The "Yes, we ..." list from the PR defender omitted a few important notes:
- Yes, we write spin articles that our clients then pay other people to sign and publish.
- Yes, we arrange for people posing as "independent" to get paid by our clients for publishing deceptive information or conducting biased interviews without disclosing their motivations or compensation.
- Yes, we arrange and funnel contributions to elected officials so they will vote to support our clients, even if it harms the public.
- Yes, our work ignores the public good in favor or our clients' profits.
- Yes, we make our money by hiding the truth from the public about who is who and who does what and what that does to the public.
- AND NO, there is no client dirty secret or evil intent that we won't protect to the best of our ability - as long as they are paying our billables.
I think you make an excellent point about morals. PR firms that take on work like this - assuming they know that their work would harm people - should be vilified for knowingly lying to the media and the public. If they were going on their client's assertion that this was a bum rap and they needed to defend themselves against a wrongful claim, then I don't think we can require PR firms to do independent research to verify or undermine what their clients tell them - PR forms are hardly qualified to do that. Also, while we may despise the PR firms that represent bad actors, just like we may despise the attorneys that represent criminals, we can hardly claim that their work is illegal or even unexpected.
I do think the whole part about PR people keeping tabs on what reporters have written about, what their background is and what their likely inclinations are is pretty obvious,common practice stuff that is not at all sinister. I also think that companies hiring PR firms (or using internal teams) to put out their message and try to influence opinion is also pretty obvious and commonplace.
So kind of a dumb article about PR - great on the merits of Synergenta's position versus the opposition, but not sure what the revelation about PR is here.
<blockquote>Yes, we pull background information on reporters before taking interviews."</blockquote>
<i>You</i> are the ones who're supposed to do the "pulling." Sorry 'bout that.
This article has perfectly shown that these PR groups are morally bankrupt and devoid of human decency. How do they sleep at night knowing they are promoting such a harmful product. Would you let your kids drink it knowing these facts? Or maybe you don't care about them either. Have you ever heard the term responsability? How about criminal liability?
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