The First Amendment; 2; Public Relations

WGBH Boston in cooperation with the Institute for Democratic communications at the School of Communications with Boston University now presents the First Amendment and a free people. An examination of civil liberties in the media in the 1970s. And now here is the director of the Institute for democratic communication Dr. Bernard Rubin. What is the future of public relations profession when it comes to defending and Hansing describing informing about the First Amendment of our federal Constitution. In other words what is the responsibility of the public relations profession for doing the social business of society. I have a very distinguished guest today to discuss this question. The first guest is Dr. Kenneth Oliver Smith the president of the Public Relations Society of America. One of the interesting things about Ken Smith is that he's a fourth generation Californian. There are probably three that are alive in the world

that qualify. He graduated with honors in history from Stanford took is a Master of Science in journalism and Ph.D. and administration he's worked on several newspapers been a news bureau manager for Western Airlines. He has been with the Johnson company of Los Angeles in charge of all their public affairs work and so on. Ken Smith has worked in every medium and he's worked well in every medium. He's been honored by his colleagues by being. Promoted to the presidency of PRSA this year. My other guest is Franklin Bart the second vice president of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company. Frank graduated from Harvard with an AB degree in government and economics. He joined John Hancock in 1971 as assistant to the vice president of public relations and advertising. He's a member of the PR Osei. He's accredited as a professional in their organization and has written extensively in the areas

of public relations and public affairs. Gentlemen I I want to ask one question to start with perhaps the tough one. I'll repeat. How much responsibility Dr. Smith does the public relations profession have for seeing to it that the next generation of American Americans live in freedom. I think they have an enormous responsibility. The officially adopted objective of our society for this coming year and hopefully for several years to come would be to establish what we refer to as the professional practice of public relations as an essential function in the information in the decision making processes upon which our democratic system is based. Now that implies a

tremendous in my view a tremendous amount of responsibility to make sure that the American citizen gets the kind of reliable information he needs to make rational decisions. Because if he cannot do that the democratic system is not going to function. We feel very strongly about this in the society. Every member who joins it in there are now in excess of 80 200 of us has to agree to abide by a code which specifically calls for responsibility not only to his organization and his client but to the public interest. In a sense I suppose we are a kind of communications ombudsman. The people who are responsible for finding that that sometimes elusive line in there where private interest and public interest can come together

and. Hopefully to their perhaps not complete satisfaction but to a livable satisfaction in a sense. I think the professional public relations person deals with reality. Short follow up before I turn to Frank with Bart. And that is the profession of public relation is replete with people who are associated with American business and industry. There's nothing by way of a stigma attached to that. This is primarily a fact that I'm dealing with. That's right and therefore the groups that need the most help to gain access to the public media to gain public understanding can hire no one. My follow up question is what interest is there in what you might say is public service. Public relations are so deeply connected to the First Amendment amongst today's professionals.

I think there's an enormously growing interest and as an academician if I may make that claim. I am particularly pleased as as are my colleagues that an increasing number of our students particularly people who have gone through our graduate program are over and over opting to enter the public service field. They're going into the social agencies they're going into the public service fields are going into the legal organizations which represent people who ordinarily would not have that sort of service available to them. There is a very very strong trend particularly among young people to perform this kind of service with the skills they have acquired in their public relations training on the academic field. Frankly Bart I know that you are deeply involved in public service work. I'm not going to list all the things that you do I know a great many of them but amongst them you you help with the Bush rise and you go museum at Harvard you're a member

of the Advisory Group of the National Council for Better Business Bureau's you're a member of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. I also know that you have a profound interest in education. How would you as one of the chief corporate officers of one of the giant American businesses respond to that same question of the interest in freedom of speech advocacy wook press or assembly or petition by the professionals. Well Bernie first let me stress that in my view public relations really evolved out of the First Amendment. And if you stop to consider public relations can be practiced as we understand it in this country. Only in a free society. So our very existence depends upon the First Amendment freedom of speech freedom of press the right to petition Congress. And therefore it follows ipso facto that we have a strong responsibility to preserve and

protect the First Amendment. Now actually what has happened in my view is that in terms of the evolution of our democratic society public relations has offered the opportunity for people to participate more effectively on all sides of the key social issues of our times. For example health care or environmental concerns. Gun control. Another issue locally that I'm interested in is court reform. But there are groups on all sides of these issues that have professional public relations practitioners and directors trying to represent their view. The other media in other ways so really public relations is an essential extension of a complex democratic society. I agree with you but I'd like now to go beyond that to some of their own vacation how do you handle the current controversies over for example

