It appears the Blackwater's lawyers brought out the big guns for this week's congressional hearings, as in hired PR guns. According to the Associated Press, Blackwater hired PR powerhouse Burson-Marsteller to help with its testimony (there were earlier reports -- that now appear erroneous -- that the relationship was broader than that):
Burson-Marsteller was brought aboard by the Washington law firms representing Blackwater — McDermott Will & Emery and Crowell & Moring.
One of the executives on the Blackwater account is Robert Tappan, a former State Department official. Tappan is a managing director of BKSH & Associates Worldwide, a Burson-Marsteller subsidiary.
At State, Tappan was deputy assistant secretary for public affairs. While at State, he spent six months in Baghdad as director of strategic communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the temporary governing body that disbanded in June 2004.
On Thursday, Paul Cordasco, a spokesman for Burson-Marsteller, said the company does not discuss its clients. In a statement sent by e-mail Friday, Cordasco said BKSH helped Prince prepare for the congressional hearing.
"With the hearing over, BKSH's temporary engagement has ended," Cordasco said.
Over all, I'd say that Burson-Marsteller is deserving of that zillion bucks they earn, because Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince did a decent job at the hearing from a PR standpoint (but a different haircut might have helped). And hey, what better company to hire? Burson Marsteller recently worked with Virginia Tech to retool its image post-massacre. Hormel, maker of yummy Spam,is another client (and if you can make Spam look good, well, that's gotta say something).
Of course, just a couple weeks ago, DANGER ROOM assembled its collective wisdom to provide PR advice to Blackwater, and unlike Burson-Marsteller, our tips were totally, completely free!
UPDATE: Oooh, oooh. "In addition to his role as a top campaign consultant to the Clinton campaign, Mark Penn is the worldwide president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller. The firm's lobbying subsidiary BKSH helped Blackwater's top executive, Erik Prince, prepare for his congressional testimony this week."
(High five: HuffPo)
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