PETER MANDELSON, Alastair Campbell and Jo Moore - perhaps the three most infamous purveyors of government "spin" in the last decade.
The latter, of course, took her profession to new heights of cynicism by suggesting September 11, 2001, would be a good day for civil servants to bury bad news. An appalled nation made sure she paid for it with her job.
But you do not have to go as far as the halls of Westminster to see the art of news management and "spin" in action.
The Daily Post has used new rights under the Freedom of Information Act to find out exactly how much some local public bodies are spending on PR.
From major project failures such as the Fourth Grace and Everton FC at Kings Dock to delays in school renovation programmes, road works which will cause chaos to motorists or the annual bad news of a council tax hike - all will be subject to a PR strategy to minimise negative publicity.
We can reveal that across just a small sample of public bodies, including the five Merseyside local authorities, the bill for PR stands at more than £2.5m annually.
It ranges from Liverpool's spend of more than £700,000 to Sefton's still considerable £192,000.
The bill for the North West Development Agency is £190,000 and the Government News Network is a whopping £489,000.
In the five Mersey Town Halls, a total of 26 press offficers are employed to answer inquiries and generate positive coverage.
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