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Ethical problems

damage the organization, the individual and the industry

Mill definitions of ethics

Seeking the greatest happiness for the greatest number

Aristotle definitions of ethics

the golden mean of moral virtue between two extreme points of view

CREATIVE PROPERTY PROTECTIONS Creative property—works, trademarks, and inventions—is protected by federal laws that grant the owner exclusive rights to decide who can use the property and how it can be used.

Public relations practitioners have an obligation to protect their clients' creative property rights and to respect the rights of others.

WORKING WITH LAWYERS Before the days of 24-hour cable news, Court TV, and the Internet, legal and public relations professionals rarely joined forces.

Today, law ﬁrms rely more regularly on public relations agencies, and most large agencies have set up litigation public relations practices. Some large law ﬁrms have even entered into joint relations with public relations ﬁrms to offer clients legal and PR services.

Historically

Emerson: The corporation is the lengthened shadow of the man. McLuhan: "All of man's inventions are extensions of himself."

Other Ethics Codes

-Personal Codes: standards we set for ourselves - Company or Organizational Codes: standards we set for our company -Societal Codes: standards that govern a societal grouping (people choose to join) - International Codes: designed to help organizations in different countries do business with each other ethically.

Ethics in Public Relations

"you do not control the outcome of your expectations, only the intentions" - Bahavaghad Gita

Safety is proven

- October 10, 2001: EU studies show "..genetically modified foodstuffs may, in fact, be more healthy for human consumption" -October 17, 2001: US EPA-GM plants hold *no danger* for the environment. - potato chip manufacturers decide to capitalize on public fears and begin "no GMOs" ad campaigns.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual's right to free speech, regardless of what the government thinks about what is said. However, there are some limits on speech, which are determined by the U.S. Supreme Court and vary depending on the times and the attitude of the court. The following section will examine the ways the courts have deﬁned corporate communication and the regulations they have placed on them. CORPORATE SPEECH & COMMERCIAL SPEECH >>

****Corporate Speech**** Speech that presents a corporation's views on social or political matters is referred to as corporate speech. - Public relations practitioners may engage in this kind of speech when they release papers, pamphlets, brochures, or advertisements that present the corporation's position on a public issue. - Corporate speech is generally protected by the First Amendment. - The ﬁrst case to address corporate speech was the First National Bank of Boston v. the State of Massachusetts, decided in 1978. * The bank wanted to mount a campaign against the state's graduated income tax proposal. * A state court ruled that the bank could not use a public relations campaign to tell its customers about its position because corporations do not have First Amendment rights. * The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, saying that whether or not speech is protected depends on the content of the speech, not the speaker. * The Supreme Court upheld this position in Consolidated Edison v. Public Service Commission, allowing the utility company to insert a pamphlet in its bills to customers, explaining the beneﬁts of nuclear power. In both cases, the court said the public was served by knowing the corporation's views on an important issue. ****Commercial Speech**** Commercial speech is communication that is motivated by a desire for proﬁt. - Most communication regarding a company's business, including advertisements, reports, and public relations brochures and pamphlets, is considered commercial speech and, unlike corporate speech, is subject to government regulation.

Licensing

- Permission must be granted by the state/government to work in the profession. -Ensures practitioners are qualified and mandates ethical behavior. - In the U.S - constitutional issues.

Professional Ethics codes

- Self policing to protect the profession - Govern all working in a given industry - Penalties for not abiding - PR does not have one! (PRSA's member code of ethics)

Ethics in Public Relations

- You are the keeper of the company ethics. *Remain honest * trustworthy * Do the right thing- even if no one will know * Refuse to take advantage of your position over another * don't lose sight of the greater good WHAT KIND OF SHADOW WILL YOU CAST.

A real ethical question

- 2002 : extreme famine in Zambia. - Zambian government *refuses* to distribute 17,000 tons of corn from the U.S. because it was genetically modified - Deaths exceed 2.4 million. THERE ARE ALWAYS UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

most ethical professions in the 90's

- Clergy - Teachers - Engineers **Accountants (ethical scandals dropped them from #4 to #9 so not in the top anymore)

THREE DECISION MAKING TOOLS (look at graph page 153 if asked to compare) 3. *** NAVRAN/PLUS ***

- Creator of tool: Decision-making tool developed by Frank Navran, who runs the ethics management consultancy, Navran Associates, and was a consultant to the Ethics Resource Center in Washington, DC - Analyzing the problem: Deﬁne the problem - Gathering all possible solutions: Identify available solutions - Evaluating possible solutions in light of ethical principles Evaluate the alternatives; ask yourself if the option is consisent with the organization's policies and values, if it is legal, and if it satisﬁes your sense of what is right, good, and fair - Making a decision: Make your decision - Implementing the decision: Take action - Evaluating your success: Evaluate your decision

THREE DECISION MAKING TOOLS (look at graph page 153 if asked to compare) 1. ***POTTER BOX***

- Creator of tool: Four-dimensional model for moral analysis, proposed by Ralph Potter of the Harvard Divinity School. - Analyzing the problem: Describe the problem, delineating all the facts. -Gathering all possible solutions: Deﬁne all the values relevant to the situation; they may be positive, negative, or both - Evaluating possible solutions in light of ethical principles • Examine the ethical principles— laws, industry codes, and personal codes— that apply to the situation • Determine which individuals, groups, organizations, principles, and laws demand your loyalty -Making a decision: Look at each plan, then decide how to move forward, choosing the plan that best reﬂects your values, principles, and loyalties -Implementing the decision: Take action Evaluating your success: Analyze what happened as a result of your decision

THREE DECISION MAKING TOOLS (look at graph page 153 if asked to compare) 2. *** SIMS APPROACH***

- Creator of tool: Practical approach to problem solving, suggested by Ronald Sims, professor of business at the College of William and Mary. - Analyzing the problem: Recognize and clarify the dilemma - Gathering all possible solutions: List all your options - Evaluating possible solutions in light of ethical principles Test each option by asking yourself if it is legal, right, and beneﬁcial. - Making a decision: Make your decision, then double-check it, asking yourself what would happen if your family found out or if it were printed in the local paper - Implementing the decision: Take action. - Evaluating your success: Review your decision

Dog and Cat Food Recall The biggest pet food recall in U.S. history took place in March 2009 and spread worldwide as hundreds, possibly thousands, of cats and dogs fell ill with kidney failure and many others died. The pets ate food products contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical used to make products such as plastics, cleaning products, glues, inks, and fertilizers and cyanuric acid, used to chlorinate swimming pools. In 2009 two Chinese nationals and the businesses they operate, along with a U.S. company and its president, were indicted in federal court for their role in intentionally manufacturing and distributing melamine-tainted wheat gluten that was used to make dog and cat food. Many major food manufacturing companies in the United States, Canada, and Europe recalled products. One of the largest, MenuFoods, recalled 60 million containers of its pet food during the crisis and settled lawsuits with pet owners in 2008.

