The First Amendment; Pat Jackson

The First Amendment and a free people weekly examination of civil liberties in the media in the 1970s produced by WGBH radio Boston cooperation with the Institute for democratic communication at Boston University. The host of the program is the institute's director Dr. boated Ruben. How do public relations professionals handle what they now call Issues Management. How do public relations professionals handle what social scientists call conflict resolution. What are the relationships between the resolve of conflicts and the resolution of issues. I've got two distinguished practitioners of the fine arts of public relations with me today. First Patrick Jackson the president elect of the Public Relations Society of America the coeditor of the public relations reporter which is one of the more respected weekly journals in the

field on the faculty of Boston University as a lecturer and a founder of Jackson Jackson and Wagner. The first public relations interest firm. Also with me is professor of public relations at Boston University whose specialty is corporate public relations. He's the co-author of a number of books including key to the executive head and he's the author of designs for persuasive communication. Gentlemen let me just throw that out to you. Is it a fancy label for something that public relations people have always done this issues management or is it really something that involves resolution social problems that are now facing these giant corporations government and health education and welfare institutions. Suppose I start with Jackson. I think you're probably right when you say that it's something that public relations people have

always done making of course the assumption that they have always been doing what they should be doing. As a matter of fact the term itself bothers me a great deal as it does many others because the implications there are that you can manage a social issue. I would certainly hope that our society is not quite that simple and I think the evidence is that it isn't in fact that term itself really answers your question. Bernie I think because. People are looking to day to solve problems that exist in such large social modes that they're starting to talk about managing. Edward Bernays whom I know you had on the program before I'm sure. Give us a hand in his definition of public relations he talks about the key being accommodation. And so if we are to really practice issues management what we're talking about is making an accommodation between the desires of the organization and the

public desires autoloader. Well I fully agree with the last statement as far as issues management as a term goes. If you view it as putting public relations to work to help solve some of the problems that management faces then I like it because too often public relations is seen as a fifth wheel in an organization that's supposed to handle intangibles things you can't measure. You don't really expect any results from public relations it's a good thing in and of itself. After all that enhances the goodwill of an organization it creates understanding all these things that in the long run and that's one of the favorite expressions NPR will pay off. If you look at issues management as a desire. On the part of executives for any kind of an organization corporate or nonprofit or governmental to make sure that efforts are

going to pay off in some way. Then it's a good term Now that particular some way does I think from the corporate viewpoint and nonprofit viewpoint pertain to the increasing role of government in our affairs. And therefore when we talk about issues most of the time we're really talking about public issues that affect these organizations. Gentlemen we're concerned on this series of programs with freedom. You know all of its forms. Pat you mentioned Edward Elgar NE's He's written a new piece which is rather a rather new interpretation I think. He says that public relations people are mostly interested in words and are. Under the sway of the word smiths I'm not copying his his language exactly but that's more or less the essence when he feels that it involves nothing more nor less than dealing with questions of social responsibility and he feels that the profession must be freed of the wordsmiths How do you feel about

that. Well I couldn't agree more as a matter of fact. Public relations people are starting to realize that we in fact have to master foreign languages just talking about simple communications. We not only have to be able to write and to deal with written language but more and more we have to be able to deal with spoken language. We certainly have to be able to deal with figures. And as you probably know the accounting profession in this country of ours is under some pressure from the Congress to change even the meaning of the way we account for the funds and Oregon is Asians. And then finally the fourth language that we particularly must master in today's society is the language of graphics of symbols. So I would certainly agree with that with Edward entirely on that but I think if you relate that to issues management which I'm sure is what he was trying to do you'll see again my point that we have to think less about the management and more about the issue. I say that because many of the issues that I

disagree slightly with I don't want to miss. It's true that the government gets into the issues. I don't think it would be necessary for the government to get into the issues take the subject of regulation. There is no reason why most of the regulation government ends up doing couldn't be done as a self-regulation by industry by health care whoever it is that's involved. And so if the public relations professionals are doing their job and they're not being wordsmiths but they're getting out there and dealing with the public finding out its desires they then can get their managements to in fact self regulate before it's necessary for the government to come in and force regulation. What are you saying going on that point. I wish I could have more faith in self-discipline in people doing what's not only in the public interest but in their self-interest. Unfortunately I feel that if you look at the calculus of social

costs and social benefits that too many organizations come to the conclusion that if they do the right thing alone then they're going to bear the cost and others are going to have the benefits or at least they're not going to have those particular costs so unfortunately you need an external pressure now sometimes it's a social mechanism if we go back to Adam Smith competition was that invisible hand that somehow converted selfish interests into the public interest. I don't see that happening and let me just play the part of the devil's advocate a role that I'm used to playing on the series of programs and say I never seen a point. I never hope to see what I never seen or never hope to be one. Give me a couple of purple cow so that an issue seems more tangible to me. What is a recent issue that that involves such social complexity that