the business involvement in some of the referenda that have come to several states his purse Novembre bottle bills and flat rate electricity and and the like where there was such an enormous outpouring of corporate money and such a sparse amount for the other side is public relations going to grapple soon with this question of access. I know some corporations are afraid to get into the public battle but isn't access one of the issues that really must consume the professional can Smith. I would agree completely with that and I think that the situation is improving. Referring back to your statement of a moment ago it is quite true that possibly 80 percent of the recognized professionals in the public relations field are involved with the corporate structure of one kind or

another. They play a dual role they play a dual role if they adhere to our code of ethics which is a very strong one one which has been in effect for many years has been copied by we are Grettir proud to say by several public media organizations. There obviously is a problem there it becomes in my view and in. The curricula are the particular academic environment I am involved in. It becomes a matter of personal ethics. It becomes a matter of personal morality. You know this puts a tremendous burden on the young people who are going through this educational program. Those who accept that responsibility are right in my judgment are coming out as a I guess the common phrase for it as a new breed of cat.

The old style fly by the seat of your pants kind of public relations practitioner is in my view happily fading out. The person who is now taking his place is educated for his business. He is not only a good communicator which is basically a matter of learning skills. But beyond that he is required at least in the nationally accredited schools in the country. He is required to study the law the history the ethics the morality of what he's doing. How does that kind of a man. Perhaps I'll just sort of go to Frank on this one. How does that kind of a man contrast with say the the flac the the untutored the unsocial the anti-social. I know that people like you to bridle when you see even one of these people in a room of hundreds and

you certainly bridle when you see their work. Are they under control. Frank burning of course the First Amendment not only creates the opportunity for the professional practice of public relations but it also clearly permits the flacks to participate in that process. Although we do through the Public Relations Society of America have a code of ethics and the accreditation program and are constantly trying to recruit more people into the society and to upgrade through professional development and in other ways there still are flacks and I don't really think of any way that occurs to me now that would be acceptable to me to attempt to regulate them because of the importance of permitting people to speak out on issues and to participate in this process. However back to your public service I think it's interesting to note that in the case of the New England chapter we have approximately 260 members and well over half of those members are with nonprofit organizations of one kind or another they're with hospitals or with public interest groups with museums very little

recognition is given to their presence in the modern world is it not. Well actually Bernie I think if you have been in a hospital recently or visit a museum or have read interesting articles about the New England Aquarium is a case in point that you will find that there are very skilled. Public relations professionals behind all those activities I meant though that with with such such emphasis upon the spending of money for public relations by the big spenders and the organization that we're talking about are not notoriously big spenders medivac they usually hand to mouth spenders even the large hospitals or museums. These people aren't credited for being in the profession they are. They are more subdued than they might be perhaps the profession should should step forward and describe to the American public the various types of public relations practitioners that there are by by having people write articles frequently on issues that are before the American public giving points of view that are not necessarily associated with any institution. How

does this strike you. I would agree completely. I think the professional public relations practitioner has an obligation to speak out on these terms. I would have one stipulation I guess on that in that I think we ought to tend to our own last I think we should not get involved in things which are not our business primarily. But there is a declining number of issues which are not our business. Your reference to the fact that there is a low profile of people who are involved in what Frank described as that is basically public service which includes a great many things the museums the hospitals the. Organizations like United Way Red Cross that sort of business. I would agree that this is a case of the shoemaker's children without shoes. We do frankly a rather miserable job of letting people know what we

do of our dedication to telling the story of our clients of our organizations is primary. It is what we are paid to do it is it is our number one obligation to the person that we are working for the organization. I don't think it necessarily has to follow that we have to sit back and be awfully quiet about who's doing it. Frankly I would like to see a great deal more recognition given to the to the really competent professional code abiding ethical morally conscious public relations person. And there are lots and lots of us but I have a have a feeling Ken Smith that the public relations people in the past a great many of them been like say military officers very hard to get military officers to speak because they well I'm in the military. It's very hard to get public relations people to come out on issues because they'll say well I'm with X or Y or Z Corp you know and this is supposed to infer

that they are totally committed. Would they be endangered. I suspect they would if they came out with independent statements because they are public relations professionals which perhaps would be at variance with the position or perhaps even the noninvolvement of the company. No question about it. I have I make the case. In my courses at the University of Southern California that if you find yourself at variance with the position that your management is determined to take that you cannot through a kind of intelligence service a kind of sensitivity to the social issues. Persuade them to do other than what they are doing that you better get out of there. Because I don't I have a very strong personal commitment to this and I've actually done it a few times in my life where I find myself in a position where the management or the organization I was working for insisted on a course of action which I found untenable.

