Veep (6/10):
The no problem in PR people associating with journalists, but the ridiculous veil of secrecy over this gathering is absurd. This is an era of mass disclosure -- from blogs and Twitter to vast online document archives. There's no excuse for such a clandestine meeting between two professions that should foster as much sunlight on their operations as is humanly (and technologically) possible.
Ron Levy (6/10):
Isn't it amusing to see a responder complain of non-disclosure but then sign "Veep" instead of disclosing his or her name?
The human body is nothing to be ashamed of (especially once we take off some weight) yet many of us have a right pull down our bedroom blinds at night. Sunlight is good yet we wear swimsuits. Like Seminarians, Page boys and girls have a right to get together--sometimes expressing tentative ideas that may soon change based on what other conferees point out--without later being quoted, misquoted or doted on by jobseekers who use what was said as a hook.
There's no reason to take down the door to the ladies room, nor to swing open the gates to conference hotels if guests want privacy , as you and I. Dante said to "abandon hope, all ye who enter here," but I never heard anyone demand "abandon privacy."
Neither paparazzi, O'Dwyer nor Veep have a right to whatever information they want.
Sussman says he does not approve but who asked for his approval? Sometimes old guys forget that they are not who they were.
Veep (6/11):
Nice comparison of apples and oranges, Ron. I can't post my name here because it's against my agency's policy. But the point I made has nothing to do with privacy. It's about disclosure, something that journalists and ethical PR pros preach to the ends of the earth. These are (apparently) some of the best minds of the two fields -- why would they want to hide their teachings and observations? Why did this website have to practically use a crowbar just to get a list of speakers out of someone? That's not a right to privacy, that's being petty and secretive.
Hiding behind closed doors in a secluded retreat not only looks hipocritical -- it is.
Ron Levy (6/10):
This is as ridiculous as calling too "cozy" the relationship between teachers and parents, architects and engineers, airlines and passengers, plus in some ways husbands and wives (or in same-sex states, since this is an equal opportunity newsletter: husbands and husbands, wives and wives).
Affiliations based on mutual benefit are good for those affiliated and, in the case of journalist-PR affiliation, good for the public. Journalists need information for the public; PR needs to make information more widely known to the public, so it's a nice fit.
Yea, notice that Sussman himself, critic of journalist-source coziness, is himself in a relationship with O'Dwyer as parents who produced the above story.
Some people love to complain. I once did a story in PR Quarterly or PR Journal about "Righteousness Rage." It makes some people happy, and perhaps less troubled about their own shortcomings, to find fault with others. A woman finds fault with her husband's gambling or drinking; he finds fault with his wife's spending or weight, and they live unhappily (yet happily) ever after.
Some people scan the papers eagerly each morning looking for something to complain about. But it's as ridiculous to criticize journalists and PRs meeting and working together as it would be to criticize trade shows where sellers and buyers get together.
Bill Huey, Strategic Communications, Atlanta (6/11):
So, Ron, we're just buyers and sellers now? If that's the case, there should be MUCH more money in it, like on Wall Street. Excluding your swell connections at the congloms of course. They're already rolling in it.
Common Sense Fan (6/14):
Bill Huey complains that congloms "are rolling in" money. Fotunate are the damned so judge whether PR conglomerates make all that money-- bilions a year in billings--because they are (a) damned lucky, (b) damned skilled at marrying into client families, or (c) damned well worth what they are paid. While Carol Cone and others counsel gaining goodwill by giving money away, the congomerates gain goodwill and good earnings by raking it in. Which do you think most PR executives and PR students aspire to--making maximum money or making less and faulting the heavy hitters as Huey does?
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd (6/11):
Ron, please read your own lengthy pieces that appear here often complaining about many things as many of us do in forums like this. Please do no diminish rights of others who have the same access to the First Amendment that you do. When you think about it, aren't you just complaining about others in the same fashion you put down?
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd (6/14):
I have just had a real chance to read Ron Levy's cants and comparisons to diminish the author's quite legitimate criticisms in the article.
Ron, there is no comparison between suppression by media and what happens between the PTA and teachers or architects and engineers, unless the latter are sleeping with each other and projects hang in the balance.
I suggest, Ron, you take a few days and study media exposures by George Seldes that have never been countered with any effectiveness. In much shorter words, this coziness is damaging to millions, period.
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