PR Practioners Don't Think Up Stories: My Response to Mail Online Story
I read the Mail Online story “Insider reveals: PR men would think up a story and Rebekah’s Sun and News of the World would run it word for word. Some were complete fiction” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013046/Rebekah-Brooks-Sun-News-World-run-fictional-stories-insider-claims.html) and was pretty much disgusted as a former journalism student and more so as a seasoned PR practitioner.
Clearly the story was fired with the passion of a disgruntled employee but despite this fact I took issue with the salacious depiction of the field of public relations. I take issue with the suggestion that we in the profession ‘think up’ stories. Yes writing is a big part of what we do, but to say we sit and dream up stories for clients shows a total disregard and lack of respect for the profession. Professional Code of Ethics governs the way the majority of professionals work on a daily basis. Both PRSA (http://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/ethics/) and IABC (http://www.iabc.com/about/code.htm) have these codes prominent on their websites.
