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Gawker recently turned food marketers' heads with a 2,500-word takedown of blogger, dietary guru and anti-GMO activist Vani Hari, aka "Food Babe." Author Yvette d'Entremont, who started a rival blog under the "Science Babe" moniker, asserted that Hari peddles easily disproved pseudoscience designed to frighten people into emptying their pantries of "toxins" and send angry emails to major food conglomerates.
Vani, a New York Times bestselling writer and TV talk show guest, responded with a can't-we-just-be-friends lament before casting d'Entremont as a "biased," pro-pesticide advocate promoting that most unpopular of agricultural villains—Monsanto. She even created a disclaimer for readers who visit her site from links in the Gawker post: "Coming from Gawker? Warning: I believe you should have both sides of the story before you make an informed opinion. Read the other side of the story here."
A larger trend is lurking beneath this spat over digital influence: America is facing a growing crisis of credibility in food labeling. And as consumers struggle to decide whom to trust—passionate bloggers or major food brands—agencies can get caught in the crossfire....
Public relations professionals who have provided ethics counsel to senior management are at least as fervent about serving the public interest -- sometimes even more so -- as they are about their duty to their organizations, according to a Baylor University researcher. A new study of 30 senior public relations professionals, most of whom had served as an "organizational conscience," showed the individuals viewed themselves as an "independent voice" in the organization and not "mired by its perspective or politics," said study author Marlene S. Neill, Ph.D., a lecturer in the department of journalism, public relations and new media in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences....
There’s been yet another brouhaha about ethics in PR, and rightly so. A staffer at one of Wal*Mart’s public affairs firms got it terribly wrong, posing as a reporter at a “closed” press conference given by a union. And smarter folks than I have weighed in. (Since first publishing this blog, I learned that Wal*Mart fired the public affairs firmed involved.)
Said staffer has since been removed. But it got me thinking about what the agency might have done to prevent this, which certainly would have been in the firm’s and their client’s best interests. Of course one would hope that a PR professional, at any level, knows that pretending to be someone one isn’t, particularly a member of the media, is wrong no matter how you slice it. But what had the firm done to inform its staff of the ethical standards it requires each employee to follow?
Which got me to the bigger question: Are PR firms doing enough to prevent this kind of ethical nightmare?
[Great advice for PR agencies from Ken Jacobs - JD]
Once again, a public relations firm is in the news for the unethical professional conduct of one of its own. And once again, it’s over the issue of disclosure. Reports surfaced in Gawker and elsewhere yesterday that a young professional employed by Mercury Public Affairs had posed as a university student and registered under a false name to gain access to a “closed press conference” held by Warehouse Workers United (WWU). Mercury’s client, Walmart, is trying to open a store in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles, and local labor groups, among others, are challenging the store’s permitting. Allegedly, the Mercury employee infiltrated the meeting to interview union members, one would assume to gain inside information that would benefit her client. This woman’s actions—and the subsequent reactions—have rippled through the profession, leaving her unemployed and the public relations profession with yet another black eye that erodes the public’s trust in our craft....
Mike Daisey’s “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” was a fine bit of theater, but it worked less well as journalism, which was how it was represented in January on “This American Life.”... Is it O.K. to lie on the way to telling a greater truth? The short answer is also the right one. No. It’s worth examining that question now that we have learned about the lies perforating the excerpt of Mike Daisey’s one-man show on Apple’s manufacturing processes in China, broadcast in January on the weekly public radio show “This American Life.”...
The primary code of ethics I refer to is my own moral compass. In most cases there is a clear right or wrong way to go about business activity though this too is subjective. Where does PR’s loyalty lie? Because a communicator is employed by an organisation, he or she has first and, arguably, overriding responsibility to them. However, we all live in society and have a broader responsibility, as well. So it’s not a simplistic equation. Truth and honesty are values I hold in high esteem....
What struck me recently in conversation with a few thoughtful PR pros was that we should be concentrating on adding values as well as value to programs. When you look at a grove of old growth trees do you see value or values? That may define the true PR professional...