PR people have got to step in to interpret to to organize to explain. All right I think I can give you a good example there which involves not only the private sector but also the public sector. And that's the issue of health care. Now for years the corporate executives in America saw themselves as the Allies if you will of the medical profession because our medical profession of course has always been for better or worse a free enterprise kind of a moneymaking operation and the corporations for years thought that they shared a natural interest therefore with a physician. Suddenly they woke up I think what woke them up was a story in The Saturday Review a few years ago which showed that the largest single cost to a General Motors Corporation was in fact the cost of health insurance at that time. The executives of GM and of all other companies started looking around saying wait a minute do we really have this interest with the medical profession or is our interest in fact with the hospitals trying to keep costs down with the government's efforts. The public relations people were immediately pushed into the breach.

This in fact stimulated many insurance companies to begin doing some advocacy advertising. I'm sure we've all seen these ads trying to point out that this is an area where we can regulate ourselves. We may need some government push but we can bring those costs down so that here's a purple cow an issue that involves everybody and where people are now starting to really talk for their own share of the interest. And if the system works the doctors are going to speak out on their side no corporations want those premiums down and the hospitals want those costs down because the public can't afford to pay. You see this is a mechanism that's going to work. Yes you're optimistic on this. It's going to work for one reason and that is because if it doesn't work then what we are in fact saying is that our method of running this country doesn't work. And despite all our problems I see no evidence of that and I see a lot of evidence to the contrary that in fact it does work it probably works a lot better now than it did in 79. I get a mental image of a car speeding toward a wall and at the last moment

because of what you said careening in another direction escaping the inevitable result. I would just point out that even though all I wish that path were right and I think we can say that there are occasions when industry has come to the self realization that it's better to get together in a trade association to regulate themselves. I don't think this would happen if there weren't the specter of government regulations so even if government is there as a kind of a fear a monster something to avoid then it's serving a purpose and I hope you're right that the Spirit will grow that business ought to regulate itself. Hospitals ought to worry about cost containment. Now we'll see within this coming year. Are hospitals going to achieve their goal. Or do we need regulation. Let me drug another Purple Cow in from the next field and the Purple Cow is called affirmative

action. I get the feeling that. Representatives representing public relations interests of large organizations private and public have really two choices on affirmative action one they could say to their bosses as they have said for the last four or five years. Look we've got to do something about affirmative action or they can say Look public relations has come to your aid once again we've been observing what's going on and this is the way we can wheedle out of affirmative action. What is the profession going to do is it going to take a social stance or is it was going to take an anti-social stance or whichever one wants to answer for will come and I think that we're not OK. I think we have been taking a social stance certainly as a profession as well. When you talk about as a profession you know you have to you have to talk about an organization that represents a profession because there's no way you're ever going to get everybody in it together and get consensus except through the mechanisms of an organization so if you look at our organization's PRSA For example

we for years have had a and active. Affirmative action type of approach. Our assembly has passed in fact strong statements in favor of affirmative action. We were prepared at our last Assembly meeting to actually write affirmative action for women minorities into our code of ethics. Let me ask you a question then. I happen to have sent correspondence to the national headquarters asking for a new project they were doing at the Institute on minorities in the media in a non directive sense for whatever information there was representing PRSA public relations either America got a one page letter back with one indicative paragraph saying we do a lot in that area and we always stand for affirmative work in that area with no substance behind it at all. Now is that in your view. And any kind of answer or is it something that is representative.

No I think I think that what that answer is this is that while we have indeed made real efforts to do our best in this area I'm like hiring someone to work on an assembly line. People that come into the field have to have the training and the credentials when I was you know from your own classes there on the number of people in our so-called minorities female black brown in public relations training pre-professional training today are the majority so that yes these people come out with the credentials we can then put them to work. You will find PRC and other organizations not wanting to point the finger because you are them doing exactly the opposite of affirmative action you are not bringing people into the mainstream you are instead making them a showcase by saying look at Joey look at Mary which shouldn't have been a response that says this is what happened at our last meeting. Here's copies of the resolutions which have or have not been passed. Yeah these are some of the studies that have come. In other words is is the profession through its organization to read isn't.

