"Journo-Lobbyist" to Be Next U.S. PR Czar

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James K. Glassman will soon be nominated as the next U.S. Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, reports Associated Press. Glassman would replace PR czar Karen Hughes, who plans to leave her State Department post by the end of 2007. Glassman currently chairs the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. government-funded international broadcasts like the Voice of America. He is also a fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, a columnist and the author of the book "Dow 36000." In 2000, Glassman founded Tech Central Station (TCS), a "journo-lobbying" website then published by the Republican lobbying firm DCI Group. TCS runs articles and opinions friendly to its corporate sponsors. "Glassman was chosen in part because he has already won Senate confirmation," explains AP, "and the administration was looking for someone who could avoid a bruising confirmation fight in an election year." Glassman served on the "Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World," whose 2003 report (PDF) faulted the "absurd and dangerous underfunding of public diplomacy in a time of peril."