A PR writing teacher uncovered a disturbing trend among the PR industry’s future practitioners. See how schools are tackling the problem. September is PR ethics months. To mark the occasion, the Public Relations Society of America is publishing a series of posts on the ethics and ethics training. Here’s one. It began simply enough: a conversation about ethics with freshman and sophomore university students in my PR writing class. Then, one young woman said that it was OK to be dishonest because “PR people are supposed to lie.” At least six other students nodded their heads in agreement....
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The Public Relations Society of America’s ethical guidelines are perhaps the industry’s most widely recognized code for ethics. They cover the necessity for honesty, accuracy, integrity, and confidentiality. The Professional Standards Advisories (PSAs), designed to keep the PRSA code timely, address PR-specific areas and modern practices, including recording conversations, use of interns, video news releases, pay-for-play journalism, and disclosure guidelines.
Both codes are quite comprehensive and benefit PR agencies and companies when followed. But are they comprehensive enough? Perhaps it’s time for PR to adopt some of journalism’s ethical guidelines. PR inherently serves the public (it’s in the name), and PR practitioners are functioning more as journalists; more PR content is now reaching the public directly without review and without editing by independent journalists.
With this in mind, we’ve examined some principles from The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, not (yet) covered in PRSA’s code, that PR pros ought to consider adopting....
September is traditionally the time of the year when the Public Relations Society of America observes “Ethics Month,” and PRSA chapters nationwide are encouraged to present special programming. A comprehensive set of resources is available to assist in this effort. While I support and encourage this educational emphasis, both on a personal and a professional level, I would prefer to see it a year-round, continuous initiative. Here’s my problem…Since when (or better yet, why) has it become necessary to teach/preach/beseech to PR professional that ethical business practice is a “good” thing? [Great question by Kirk Hazlett - JD]
Wal-Mart's PR Firm Sent This Flack to Pose as a Reporter to Spy on a Pro-Labor Group [Updated]. ...It's a fight with big stakes for Wal-Mart, as it goes right to the heart of the company's strategy of expanding in large cities. And now, one labor group says that an employee of a PR firm working for Wal-Mart actually posed as a reporter in order to infiltrate one of their meetings. Warehouse Workers United, a group working to improve labor conditions for Wal-Mart's LA warehouse workers, says that its press conference last week was infiltrated by an undercover Wal-Mart functionary.... [The junior PR was fired but the agency's explanation smells fishy - JD]
I was very pleased to see the PRSA's Board of Ethics and Professional Standards held a discussion to address the issue I raised in a previous Repman blog entitled: 'Bait and switch with a twist.' The blog concerned a new twist on the large agency world's propensity to bait-and-switch team members in order to win a piece of business. The wrinkle in this particular case was the agency's failure to tell the unsuspecting client that each and every team member was a freelancer! The client, frustrated by her inability to reach team members, finally called the large agency's HQs and was told “...no one by those names worked at the firm.” The client was appalled, and so was I....
On a special web page devoted to ethics, PRSA has this to say: “The practice of public relations can present unique and challenging ethical issues. At the same time, protecting integrity and the public trust are fundamental to the profession’s role and reputation. Bottom line, successful public relations hinges on the ethics of its practitioners.” With that in mind, consider these situations...
[Rich Becker tackles a tough issue - JD] Bill Sledzik is right. The Penn State scandal is not really a public relations case study. It can't be "fixed." The only thing left to do is continue to cooperate with transparency and suggest remedies to minimize such atrocities from happening again. Attorney General Linda Kelly described it precisely: "This is a case about a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys. It is also a case of high-ranking university officials who allegedly failed to report the sexual assault of a young boy after the information was brought to their attention, and later made false statements to a grand jury that was investigating a series of assaults on young boys."...
Ethics: The rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc. This small six-letter word packs a whole lot of meaning behind it, particularly in the PR and journalism world....
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This food fight is all about credibility, influence and how both sides use misinformation campaigns to take down their opponents.