As I write this, the market capitalization of America's publicly held newspaper companies is a shade more than $6 billion.

When I was younger and more naive, I wondered what kind of person could do PR for a tobacco company - an enterprise selling a product that, when used according to standard practices, leaves a trail of sickness and death in its wake.

It's been said that politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Maybe that explains why voters keep hearing nursery-rhyme solutions to enormously complex problems.

A wall poster caught my eye on a recent visit to a San Francisco company that provides online customer support. "Customer service," it announced, "is the new marketing."

Bill Clinton got a hard lesson recently in a new rule of politics. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), meanwhile, tried to make some new rules of his own.

Even before protesters started disrupting the Olympic Torch relay on several continents, the Games had long since lost its luster as anything but an extremely big-time professional sports meet. Now it's turning into a big-time PR disaster for the host nation, China, and the feckless International Olympic Committee.

The old aphorism - "Under-promise, over-deliver" - remains timely. But it's never been so relevant as it is now during an age when systems of all kinds are growing ever-more complex.

When a company gets into trouble, one of its essential recovery tools is solid leadership. This goes beyond keeping employees on track.

Awhile back, I wrote in this space about a PR innovation at United Airlines: Channel 9 on the audio system was devoted to communications among pilots and air-traffic controllers.

Even now, I get calls from reporters asking if bloggers are journalists. Sigh. The answer, of course, is that most are not, and that some are.