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SPECIAL COLUMN FROM PUBLIC RELATIONS SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Yes, You Can Buy That Kind of Publicity
by Jon Pushkin, APR
A series of scandals involving government agencies and some of the country's top public relations firms, as reported in several recent stories in the New York Times, has rocked the industry. These incidents have damaged the reputation of the profession and reinforced the negative stereotype that PR practitioners are nothing more than untrustworthy spin doctors.
First, a prominent PR firm was accused of over-billing the City of Los Angeles, causing the mayor to force city agencies to cancel all contracts with outside PR consultants. Then the Department of Education used a standard industry tool, the Video News Release or VNR, to promote the Bush administration's agenda by disguising the VNR's as objective news reports, thus misleading the public. Even worse, the department's PR firm, Ketchum, paid the conservative columnist Armstrong Williams $250,000 of its $1 million fee to endorse No Child Left Behind. Now, a third major firm, Porter Novelli, is taking heat for promoting the Department of Agriculture's new nutrition guidelines while still engaged by food industry clients that stand to benefit from the program.
According to the New York Times -- which sent a wake up call to PR pros with a February 13 Sunday headline, Spinning Frenzy - PR's Bad Press -- these incidents blur the line between propaganda and PR. They also indicate a trend that the line between paid media and earned media, traditionally a line most media outlets firmly draw between their advertising and editorial departments, is becoming much too fuzzy.
The Times pointed out that the huge payments these firms receive and the profit margins demanded by the global corporate parents that own them make it difficult for the firms to say no to their clients, even when the client is clearly asking them to engage in practices that might violate the law. The temptation to cross the line may be strong, but it is no excuse.
Propaganda is often used by governments and politicians to manipulate public opinion. Public relations, on the other hand, helps organizations communicate important messages to the audiences they need to reach. The difference may be subtle to some critics, but to those of us in the profession it is profound.
Some lines may be blurring, but not the ethical standards upon which the practice of public relations is based. These standards are the foundation of our profession -- the core values that guide every one of us.
Since 1950, every member of the Public Relations Society of America, which represents 20,000 professionals worldwide including 500 Colorado members, pledges to adhere to a set of professional standards called the PRSA Code of Ethics. The keystones of the code are truth and transparency.
The Code of Ethics includes, among other standards, the following provisions:
Free Flow of Information
- Protect and advance the free flow of accurate and truthful information.
- Be honest and accurate in all communications.
Disclosure of Information
- Act promptly to correct erroneous information for which the practitioner is responsible.
- Avoid deceptive practices.
Enhancing the Profession
- Professionals work constantly to strengthen the public's trust in the profession.
- Decline representation of clients or organizations that urge or require actions contrary to this Code.
Professional Values
- Honesty. We adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those we represent and in communicating with the public.
- Independence. We provide objective counsel to those we represent. We are accountable for our actions.
It is unethical to deceive the public by hiding the source of a VNR or by not revealing that the "reporter" is biased. As PRSA President and CEO Judith Phair told Peter Jennings on World News Tonight on March 16, the "reporter" in the VNR should have been identified as an employee of the Department of Education. "I have strong ethical problems with not identifying a source," Phair said. And, as Phair wrote in a February 7 op-ed in PR Week, "When allegations of unethical practices make headlines from coast to coast, we all suffer."
It is unethical to pay a columnist to write nice things about your client, as Ketchum did, even if your client is paying you ridiculous amounts of money to do so. Employees of a PR firm should not present themselves as employees of the companies they represent, as did the employees of the PR firm that caused the uproar in Los Angeles. If a PR firm such as Porter Novelli creates a communications program for a government agency to benefit the firm's other clients, who happen to be part of the industry that the agency is supposed to regulate, that's a conflict of interest.
These scandals involving some of our most prominent PR firms have caused long-term damage to the reputation of our profession by reinforcing negative stereotypes and negating the good work that most of us do every day. Repairing that reputation will take a determined, long term commitment by organizations like the Public Relations Society of America and by the individual practitioners that PRSA represents.
Jon Pushkin, APR, is the immediate Past President of PRSA Colorado and the President of Pushkin Public Relations. Reach him at: jon@pushkinpr.com.
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