I made it clear that I could not buy that I was not going to sell my soul for something that I didn't believe in. And I am satisfied because I think the evidence is there. The data are present that show that increasing number of people are doing this now. In my view and I think this follows your thinking on this. This is the way you establish a profession. This is the way we are an emerging professional although we are what 60 70 years old now. The first book first real publication on this was produced by a man right here in Boston Dr. Bernays which incidentally was the first book I ever read on public relations and I frequently kidded him about the fact that I thought he formed my old career since then you know forced Bernays came out with his book almost intended. He followed I believe by a year. Walter Lippmann first book on public opinion. Exactly which is I think not an accident you know it was there was an

excitement or electricity in the air at that time. Frank when it comes to some of the issues like how to handle the press there is dispute in the public relations profession as to how to tell the employer to handle the situation for example at the Mobil Corp. I believe the director of public affairs a man named murders and he's he says fight on every issue strike back if you don't agree with the story if you don't like a television program. How much of this pug Naseby is there in the in the modern group of professionals. Bernie before I answer that directly I'd like to say that I don't necessarily agree with you about access to the public media. I think actually the reform groups draw more attention from the mass media. Ralph Nader for example can issue charges that may or may not be well funded. And my observation has been that the mass media will cover that and give it major press attention. A corporation can have a full line of

products which it handles extremely well there's never been any major complaint by consumers and you'll never read a single line of a news story about the performance of that corporation. So your point about access to public media I don't necessarily agree with what the corporations have found is that in order to present their side of the story sense the traditional news media tend to go to the Ralph Nader's and others. The other reform groups that they've had to turn to devices such as institutional advertising and. Course back to media relations per se. Obviously any major corporation that doesn't have a philosophy of openness in dealing with the press can earlier said that in effect we're kind of ombudsman. I have seen media relations people who have over identified with the media. And that isn't really fulfilling their professional responsibility. I have seen media

relations people who of over identified with the corporation or the client that they serve and that doesn't really serve the client either. So that very difficult middle ground where you open up and share information and still just as a lawyer represents his client represent the best interest of the institution that you represent is a very difficult balance to achieve. I don't think we're far apart but I think we are a little bit apart Frank on this crown. I think you're absolutely right Ralph Nader gets all the publicity he wants. So does Common Cause if you will and other large organizations because they know how to do it. In effect they are tremendously professional if they don't have enough money. They are. Ceremonial they are attractive they become media events. But the welfare mothers the kids in the often Ijaz not even know talking about the museums in the hospitals and talking about categories of people have not been able to enlist enough knights in

shining armor to come down the road for them so I don't think we're apart. But I think there are two different levels here of discussion that concern I know they concern you Frank and I know that Ken has been concerned as I am that we have not been able to get proponents for the people who are ignorant of the ways of public relations. Unlike some of the leading stars like Ralph Nader or I'm of the bee please come right up already not too long ago the Boston Globe ran a story about you can't in this area as you may have heard the American Indians are laying claim to large areas of land in New England as they are in the north where one of their specific areas is Mashpee and I read with great interest that the Indians had been so successful with their public relations that the citizens of Mashpee had organized to hire a Public Relations Council. And this I think underlines the point that I was trying to make that increasingly this is the means by which and through which individual citizens groups can participate effectively in the democratic process.

Well 3000 miles away there's an excellent example the Indian tribe in the Northwest hired the most distinguished public relations firm in Seattle to represent them and they have done marvelously well ever since they did it. I do agree though I backed off from that because those I concede are exceptions. There is not sufficient representation of people who for a variety of reasons are not organized well enough or not well enough finance. To acquire the talents of people who can present their case. Now the irony of that is that we we have one of the backbones of the public relations profession as a Supreme Court decision of 1956 which clearly establishes the fact that every citizen in this country has a legal right to be represented by a professionally qualified spokesman just as he has the legal right to be represented by legal counsel.