I well that could very well be it's indicative of course that the executive vice president of PRSA is in fact a woman. And I think that tells something. Yes I guess they certainly should have sent you the paragraph I guess we'll have to leave that with less than perfect management. But the essence of affirmative action I believe is the right I don't know. I would say that to the extent that PR people often call the alter egos of the people they work for that they are reflecting what's going on in the organizations they represent as a profession. I remember reading a BusinessWeek article stating that more women are entering public relations and corporations than they are accounting departments and various line management departments so I think PR is leading the way also as we know at the school of public communication there are then have been more women graduate students than males.

This is true across the country at Columbia. Yeah. So as we look ahead. Yes delivered University Southern California I'm told it has a 2 to 1 ratio. So OK now in the interest of dispatch I'm not trying to short change anything I'm going to drag another character in here. This this person is representing somebody like Henry Ford. And the issue is all of these complaints about the Pinto car. Now you don't represent Henry Ford. What would be your resolution of that problem where you have government yelling at you you have legal cases and the advertisements say look we put a new shield of some kind of a fiberglass or whatever it is and a new filler on the gas tank. It's the new Pinto. What would you say to that sort of an approach. Well if you're talking about what the public relations persons robe I'm talking about the socially conscious public relations their eyes are first of all we have to assume that these changes that have been made in the automobile have in fact solved the alleged

bribe why would you assume and why not say boss I won't approve that ad until you prove it to me. Of course. But that is that's my point I see. And incidentally this has this has come to be not just a question of ethics this is going to be a matter of law. There are two cases now being. I don't know if they're being tried but they've been filed against public relations professionals who did not ask that question who trusted in their client or employer and did a lot of work to promote a certain product. In this case which proved to be defective and those you mention the product I stand because unfortunately these these these cases have not been as I say they have not come to trial they have only been filed. I know of two such cases one of them involves an aluminum product the other one involves a chemical. I can say that much. OK I know about these not because they are public knowledge but because of my position which is to say the the.

In another way the people who practice financial public relations about 10 years ago in fact had to make a consent decree with the Securities and Exchange Commission that all of us who belong to PRSA and practice in that area have signed a consent decree saying that we are responsible and in fact the government when they sue if they sue a company for violating the FCC regulations. They drag the public relations professional right in as a defense. So I if I were working for Ford It's just simple self-interest. You see I don't want to get self-interest into this and get out of the realm of something you do because it's right well it certainly happened here. I would want to know it was going to work because I might be the guy in front of a judge. I don't know how do you feel about that. We go back to what Eddie Bernice said about words public relations people are becoming much more conscious of the actions of their organizations in support of these words and nowhere else can you find a better example than in consumerism consumer

relations. You can't just collect letters of complaint you can't just read newspaper articles talking about what's wrong with the product you've got to be able to feed this information back to the designers to the production people to make sure that these flaws are corrected that the product is really an improved one so I would want to know what the Pinto product doesn't work and if it doesn't work as Pat has said you better watch for personal liability as I leave laws in your arguments. The fact that you are giving them the average public relations person in the country is not Patrick Jackson or adolescent you're not that aware. I have the feeling that knowledge of the law knowledge of social issues management is very weak as a whole in the profession. Well yes I know you see that is one of the proofs that what I don't mention is happening is that one of the great emphases today is internal communication. It's what we call in reach as opposed to outreach to the public and the old house

organ has given away to a multiplicity of sophisticated media all speaking in word and in many companies in Ford for example it would not be at all unlikely that the editor of some internal publication might be out there asking the very questions I don't wish. Does the new Pinto shield work is it the answer to the problem and writing about this to the employees and management with probably some pros and cons and then getting letters back. I think that this is probably the greatest growth area in the field outside of maybe issues management itself. You know without making a sound like Sunday School I really believe that there's a resurgent in this country in integrity personal integrity organizational integrity because if we're going to remove a lack of public confidence in our institutions I think this is where it has to start talking about credibility you know which is our buzzword in communications.

I think we're going to talk more about excuse me but I agree with you. I certainly agree with you and as a whole but I'm sort of like Will Rogers I only know what I read in the newspapers and I only believe half of that but it's a frightening picture that is being painted there of let's get back to this. This Ford thing up because we're trying to jump on Ford. But the Pinto is the only thing that's standing between Ford and not meeting the MPG requirements of the government if they don't have the Pinto. They're out of business. They've got a problem. They've got a problem. How much pressure can the public relations leave for departure. How much pressure can the average public relations representative take in a giant corporation B before he gives way. Well Bernie you know it's not that the public relations person as you well know is the one who personally applies pressure he acts or she acts as an intermediary. And to the extent that this individual can reflect the pressures from consumers from government from public interest

