As I checked my email this morning, I noticed that The Council of PR Firms' new edition of The FIRM VOICE was out. As I scanned through the articles, I came across one that was all too familiar to me. This article talked about a CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen's decision to trash- talk PR professionals on air last Sunday. He did so during his book review of Scott McClellan's new book "What Happened?"
The article goes on to question why the analyst decided to make this generalization about PR professionals, based on one man's actions. It also says that since we are advocates for the organizations we represent, we communicate our organization's values and opinions to the public through the free press. As we do this, we adhere to many codes of ethics, whether they be our own or the ones set forth by another professional organization.
After reading this article I was reminded of a certain professor I had for a journalism class that called PR people "evil." He said that our purpose was to con journalists into accepting junkets so that they would do our bidding. All through the semester I thought of the people I worked with at PRowl and the valuable lessons we were learning about our future careers. What gave him the right to call my profession an evil one?
I think that when things like this happen, the best thing you can do is to do BETTER. Do your job so well that no one can point fingers at you. Remember that when you are doing your job, you're representing your client, your employer, AND your profession. Be proud of what you do!
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