This paper studies the cost and benefits of private and public communication in

a game with a policy maker, a privately-informed expert, and the public. The policy maker and the expert have different opinions/views about the state of the world

and both the expert and policy maker care about the expert's reputation with the

public. The amount of information acquisition and transmission under private  vs. public communication, depends on how much the

policy maker and the expert differ in opinion. If both have either moderate

or very extreme opinions,  the costs and benefits are the same. In contrast, when the policy maker is

moderate and the expert has more extreme opinions, private communication is better, while if the policy maker is extreme and the expert has moderate views, public communication is better.