PR Watch, First Quarter 1998, Volume 5, No. 1

To judge from what passes for journalism these days, you would almost think that no one even knows what an issue is anymore.

An "issue," for those who need explaining, is something that matters -- something that affects significant numbers of people, and something that society should deal with through policy measures. If you get hit by a car because someone failed to put up a stop sign, there's an issue at stake involving public safety.

by Tom Wheeler

If the Issues Management Council managed issues the way it manages meetings, it would just take a couple of days for big business to dispose of all our problems. That was the impression I got after sitting through its annual conference, which consisted of a fast-paced, dizzying series of 15 presentations spread out across the two days of November 6-7, 1997.

Held in the sumptuous confines of the infamous Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, the presentations were executed with clockwork precision, each allotted 45 minutes to an hour in which to pitch issues management techniques and strategies before an audience of several dozen corporate PR and communications professionals.

by Tom Wheeler

Just a few years ago, Prudential was in the midst of a scandal of epic proportions, when the multinational insurance giant got caught red-handed ripping off hundreds of millions of dollars from its customers.

Some policyholders, many of them elderly, lost their life savings. Thousands of Prudential clients faced the prospect of losing their homes, their retirements, or money set aside for their children's education.

by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber

If you're trying to make sense of the recent "food disparagement" lawsuit by Texas beef producers against Oprah Winfrey, it might help to remember Connie Grieg's moment of terror on the evening of April 23, 1996.

The date was one week after the now-famous program in which Oprah had allowed a debate between Gary Weber of the