Bill Huey, Strategic Communications (11/30):
Thanks for the reminders, Wes. How about PR is not lobbying?
What was Newt Gingrich doing for his $200K-a-pop clients at the Center for Health Transformation, as described in today's NY Times?
Newt insists it was not lobbying.
What was it?
Wes Pedersen (11/30):
Bill,what Gingrich was doing was selling himself, which usually is considered prostitution. But lobbying is a lucrative form of public relations. It's the PR/legislative function that keeps corporate public affairs going and lures into its folds more hungry PR people every election period. It is what all those refugees from Congress and the regulatory agencies do for the big outfits like APCO. Public affairs, by the way, is a corporate escape from reality. It is, at its core, public relations. Public affairs is what government communicators do without admitting they engage in public relations. A law passed early in the last century is interpreted by bureaucrats as banning all forms of PR relations. It's a law that should have been killed long ago.
Newt probably thinks public affairs is term that could cover his nefarious activities.
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd (11/30):
As usual, Wes performs an important service simply by making the message clear from the start...though some egos will no doubt be sensitive to this presentation, that is out of the Andy Rooney mold that always was intolerant of crap.
Bill Huey, Strategic Communications (12/01):
Update: I happened to catch Newt telling Hannity last night that he doesn't lobby, that all he does is say, "Here are my ideas, and here's what I believe in," and people of like mind flock to pay him $200K a year and $60K per speech. What an intellectually dishonest sleaze!
Kathy Lewton (12/6):
Agree that helping address problems is part of PR . . . . but that always felt like the ambulance-at-bottom-of-cliff approach.
Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I like to think that we also do some of our best work to avoid the cliff all together, with proactive PR that builds trust, credibility and relationships with all stakeholder audiences . . . . so problems are prevented or headed off before we hit the cliff's edge.
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