PR Watch, Second Quarter 1998, Volume 5, No. 2

Watching the public relations industry discuss ethics is a little like watching tourists from a foreign country attempting to speak a language they barely understand. They seem enthusiastic and sincere, and many of the right words come out of their mouths, but they just don't quite manage to make sense.

The problem, fundamentally, is that PR is preoccupied with symbolism, imagery and perception rather than substance.

by Sheldon Rampton, PR Watch Associate Editor

I should have known that once the topic of "ethics" came up in a PR context, there would be fireworks.

The Compuserve computer network had asked me, along with my co-author John Stauber, to participate in an online discussion about our book, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. One of the first questions came from a Compuserve user who asked if the public relations field had an "ethical code."

"The devil is in the details," I replied.

The Public Relations Society of America is the PR industry's leading professional organization, and it does have a code of ethics, but the code is voluntary, and violators rarely receive even a symbolic sanction.

an interview with Dan Barry

The Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research (CLEAR) is a project of the Environmental Working Group. CLEAR tracks the funders and organizers of the industry-supported backlash against the environmental movement, which seeks to roll back or weaken laws that protect wildlife, habitat and public lands, as well as health and safety standards for our water, food and air.

PR Watch associate editor Sheldon Rampton interviewed CLEAR's director, Dan Barry, shortly before Barry's departure from CLEAR to head up Americans for the Environment.

Can you tell me a little bit about CLEAR's history and background?

CLEAR started five years ago and was founded to serve as the national clearinghouse for information on the "wise use" movement.

by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber

By all accounts, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson are tough, bulldog reporters--the sort of journalists you'd expect to make some enemies along the way.

That, according to Florida TV station WTVT, was why it hired the husband-and-wife team with much fanfare in November 1996 to head the station's "news investigative unit." Now, in the wake of their firing barely a year later, the Fox network affiliate is accusing them of theft for daring to independently publish the script of the story that they were never allowed to air.

"This is really not about a couple of disgruntled former reporters whining that their editors wouldn't let them do a story they thought was important," Wilson said in announcing that he and Akre are suing WTVT for breach of contract.