Athur Yann, VP-PR of the PR Society of America, and Kathy Lewton, 2001 Society president, are debating with Jack O’Dwyer press and other policies of PRSA on PR Watch.org.

Yann said that the Society, like companies large and small, can “choose the media with which they will interact.”

He notes that while O’Dwyer reporters were denied access to the 2010 conference in Washington, D.C., unless they paid $3,825, Jack O’Dwyer has never been denied access to the Assembly that precedes the annual conference.

O’Dwyer said that the Society should live up to the promise of “democracy” in its code by supplying names of delegates to the entire membership, supplying their individual voting records, audiocasting the Assembly, and again publishing a transcript of the Assembly.

Lewton said that PR Watch is repeating charges that the O’Dwyer Co. has made about the Society for many years.

She expressed doubt that unethical practices are widespread in PR.