Duty to tell the truth

‘Spin has become the ubiquitous term for public relations tactics.’ wrote David Miller and William Dinan in their book 'A Century of Spin: How Public Relations Became the Cutting Edge of Corporate Power' (2007). The current Public Relations industry is trying to drift from this opinion and blur the image of Public Relations being spinning and lying to the public. It is not easy to stop the stereotype that have grown since the first practitioners such as Edward Bernes and Basil Clarke.



Image by Jens Lumm

What makes it even harder is that current practitioners are admitting that lying is a part of the business. One of Britain’s most famous Public Relations practitioners Max Clifford often acknowledged that he lies on behalf of his clients. He happily admits: ‘I’ve been telling lies on behalf of people, businessmen, politicians and countries for 40 years. It shouldn’t be necessary, but it is. I’d rather be honest, but I cannot be all the time... All PROs at all levels lie through their teeth.’ Many practitioners are devastated by his words and are trying to challenge him in public debates. In 1994 he debated with Quentin Bell about the transparency of the industry and in February 2007 Clifford took part in the PRWeek debate ‘PR has a duty to tell the truth’, against morally and ethically strong personalities from the Public Relations industry such as Peter Crumpler. Max Clifford won the vote at the end of both debates. 

After the debate Peter Crumpler said that he was ‘dismayed and disappointed’ by the result and that this is a bad sign for the future of the industry. His opinion was supported by Simon Cohen, founder of ethical PR agency Global Tolerance.

At the same time, there are some positive voices behind Max Clifford openly expressing his actions. Daniel Rogers’ opinion of the debate that took place in 2007 was: ‘The fact that PR people admit they need to lie occasionally is a sign of growing honesty and confidence in what they do’.

He admitted that by having a debate on ethics in Public Relations, ,the  industry showed evidence of a new maturity. Rogers found optimism in Public Relations people admitting they needed to lie occasionally, which made it different from spinning, when practitioners tried to hide the truth .

Download podcast from PRWeek Ethics Debate 2007