https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/26/phil-elwood-dc-pr-operative-00154367
Still, why take the chance at all? After all, Elwood earned a decent living as a PR “arsonist” — that is, ginning up stories stage left in order to help clients achieve their goals stage right. Even after the horrors recounted in the back half of his book (his work for a shady Israeli intel firm lands him in the FBI’s crosshairs; he attempts suicide; he bounces back thanks to true-blue friends and elaborate therapeutic interventions) Elwood remains in the industry, lighting fires for paying customers.
And here’s where the anonymous publicist for scoundrels emerges as an quotable idealist about Washington. All the Worst Humans, it turns out, isn’t really meant to be for people like him. It’s meant to be for the folks they spin. “People like me outnumber the media seven to one,” he tells me. “Our numbers are growing while theirs are shrinking. All I’m doing is saying the quiet part out loud, saying all the wrong things about an industry that only says the right thing.”