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Under The Radar, PR's Political Savvy:

When it comes to the inner workings of Washington, you often hear about lobbyists influencing the political process. But there's another time-tested profession that works just as hard trying to do much the same thing: Public relations. In D.C. it's often referred to as "public affairs" or "advocacy." But it's PR just the same.

First, what is the difference between lobbying and public relations? For starters, lobbyists have to disclose their activities. PR professionals do not. But they do work together.

David Fuscus, is president of Xenophon Strategies, a firm that does both. He uses a D-Day analogy.

"Everybody's seen the footage of the landing craft, the house on the hill in Normandy. Well, those guys in the landing craft are the lobbyists," Fuscus says. "They're getting ready to hit the beaches to go try and convince somebody to do something."

The lobbyists' target: Capitol Hill. But Fuscus says the PR folks deploy first.

"The communications, we're there about two weeks before. We're the Air Force. We're conditioning the legislative landscape for them to go and do it," Fuscus explains.

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"The art of public affairs is telling your side of the story as many ways as you can to create that echo chamber around whatever target you're trying to reach," says Anne Womack-Kolton, the group's vice president of communications.

One the other side, there's the Environmental Working Group, where Alex Formuzis is vice president of media relations. He says one of the group's goals is to "provide media outlets — both new and traditional — with our research. They often report on it, and many have large audiences."

Layton says both sides in the BPA battle "have a pretty strong PR apparatus."

In Washington, one of the weapons advocacy and trade groups like to use to generate news is a new study. Layton says she has been inundated.

"I'll get an email or a phone call from either side saying, 'Hey, did you see this new Canadian study that says BPA is completely safe?'

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost