Criticism of the PR Society's all-white board and its reaction to this have opened a Pandora's box of ineptitude at the Society.
PRS leadership and staff froze like a block of ice when this criticism burst on the board last week.
Unavailable for comment were chair Mike Cherenson, his leadership in a shambles after only one month; the other 16 members of the board, who took the muzzle at their meeting Jan. 23, and PRS's PR staff, which is trying to handle this incendiary situation via e-mails.
As PRS member Stuart Goldstein said, the non-integrated board is but the latest foible on top of PRS's "litany of practices of secrecy and suppressing dissent that are anathema to the core beliefs of the communications profession."
James O'Rourke |
Prof. James O'Rourke of Notre Dame, a trustee of the Arthur W. Page Society and the Institute for PR, said PRS "has a problem…the board is exclusionary in an unfortunate and obvious way."
Cherenson has agreed to meet this week with counselor Mike Paul, who has said that PRS must add people of color to the board. Non-voting "senior counsels" served on the board in 2007 and 2008.
Cherenson should also be meeting with this writer. No PRS president/chair has met with us since 2002. The most recent four haven't even talked to us.
Jeff Julin, 2008 chair, was based in Denver and 2007 chair Rhoda Weiss was in L.A., providing somewhat of an excuse. But Cherenson is in Parsippany, N.J. Thus far he is continuing the policy of not meeting with us or talking to us on the telephone. He has sent us a few brief e-mail replies and says he has not cut off our e-mails to him.
Tavis Smiley Would be a Good Addition
TV and radio personality Tavis Smiley, who addressed the 2006 PRS conference in Salt Lake City, screamed at the audience of about 1,500 PR people: "Stop the spinning, stop the spinning … the American people are sick and tired of being spun."
Tavis Smiley |
Our message to the elected leaders of PRS would also be a scream—"Stop the running, stop the hiding. Truth and facts are catching up to you."
Smiley, an African-American who has talk shows on PBS and Public Radio, would be a good addition to the PRS board.
He said people "crave the truth so much they are making sophomoric reality shows like ‘American Idol' the rage because they're honest…either you can sing or you can't."
He heads a sizable staff dedicated to "the support of human rights and related empowerment issues." Its goals are to "Enlighten, encourage and empower" using "informative and inspiring media."
Three Southerners have served on the PRS board as non-voting "senior counsels" — Ray Crockett of Atlanta in 2007 and Dave Rickey of Birmingham and Mary Beth West of Maryville, Tenn., in 2008. How about some people of color?
Board Needs 9-10 New Faces
Putting one or two "token" people of color on the board would not accomplish anything. There should be about nine or ten and none should be members of PRS. Several should be prominent journalists.
The "gene pool" of the board has shrunk to near zero in 35 years of APR inbreeding and needs refreshening. The Hapsburgs, chronic inbreeders, developed impotence, retardation and the "Hapsburg lip," a hideous deformity that blocked chewing.
Hapsburg lip |
The PRS board has developed intellectual and character deformities over the years. Its members have lost the ability to know right from wrong. They block information flow on numerous fronts—Assembly transcripts, lists of delegates, bylaw reforms like Central Michigan's democratic proposal, discussion of the printed directory, etc. They take oaths of silence so they can hide behind a "single spokesperson."
Misleading financials that deserve a thorough public airing are posted every year but leaders refuse to discuss them or answer questions about them. Many directors refuse to read anything that doesn't trumpet the PRS party line. District directors are forbidden to talk to their constituents. Elected CEOs won't give out their speaking schedules. The list is almost endless.
New Directors Might Provide Justice
What are we hoping for from this dust-up? Justice and fairness for us and numerous other authors.
PRS made and sold at least 50,000 copies of our articles and hundreds of thousands of other authors' articles without permission and has refused to pay any of us a dime even in the form of free ads. None of us has much hope of APR directors ever rectifying this or many other abuses but if some major executives of color come on the board we might have some hope.
We believe they would come to our office and examine the boxes of "information packets" that PRS sold at $18 (members) and $55 (non-members) plus $3 for postage/handling. They would see entire 30-40 page chapters of books copied and sold with no thought of asking permission or reimbursing the authors.
PRSAY Blog Off to Slow Start
Another casualty of the PRS board controversy is the much-heralded "PRSAY" blog started Jan. 12 on the PRS website as a "town square" for members and non-members alike. "Issues of mutual concern" were to be discussed.
Michael Cherenson |
This seems to us to be like a church opening a gambling casino. It could do so but its heart would not be in it. Bets might be limited to pennies.
The demand that the board add some people of color was not deemed to be a fit topic for discussion on PRSAY.
Almost all the copy on PRSAY is by Cherenson and COO Bill Murray. There were fewer than 20 postings by anyone else—a meager turnout from the 22,000 regular members and 10,000 student members not to mention the PR industry at large.
We posted a couple of innocuous items as a test but found some others did not get by the "moderator." Another PR person had the same experience. Barred by PRS is any submission that contains "objectionable content" or is "off-topic, irrelevant, or inappropriate for the purposes of this Blog." Falling under this apparently are ridding PRS bylaws of APR; 2008 Assembly transcript; printed members' directory; identity of Assembly delegates, etc.
A real "town square" is Twitter, where we were able to instantly post long articles on the non-integrated PRS board and PR "award mania" (using web links since Twitter only allows 140 characters per post). Those familiar with the service have learned to provide links to complete documents.
Twitter fans tell us everything goes up instantly and can be tagged for a specific audience such as PRS. That's what we do and find lots of PRS members there.
Only in the rarest instances will Twitter take down a post, say users. There is no "moderator" as at PRSAY. "You" (the user) are "solely responsible" for what is put on Twitter, say the rules. Twitter may remove something deemed "defamatory, offensive…" etc. but it has "no obligation" to do so, rules further state.
The U.S. started out with complete freedom of speech, meaning anyone could say anything about anyone without fear of prosecution. The "town square" was available to set things right. The original Americans were fed up with British libel law where the wrong words said about the Crown could lead to hanging, drawing and quartering or being burned at the stake.
The U.S. has gradually reverted back to the U.K. system only instead of physical punishment there is the ruinous lawsuit. Justice Charles Ramos of the New York Supreme Court argued against this slide in an essay carried in full in the July 24, 1995 Wall Street Journal (8/2/95 O'Dwyer NL).