Karen P. Hughes: Articles

The following news and commentary pieces are related to the main SourceWatch article on Karen P. Hughes

• Dan Balz, "Karen Hughes. A Texas-Size Job," Washington Post, July 23, 1999. Contains biographical profile.
• Judy Keen, "Karen Hughes resigning from White House post," USA Today, April 23, 2002.
• "Bush aide Karen Hughes to leave White House," CNN, April 23, 2002.
• William Rivers Pitt, "Karen Hughes Hits the Road," TruthOut, April 23, 2002.
• "Top Bush Counselor Leaving White House," Fox News, April 23, 2002.
• Elisabeth Bumiller and Richard W. Stevenson, "A Trusted Bush Aide To Return, But Not To Washington," New York Times, March 28, 2004.
• Elisabeth Bumiller, "Trusted Adviser's Memoir Lifts Curtain a Bit," New York Times, March 31, 2004.
• Jack Shafer, "Flattery Operated. Watch as a New York Times reporter butters up Karen Hughes," Slate, April 5, 2004.
• Joe Conason, "Karen Hughes' high-octane gall," Salon, April 27, 2004: "With amazing chutzpah, the Bush flack says reporters should ask more questions about John Kerry's military history. What they really ought to explore is her role in covering up Bush's spotty National Guard record."
• "Apology demanded from Karen Hughes," CNN, April 29, 2004: "Leaders of last Sunday's March for Women's Lives held a news conference on Capitol Hill Thursday to repeat their demand for an apology from Bush campaign adviser Karen Hughes for her remarks about abortion rights."
• James C. Moore, "One minute from abnormal. A Texas reporter explores Karen Hughes' cultlike devotion to George W. Bush," Salon, May 13, 2004.
• Jim Lehrer, Interview with Karen Hughes, PBS Online NewsHour, September 2, 2004.
• Peter Baker, "Hughes Is Set to Rejoin White House Team. Her 2002 Return to Texas Surprised Many in D.C.," Washington Post, March 11, 2005.
• Peter Baker, "Karen Hughes To Work on The World's View of U.S.", Washington Post, March 12, 2005.
• Arshad Mohammed, "Hughes, Egyptian-American to Improve U.S. Image", Boston.com, March 14, 2005.
• "Karen Hughes named to State Department post. Bush confidante tasked with bettering U.S. image in Muslim world," Associated Press (MSNBC), March 14, 2005.
• Fred Kaplan, "Karen Hughes Sells Brand America. She's supposed to market Bush policies to the Muslim world. Good luck!" Slate, March 15, 2005.
• Linda Feldman, "Can Karen Hughes help US image abroad? Bush has nominated a trusted message maven as undersecretary of State for public diplomacy," Christian Science Monitor, March 16, 2005.
• BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week: "Karen Hughes," BuzzFlash, March 19, 2005.
• Paul Kuhn, "Karen Hughes Back In The Fold," CBS News, March 31, 2005.
• Robin Wright and Al Kamen, "U.S. Outreach to Islamic World Gets Slow Start, Minus Leaders. Effort Involves No Muslims; Hughes Will Not Arrive Until Fall," Washington Post, April 18, 2005: "Karen Hughes, who was appointed a month ago to craft a bold new approach for U.S. public diplomacy, is not expected to take the job until as late as the fall, according to administration and congressional sources. The delay is already undermining U.S. credibility, with a well-placed U.S. official warning about 'the gap between rhetoric and reality.'"
• Barry Schweid, "Karen Hughes on Track to Confirmation," Associated Press via Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2005.
• David Johnston, "For Two Aides in Leak Case, 2nd Issue Rises," New York Times, July 22, 2005.
• Mike Allen, "Hughes Hopes to Burnish Image of U.S.," Washington Post, July 23, 3005.
• Dana Milbank, "Which way does the knee jerk?" Washington Post, July 24, 2005.
• Willaim Fisher, "Karen Hughes behind the firewall," Yubanet.com, July 25, 2005.
• "Panel OKs Karen Hughes for State Dept.," Associated Press, July 26, 2005.
• Anne Applebaum, "Think Again, Karen Hughes," Washington Post, July 27, 2005: "Only two senators were in the room when Karen Hughes testified at her confirmation hearings. When it came time for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to vote on her nomination yesterday, she was easily approved. And thus with no discussion and no debate, Hughes takes over the least noticed, least respected and possibly most important job in the State Department."