groups and from I would say the market viewpoint sales viewpoint if this person this PR person can pull all this together and say Look whoever it is in top management who's interesting question these are the forces you're dealing with then we're going right back in a sense to issues management subject you first raised this gets down to to a simple ethic of the profession and that is people have to decide very early whether they are professionals or whether they are company men and women. They're just company men and women and they just say yes or no answer what you want me to do. Flex right. Well they're not even they may not be flagged because that has to do primarily with publicity and they may be in some other field might not want to one area of public relations Erin if all they are is just company might you know out of the company first last and always my company right or wrong that kind of approach. Sure then public relations is going to get a black eye in that company and anybody that deals with it and certainly there will be some of those people because the world has always had them. I think more and

more of what I see however and the Wall Street Journal did an article on this just within the last year is public relations people standing up and realizing that they are professionals and yes there is a risk. When Louis Lambert was president the Bank of America he told a group of public relations people assembled at a conference one time he said if you don't risk your job every day by telling management they're wrong and showing them something else they could do. And I don't want you on my staff because this is this is a tough proposition because I know many professors who don't have tenure don't risk their jobs don't open their mouth from one year to the next. And they've gotten so used to using them to represent their consciences that even when they get some sort of job security they have forgotten it. This is a this is a real burden that is being put on people now with every public clamoring for justice by the U.S. It's a question of as you say freedom freedom.

I like to be able to point to some specific PR people who have given up their jobs you know following what Pat has said. Maybe we can't recite any because talking about loyalties there is still that organizational loyalty although there is a loyalty to society. But if indeed society won out I don't think the typical PR person is going to make a public issue out of it will probably remain quiet and I hope there are some examples that I could give you some examples I won't as I don't agree want to get a person I was but I'd always really hit the nail right on the head there. If you are involved in such a case it would be absolutely unprofessional to go to the public with it as an individual. A lawyer will resign the case but he then doesn't run down to the to the newspaper and say I know so what does he do then. You know that ethic incidentally is changing as you know lawyers are now under pressure and they're being asked if they're being told that if your client is really

breaking the law then you may have to bring this down attention of the law but that's different because lawyers are legally lawyers are considered members of the court and they have that as an absolute legal responsibility. What I'm talking about is that is the difficulty of both having the absolute confidence of your client. Sort of the priest confessor relationship if you will and then going outside of the church and saying Did you know about Suzy. By the way could there be a future Farber case involving a PR man who is sent to jail because he won't divulge his sources. I wouldn't be at all surprised. As a matter of fact I personally am involved in this a great deal with our public interest clients because when these issues really get tough for the government and we've had one for example in Seabrook in New Hampshire we are asked for information that we have which of course we will not give. I would also probably thought Oh well I'd like to go back to issues management once more and just point out the many many developments

that are taking place here and some of the things that business in particular has to watch. There's a lot said about the successes that businesses had in the last Congress. And business is now being warned that they shouldn't become sanguine with all of their victories nor should they push these corporate PACs to a point where there's going to be a resurgence of the old bigness issue of corporate power becoming excessive because what's literally happening in one way this is a desirable movement of corporations saying we have natural constituencies and in our employees and in our shareholders and we're going to get them to contribute to a political action funds we're going to provide in at least half a dozen corporations I know newsletters that inform them of the issues where the company will state their issues. But they've got to be careful they've got to make sure that there

is some kind of unity of interest between the corporation and these groups that they're asking to join them and I've got to be very very sure that all of this doesn't add up to a feeling that corporations have excessive power relative to other I get a feeling that public relations always volatile has been in a quiet and state and somebody just lit a match to it. No I think not I think that joining it up getting people concerned. Well I think that like many professions this is true of almost all the professions. They are role as professionals has banned to be behind the scenes counseling now because of these issues where out in the public. And I think that that's where it will come down centrally issues management is enlightened self-interest. And I don't think that we in public relations are any more deeply into that than everybody except that you represent large organisations in the main and represent power in the most apparent foreman in the

united in the world that I think is changing to now pact represents public interest groups to a great extent. What we're hearing is that public relations people are being hired not only by corporations but they're being hired by the non-profits by government itself and also by the public interest groups. The fastest growing section. So I'm afraid that the discussion has been so good we do have to wrap it up and I want to thank you for a discussion full of integrity and good points. I want to thank Patrick Jackson the incoming president of the Public Relations Society of America and out of the Professor Boston University for this edition Brenda driven. The First Amendment and a free people a weekly examination of civil liberties and the media in the 1970s. The program is produced in cooperation with the Institute for democratic communication at Boston University. I w GBH radio Boston which is solely responsible for its content.

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