June 14, 2004 BE WARY OF PR Masters of the "black art of PR" are enjoying heady days, benefitting from the explosion in media outlets, wrote Luke Johnson in London's Telegraph on June 13. The chairman of Signature Restaurants and Channel 4 cautioned that "apparently independent articles" are corrupted with PR pitches that push a "slanted view." The very best PR is "invisible" and appears as "honest editorial."Reporters, meanwhile, have a love/hate relationship with their PR counterparts. Wrote Johnson: "Many journalists despise the spin doctors, arguing that they compromise the integrity of news with biased plugs for their clients. But other hacks happily permit public relations consultancies to dictate the message -- in return for exclusives and access to the right stories."More effective than adsJohnson believes well-crafted PR pitches are more apt to persuade today's skeptical consumers who are turned off by expensive advertising.He cites "crisis avoidance" and "damage control" as the most critical roles played by PR. These are categories where ethical issues become more complex. "Essentially PR agents are in the propaganda game: they are paid to legally promote their client's interestseven if that means preventing disclosure of certain facts," wrote Johnson.He believes the public's fears that PR distorts the political process and threatens democracy are overblown, but not completely without foundation.The public has the right to be skeptical that a fair chunk of airtime and column inches have been subject to "perception management," wrote Johnson.The writer used the following Sophocles quote to sum up the power of PR: "I see that everywhere among the race of men, it is the tongue that wins and not the deed."Il Daily Telegraph cita Sofocle per dire che il messaggio vince sul comportamento e che le relazioni pubbliche sono pericolose. (da odwyerspr.com)