1. Aside from being illegal, the actions of the importers were unethical. Explain why? They intentionally distributed the food after being aware of its harmful and potentially deadly effect on the animals it was created for. 2. Spokespeople for MenuFoods, Del Monte, and other U.S. manufacturers were straightforward in their interactions with the news media. What were their ethical obligations in keeping the media and consumers informed? What might have made the ethical concerns even more difﬁcult? They were ethically responsible to provide truthful information to those who had been negatively impacted by their decision, as well as in order to warn customers of the potential dangers the food may have should they have one of the recallable food bags in their possession.

Criteria of a profession

1. requires a specialized educational program 2. theory-based knowledge developed through research 3. Codes of ethics established and enforced by an association of colleagues. 4. Acceptance of personal responsibility 5. recognition by the community of a unique and essential service.

Guidelines for Making Ethical Choices One guideline that can help you to do right is to recall the advice of Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet, "To your own self be true." Ask yourself, "What are my personal values — the principles in which I believe strongly and which I can never violate?" The answer will put you in a position to make wise decisions about your professional conduct and will help mitigate some of the "bad press" that the profession receives.

Another set of guidelines for principled decision making comes from Michael Josephson, founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics and a consultant to many large companies. He advocates making judgments based on six values, which he calls the Six Pillars of Character: • Trustworthiness • Respect • Responsibility • Fairness • Caring/good citizenship • Responsible participation in society

REGULATING SPEECH

As a public relations practitioner, you need to be aware of the various federal and state regulations and agencies that can affect your organization and your clients. If you fail to comply with applicable laws and regulations, you and your client may be liable.

Product Liability Manufacturers and sellers of goods are liable for damages caused by defective products. Most states now have some version of strict liability laws, which impose liability without regard to fault.

As a public relations practitioner, you would be wise to ask for product certiﬁcation before writing news releases or other copy advancing a product. If you should represent a company that has been found to have sold defective goods, you have an ethical responsibility to inform the public honestly. (For detailed information on ethical responsibility, see Chapter 7.)

Staying within Legal Bounds: AVOIDING HARM

As a public relations professional, you must be careful not to harm others through words or actions. You have a responsibility for maintaining your own and the organization's reputation and credibility, and your communication can have impact on consumers and investors.

ORIENTING YOURSELF FOR ETHICAL DECISION MAKING "'The truth is rarely pure, and never simple,' wrote Oscar Wilde. He should have worked in public relations." This statement by a professor of public relations shows how difﬁcult making the "right" decision can sometimes be. Understanding the ways we instinctively approach making judgments may help you understand where you or your colleagues are coming from as you sort out thorny situations. Generally speaking, there are three 3 fundamentally different approaches towards judging moral behavior: absolutist, relativist, and situationalist. ABSOLUTIST, actions are either right or wrong. A person whose thinking is oriented this way tends to see things as black or white, rarely as gray. Consider, again, Hill & Knowlton's anti-abortion campaign on behalf of the Catholic bishops. Pro-choice (prochoice) employees of the ﬁrm whose approach to problems was absolutist would more than likely have left the ﬁrm, judging the campaign to be morally wrong. RELATIVISTS, on the other hand, believe that values are not absolute, but are molded by a person's culture and background. To the relativist, different groups could hold different values. Relativists at Hill & Knowlton who were not pro-lifers would probably have stayed at the ﬁrm but declined to participate in the campaign. They would have respected the bishops' right to their point of view, but insisted on having their own values acknowledged. SITUATIONALIST will make decisions on a case-by-case basis, choosing the courses of action that he or see thinks will cause the least harm or do the most good. At Hill & Knowlton, situational ethicists who opposed the bishops would have had to weigh the harm they would do by staying at the ﬁrm and, at least nominally, endorsing the campaign or leaving and putting themselves out of work and the ﬁrm short an employee.

EXPLORING FRONT GROUPS Your PR ﬁrm represents a national industry association of cement and asphalt contractors. The association board asks you to create a group called Citizens for Active Road Expansion that will advocate for the growth of roads and highways throughout the country. You are asked to create a business card that identiﬁes you as the group's executive director but you have no group members or staff. In essence your group is not real. You are to create and implement a media relations campaign that gets the group and its stance on highway and road expansion attention in the news media. A reporter asks you about the group. 1. Begin by identifying and clarifying the dilemma. There is no group, therefore no one is advocating for the expansion of roads and highways throughout the company and I would be lying on the behalf of people who do not exist. 2. Now, use the tools described in this chapter to solve the ethical problem presented in this hypothetical case. I would say that the group is in its early stages and that we have not yet begun accepting new members. This leaves the possibility of adding people to the group, as well as giving the media and the public factual information so they do not think they are being lied to. 3. What choices do you have in responding to the reporter? you can lie or tell the truth. 4. What ethical principles are involved? Laws, personal ethical codes, and industry codes. 5. What decision would you make? Why? I would have never agreed to be the head of a fake group. In this situation where I have accepted it, I would tell the public the truth. I would say that the group is in its early stages and that we have not yet begun accepting new members. This leaves the possibility of adding people to the group, as well as giving the media and the public factual information so that they are not being lied to about the groups success.

A Test: What Would You Do? Suppose you worked for a large, urban developer who is planning a multi-family housing project on a former landﬁll site. You discover in environmental agency reports that low levels of contaminants are present at the site. You recommend that the developer make the contamination report public but are told there will be no public communication about the issue. 1. Using Fitzgerald's list of duties, decide what the proper decision for you would be. - Refuse the offer 2. What would be the proper decision using the TARES Test? - Refuse the offer 3. Are they the same? Explain your response. slightly different but same values.

European Women for HPV Testing In 2004, a group called The European Women for HPV Testing launched a campaign in the United Kingdom for national screening for the human papillomavirus (HPV), a leading cause of cervical cancer. Digene, an international biotechnology giant, had developed a test to screen for HPV. If approved by the British National Health Service (HNS), the test could save the lives of thousands of women 30 and older who were most at risk for the disease. High-proﬁle women celebrities were recruited to be group spokespersons and to lobby for the test's approval. The European Women for HPV Testing group appeared legitimate; it had its own letterhead, sent out its own press releases, and even got mentioned in the British Medical Journal. The problem was, the group did not actually exist. As noted in the Guardian Observer, a London newspaper, the "group" was a front organization created by Burson-Marsteller, the global PR ﬁrm, and funded by Digene. 1. Clearly deﬁne the ethical issue here. Is it proper to omit or to fail to fully disclose sponsorship? On what principles do you base your answer? no it is not, it is giving faulty information and by using Fitzgerald's list of duties, one can see that it violates the ethicality principles and leaves the business and PR practitioners responsible for any and all negative consequences. 2. What audiences might be affected by this decision? Women seeking to utilize the campaign, the PR world because it loses creditability, the business itself, and other campaigns and businesses similar to it. 3. If Digene were your client, what questions would you ask yourself and what standards would guide your decision? I would ask myself if I felt morally correct in representing them, if I could live with myself for doing so, and if the client would respect the ethical processes I find necessary in order to maintain my positive reputation as a professional.

