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

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

Flack Attack

align="BOTTOM">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.


align="BOTTOM">The problem, fundamentally, is that PR is preoccupied
with symbolism, imagery and perception rather than substance.

Spinning the Moral Compass

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.


align="BOTTOM">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."


align="BOTTOM">"The devil is in the details," I
replied.


align="BOTTOM">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.

On a CLEAR Day You Can See Through Front Groups

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.


align="BOTTOM">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?


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

Monsanto and Fox: Partners in Censorship

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.


align="BOTTOM">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.


align="BOTTOM">"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.