Inside Bechtel's Spin Machine

As a top engineering and construction contractor, the Bechtel Group has had a leading role in a number of controversial public works projects, including Boston's "Big Dig," the failed privatization of Bolivia's water system, and the rebuilding of Iraq. "The bad public relations from just one these projects could sink a lesser firm, but somehow the well-connected, privately held corporation always seems to emerge unscathed and ready to score more big-ticket public works jobs," A.C. Thompson writes. "Though any corporation of Bechtel's size - it boasted $16.3 billion in revenue for 2003 - works hard to control spin, Bechtel seems to have taken the concept of media manipulation to new heights. Judging from a raft of high-level internal memos and e-mails obtained by public interest group CorpWatch, it seems Bechtel has a three-point P.R. strategy: trashing journalists who report critically on the company, spinning financial institutions who lend the company money, and bending the truth."