Guidelines for Making Ethical Choices examples summaries

If we look again at Odwalla's response to its tainted juice crisis, we see that the actions of the company's leaders encompassed these values. They took responsibility for their product, acted fairly and respectfully toward consumers and the general public, behaved as a trustworthy member of the industry, and were generally good citizens. The leaders of the Peanut Corporation of America during the peanut butter contamination crisis and Enron during its collapse, on the other hand, did not act in accord with these values. As a result the companies, their consumers' health, employees, and investors were damaged. A good summary of ethical guidelines can be found in self-tests offered by public relations scholars Kathy Fitzpatrick, and Sherry Baker and David Martinson. Each of them provides a framework for asking yourself how your decision will affect yourself, others, and society at large before you take any action.

WHAT IS ETHICS? "Character— the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life— is the source from which self-respect springs." (Japanese Proverb) In 1964, in writing his opinion on a landmark obscenity case, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart tried to explain "hard-core" pornography by saying, "I shall not today attempt further to deﬁne the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . but I know it when I see it. . . ." This quote became a famous summary of the difﬁculty in trying to deﬁne what is obscene. Ironically, we can also apply the quote to the difﬁculty in trying to deﬁne what is ethical.

Just as we all intuitively recognize obscenity, we all also understand which actions are ethical, namely those that are truthful, just, and executed with integrity. Deﬁning ethics, on the other hand, is more difﬁcult. Often, it is easier to sense what is ethical than to deﬁne it. One broad deﬁnition of ethics is doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. Ethical decisions are not always that black and white. What about all the gray areas, the places where it is hard to know what is right, when it is right, and for whom?

Company Codes: Today, many corporations establish company codes of conduct, which their employees must pledge to follow. EX) Let's look at Texas Instruments, for example. The technology company established a formal ethics code in the 1960s, several years after it said its employees had "placed their personal imprint on the ethics of the company. They chose to conduct themselves to the highest standards of personal integrity, and they demanded the same of others." Today, Texas Instruments has a director-level Ofﬁce of Ethics. (written by companies and various professional associations.)

Many other companies, both in the United States and throughout the rest of the world, have institutionalized codes. You can read many of these on company websites.

LITIGATION PUBLIC RELATIONS Litigation public relations has two 2 meanings in the ﬁeld. 1. One refers to the practice of public relations in a crisis when an organization becomes a party in a legal procedure and is faced with court proceedings. 2. The other is used to describe the practice by lawyers or their public relations representatives of using the media relations to advance their clients' cases and to promote their own reputations and services.

One of the ﬁrst high-proﬁle cases to feature public relations experts was the $120 million libel lawsuit brought by retired Gen. William G. Westmoreland, the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, against CBS. In 1982, CBS correspondent Mike Wallace reported that Westmoreland had misrepresented enemy troop strength during the Vietnam War and had helped mislead the public. CBS hired public relations expert John Scanlon to help handle the case in the court of public opinion. One of the best-known defense lawyers to use litigation public relations was Robert Shapiro, who acted as both lawyer and publicist for his client, O.J. Simpson, during his murder trial. In 1993, Shapiro wrote an article, "Using the Media to Your Own Advantage," in which he argued that defense attorneys need to manipulate the news media to counter what he saw as the natural advantage of prosecutors. Prosecutors have also used litigation public relations to try their cases in the media as well as the court. But this practice can jeopardize the defendant's Sixth Amendment rights, which protect one's right to a fair trial.

Professional Codes: Most professions have a set of codes, which reﬂect the practices and customs of the discipline and provide a set of standards of behavior for members. Professions that require licenses, such as the medical and legal professions, have legally binding codes to which practitioners must adhere. In other fields (public relations among them) professional organizations have adapted codes of ethics. These codes serve as guidelines but contain no procedures for punishing those who violate them. In the United States, no state laws or regulations enforce standards of behavior for public relations practitioners. Therefore, to have an ethical practice, you must look to your own integrity; you must have the backbone to do what is right. Many public relations organizations have written professional codes, which may be useful to you in your practice.

Presented below in Table 7.3 is a summary of the code of ethics for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the largest professional organization for public relations practitioners in the United States. (Page 157, also written on separate card) Codes for the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), the International Public Relations Association, and the principles of PR management practiced by Arthur W. Page, the ﬁrst corporate vice president for public relations are in Appendix A. Codes for professional organizations in related ﬁelds, the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), the Radio-Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), and Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), can be found online.

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (SEC) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was established after the stock market crash of 1929, which triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s. The SEC is tasked with protecting the ﬁnancial interests of investors in publicly held companies— those whose stock is publicly owned and traded—by overseeing the companies' ﬁnancial activities and by monitoring ﬁnancial markets. To this end, the SEC requires that companies disclose relevant information about their business activities fully and in a timely manner. The best known of the reports required by the SEC is the annual 10-K report, which provides speciﬁc information about a company's ﬁnancial state and direction. The 10-K forms the basis of the company's annual report, which must be distributed to shareholders no less than 15 days before the company's annual meeting. According to SEC regulation, annual reports must include audited ﬁnancial statements; additional ﬁnancial data, such as net sales and gross proﬁts; a description of the company's business; names of directors and ofﬁcers; an analysis of the company's ﬁnancial condition; and a description of any lawsuits in which the company or its directors are involved. Companies often use the annual 10-k report as a vehicle for promoting the company. In addition to the 10-K report, companies are required to ﬁle ﬁnancial statements quarterly and to announce important developments or events that are likely to affect stock prices promptly. In addition, they must issue timely news releases to the major media outlets, notifying the public before they release reports.

Public relations practitioners need to be aware of SEC reporting regulations because they are often involved in writing the required reports and press releases. Also, the courts and the SEC hold practitioners accountable for the accuracy of the information in reports. All disclosures must be full and truthful, must not mislead investors, and must not cover up bad news. As with publicity, careful public relations practitioners should verify all facts before releasing reports and press notices. Because public relations practitioners have access to sensitive ﬁnancial information, they must be careful to avoid insider trading, long forbidden by the SEC. Insiders are those who have information that is not available to the general public; a company's directors, ofﬁcers, employees, and agents—such as accountants, lawyers, consultants, and public relations professionals—are all considered insiders. - They are prohibited from trading stock based on privileged information they have before the information is known by the general public. -This regulation prevents insiders from having an unfair advantage. - They are also prohibited from "tipping off" others about the nonpublic information. EX insider trading) One famous insider trading case involving a public relations practitioner was the Anthony Franco case. Franco was a public relations consultant and president-elect of the Public Relations Society of America at the time of the incident. - He prepared a news release announcing the intention of his client, Crowley, Milner and Company, to buy another company, then bought shares in Crowley. - The SEC argued that Franco bought the shares hoping to make a proﬁt when Crowley's stock prices rose after the announcement. - As a result, Franco signed a statement promising to abide by SEC laws in the future and stepped down as president of the PRSA.

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION (FTC) The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was established in 1914 to protect businesses from one another. Up to this time, advertising was largely unregulated, and some public ofﬁcials began to fear that unscrupulous businesses were stealing customers from their competitors. Later, the commission began to focus on protecting consumers from unfair or deceptive advertising.

