A report on VNRs, in today’s Washington Times.

From The Associated Press:

“This is a commercial deal, a commercial bid from one New York Stock Exchange listed company to another New York Stock Exchange listed company designed to improve shareholder value for both,” said Mark Palmer, a managing director at Public Strategies Inc. of Austin, Texas, one of two public relations firms hired by CNOOC.

Actually, it’s a company owned by the Chinese government, which is a totalitarian dictatorship and, if history doesn’t break right, a potential enemy down the road. Unocal’s Asian oil reserves would fall completely under Chinese control with the acquisition.

For those who believe that the blossoming of capitalism in China will inevitably lead to democracy, this is a reasonable hope, but certainly not a guaranteed outcome. American corporations, you may recall, were avid supporters of Hitler’s Germany in the early stages of his rule. But capitalism did not bring democracy to Germany; it took a war to accomplish that.

Here at Media Orchard, Tom Cruise is one of our favorite actors. He’s also a smart businessman with good instincts. No actor in Hollywood — not even Tom Hanks — has done a better job of picking movie projects over the course of a 25-year career.

But, as Cruise has demonstrated in recent weeks, even the most successful businessman needs a good public relations advisor. Tom fired his PR firm last year in favor of his sister, and now all hell has broken loose. His career may never be the same.

So, to remind all of us of the importance of public relations — and because it was something fun to do over a beer last night — Media Orchard has come up with a list of the “Top 10 Celebrity Trainwrecks, 2000-2005.”

They are:

1. Tom Cruise. “Matt…Matt…Matt!!” And he’s supposed to be making the case against Ritalin?

2. Michael Jackson. The caboose that just keeps crashing.

3. Courtney Love. Needs attention like most people need oxygen.

4. Ashlee Simpson. They aren’t booing…they’re chanting “Ashlee, Ashlee!”

5. Britney Spears. Quoth Britney in her recently departed reality show: “The sex is real good. Our sex is so good. I’ve had sex three times today!” But who’s counting.

6. Mariah Carey. All that glitters is not gold lame.

7. Robert Blake. Like Michael, he’s again free to roam the earth. Those Southern California prosecutors are a crack squad, aren’t they, O.J.?

8. Anne Heche. It happened in 2000 so it’s kind of old news now but…what beats showing up wacked-out at a complete stranger’s house, asking to take a shower and then telling the cops that you are God and will return everyone to heaven in your spaceship?

9. Kobe Bryant. From Goody Two-Shoes to Shoeless Joe before our very eyes. Time to get your Zen on, Phil.

10. Lindsay Lohan. OK, so she hasn’t actually had a meltdown yet. But it’s coming.

Unfortunately, there were so many deserving candidates that Media Orchard was forced to exclude Mike Tyson, Liza Minnelli, Robert Downey, Jr., Rosie O’Donnell, Whitney Houston, Scott Weiland and Winona Ryder. We’re sure their publicists won’t mind.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, CNOOC, the state-owned Chinese oil company, is relying on “U.S public relations strategy” in its attempt to win shareholder and government approval for its unsolicited bid for Unocal. Cnooc has hired a pair of U.S. media strategy firms to soften resistence among the public and on Capitol Hill.

Quite possibly, according to Frank Rich’s column in Sunday’s New York Times. Writes Rich:

That the administration’s foremost propagandist would also be chairman of the board of CPB, the very organization meant to shield public broadcasting from government interference, is astonishing. But perhaps no more so than a White House press secretary month after month turning for softball questions to “Jeff Gannon,” a fake reporter for a fake news organization ultimately unmasked as a G.O.P. activist’s propaganda site.

As the public broadcasting debate plays out, there will be the usual talk about how to wean it from federal subsidy and the usual complaints (which I share) about the redundancy, commerciality and declining quality of some PBS programming in a cable universe. But once Big Bird, like that White House Thanksgiving turkey, is again ritualistically saved from the chopping block and the Senate restores more of the House’s budget cuts, the most crucial test of the damage will be what survives of public broadcasting’s irreplaceable journalistic offerings.