Jay Rosen, PR Bloggers and the Williams Flap. Yawn.

Absolutely right

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the most direct, honest, and 100 percent true post I've seen yet!

Nothing has changed about ethical PR, as you say, BL. Yet maybe it should. This is about accountability and responsibility.

You can't simply yawn at this. It's not just about ethics in PR, either - it affects everyone involved in any organizational communication role.

As for the PR associations, I am actually surprised that there hasn't been a loud public clamour over this (or any of the other issues in the US: eg, Rathergate) by one of the bodies that professes to be a guardian of ethics in public relations.

But perhaps I'm completely naive.

This is about Ketchum and Williams' accountability and responsibility. And, oh yes, the Bush administration was in on it too and you can't tell me they didn't know the deal.

So what has that got to do with ethical PR and marketing people. Jackshit. We're not playing in the same leagues.

You are right, the PRSA and IABC should be squawking. Their silence is deafening.

Yes it is about their specific accountability and responsibility. That's been a clear thread in many of the blog posts I've seen today.

We may not be playing in the same league, but I believe there's a rub-off on any communicator who denies (maybe 'is in denial' would be a better description) that they, too, have a responsibility to take a stand and express their outrage at the behaviour of people like Ketchum. Note I didn't say 'a firm' as it's people who comprise the firm.

As for the professional associations, I'm not sure at all that any of them have much relevance now, actually, becuase of their deafening silence. All this blogosphere kerfuffle has happened mostly in the past 24 hours, yet this sordid affair first emerged publicly two weeks ago.

I just saw a post by Doc Searls in which he floats a very interesting thought about professional associations and the members:

"Read enough of the posts, and you start to see an additional split, between PR bloggers and their trade associations. The same split is happening in many industries, between incumbent organizations on one side and independent practitioners on the other side. Those independent folks operate both within and outside organizations, further complicating the whole thing."

http://doc.weblogs.com/2005/01/20#payolaRelations

This Ketchum business could be a catalyst for such a split. Is that a good thing? I doubt it. But if the professional associations don't speak up on such an ethical issue, what good are they?

Don't you understand, that split has already taken place, years ago. The majority of the people who belong to PRSA have their dues and conferences paid by the agencies they work for. Independents, like me, have no use for them and they have no use for us upstarts.

I don't know a lot about IABC, but I know that PRSA is an irrelevant organization for independent consultants. It charges fees that are over our heads, doesn't keep up with technology, is a bloated beaurocracy filled with committees and rules. You can look in every plaza on the planet and you will never find a monument to a committee.

I am hoping against hope that Media Blogger's Association, which I've joined, will be adept at herding cats, because bloggers won't stand for the kind of crap that big associations live on.

It is not always so clear cut: many trade journals, when selecting articles and press releases to run, give preference to companies who also advertise with them. This has been doing on for decades.

Maybe bloggers will bend to the allmighty dollar in the end too.

But my bet is that there are a lot of us who are persnickety, snarky, and ideaistic enough enough to say screw you to advertisers who demand editorial control over our blogs.