Today, FTC regulations and surveillance apply to publicity releases, as well. Both the client describing the product or service and the public relations department or agency that writes and distributes the publicity are legally liable if the assertions are false or misleading. Publicists will also be judged liable if the courts decide that they reasonably should have known the deceptive nature of the publicity. Careful practitioners, then, should verify the claims made about a product or service before publicizing them.

Kant definitions of ethics

that maxim which the people will to become

the lesson

the actions of a few can impact the entire industry

Social Responsibility

We're judged by our impact on society. PR's Impact is positive when: - promotes the free exchange of ideas - is honest about sources and motives -enforces high standards

A working definition

doing the right thing as your background, conscience, experience, and society define it.

Avoiding Questionable Practices A sure-ﬁre way to get into trouble in your PR practice is to be overzealous and bend the rules. Practitioners have lost their jobs and their credibility by breaking these simple, basic rules: 1. Never make assumptions about dealing with the news media: Learn how the news media works and familiarize yourself with the journalist's code of ethics; think of the news media as another audience. 2. Never indulge in puffery: Do not exaggerate the truth or omit negatives— an example would be writing a news release that contains only half-truths about a product— in order to promote your client or company; "puff pieces" undermine credibility and can mislead those considering buying or using a product or service, voting for or against an issue, or changing a behavior. 3. Never invent and attribute quotes: Make sure any quote you write is approved by the spokesperson to whom it is attributed and that it accurately reﬂects the institution's position and the spokesperson's views.

4. Never leave an error uncorrected: Letting mistakes stay on the record is highly unethical. If you make a mistake, issue a correction quickly by emailing, faxing, and calling all the journalists who received the erroneous information. If the mistake has already been printed or broadcast, you may ﬁnd an unﬂattering story with the correction. Correcting the error yourself, however, is always better than having the reporter investigate the misinformation. 5. Avoid disinformation: Deliberately releasing information you know is false — lying— is unethical and can lead to dismissal by the client or organization, exclusion by peers and colleagues, and lawsuits. 6. Never agree to be a funded "front group" or virtual organization: Acting under the guise of a public interest, grassroots, or expert group to lobby the government and promote corporate interest is unethical. These so-called front groups carry out campaigns with the support of the corporations that fund them. They are organized to accomplish a speciﬁc goal and often disbanded when the mission is accomplished.

Communicators Can Shine as the "Conscience" of a Company: Lisa Davis consultant, is former communications director for AARP. She wrote this point of view for PRWeek. The former CEO of a company that had a very public ﬂameout participated in an off-the-record discussion. Asked about the performance of his communication team during the crisis, he— not surprisingly— wasn't kind. What was surprising was his view of the central communications problem he experienced. He felt his PR counsel should have acted as the company's "conscience." It's a deﬁnite red ﬂag when a CEO needs others to be the conscience of an organization. But there is a truth for PR leaders to absorb. Top communicators should be a conscience by speaking up when good management proposes bad ideas and by resisting the pressure to simply promote the company line. Being the conscience of an organization means taking positions with senior management that underscore the company's positive values even if the tide is swiftly moving in the other direction. It's not fun, but it's smart. A top executive for a major investment ﬁrm commented that what he wanted most from PR counsel was to provide big ideas just like any other senior executive, and to inform senior management of how potential decisions will be perceived.

Rather than being a career-ending mistake, speaking up can be a career-advancing move. Most executives never intend to violate company values. Business goals and external events can create a "rock and a hard place" scenario, pitting company values against business realities. Communicators are aware of how the media, third-party players, and staff view the company. Share this insight. Detail how actions will be interpreted as either supporting or breaching company morals. Then show the link between reputation and meeting long-term goals. Don't forget the value of diplomacy and offering options when speaking up. Sometimes a better way to tell the emperor that he has no clothes is to ask if he's feeling a draft and then offer him a coat. Vada Manager, director of global issues management for Nike, has a good rule when decisions are made that conﬂict with company values: "Don't defend in public what you don't help deﬁne." Personal credibility is as important as organizational integrity. Rather than taking a hardline approach, establishing this principle early on helps ensure involvement at the appropriate time. The argument to senior management is simple. Having input makes it easier to credibly interpret the decision for others and increases the likelihood of successful delivery. Torie Clark, former assistant secretary of defense for public affairs under Donald Rumsfeld, provides the best advice, especially to CEOs and other executives who propose reputation-busting activities. She writes in her new book, Lipstick on a Pig, "Once you ﬁgure out you can't put lipstick on a pig, what you've really learned is far more powerful: you've learned not to produce a pig in the ﬁrst place." SOURCE: Lisa Davis, PRWeek, April 24, 2006

On the Level: Working with Journalists Cultivating strong working relationships with reporters is crucial to good news media relations. There are several things you can do as students of public relations to prepare yourselves for working with the media. - First, learn how journalists work. If possible, take a course in basic journalism or interview a professor with extensive experience as a reporter to learn about news-gathering techniques. - Second, familiarize yourself with the professional codes of ethics for journalists. The American Society of Newspaper Editors has published the codes for regional and national newspaper editors and publishers and for news wire services, such as the Associated Press. (They are available on the society's website.) The codes offer journalists guidelines for working with public relations practitioners, which will provide you with insight into a reporter's ethical concerns when working with media relations professionals. - As a public relations practitioner, you will want to treat reporters with respect. Always provide them with accurate information, and avoid practices that could compromise the journalist. You should not make an offer to a journalist that would make him or her obligated to you. - Be wary of giving reporters gifts; most will only accept gifts of nominal value. Many large news organizations prohibit reporters from accepting free travel and will not accept stories from freelancers who have been hired by the companies that own the resorts, accommodations, and transportation that are the subject of the stories. - Never hire a journalist without full disclosure to the journalist's employer. And never offer a loan, investment, or advertising to a news organization to obtain preferential treatment.

"The World Breathes Easier": A Quote That Was Never Spoken In November 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev met in Geneva for the first of their five summits. At the time, the Soviet Union was undergoing reconstruction, or "perestroika" as it was called in Russian. The Soviet government's hold over its member republics and its satellite nations in Eastern Europe was weakening, The Cold War in which the United States and the Soviet Union had been engaged for the past 40 years was beginning to get a bit less chilly, and both countries were interested in putting a positive spin on the summit. Following the first meeting, Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes told reporters that Reagan said, "There is much that divides us, but I believe the world breathes easier because we are here talking together." The dramatic quote made every news report. In 1988, after leaving the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes wrote a memoir, "Speaking Out: The Reagan Presidency from Inside the White House", in which he admitted that Reagan never made the statement. Because Speakes could not ﬁnd much to report following the meeting, he invented the statement. Speakes justiﬁed the fabrication, saying he was not lying because "I knew those quotes were the way he [Reagan] felt." PR practitioners write speeches, ofﬁcial statements, and quote for their clients and bosses every day. The protocol is to clear those quotes with the principals involved. 1. Did Speakes cross the line? Yes because he was lying, but no if the president felt and supported the quote, as it did bring comfort to both nations people. 2. Deﬁne the ethical issue here, and identify the values at stake and the audiences that could be affected by the fabrication. Moral values of lying and presenting factual information. and legal, if the president felt he was being misrepresented. The audiences are the nations people who have been led to think the meeting of the 2 leaders would result in a positive way. 3. What might have happened had the Soviets said they knew the statement had not been made by Reagan? The Soviets may feel that faulty information had been made, which could have started another mess between the two already fighting countries. They also may lose respect for Reagan for not being able to control his employees.