Unhappily this is not all that well-known. The good side of the coin is the one I referred to earlier. The good side of the coming to me is the fact that increasing number of what I guess you would call the new breed of public relations people are going into these areas. It relates back to a change I think and I think it's an educated guess but I think it's probably a pretty good one. I think there is a very specific very definite change of value systems going on in this country and I think it is reflected probably most clearly with young people. This was the point that was made by William Simon who is now outgoing secretary of the Treasury. He did a piece not long ago in which he said we have to take cognisance that there may not be anything wrong with business standards although there may be some dispute about that. But that values are changing in the society as a

whole and business standards are changing with them and therefore anybody who wants to hold onto the standards of say the 1930s 40s or 50s is holding on to something that is not modern for business or for any other is terribly difficult and is I guess I can I can make at least a partial claim to be a being at least halfway qualified historian. We've been through this before. The very genesis of public relations in this country lay in the in the need for people who are emerging from the industrial revolution in the late 19th century. To justify what they were doing and they they'd rather desperately reached out for people who were good at communication to kind of explain what they were doing. They were not sophisticated in the sense that we now consider public relations people because we have a rather elaborate educational programs for those that

we have nationally accredited schools that are producing or producing people who are qualified in these areas. But the inheritance of those early people who are really firefighters they were really firehouse operators when the blaze burned up. Concerned management yelled for help and he got a very particular kind of guy who knew how to through throw the right bucket of water on the right flame. That's not the way public relations ought to be run. Public relations should be run from the basis of research from knowledge of social trends from being able to know enough about human psychology and into relations to predict what's coming. And you advise management how it has to adapt to the new reality. The public relations then gentlemen is the is the essential social lubricant of society's going to work at all is it not. Bernie that's my contention the more I think about it the more convinced I am that without

public relations or whatever you might call the function that our modern very complex democratic society would not be able to function. It is simply not possible for the average individual citizen today to have that much impact on let's say national international and state issues. Certainly at the local level an individual can have considerable impact. But it's through organized groups utilizing the techniques of public relations that the individual is able to express his views. And therefore to me it's an essential evolution of our democratic process our public relations people getting along well enough with the other professions allied professions like the law like education so that they understand what the objectives and higher goals are. Happily I think the trend is all in that direction. Again I have to refer to the academic environment and by inference the younger people who are getting into this business. We are for example having an increasing

number substantially increasing number of people who will finish an undergraduate degree in Public Relations and go to law school. The end result is an individual who understands many facets of the organizational problems with relating to society. We reached the point yet where if you asked the average public relations people a person to cite the key cases on the First Amendment that bear upon a current major story that the average public relations professional would be able to do that. I have to break you and say our students had better be able to morrow. Frank what do you think. Well certainly the young professional students coming out of the various schools of public relations of course we have one right here at Boston University. Do you have that knowledge they have a knowledge of government economics knowledge of law

as it applies to our field knowledge of the communications techniques and increasingly this is what the corporations and other institutions are hiring as the professionals originally in this field most of the people came in via newspapers before the advent of radio and television as a big influence in our society. But increasingly My observation has been and certainly it's true of the John Hancock. We're interested in hiring the total professional that is familiar with these issues and can help to bring that outside environment in and help to counsel management and how it has to adjust its objectives and policies to meet with trends of society. Really I'd like to support him because I think there's a tremendously interesting thing going on it has been going on for some years without too much recognition. There used to be major emphasis on communication skills for the preparation of people in public relations in the academic scene. The major emphasis now is on

social consciousness and knowledge of economics political science history literature. We are looking for the person who and we see no dichotomy here we're looking for the person who has the good broad liberal arts education and we can provide the professional skills on top of that. Well I want to say gentlemen as I wrap up that there's only one thing wrong with this discussion and that is I'm holding it with the enlightened man and the leaders of the profession. And all I can say is that if you are not representative as none of us is representative of all of humanity at least those who are taking a different course have heard the word from leaders of the profession. You know it's up to them to make sure that their deeds are compatible with the words. And I want to thank you for those words. Kenneth Smith the president of the Public Relations Society of America. And Mr. Franklin Bart the public affairs activities of the John Hancock corporation.

This is Bernard Rubin saying good night. For WGBH radio in cooperation with the Institute for democratic allocations of the School of Communications at Boston University has presented the First Amendment and a free people and examination of civil liberties and the media. In the 1970s. This program was produced in the studios of WGBH Boston.