Public relations for powerful dictators

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman:

I'm a good person, honest! My PR firm says so!

An interesting Washington Post opinion piece focuses on American public relations firms that work to clean up the images of powerful thugs and dictators throughout the world. These fine American companies prepare dark free speech, propaganda and lies for bad people who have done bad things. These fake bad people reputations make them look like good people who do good things. The propaganda is intended to deny or at least deflect public attention from the bad things the bad people did and usually still do. These services are popular with brutal dictators.

The WaPo writes:

Saudi Arabia: The oil-rich kingdom deserves top rank here for the enormity of both the fees and the crime involved. .... Since Khashoggi’s death, some two dozen U.S. firms have picked up more than $73 million in fees for representing Saudi interests, according to reports they have filed with the Justice Department. Chief among them was the kingdom’s longtime main lobbying firm, Qorvis, which said in a statement at the time of Khashoggi’s disappearance that “we take the situation seriously” and would “wait for all the facts to become known.”

Meanwhile, the crown prince continues to have his reputation as a visionary world leader burnished with news releases like the one prepared in January by Edelman hailing Neom, the futuristic city the prince has ordered up on the Red Sea. (Edelman took in $6.7 million from the Saudis since Khashoggi’s murder before completing its latest contracts in January, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, filings.) Or in a Hogan Lovells-produced release crediting the crown prince for “new efforts to combat extremist ideology and shut down hate speech.” This about a country that routinely makes female journalists the targets of misogynistic trolling campaigns.

The Philippines: Over the past few years, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been busy shuttering his nation’s largest broadcaster and conducting an infamous campaign of online and legal harassment against much-lauded journalist and entrepreneur Maria Ressa (who just added the UNESCO press freedom prize to honors from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the National Press Club and many more).

China: Global rainmakers Squire Patton Boggs continue to represent Beijing’s interests in Washington for a retainer of $55,000 a month, according to the firm’s most recent contract, dated last July. The firm’s January filing with the Justice Department reported payments of $330,000 from the Chinese Embassy for the previous six months of work, which included advice on “U.S. policy concerning Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang and Tibet,” among other places where Beijing has been trying to muzzle dissidents, and “matters pertaining to human rights,” according to the firm’s latest filing with the Justice Department’s foreign-agent registration database.

The fine firm, Qorvis, said that “we take the situation seriously” and would “wait for all the facts to become known.” That is liar speak for “we could not care less who our client murdered or what the facts are because money talks and everything else walks, including truth and democracy. So buzz off, you busybodies. We have our free speech rights and we are going to use them any way we want.” 

Good ole' public relations companies. What would we do without these fine patriots? Would God approve of these fine people and their hard work?

Innocent and good?