PRSA Seeks Ethics Sheen from 'Mr. Ethics'

PRSA/New York, in a bid to tie itself and national to "ethics" (although national spent $1,057 on ethics in 2013), features ex-New York Times ethics columnist Randy Cohen in a program Sept. 8 that charges "PR professionals practice deception."

Cohen

A "jury" of the audience is supposed to decide whether this charge is true or not after a debate by six panelists.

Outright lying is rare in PR because regular or social media would call it out. More common are misdirection—distracting media from the main topic—and unavailability of principals and spokespeople.

Cohen is an example of this. There's no way to reach him by phone or e-mail. Chapter president Henry Feintuch says Cohen knows we are trying to reach him but won't give us his e-mail. That decision will be up to him, says Feintuch.

Cohen, who inaugurated "The Ethicist" column in the NYT Sunday magazine in 1999 and lasted until 2011, is now doing commercials for Ally Bank, among other activities.

He gives advice on "financial etiquette" and is identified as "Author, Original NY Times "Ethicist," in commercials.

Feintuch

Cohen told New York Observer reporter Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke Jan. 1, 2013 that he was "fired" by Hugo Lindgren who was editor of the magazine from 2010-13.

Bloomgarden-Smoke wondered if doing commercials for Ally Bank, which displays his former title as ethics columnist for NYT, is ethical.

He responded that, "It's like saying I went to Harvard. Telling the truth is ethical." He has not read the column since he left it.

We Could Talk Cohen Out of This

We could talk Cohen out of this appearance if we were able to reach him. He is being used to put an ethical shine on an organization with a history of unethical practices.

Exhibit A in this "trial" is that reporters are banned from attending it. The event takes place at 6:30 p.m. at SUNY, 116 E. 55th st. No court conducting a jury trial would bar the press. All reporters have been banned from the Society's Assembly for the past three years. The national Society has had a written boycott against the O'Dwyer Co. since 2011.

Reporters will be blocked by "security" who will only allow registered guests, said Feintuch. He quoted the chapter's executive committee as setting this policy and added that press can view the event on a live webcast that will be made available free nationwide.

No reason was given for barring reporters. Other EC members are president-elect Linda Krebs; VPs Scott Berwitz, Diane Thieke and Katie Kirby; secretary Brandi Boatner; treasurer Bill Doescher, and 2013 president Lea-Ann Germinder.

A request for participation on the panel by this reporter was denied by Feintuch who said all panel roles had been "filled."

FTC Ordered Code Revision

We would tell Cohen about decades of law-breaking by the Society which included an "Ethics Code" from 1954-77 that had two anti-competitive articles that were removed on orders from the Federal Trade Commission.

This was followed by 18 years of the illegal copying and sale of thousands of authors' articles from 1978-94 and the Society's blocking 80% of its members from running for national office since the 1970s. It spent a record low of $1,057 on ethics in 2013 (and $10.9 million on other activities). Average ethics spend in the past five years is $2,658.

The Society, meanwhile, has spent $582,264 on legal bills in the past eight years.

Cegielski Declares Boycott

Cegielski

Stephanie Cegielski, VP-PR of national, said yesterday she will not grant any O'Dwyer reporters press credentials for the 2014 conference Oct. 11-14 in Washington, D.C., and that the Society itself (meaning the board) has rejected an application for a $2,700 O'Dwyer booth at the meeting that would display the six O'Dwyer news and informational products. No reasons were given for the two rejections.

What is ethical about that?

The NY chapter, assisted by the late national VP-PR Arthur Yann, blocked press coverage of a "Career Day" April 2, 2013 at New York University. Yann, accompanied by NYU guard, stationed himself at the door of the building to make sure no O'Dwyer staffer entered it.

Coverage of similar student days at two colleges in 2013 was allowed by the Council of PR Firms.

Society Loves/Hates O'Dwyer

Attempts to dissuade chapter and national leaders from their boycotting stances go nowhere even though we noted that from 1978-94 the Society had the highest opinion of O'Dwyer articles, featuring them in its "Information Packet" service that was netting about $60,000 yearly in the 1990s.

National, selling 3,400 packets as of 1992, included tens of thousands of copies of O'Dwyer articles without our permission. In one batch of 14 loan packets, 52 O'Dwyer articles totally 109 pages were found. The service listed 1,000 subjects including 205 "quick-access" topics. Rather than reaching a settlement with Jack O'Dwyer and 12 other authors, the Society launched a "war" against the O'Dwyer Co. Buyers paid $20 for batches of articles from publications with subscription prices in the hundreds of dollars (the O'Dwyer NL was $225 in 1994).

The authors were unable to find a law firm that would pursue the case although one was hired for $6,000 to explore an action. Costs would be in the hundreds of thousands, the authors were told, because PRSA promised a stout defense and the authors could expect to be sued individually.


The ethics program is being conducted by Emmanuel Tchividjian of Ruder Finn, a member of the Ethics Board of the national Society and chief ethics officer of RF.

Panelists are Paul Holmes of the Holmes Report; Randy Cohen, who wrote "The Ethicist" column for the New York Times for 12 years until 2011; Jacqueline Brevard, former chief ethics officer at Merck; Douglas Simon, D S Simon Productions; Michael Schubert, chief innovation officer of RF, and Steve Cody of Peppercomm.