Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Ethics & Values

As critically important as is the issue of public relations, it is challenging to summarize and only recently codified.

Public relations is, in it’s most basic form, social conduct and social conduct bears the ethics not of a business or corporate entity that lives only on paper but rather a reflection of the people who control or represent the entity in the execution of public relations.

Understanding that most people hold others to an ethical standard that they themselves do not consistently abide by, the only tangible standard is the law. And even the law is subject to interpretation. Because of the variance in ethical standards and the interpretation of law, public relations practitioners have set down a code of conduct that should be adhered to. Although this code is common and clear, many situations are dependent upon the nuances each individual situation.

There are clear ethical violations where gifts are given in exchange for favorable exposure or actions from an official in a position of public trust. There are laws and policies that govern many of these scenarios.

No matter the codes, law and ethics of a public relations practitioner, the summation of appropriate conduct can be summed up by the GOLDEN RULE. If we do unto others as we would have them do unto us, harmonious public relationships will result.


Example


The most original example of an unethical scenario would be one that I experienced first hand. A few years ago, the radio station I worked for decided to reduce my talk radio show from 4 hours to 3 so that they could profit from the sale of an additional hour sponsorship of a syndicated program that previously was only airing for one hour. The decision was supposed to be contingent upon my approval, which I did not give yet they moved forward with it anyway. The reduction was very unpopular with the listeners and the station asked that I announce the change was a result of my desire to reduce my workload. I refused this and many other requests, all of which painted the station in the best possible light without any regard for my reputation.