Concerning Ethics, Consider this:

- GMOs - 2000 - public fears of GMOs in Europe, lead to government bans - fears spread to U.S. - serious study begins

Litigation PR Vital to Winning in Court of Public Opinion Karen Doyne was managing director, Crisis and Issues Management, at Burson-Marsteller in Washington when she wrote this piece for PRWeek, March 22, 2004. When former Vice President Aaron Burr entered a Virginia courtroom to stand trial for treason in 1807, nobody had yet invented the term"pretrial publicity"—but the press was learning on the job. One observer said that the allegations against Burr had "resounded through the newspapers so long and so strongly" that they already had created "the general opinion" that Burr was guilty. Despite the negative press, Burr beat the rap. But nearly two centuries later, the law and PR professions, which have long inhabited separate planets, seem to be recognizing reality: The playing ﬁeld for legal action doesn't exist solely behind the courtroom door. In many cases, litigants who ignore the court of public opinion do so at their own peril. Celebrity cases, high-proﬁle murder trials, and the like have always been hot topics in the U.S. media. But over the last decade, two 2 trends have raised the stakes and driven lawyers, albeit (although) reluctantly, into the arms of PR professionals. 1.) The ﬁrst is the increase in high-proﬁle civil corporate litigation, particularly the rise of class-action injury lawsuits. *As savvy plaintiff lawyers quickly discovered, these cases are gold mines for attracting media coverage and shaping public opinion well in advance of a trial. * They offer numerous human-interest stories and play into the well-worn cultural themes of David versus Goliath, conspiracy, corporate greed, and exploitation of the powerless. *Corporate defendants began ﬁghting back with their own PR efforts to support their legal cases and to protect their reputations and bottom line. 2.) The second factor has been the super-charged information environment created by the internet. *While television was making litigation a staple of news and newsmagazine programming, the internet's unprecedented speed and reach created a powerful platform for plaintiff law ﬁrms, activist groups, and others to recruit plaintiffs and inﬂuence opinion at the grassroots level. *Nevertheless, the PR-legal courtship has been a rocky one. For a time, joint efforts were more competitive than cooperative.

- Lawyers typically considered PR to be somewhat distasteful and probably dangerous to their interests. - Accustomed to a forum with rules and the ability to exert control over the process, attorneys couldn't wrap their minds around the anarchy, uncertainty, and immediacy of media relations. If lawyers were arrogant, a lot of PR practitioners were just plain ignorant. *Relatively few understood the basics of the legal system or the dynamics of communications during litigation.* PR people who failed to know and respect the lawyer's mindset found themselves talking to brick walls. In the worst cases, public statements or other actions did real damage to the party's legal position. That learning curve has spiked dramatically. In-house PR people got wise that they needed to work with lawyers if they were to have any inﬂuence over communications strategy, and PR ﬁrms recognized their clients' growing needs for specialized experience. Over time, litigation PR has become an essential element of crisis and issues management. The Institute for Crisis Management's annual report continues to list class-action lawsuits as the single largest category of business crisis (although its growth rate seems to have slowed somewhat, at last). Lawyers, too, are getting with the program. Many defense attorneys have recognized the importance of managing outside-the-courtroom audiences. Others have decided that keeping an eye on PR is smarter than shutting it out. The best made it a point to learn the rudiments of our world, as we have theirs. If litigation PR has evolved greatly, its next phase is likely to be the most challenging of all. A company's legal exposure has become a key factor to industry analysts on whose opinions stock prices rise and fall. Sensitive documents turn up on websites like thesmokinggun.com long before a judge even considers them. **Perhaps most important, PR counselors now have a real opportunity to secure a seat at the table where strategic business and legal decisions are made. There is a growing recognition that, just as communications can play a role in legal strategy, legal actions often have an impact on a ﬁrm's reputation and relationships—a factor that is far better examined before the controversy hits than after. When legal and reputational goals collide, no one is better positioned than the communications professional to be sure executives make decisions with their eyes wide open. Earning and keeping that coveted seat will require us to continue educating ourselves, showing attorneys that we "get it" even if we don't always agree, and doing all we can to turn the shotgun marriage between PR and law into a very meaningful relationship.

Accreditation

- encourages ethical behavior and accountability - professional designation, APR. -Sets a standard and rewards keeping it - Incentive = competitive edge and $$$

PR Falls short of profession status

1. its possible to enter the field without a PR degree 2. No progress for holding practitioners accountable.

Trademarks and Patents A TRADEMARK is a word, phrase, logo, symbol, color, sound, or smell used by a business to identify a product and distinguish it from those of its competitors. Federal law prohibits one business from using another's trademark. Ownership of trademarks arises from "ﬁrst use" of the mark, which can be established by actual use or by applying to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Ofﬁce. To be considered a trademark, the mark must be used to identify a product, be distinctive, and not be too similar to another organization's mark.

A PATENT grants an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, or sell his invention for a given period of time. Patents are similar to copyrights. Once a patent expires, the invention enters public domain and can be used by anyone. To qualify for a patent, an invention must be new, useful, and not easily duplicated. If you want to use patented material or a trademark, you must check with the patent ofﬁce and ask the owner's permission. As with copyrighted material, if you are uncertain about the use of a trademark or patented invention, consult your organization's attorney.

ETHICAL CHALLENGES FOR PR PROFESSIONALS "How can you talk about ethics when you've spent a career in PR being a professional liar?" a leading publicist was asked during an interview on British television. While the question may seem ﬂippant, a survey of PR practitioners conducted by PRWeek shows that dishonesty within the profession is a serious concern. Twenty-ﬁve (25%) percent of the 1,705 practitioners who responded admitted to lying on the job, and 62 % (sixty-two percent) said they had been compromised in their work by being told a lie. Nearly two-thirds (2/3 66%) said that they did not always check the validity of what they had been asked to communicate. Forty-four percent (44%) expressed uncertainty as to the ethics of tasks they were performing less than a third (1/3 1/3rd 33%) believed "ethical boundaries had been clearly deﬁned." On the positive side, one 1 in ﬁve 5 practitioners in the business for less than two 2 years and two-thirds (2/3) of those in business 12 years or more said they had turned down an account for ethical reasons. Almost 20 percent % said that they left a job due to ethical concerns, and nearly 30 percent % said they knew someone who had done so. (1/2 50% )Half supported an ethical charter, despite the risk of being dismissed should they be found guilty of ethical violations. Another provocative indictment of the profession can be found in the book Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. As students of public relations, you should become familiar with this important book. Its authors, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, are the editors of PR Watch, a quarterly newsletter dedicated to protecting the public from misinformation, and the founders of the watchdog group the Center for Media and Democracy. THE CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY The group's stated mission is to [c]ombat manipulative and misleading PR practices.. Whether the issue is health, consumer safety, environmental preservation or democracy and world peace, citizens today ﬁnd themselves confronted by a bewildering array of hired propagandists paid to convince the public that junk food is nutritious, pollution is harmless, and that what's good for big business and big government is good for the rest of us. Clearly, having an ethical PR practice is not simplistic, and sometimes, not easy. One challenge lies in making the hard choices while making a living. Sometimes, your sense of what is best may conﬂict with your ambition to move ahead in your ﬁeld. Public relations scholar Scott Cutlip warned against making self-serving decisions when he wrote: "The principle behind professional ethics is that one's actions are designed to create the greatest good for both the client and the community as a whole, rather than enhance the position and power of the practitioner." You might also ﬁnd yourself in a situation where your values differ from those of your client, presenting you with a difﬁcult choice between your conscience and your paycheck. Another challenge arises from the fact that your decisions as a PR practitioner may affect several groups who may have conﬂicting interests. In their book, This is PR, Doug Newsom, Judy Van Slyke Turk, and Dean Kruckeberg identify these audiences to which practitioners may be responsible: clients, news media, government agencies, educational institutions, consumers, stockholders, the community, competitors, critics, and fellow practitioners. Considering the needs of your audiences is essential but can make ethical decision making even more complicated.

