Chapter 2: A Tangled Web--the Truth About PR Ethics

OVERVIEW

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

”Sir Winston Churchill

In the fall of 2000 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) aired promos for a new television show. ˜When their lips move you know they're lying, said the voice-over. Who, exactly, was he talking about? The ˜they to whom he referred were the protagonists on an absurd sitcom titled PR which debuted that autumn, much to the chagrin of every public relations practitioner who had the misfortune of seeing an episode or two. Then to add to the embarrassment, the companion Web site told the world, ˜If they told the truth, they'd be out of business.

Whereas many PR practitioners may have had as much trouble swallowing the star's wardrobe as her outrageously inaccurate depiction of what public relations is all about (I have yet to encounter even one woman in PR who has a penchant for fuschia marabou at least while at work), like it or not the notion of failing to tell the truth, or spinning the facts, is part of the public's image of public relations. And who can blame them when this is the media image that is cultivated?

This begs two questions. First, is the public really so wrong? And second, what part does truth telling play in the ethical foundations of public relations? We'll deal with question two first.