• Dana Milbank, "Hughes Is Varnishing the Nation's Tarnish", Washington Post, September 9, 2005.
• Glenn Kessler, "Hughes Reaches Out Warily in Cairo," Washington Post, September 26, 2005.
• Guy Dinmore, "Saudi students rebuff US communications guru," Financial Times, September 27, 2005: "Indignant Saudi women on Tuesday turned the tables on Karen Hughes, the US under secretary for public diplomacy, rejecting her analogy of them as the 'broken wing' of a bird that the US will help fly."
• Dan Murphy, "US begins new pitch to Muslim world: Close Bush adviser Karen Hughes is touring Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey," Christian Science Monitor, September 28, 2005.
• Suzan Fraser, "In Turkey, Hughes gets an earful on Iraq," Associated Press, September 28, 2005.
• Steven R. Weisman, "Saudi women dispute U.S. envoy's notions: Defense of their role in society surprises Bush aide Hughes," New York Times, September 28, 2005.
• Steven R. Weisman, "Turkish Women, Too, Have Words With U.S. Envoy (on Iraq War)," New York Times, September 29, 2005.
• Glenn Kessler, "Turkish women blast U.S. envoy on Iraq war: Bush aide Karen Hughes endures another round of criticism for Middle East policies," Washington Post, September 29, 2005.
• Juliette Kayyem, "Karen of Arabia," TPM Cafe, September 29, 2005: "What is interesting about Hughes' trip isn't so much that she is facing criticism from the very part of the world where public diplomacy (so derided by her President, but now back in vogue because, well, the military mission has stalled) is badly needed, but instead her decision of where and who she has decided to talk to."
• Sidney Blumenthal, "Bin Laden's little helper: US administration lectures about God delivered to Muslims are a dangerous folly," Guardian (UK), September 30, 2005. "With these well-meaning arguments, Hughes has provided the exact proofs for Bin Laden's claims about American motives. 'It is stunning to the extent Hughes is helping bin Laden,' says Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political scientist who has conducted extensive research into the motives of suicide terrorists and is the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. 'If you set out to help bin Laden," he says, "you could not have done it better than Hughes.'"
• Glenn Kessler, "Talking Points Aside, Bush Stance on Palestinian State Is Not a First," Washington Post, October 5, 2005.
• John Brown, "A Failed Public Diplomat," TomPaine.com, October 6, 2005.
• Al Kamen, "Over Here, an Earful," Washington Post, October 7, 2005. "From that date [when she was nominated as U.S. Public Diplomacy head] until her swearing in, Hughes collected $450,000 in speaking fees -- charging around $50,000 a pop, according to Time.com's review of her financial disclosure forms. From January 2004 to March 2005, Hughes made $1.8 million, which includes her $750,000 book advance, according to the disclosures. Ethics sticklers are said to be somewhat put out because she spoke to groups such as Parker Drilling Co., a Houston oil drilling operation, even after she was named to the new job. She went on the government payroll for her $149,000-a-year job on Aug. 15, five days after her last paid speech. A State Department spokesman says this is well within ethical guidelines."
• Richard Edelman, "An Open Letter to Karen Hughes--A Search for Dialogue and Support", Speak Up, October 17, 2005.
• Rufus Foshee, "Public relations as diplomacy," VillageSoup.com (Portland, OR), October 8, 2005. "The appointment of Hughes, who has no diplomatic training, as roving envoy in countries where she does not know the culture or people is on the level of FEMA appointing Michael D. Brown to resurrect the Gulf Coast. Brown met with failure and so has Hughes. ... Upon Hughes’ arrival in Cairo on Sept. 26, the new editor of al-Gomhuria Daily ... Mohamed Ali Ibrahim wrote, 'We in Egypt or anywhere else do not need a public relations campaign like the one America is conducting. Egyptians or Saudis or Turks will not suddenly like America because it has set up a television or radio station...but feelings may change if America changes its whole approach.'"
• John Brown, "What’s WHIG all About? An Open Letter to Karen Hughes," Common Dreams, October 19, 2005.
• "Indonesian Students Challenge U.S. Envoy," Reuters (New York Times), October 21, 2005.
• Tomi Soetjipto, "Indonesians challenge US envoy in lively exchange," Reuters, October 21, 2005.
• Chris Brummet, "Goodwill Envoy Hughes Claims Saddam Hussein Gassed 'hundreds of Thousands' of Iraqis," Associated Press (Tampa Bay News), October 21, 2005.