ASSIGNMENT EXAMPLE - OIL FEILD Let's look at this hypothetical case. You work in the PR department of a large, global energy company that has just discovered a vast oil ﬁeld deep below the ocean ﬂoor. The ﬁrm's vice president tells you he wants your announcement to downplay the discovery. What parties will be affected by what you decide to write? 1. First, the company, its board of directors, shareholders, employees, and the ﬁnancial community at large, all of whom require accurate information regarding the company's ﬁnancial condition. 2. The second is the SEC, whose regulations would be violated by failure to fully disclose the discovery. 3. The ﬁnancial media and the PR profession itself are third, both of which have a stake in preserving the integrity of the communications process. 4. Fourth is the public, who deserve to know the truth. 5. last but not least, you— the practitioner— who would have to share the responsibility for disseminating deceptive information. What should you do? After identifying the SEC regulations, federal and state laws, and company policies regarding nondisclosure, you should advise the company against deceptive practices. Deception would be illegal and would poorly serve all the stakeholders. The difﬁculty with this decision, of course, is that you will have to stand up to the managers who asked you to deceive. As stated earlier, making the ethical choice is not always easy. To practice PR with integrity, you will often have to summon up your courage. But how will you know what to do? HILL & KNOWLTON EXAMPLE In 1990, Hill & Knowlton mounted an anti-abortion campaign on behalf of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (U.S.). The ﬁrm defended the campaign on First Amendment (free speech) grounds. Trouble arose because the ﬁrm did not fully inform all its employees of the campaign. Some left, even though Hill & Knowlton said that those who were morally opposed to the campaign did not have to participate in it. For some employees, the campaign pitted their loyalty to the company against loyalty to their own beliefs. 1. Do you think the ﬁrm was right to accept the controversial account without ﬁrst consulting its employees? Explain your answer. No it was not right for the firm to accept an account that controversial without informing their employees. It goes against many religions and is often a very painful thing for some to be involved in due to their pasts. It is not appropriate even if they do not have to participate, because as employees they are assumed to believe in and support their companies actions and business deals. 2. What would you do if the ﬁrm for which you were working conducted a campaign that ran counter to your values? Would you leave the ﬁrm? Stay, but excuse yourself from working with the client with whom you disagreed? Work on the campaign, rationalizing that it is your job and you need the money?

Negligence Negligence is professional misconduct or unreasonable lack of skill that results in personal injury.

Although negligence lawsuits are not usually brought against public relations practitioners, you should take reasonable precautions when planning promotional events, plant tours, or open houses to reduce the risk of liability if a visitor is hurt.

ENRON CORPORATION EXAMPLE Enron Corporation was a Houston-based energy company, originally involved in transmitting and distributing electricity and gas in the United States and developing, building, and operating power plants, pipelines, and similar infrastructure worldwide. After federal deregulation of the natural gas and the electricity industries in the late 1980s and 1990s, Enron became a broker for buying and selling energy and the nation's largest energy trader. It was named by Fortune magazine "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years. By 2000, the company employed about 21,000 people and had revenues of $101 billion. Then, in 2001, the company ﬁled for what was then the largest U.S. bankruptcy, following the disclosure that it had reported false proﬁts. Enron's auditing ﬁrm, Arthur Andersen, was also involved in the scandal. The ﬁrm did not render adequate oversight, partly because providing consulting services for Enron was more proﬁtable than providing auditing services. It was found guilty of obstructing justice for destroying documents in anticipation of SEC investigation. As a result, it lost its major accounts and its position as one of the world's largest accounting ﬁrms. Following Enron's collapse, many of the company's employees lost their jobs and much of their retirement savings, which were invested in Enron stock through 401(k) retirement plans. The scandal also shook investor conﬁdence in U.S. business because Enron had been able to hide its losses for nearly ﬁve years. The reputations of some stock analysts— who told investors to buy Enron stock even though they knew the company had reported a $1.1-billion revision in its net worth— were also compromised. People began to wonder whether they could trust businesses, auditors, stock analysts, or the public relations persons who spoke for them. Company spokespersons, the PR practitioners on the ground dealing with the news media and informing employees, were responsible for brieﬁng and answering questions from reporters. Primary spokesperson, Patrick Dorton, continued to answer media inquiries throughout the crisis, indicating that Arthur Andersen was doing all that it could to help resolve the matters. After Andersen employees admitted destroying documents crucial to the investigation, CEO Joseph Berardino admitted to Congress that "our team made an error in judgment." While none of the ﬁrm's spokespersons was charged with violating the law, they were trusted to tell the truth, which raises ethical questions about their behavior. (See the following "Engaging Ethics" section. *other side*) The scandal led to legislation to reform corporate behavior. In 2002, Congress passed the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, which provided for stricter government oversight of business ﬁnancial accounting. The fraud also led to a high-proﬁle federal investigation and trial. Several highly placed Enron executives pleaded guilty to ﬁnancial crimes. Five 5 years after the company collapsed, former Chairman Kenneth Lay, who died, and President Jeffrey Skilling ( both of whom had stubbornly maintained their innocence ) were found guilty of fraud and conspiracy. From the start, misrepresentation by company spokespersons and executives served only to harm those involved with the company and anger prosecutors and the public.

