Different name, same stink

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It can be truly dizzying the way PR flacks attempt to spin reality. To keep at least some sense of equilibrium, one of the sources I keep a regular eye on is the Center for Media and Democracy, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit dedicated to exposing the realities that lie behind corporate and government facades.

I mention this now because the group just issued a piece aimed at the private military contractor Blackwater Worldwide.

Or that’s what it used to be called. The company founded by Michigan native Erik Prince has changed its name to Xe (pronounced Zee).

I got a good laugh out of a cartoon accompanying the story posted on the watchdog group’s Web site. It shows three bugs around a desk in a PR firm’s office, with one of the creepy-crawlers saying, “First of all, we want our name changed from ‘cockroach’ to ‘companion beetle.’”

That pretty much captures the rationale behind the name change.

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