CBS Executive Vice President for Communications at CBS News Gil “Stanly Bing” Schwartz put together a rebuttal to Andrew Cohen's piece about PR Flacks.
It is entertaining, but I am not so sure that his claim about secondary lies being less problematic than primary lies rings true. He contends PR people generally never lie except when lied to by their clients.
Sometimes this happens, but I am not sure that it leaves us less responsible for those lies and our dogged defense of them. He makes a point that public relations and journalism are two sides of the same coin, the hacks and the flacks and he makes the point, “If you don't look good, we don't look good, so play nice, huh?”
He also points out the blogosphere as proof that the journalistic process, of which PR types are a part, works, instead of the “schmoozers, monkeys and behind-the-scenes players” of the online world.
Do you think he helps or hurts the case?
