Corporations

Following a trend reported in PR Watch, 3rd Quarter 2002 of using PR to improve the image of global capitalism, PR giant Hill & Knowlton has formed a corporate social responsibility (CSR) group. PR Week reports,
"The CSR unit will attempt to focus on providing strategic counsel and communications support to CSR programs in areas including public outreach, internal communications, financial communications, community investment, public affairs, and environmental and CSR reporting.

The venerable Parent-Teachers Association has begun seeking corporate funding partnerships with companies including Coca-Cola Enterprises, Disney Interactive and Microsoft. "I know the PTA may need money, but when they accept money from whomever, it loses its independence," says parent Loretta Pleasant-Jones. "How can a PTA now turn and say, 'We want the Coke machines out of our schools?' "

"What seemed to be a groundswell of protest materialized last week when WorldCom Inc. lawyers arrived at federal court for a hearing on whether the company's agreement to pay a $500 million fine was sufficient punishment for its mammoth fraud. ... Outside the courthouse, a small group of demonstrators rallied" including the Gray Panthers. "The outpouring, though, was hardly spontaneous. Several of the opponents, including protest organizers and petitioners, had ties to Issue Dynamics Inc.

Discussing whether the profit making side of the media industry had won out over content, former "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman (who was played by Al Pacino in the movie "The Insider") told Australia's Radio National, "It's a situation where the class differential between the people who present, so-called presenters, we call them talent when you work inside the network news organisations, between what they make for instance annually, and what the people who work in the industry make, who actually do most of the reporting and production and writing, is just phenomenal.