22. Reading: Ethics and Public Relations

University of Botswana

Department of Media Studies

BMS 226 ETHICS FOR MEDIA PROFESSIONALS

HANDOUT 21: ETHICS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

By Shannon A. Bowen.

This is an extract from Ethics and Public Relations, by Shannon A. Bowen. Please read the full article which can be found here http://www.instituteforpr.org/topics/ethics-and-public-relations/

Is There Such a Thing as Public Relations Ethics?

Current research supports a historical trend of associating public relations with all things unethical – lying, spin-doctoring, and even espionage. Many critics argue that there can be no ethical public relations because the practice itself is akin to manipulation and propaganda. An unfortunate belief among many journalists, policy makers, and laymen is the belief that the term ‘public relations ethics’ is an oxymoron: either an unreal possibility, or smoke and mirrors to hide deception.

Groups like the Center for Public Integrity (http://www.publicintegrity.org/) criticize the public relations industry for a lack of ethics, counting the influence of public relations and lobbying as one of the primary threats to truthfull journalism. Other groups like Corporate Watch (http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=1) are less restrained in their criticism and consider public relations firms and professionals as deliberately unethical:

There is a considerable body of evidence emerging to suggest that modern public relations practices are having a very significant deleterious impact on the democratic process … by giving vested interests the opportunity to deliberately obfuscate, deceive, and derail public debate on key issues the public relations industry reduces society’s capacity to respond effectively to key social, environmental and political challenges. (http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=1570)

Are these critiques justified and warranted? Adding fuel to the fire are the actions of some public relations firms themselves. One of the most notable headlines was the representation of “Citizens for a Free Kuwait” by well-known public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, who created false testimony delivered to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=377). News broke later that the Kuwaiti government sponsored this front group in order to convince the US to enter the 1992 Gulf War. Critics (Stauber & Rampton, 1995) charge that Hill and Knowlton was successful in this effort because of its disregard for ethics. In the wake of this controversy, one Hill & Knowlton executive notoriously reminded staff: “We’d represent Satan if he paid” (http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/92/5/pr.asp).

Amid the scandal caused by the lack of honest and open communication during numerous corporate crises, such as Enron (Bowen & Heath, 2005), and the ethical blunders of public relations firms themselves, public relations faces an identity crisis. Is ethical public relations even possible? Are public relations professionals really “the ‘invisible men’ who control our political debates and public opinion, twisting reality and protecting the powerful from scrutiny” as charged by P.R. Watch (http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/prwatch.html) and similar groups?