Arthur Andersen—Accounting and Accountability As you have read, Arthur Andersen was Enron's auditing ﬁrm, responsible for reviewing Enron's ﬁnancial transactions and verifying the quality of its accounting practices. Arthur Andersen was convicted of obstructing justice for destroying documents in advance of the SEC's investigation into Enron's books. When Enron ﬁled for bankruptcy, spokespersons for Arthur Andersen may or may not have known the extent of the company's culpability in Enron's misconduct. 1. If they were aware of their company's role, what position should Arthur Andersen's spokespersons have taken as the media began to inquire about Enron's ﬁnancial position and Arthur Andersen's knowledge of its problems? - truthful and apologetic 2. Following Arthur Andersen's conviction, its attorney insisted on the ﬁrm's innocence, maintaining the company was being destroyed by the "conduct of a few employees." If Arthur Andersen had been your client, would you have recommended this statement to the attorney? - no because I do not believe that he is innocent, and I think the leaders of a company should take responsibility for what happens under their leadership. 3. What ethical issue does the attorney's statement raise? Hes lying after he knows they are guilty. Instead of apologizing and trying to make up for the havoc they've caused, they are continuing to fight a battle that has already been lost, further damaging their reputation.

**** Summary of PRSA Code of Ethics **** HONESTY • Adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those you represent and in communicating with the public. • Be honest and accurate in all communications; avoid deceptive practices. ADVOCACY / EXPERTISE • Serve the public interest by acting as responsible advocates for those you represent. • Provide a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts, and viewpoints to aid informed public debate. • Acquire and responsibly use specialized knowledge and experience. Build mutual understanding, credibility, and relationships among a wide array of institutions and audiences. INDEPENDANCE • Provide objective counsel to those you represent. • Be accountable for your actions. LOYALTY • Be faithful to those you represent, while honoring your obligation to serve the public interest. FAIRNESS • Deal fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, vendors, the media, and the general public. FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION • Preserve the integrity of the process of communication. • Act promptly to correct erroneous communications for which you are responsible. • Preserve the free ﬂow of unprejudiced information when giving or receiving gifts by ensuring that gifts are nominal, legal, and infrequent. • Respect all opinions and support the right of free expression. COMPETITION • Follow ethical hiring practices designed to respect free and open competition without deliberately undermining a competitor. • Preserve intellectual property rights in the marketplace. DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION • Investigate the truthfulness and accuracy of information released on behalf of those represented. • Reveal the sponsors for causes and interests represented. • Disclose ﬁnancial interest (such as stock ownership) in a client's organization.

CONFIDENTIALITY • Safeguard the conﬁdences and privacy rights of present, former, and prospective clients and employees. • Protect privileged, conﬁdential, or insider information gained from a client or organization. • Immediately advise an appropriate authority if a member discovers that conﬁdential information is being divulged by an employee of a client company or organization. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST • Avoid actions and circumstances that may appear to compromise good business judgment or create a conﬂict between personal and professional interests. • Disclose promptly any existing or potential conﬂict of interest to affected clients or organizations. • Encourage clients and customers to determine if a conﬂict exists after notifying all affected parties. • Act in the best interests of the client or employer, even subordinating the member's personal interests. ENHANCING THE PROFESSION • Acknowledge that there is an obligation to protect and enhance the profession. • Keep informed and educated about practices in the profession to ensure ethical conduct. • Advance the profession through continued professional development, research, and education. • Accurately deﬁne what public relations activities can accomplish. OBLIGATION TO THE CODE • Counsel subordinates in proper ethical decision making. • Require that subordinates adhere to the ethical requirements of the Code. • Report ethical violations, whether committed by PRSA members or not, to the appropriate authority. • Decline representation of clients or organizations that urge or require actions contrary to this Code. ENFORCEMENT OF THE CODE • Enforcement replaced by education. The Board retains the right to bar from membership or expel from the Society any individual who is sanctioned by a government agency or convicted in a court of law of an action that is in violation of the Code.

Theories behind Ethical Thinking Theoretically speaking, we can be either intuitive or deterministic in our thinking as we make moral judgments. In practice, we often combine these ways of thinking. INTUITIVE THINKING is reasoning based on intuition and logic. It is based on "deontology," the study of duties, and comes from the Greek words "deontos," or duty, and "logos," or study. It is based on a system of rules or duties and focuses on the intentions or motives of the doer. People who make judgments based on intuitive thinking believe that certain actions are right, in themselves, and should be done regardless of consequences. EXAMPLES OF INTUITIVE MORAL THINKING The American Declaration of Independence (all men are created equal and have inalienable rights), Aristotle's Golden Mean (moderation in all things), "Justice is blind" (all should be judged as equals, regardless of race or ethnicity, sex, class) and the "Customer is always right" (satisﬁed customers equal proﬁts) are classical examples of intuitive moral thinking. In the minds of extremists or fanatics, intuitive thinking can devolve into "Do what's right, though the world should perish."

DETERMINISTIC OR NATURALISTIC THINKING is reasoning that acknowledges conditions, circumstances, and changes and is based on teleology, the study of ends, and comes from the Greek telos, or end. It is results-oriented and focuses on outcomes, or the usefulness of an action. People who make moral decisions based on deterministic thinking believe that the rightness of an action is determined by its consequences. To them, an ethical action is one that creates the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism and "Robin Hood" thinking are good examples of naturalistic thinking. Taken to the extreme, deterministic thinking can lead to believing "the ends justify the means," or that wrongdoing (wrong doing) can be justiﬁed if the results are good.

PROFESSIONAL CODES OF ETHICS AS GUIDELINES Members of groups depend upon each other to behave in the manner that the group has established as appropriate— the manner that reﬂects its norms and values. As PR practitioners, you will be expected to adhere to the standards of conduct set by the profession. These standards are set out in codes written by companies and various professional associations.

EX 1) For instance, when you enroll for courses at a university, you agree to adhere to the school's code of behavior, which holds you to speciﬁc expectations of conduct as a scholar. Practicing professionals in most ﬁelds have professional norms and conduct of behavior. EX 2) Physicians, for example, take the Hippocratic Oath, promising to care for their patients and do no harm. When you visit your doctor, you expect her to treat you with respect, administer to your condition to the best of her ability, and keep your health records private. EX 3) Attorneys must pass bar examinations in the state in which they practice and abide by the rules of practice adopted of the state's courts. When you consult an attorney, you expect him to keep any information you share about the status of your health, your ﬁnances, and your lifestyle conﬁdential.

Fitzpatrick's Five Duties and Baker and Martinson's Self-Tests for Ethical Decision-Making ***Fitzpatrick's Five Duties**** Duty to self: Are you willing to compromise your values for the sake of a ﬁrm or client? Duty to client: Can you represent the client and maintain your peace of mind, knowing what you do about the client and understanding that some of this information is conﬁdental? Duty to employer: Are the company's activities harmful to others? Knowingly allowing harmful work to continue violates your duty to the public. Duty to profession: As public relations professionals, you must be responsible to your peers; what would peers whom you respect think of what you are doing? Duty to society: Do your activities serve the public interest?

Fitzpatrick's Five Duties and Baker and Martinson's Self-Tests for Ethical Decision-Making ***Baker and Martinson's TARES Test*** Truthfulness of the message: Your intention must be to provide others with accurate information that they need, not to deceive them. Authenticity of the persuader: You must be true to yourself while avoiding or minimizing harm to others; acting with authenticity demands personal integrity, sincerity, loyalty, and independence. Respect for the people, groups, or organizations you want to persuade: You must take care not to violate the rights of others in order to serve your client or yourself. Equality of the appeal: You must be fair, not unjustly manipulative; one test of equality is to apply the Golden Rule— "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Social responsibility: You should ask yourself whether your campaign serves the public interest or is motivated solely by self-interest and proﬁt, perhaps at society's expense.

