Over the past week, the PR profession has been called into question based on some dubious examples of obfuscation and spin.
While Scott McClellan's new book has caused most of the firestorm, there also was a ruling that appointees in the public affairs office of NASA knowingly distorted communication about climate change findings.
It seems that as communicators, both online and off, that we have fantastic models of best practices in ethics. But the examples of unethical practices continue to build. If you want to see the good, the bad and the ugly, I have started to collect some examples of this on my Ethics tag in delicious.
It seems to me that there is a spectrum of potentially unethical behavior. Some of the tactics that fall into these categories are blatantly obvious, while others may fall into shades of gray.
As I prepare for my unconference session at Blog Potomac next week, I am looking for the burning questions that will get the group of about 150 communicators to think about ethical behavior and what it means to them.
What burning questions do you think that I should ask? I have my ideas, but I want to hear yours.
For more references about ethical behavior for communicators, reference the Codes of Ethics of The Public Relations Society of America the International Association of Business Communicators, and the Word of Mouth Association.
