Flack Attack

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Good communication skills are essential for a functional civilization. We need to be able to warn each other of danger, share ideas on how to improve our lives, teach each other how to use new technologies. Being able to clearly and effectively communicate a message is a noble aspiration. Yet, we see time and time again how PR firms, marketers, and propagandists, cloaking themselves in rightous ambitions, are using their communications skills to manipulate and deceive target audiences for their own gains or those of their patrons or clients.

In March, the Health and Human Services video news release that praised the Bush administration's controversial new Medicare bill garnered New York Times attention. Many Americans were upset to learn that their tax dollars were being spent on a PR campaign to sell them on the Medicare bill. Chances are, they'd also be upset to learn that they have been paying to be convinced that electronic voting is safe, reliable, and the wave of the future and that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to US security, hording weapons of mass destruction, and colluding with terrorists.

In this issue of PR Watch, Diane Farsetta digs into the PR campaigns surrounding electronic voting - efforts to "educate" voters that also often promote the for-profit companies that make voting machines. And Laura Miller looks at how the Iraq War was sold to Americans on their dime.

With the millions of government dollars flowing into PR campaigns, there appears to be practicially no oversight of what is being communicated. While some PR campaigns may be beneficial, there is plenty of evidence that government-funded public relations campaigns are taxpayer-supported boondoggles, in which the public pays for the high cost of its own indoctrination.