Renewed calls to privatize public diplomacy.

• Position: WASHINGTON PULSE: NEWS FROM INSIDE THE BELTWAY

* The U.S. military took a public relations beating when one of its PR contractors paid Iraqi newspapers to print propaganda disguised as news stories. That unfortunate experience, however, has not discouraged advocates of the privatization of public diplomacy.

"Government alone cannot do this," said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, at a Heritage Foundation conference. "A private, self-sustaining center outside of government can help." Panelists Jeff Jones of Booz Allen Hamilton, and Michael Doran, deputy assistant secretary of defense, suggested that the government should boost "strategic...