Thursday, March 24, 2011
Michael Petruzzello, CEO of Qorvis
Bahrain’s monarchy, which has been brutally cracking down on protesters seeking political reform in the tiny oil sheikdom, has turned to two American public relations firms in Washington, DC, to help improve the government’s profile.
In mid-February, the regime of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa hired Potomac Square Group, a brand new operation started by former Wall Street Journal journalist Chris Cooper. For helping spin Bahrain’s PR crisis, Potomac will be paid $20,000 a month.
Already on retainer with Bahrain is Qorvis Communications, one of Washington’s largest PR firms, which began providing communications services to the government last summer.
Much of the world was shocked when King Khalifa called in Saudi-led foreign troops to fire on his own citizens. Not to worry in the United States, though. Qorvis helped spin the story for Khalifa by issuing a press release that selectively quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by saying that “She affirmed the ‘sovereign right’ of Bahrain to invite security forces from allied countries.”
Left out of the release was the fact that Clinton said, “We're alarmed by the situation in Bahrain, and we have spoken very forcefully against the security crackdown, in fact, at the highest levels of the government.” She also said that the country was “on the wrong track.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
Bahrain's PR Team (by Paul Blumenthal, Sunlight Foundation)
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