When PR and Journalism Collide

I have a confession to make – I was a journalist. Wondering what’s the big deal behind the confession? Well, I’m now in Public Relations. Why is this a confession? Because I read somewhere that certain media people have said that journalists are in the truth business while PR people are in the opposite. If this is so, then it means I’m a no-good liar.

When journalists and PR figures start questioning one another’s integrity, you know things are going to get fiery. When a journalist ex-colleague found out that I am in the PR business, I was flat out accused of being a sell-out and got shot (pun not intended) this question: “How many PR’s have been killed in the line of duty?”

He also argued that journalists, “… try their best to tell the truth” – unlike PRs. Although he had not personally, he said, been lied to by people in PR, he had been blocked from finding the truth. He had also been “… distracted, diverted and generally manipulated”.

He added that that the situation with PR’s used to be manageable, in the days when journalists had the time and space to find their own stories and sources, and challenge PR versions of the news.

But journalism has been “… robbed of its resources” as he continues, such that it is now much more vulnerable to manipulation by vested interests. He made it sound as if he was witnessing an imbalance between the seekers after the truth and the gatekeepers to the truth. The gatekeepers have, in the last decade, increased their numbers and resources enormously. While at the same time, news organizations have cut bureaus, cut journalists and grown output.

Personally, I think journalism (here anyway) is in trouble. However, I also feel that this is not the fault of the public relations agency but the management consultants that pass for proprietors of. It is the owners’ fixation with their share price and shareholders that has led to the decline of standards in journalism, and an ever-increasing cynicism from the media. As standards decline and newspapers rely more and more on ‘fliers’ which are reports based on single sources or rumors, PR has had to step in to protect people’s reputations and prevent wild inaccuracies.

The integrity of public relations is being threatened by the lack of resources in the press. The growth of PR has made the press more honest, not less - and yes, PR conceals, but it openly conceals. As a PR person, I openly admit my bias, unlike some journalists who conceal theirs. As a PR advocate, myself and my organization work on behalf our clients, and we do so as honestly and as straightforwardly as we can.

Let me just get to what I feel is the real difference between a PR person and journalist - the former represents a client’s private interests to the best of their ability. The latter, when they’re doing their job, represents the public interest. The problem is that this is exactly what many journalists aren’t doing (or aren’t able to do).

Journalists should take responsibility for their own faults, not seek to blame PRs. Now accountability – that’s good PR.