Official Hired to Improve U.S. Image Resigns
March 3, 2003 1:17 PM   Subscribe

Official Hired to Improve U.S. Image Resigns I don't know about you guys but I find this hilarious. I can't say I blame him. This current administration has the worst bed side manner that I've ever seen in a government.
posted by tljenson (15 comments total)
 
tljenson, did you read this article? The government official, a 67 year old woman named Charlotte Beers, resigned because she had health problems. She did say she found her job daunting, but it would be an overwheming job even if the U.S. had the best administration it's ever had.
posted by orange swan at 1:26 PM on March 3, 2003


The government official, a 67 year old woman named Charlotte Beers, resigned because she had health problems.

This is international politics. Health reasons don't always mean health problems. Remember the resignation/interview/retraction of the head of Bush's faith-based-initiatives program?
posted by gsteff at 1:40 PM on March 3, 2003


what orange swan said. this is classic. tljenson must only have read the headline. he made a good old boy assumption about the subject's gender, and then bestowed upon us the unsupported result of his years of carefully observing and recording the bedside manner of governments the world over.
posted by quonsar at 1:43 PM on March 3, 2003


Mmmmm, tljenson you might want to read the first paragraph of your article at least...

What a shitty job, though. I feel bad for Colin Powell too. I mean honestly, if you want to improve our PR abroad the most efficient way to do so would be to dump the current administration altogether. Anyone got approval polls of Duh-bya from other countries? I'd love to see that...

It's like sending a 13 year old boy to school in a leotard and saying "just be confident! Everybody will like you!"
posted by zekinskia at 1:48 PM on March 3, 2003




The gap between who we are and how we wish to be seen and how we are in fact seen is frighteningly wide

Ms. Beers recognizes it's a big, big problem. And she almost seems to acknowledge that part of our problem comes from differences between our professed ideals and actions.

I'm glad to see that the administration acknowledged that the war on terror was every bit as much of a PR problem as it was a military one.

Now we just need to wait for them to realize we need less sizzle and more steak when it comes to standing behind democratic and rule-of-law ideals, and we can't just market our way out of the problem.
posted by namespan at 1:54 PM on March 3, 2003


Although I’m no proponent of government spin or current administration policy, I’m a little sorry to see Charlotte Beers go. Some of the work she did, like helping remind Afghanis that the Taliban was a little too female-unfriendly, seems worthwhile to me. The Observer has an interesting commentary on some of the work Beers tried to accomplish, including Radio Sawa, bringin’ Britney to the Middle East. (I couldn’t get the Swissinfo link at the bottom of the CS Monitor article to work, but it’s critical of Radio Sawa and an interesting read.)
posted by win_k at 2:11 PM on March 3, 2003


Beers was also hired before Sept. 11, and ended up with a job neither she nor the administration could possibly have envisioned for her. The Economist ran a pretty good profile on her and the challenge she faced a year ago.
posted by mattpfeff at 2:32 PM on March 3, 2003


I didn't read it duh. Sorry for being so rash in posting it. My mistake. Won't happen again.
posted by tljenson at 2:52 PM on March 3, 2003


Well blame the guys that don't read the whole article..from the beginning "..health reasons" to the end which is..

She acknowledged only last week that her mission has been daunting. "The gap between who we are and how we wish to be seen and how we are in fact seen is frighteningly wide," she testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
posted by elpapacito at 3:06 PM on March 3, 2003


I didn't read it duh. Sorry for being so rash in posting it. My mistake. Won't happen again.

Next time maybe add a link or two to give the short news story some context, too?
posted by mediareport at 3:07 PM on March 3, 2003


I feel bad for Colin Powell too.

It's not like he didn't know what he was getting into when he signed up to be Secretary of State. Plus, he's free to resign any time he wants, as Ms. Beers did. I'm saving my sympathy for the U.S. troops and Iraqis that will inevitibly die if Bush and Powell have their way with Iraq.
posted by boltman at 4:13 PM on March 3, 2003


I feel bad for Colin Powell too.

Yeah. He just wanted to be Secy of State but ended up presiding over the wrecking of U.S. foreign policy and becoming a war criminal.
posted by lathrop at 5:09 PM on March 3, 2003


What boltman said.

Powell has a history that puts the lie to his "stature" in the media. Specifically his involvement in My Lai and Iran/Contra. And what's up with his son wanting to give our airwaves away to the the corporate behemoths? Acorn fall close to the tree?
posted by nofundy at 7:45 AM on March 4, 2003


Blithering idiots!

Don't hire an advertising executive to sort a PR problem....

You'd think that that would be kinda, well, obvious?
posted by dmt at 7:04 AM on March 5, 2003


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