Ethics Corner: News Watch

It’s a new year, but the news continues to be filled with questions of ethics that affect perceptions of our profession and of important public institutions as well as corporate entities and non-profits. Here’s a sampling:

Illinois isn’t the only state with a governor whose performance has raised ethics issues. In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal has done a great job of self promotion but a poor one in doing his job, according to C.B. Forgotston, a political watchdog. The Shreveport Times reports that Jindal has promised passage of ethics reform, but Forgotston is skeptical that it will stop the corruption that has plagued Louisiana politics for decades.

The Financial Planning Association, a trade association, has no plans for public relations efforts, “despite the fact that a large majority of financial advisers are looking to industry organizations to help bolster their image in the wake of the Bernard Madoff scandal” (Investment News, January 5).

According to the Miami Herald, Monsanto’s claims that genetically modified (GM) foods will solve world hunger are a “gross overstatement at best and at worst an outright lie.” Additionally, neither side of the GM foods controversy can support that they are completely safe or unsafe.

Encroachment on public relations by journalism: Dan Abrams, former anchor and top executive with MSNBC, is launching a new public relations firm that will hire practicing journalists to advise corporate clients on handling the media. Conflict of interest, perhaps? Certainly a violation of journalistic ethics!

Environmental groups remain suspicious of business efforts to go green. Mark Jeantheau, of GrinningPlanet.com, writes that corporate public relations engages in doublespeak and code words to cover up a lack of sincere concern and action for improving the environment.

From north of the border, the revered Royal Canadian Mounted Police has a serious reputation building effort ahead. Part of it stems from management’s improprieties in handling of pension and insurance plans for the Mounties. A government report also noted that management frequently disregarded the force’s core values of honesty, integrity, compassion, respect, accountability, and professionalism.

Lapses in ethics continue to abound. It behooves us as PRSA members to maintain ethical practices and find ways to spread the word that public relations is not about making bad organizations look good.