Last evening, I was contemplating a response to David Maister’s provocative question: How Did You Lose Your Innocence? I’d left a holding comment and planned to offer a detailed explanation. And then today, I read about the Edelman-Wal-Mart fake blog debacle.
I have a major problem with this. You can argue that Edelman himself confessed to an error of judgment and that should be the end. Others are strident in their condemnation. Chief PR ra-ra and Edelman employee for blogging says:
I had no personal role in this project. There is a process in place that I had to let proceed through its course. This is why it took some time.
If that’s not apologist PR c.1995, then I don’t know what.
David’s question was about looking at the issue of ethics in the real world of doing business. He had some heart wrenching examples:
A partner in a tax firm:
“We know many ways to save our clients money, but that just would mean we would bill them less and take home less pay, so we don’t work at getting efficient. That would be the ‘right’ thing to do, and may even get us a good reputation in the long run, but no-one would seriously suggest changing to that way.”
What the hell is that about? Are fellow professionals effectively saying: ‘We cheat our customers?’ Because if it is, then we’re in trouble.
Edelman’s problem now becomes one of trust. They have for years been positioning themselves as the doyens of PR marketing blogs. They more than any other organisation have made blogging a corporate clarion call. Rubel is the man who led the PR industry down the blog road. But now he comes up with a lame excuse? And there is a question as to whether the PR industry’s trade association is capable of levying sanctions.
Do you agree that when someone is intellectually dishonest, their reputation is shattered forever? Isn’t that something Enron-Andersen should have taught any service business? And especially PR? Is it any wonder that so many professional firms say that blogs have power they dare not unleash?
I’ve got hot news for you. The genie is out the bottle and it ain’t going back in. That’s why whenever I enter a commercial relationship with a company about which I write, I try always to remind readers of those relationships. That way you can assess what I say in the light of those relationships and decide whether I’m on the wrong side of barking mad. That is, I hope, transparency. Otherwise, you kill blogs.
Technorati Tags: Enron, ethics, transparency
