This is not going to be the response that BL was expecting when she wrote PR's Already Tarnished Image Takes a Hit from Hagar the Horrible. There is a time and a place for sleazy PR people to defend sleazy clients.
Suppose the late Saddam Hussein had hired Washington PR powerhouse, Smoke, Mirrors & Hatched, and suppose Smoke Mirrors & Hatched had been able to effectively counter Judith Miller’s bogus reporting for the New York Times. The United States might never have gone to war. We might have been able to concentrate on getting bin Laden.
As this is being written a third aircraft carrier task force is sailing towards Iran. There is a real chance of another war breaking out. Had Iran been able to engage the services of Smoke Mirrors & Hatched the war propaganda might have been exposed. Just because a client and PR firm are sleazy doesn't mean that they don’t have a legitimate point of view.
2 comments:
The ends justify the means, Alice? I don't work that way and I know you don't either -- but the sad truth is that's how it is for too many people.
Where BL -- and stereotypes -- are wrong is that unethical behavior is all around us. Among flacks, journalists, advertisers, politicians, lawyers, BLOGGERS, and on and on.
Since this is the case, the best thing to do is to assess people as individuals rather than to make blanket judgments.
Oh -- and Alice, do you know how much Smoke Mirrors & Hatch pays?
Where BL -- and stereotypes -- are wrong is that unethical behavior is all around us. Among flacks, journalists, advertisers, politicians, lawyers, BLOGGERS, and on and on.
True enough, and there is a place in the political ecosystem for all of it. But no, the ends does not justify the means, the means determines the ends.
Dunno how much Smoke Mirrors & Hatch pays, but their flacks are snappy dressers ;-)
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