• "Guilty will be punished over Afghan desecration: US envoy Hughes," Associated Press, October 21, 2005.
• Chris Brummitt, "Bush Public Relations Envoy Flubs Iraq Fact. Karen Hughes Insists Saddam Gassed 'Hundreds of Thousands'," Associated Press (AOL), October 22, 2005.
• Stephen Zunes, "Karen Hughes’ Indonesia Visit Underscores Bush Administration’s PR Problems," Common Dreams, October 29, 2005.
• Karen Hughes, "Public Diplomacy Testimony, Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives," November 10, 2005.
• Mark Hand, "State Department sets up rapid response operation," PR Week (sub req'd), November 17, 2005.
• John Brown, "Morality Mission: How Karen Hughes Sees Her Job," Common Dreams, November 23, 2005.
• Steven R. Weisman, "Bush Confidante Finds Latest Role to Be Uphill Battle," New York Times, December 26, 2005.
• Al Kamen, "Smaller Hughes Convoy", Washington Post, February 13, 2006.
• Steve Inskeep, "State Department Defends America's Image Abroad," "Morning Edition," NPR, March 27, 2006.
• Steve Inskeep, "Hughes: No Short-Term Fix for U.S. Image Abroad," "Morning Edition," NPR, March 28, 2006.
• Dan Froomkin, "A Compelling Story," White House Watch Blog/Washington Post, March 31, 2006.
• Glenn Kessler, "Hughes Tries Fine-Tuning To Improve Diplomatic Picture," Washington Post, April 19, 2006.
• Sue Pleming, "Public diplomacy campaign targets key nations," Reuters, June 28, 2006.
• "LEAKED MEMO: Karen Hughes Thinks Small In Combating Iraq Insurgency," Think Progress, October 28, 2006. re Iraqi insurgency
• Elizabeth Williamson, "Karen's Rules on Diplomacy: Talk to the Media -- if You Dare: Hughes Sends Memo on Getting the Word to the World," Washington Post, November 8, 2006.
• Karen Hughes, "Empowering, Not Muzzling, Our Ambassadors," letter to the Washington Post, November 16, 2006.
• Tara Copp, "Q&A: Karen Hughes - Bush diplomat hopes programs prevent further anti-Americanism from taking root," Austin American-Statesman (Texas), February 18, 2007.
• Nicholas Kralev, "Arabic speakers monitor Net chats," Washington Times, March 9, 2007.
• John Brown, "Karen Hughes and Her 'Diplomacy of Deeds'," CommonDreams.org, April 9, 2007.
• U.S. State Department Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy Policy Coordinating Committee, "U.S. National Strategy for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication" (PDF file), May 31, 2007 (unveiled).
• Caroline Walters, "Hughes Releases First-Ever Comprehensive National Strategy for Public Diplomacy," USC Center for Public Diplomacy blog, June 8, 2007.
• Warren P. Strobel, "New State Department center aims to counter terrorists," McClatchy Newspapers, June 12, 2007.
• Sidney Blumenthal, "Imperial presidency declared null and void: Bush may ignore the 4th Circuit's stinging rebuke of his war paradigm. But his policies are losing the cloak of legality," Salon, June 21, 2007.
• Patty Reinert, "Q&A with Karen Hughes in Lima, Peru: Bush confidant happy with her choices," Houston Chronicle, August 19, 2007.
• Karen P. Hughes, op/ed: "Sinking in the Polls," Washington Post, September 17, 2007.
• Sidney Blumenthal, "An open letter to Karen Hughes" salon.com October 11, 2007.
• "Transcript: Web Chat on Public Diplomacy," Karen P. Hughes, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, State.gov, October 24, 2007.
• Press release, "U.S. State Department Ambassador Sets Out Vision for 'Waging Peace'," International Public Relations Association and U.S. Embassy via PR Newswire, November 6, 2007.
• Press release, "PRSA reacts to departure of Karen Hughes, encourages State Department to continue strategic communications efforts overseas," Public Relations Society of America, November 6, 2007.
• Burson-Marsteller, "Karen Hughes Joins Burson-Marsteller as Global Vice Chair", Media Release, July 9, 2008.
• Joe Nocera, "Would You Take Strategic Advice From This Woman?", "Executive Suite" (Blog), Washington Post, July 14, 2008.
• Peggy Fikac, "Bush confidante backs Hutchison over Perry," Houston Chronicle (Texas), September 13, 2009.