The 1st Job of PR: Telling the Boss Not to Lie

(Warning: this post ends with a Malcolm Tucker quote which may cause offence)

The public relations industry has a poor reputation (ironically) for putting a ‘spin’ on things and being bias towards its clients and employers – not ‘biting the hand that feeds it’ you could say. There are different grades of presenting information (or spinning it) which range from omitting particular parts of the truth through to telling a lie – there are various shades of grey between black and white – and they are judged on how accurately the audience is informed.

Of course being truthful and honest about every event affecting an organisation is a nice notion however the information that it presents will have a direct impact on its reputation and as the CIPR’s Code of Conduct opens by saying: “Reputation has a direct and major impact on the corporate well-being of every organisation, be it a multinational, a charity, a Government Department or a small business” (2010) so suddenly ‘complete honesty’ in the face of a telling a damaging account of events may be ideologically appealing however practically it is less desirable for senior managers.

The role of a public relations / communications professional is therefore to uphold the reputation of the organisation but also to counsel management on maintaining honesty and truth within the messages disseminated – a sometimes unenviable balancing act.

I am clear in my own mind that telling a lie and overtly misleading somebody on behalf of an organisation is unacceptable given the ethical implications but also, and this is perhaps the more useful argument in counselling others, because in today’s society with the modern investigative media and whistleblowers the truth will at some point come out and it will be clear for all to see that the organisation told a lie (and who is to say the organisation will protect the communicator rather than put them in the firing line as a human shield).

Given that the role of PR is to uphold a good reputation for the client / employer, it should be recognised that this is a long-term mission that should not be compromised by short-term actions that make the next few weeks an easy ride. Similarly, good practice of public relations is to control the message and that is much easier to achieve if you are the source of the detail and facts rather than, for instance, the media who might not present the whole picture or a rival organisation that will present it in the most damaging way at the most damaging time as summed up by the fictional No. 10 Director of Communications, Malcolm Tucker, in the TV Series The Thick of It: (Apologies in advance if you are easily offended).

Tucker’s Law “If some cunt can fuck something up, that cunt will pick the worst possible time to fucking fuck it up cause that cunt’s a cunt.” (2007) (See it on You Tube)

The Thick of It, Spinners and Losers. (2007). [TV Broadcast] BBC Four, 3^rd July. 21.00 hrs.

This is part of a series of blog posts on communications ethics in organisational storytelling and organisational narrative for a final year project. Normal HE-geekery service will resume soon.