In the professional world today there is a lingering question of ethics leading many to address the profession of public relations as “the lying profession”.

Lying in public relations or “sensationalism” is something that shouldn’t happen but likely does in every profession, though few professions are as well-known for it as public relations.

Hugh M. Culbertson wrote an article titled How Public Relations Textbooks Handle Honesty and Lying(Educational Resource Information Center). This article studied six recent public relations textbooks with the conclusion that there were no extended explanations in the topic of honesty in public relations issues. This article can be accessed at: http.Eric.ed.gov.

There is a question that every public relations professional will toss around at some point in his or her career: is it even possible to be successful in public relations with out lying? I believe that it is, and we may find ourselves in fewer tight spaces once we master this art. Howard Noel, a professor of public relations at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah as well as a PR specialist; was the professor of many upper division classes at Weber State while I attended school there. The following advice that he shared is no doubt the best that I have ever heard on the topic of ethics in PR. Noel said that his preferred method of crisis management would be to tell it fast, tell it all and tell it right.

In a local incident of the Crandall Canyon Mine tragedy in the mining community of Huntington, Utah, mine owner Bob Murray allegedly refused to tell the correct circumstances of the disaster even after being questioned about mine safety warning signs and again after the death of three rescue workers. This example is one of a million situations where telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, may not only have saved a business as well as a professional reputation, but in this case, it could have saved many lives.

The truth is not overrated and ethics are possible in any professional area. A specialist simply needs to dedicate his or herself to hard work and skip all of the shortcuts. That’s the reality.

Visual aids for this blog are the property of Langley Press and can be found at www.kimrichter.com/blog/2006_04_01_archive.html.

Comments to Cassie Silvester can be sent to cassie.silvester@hotmail.com. Thank you for your readership.

Article Tags: Ethics | lying | Public Relations | public relations professionals | success in pr

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