Ogilvy PR has added three to its New York office. Parris Bowe joins as SVP in the consumer marketing practice reporting to Alyssa Garnick, EVP of the practice. Bowe has previously worked for Lippe Taylor and Edelman. David Hanon joins as VP of that consumer marketing practice as well. He was most recently at Waggener Edstrom for more than a decade where he worked with tech consumer clients including Microsoft. And Ryan Aynes has joined the 360⁰ Digital Influence Group as a VP. He was previously director of social media at the JAR Group.

Rep. Darrell Issa‘s (R-CA) former spokesperson Kurt Bardella has landed at Tucker Carlson‘s The Daily Caller. He was fired by the Congressman after an investigation was launched into whether he shared emails with reporters. Bardella starts his new job today as director of communications, The Huffington Post writes.

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Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has hired Becca Glover Watkins to be the deputy press secretary for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the committee that Issa chairs, The Hill‘s blog report.

The previous deputy secretary, Kurt Bardella, was fired this week after Rep. Issa launched an investigation into whether Bardella was sharing e-mails to reporters with New York Times’ Mark Leibovich, who is currently working on a book about the political culture in D.C. Politico, which broke the story, said neither Leibovich or the communications director for the House Oversight Committee would comment on what sort of help Bardella was contributing.

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The New Yorker‘s anticipated, head-turning profile of Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), the recently elected chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is out. While the profile focuses much on Issa’s past — “among other things, been indicted for stealing a car, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and accused by former associates of burning down a building” — it also includes interesting background from his PR chief, Kurt Bardella:

Issa has set up what his aides call Issa Enterprises, a highly organized effort to manage his image. Kurt Bardella, the spokesman, who is twenty-seven, and whom Issa calls “my secret weapon,” fiercely screens all interviews. Bardella has a reputation as one of the savviest young spokesmen on Capitol Hill, someone who understands the complicated new media environment.

Over lunch at Bistro Bis, a French restaurant near the Capitol, Bardella was surprisingly open in his disparagement of the media. He said, “Some people in the press, I think, are just lazy as hell. There are times when I pitch a story and they do it word for word. That’s just embarrassing. They’re adjusting to a time that demands less quality and more quantity. And it works to my advantage most of the time, because I think most reporters have liked me packaging things for them. Most people will opt for what’s easier, so they can move on to the next thing. Reporters are measured by how often their stuff gets on Drudge. It’s a bad way to be, but it’s reality.”

Rarely do you hear such a “how the sausage is made,” on the record quote, let alone by the communications chief of a powerful congressmen to a major publication. The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza adds more: Read more

A report issued by Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued this week complains that the Obama administration is ramming its agenda down our throats with such propaganda tools as websites, street signs, and artwork.

The 36 page document walks us through the history of Presidential propaganda, explaining that it’s used most intensely during wartime. The government during WWII issued a film about Victory Gardens, and Frank Capra‘s “Why We Fight.”

The Committee’s methodology has 16 firms sharing $66 million during Obama’s first year. The report is fair though, mentioning bad PR under Bush’s watch including the improper use of video news releases (VNRs) in 2004, paying radio host Armstrong Williams to thump No Child Left Behind, and our all time favorite, the fake FEMA presser.

Sadly, $161 million is the all time high spent in 2003, the year an international case needed to be made to invade Iraq. See the bar graph after the jump for the White House’s PR spend year over year.

The report covers the use of street signs like the one above to show the effects of stimulus spending, the use of websites like Recovery.gov to hammer the message, and also describes a conference call held by the National Endowment for the Arts communications director Yosi Sargent telling artists and other “cool people” to use their various media to get the word out with their art.

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