two weeks later she was decapitated by a fellow Chinese graduate student while having coffee in the Au Bon Pain eatery located in the Graduate Life Center student housing building.

For years, so many of us who work in the public diplomacy and nation branding business have bemoaned the loss of American credibility in the world. I devoted an entire book to the subject of anti-Americanism with my 2006 book, The Arrogance of American Power. There were many symptoms of...

Just this week I was interviewed by a Rome-based news agency, Inter Press Service News Agency. Editor-in-Chief Miren Gutiérrez sent me a set of questions about the global media coverage of the Gaza conflict. I was asked to weigh in as a propaganda/media analyst. Here is the URL to

Last semester I took a position at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. It is located at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. Syracuse is part of the Finger Lakes Region and not too far from the Adirondack Mountains. In certain seasons it is quite glorious. Lately it's been...

Hillary Clinton was flanked today by two former Foggy Bottom stars in her husband's administration. George Mitchell was instrumental in helping to put "the troubles" in Northern Ireland to rest since being named U.S. Special Envoy, while Richard Holbrooke made his fame with the Dayton Peace Accords that settled warring...