THE BOTTOM LINE As Seib and Fitzpatrick stated in their book, Public Relations Ethics, "The keystone of an ethical profession is the individual practitioner." The burden of responsibility for ethical decision making lies with you as a practitioner. Being an ethical person requires maturity, independence, and a sense of obligation to society and the public interest. Engaging in an ethical practice also requires that you be loyal to the standards of the profession, as described in the professional codes.

If you make job security, prestige, salary, and recognition from supervisors more important than adhering to professional standards, you may ﬁnd yourself making ethically questionable choices. Similarly, if you focus only on technique: on preparing technically competent news releases, brochures, newsletters, VNRs, and so forth— and not on what you say in the communications, you may ﬁnd yourself distributing inaccurate, misleading, or wrong information. To be an ethical and successful PR practitioner, you must remain true to yourself, work hard, and stay smart.

Copyright Copyright laws give the author or joint authors of creative works the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display their work and to make derivations of it. EX) Such works include writings, art, graphics, photos, music, plays, motion pictures, audiovisuals, and other creative works. If an employee does creative work on company time using company resources, the work belongs to the company. The work becomes eligible for copyright once it is produced in "tangible form," which can range from printed materials to ﬁlms, CDs, and Internet postings. Generally speaking, facts and ideas are not protected by copyright, but their artistic expression is protected. You are usually free to use the facts and ideas contained in other works as long as you present them in your own original way.

If you want to use a quote, song, photo, or other material from a copyrighted work, you must ask for permission unless the use falls under the doctrine of fair use. This allows for the use of copyrighted materials for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. To determine whether the use is fair, the courts consider the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used in comparison to the work as a whole, and the effect of the use of the work's market value. Once a copyright expires, the work enters the public domain and may be used by anyone. The work you perform for an organization belongs to the employer, so you cannot copyright what you create while you are hired and under employment by the organization. If your organization seeks to copyright material, it is not necessary to register or publish a copyright but it is helpful in the event of infringement. If you are not sure if your use of copyrighted material is fair, you should consult with your organization's attorney

Kasky v. Nike: Deﬁning Corporate and Commercial Speech In the 1990s, in response to the accusation that the company used sweatshops to manufacture its products overseas, Nike launched a public relations campaign that included newspaper ads, letters to editors, and correspondence with college and university presidents. Nike's goal was to show that it was improving conditions for overseas workers and to maintain customer loyalty. Marc Kasky, a California consumer advocate, objected to this campaign and sued Nike in 1998, alleging that the company's claims were misleading. In the spring of 2002, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of Kasky, a decision that Nike appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The crux of the case was the distinction between corporate speech and commercial speech. - Under the U.S. Constitution, corporate speech—speech on public issues—is protected by the First Amendment, but commercial speech is subject to regulations, including truth in advertising laws. The Supreme Court was asked to decide whether Nike's campaign constituted corporate or commercial speech and to clarify the free speech rights of corporations. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court reversed its decision to hear the case.

In September 2003, Kasky and Nike announced a settlement: Nike agreed to pay $1.5 million to the Washington, DC-based Fair Labor Association for a worker development program. The case closed, without a ruling on corporate free speech. Subsequently, in 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens v. Federal Election Commission that "the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. This ruling—5 to 4—demonstrated a deeply divided court and set off a debate about the ruling's effect on government and a slippery slope to political corruption. Working the Case Both of these cases are categorized as corporate First Amendment issues. Explain how each is seen as corporate free speech. - Both cases present speech that was made in order to present a corporations views on a social issue (sweatshop usage) or political issue (corporate spending on elections) and therefore are considered corporate speech.

TOOLS FOR ETHICAL DECISION MAKING Whether you usually make judgments based on what you perceive as good intentions or what you perceive as good results, sometimes you will ﬁnd that there are no clear answers to ethical problems, just different courses of action from which to choose.

In Table 7.2 are three 3 well-known decision-making tools. While none of them is a guarantee that PR professionals will make the right choice, they do give you a framework for thinking through an ethical dilemma. Responsibility for making ethical choices ultimately lies with you and the organization with which you work. separate slides for all 3 1. Potter Box 2. Sims approach 3. Navran/Plus

Libel and Slander Basically, LIBEL means injuring another's reputation. Each state has its own laws regarding libel. Some states make a distinction between libel and slander, considering libel as written or otherwise printed injury and SLANDER as spoken. In either case, the term DEFAMATION usually includes both terms. A defamatory statement is one that causes another to be hated, ridiculed, or scorned. Defamatory statements are not merely insulting or offensive, but actually harm another's reputation, putting his or her social or professional life at risk. For a libel suit to be successful, the defamatory statement must be false—name-calling, hyperbole, or other characterizations that cannot be proven true or false cannot be the subject of a libel claim—and the person who made the statement must have intended to cause harm. * These conditions were not always required. * Two famous cases helped shape American libel laws. **The ﬁrst was the case of John Peter Zenger, a colonial New York publisher who was imprisoned in 1734 for printing political attacks against the state's colonial governor. - Zenger's lawyer argued successfully that one could not be guilty of libel if the statements made were true. -Until then, it had not mattered whether the allegedly libelous statements were true or false. -The Zenger case also established the precedent of trying libel cases under civil law, rather than as criminal cases, heard by a jury. **The second case was The New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1964. - The court decided that public ofﬁcials could not sue successfully for libel unless reporters or editors were guilty of "actual malice" when publishing false statements about the ofﬁcials. - Malice in this context is a legal term meaning that the person who made the statement knew it was false or recklessly disregarded its truth or falsity. - Later, the Supreme Court later extended the so-called Sullivan rule to cover "public ﬁgures," those who are not public ofﬁcials but are in the public eye. - Over the years, this category has come to include well-known writers, entertainers, athletes, and others who often attract media attention.

In most states, private individuals must show only that the person who made the allegedly libelous statement was negligent or failed to act with due care. TRADE LIBEL, or TRADE DISPARAGEMENT, is defamation of a product, rather than the product's manufacturer. - In trade libel, the product's quality or usefulness is defamed. - The requirements for a successful trade libel suit are the same as those for suits brought by public ﬁgures. Individuals, corporations, unincorporated businesses, associations, and unions can sue for libel; governmental agencies cannot, but a government ofﬁcial can bring suit for statements made about him or her as an individual. The laws regarding libel suits apply to Internet as they do to more traditional media. However, federal law protects Internet service providers (ISPs) and other interactive computer services from many lawsuits. What does this mean for public relations professionals? When speaking with the media or producing materials for print or broadcast, take these precautions to avoid libel: • Check facts and sources thoroughly. • Back up opinions with facts. • Avoid innuendo and suggestive implication. • Be careful not to change the meaning when editing quoted materials and make sure the quote expresses the facts accurately. • Avoid using clippings or news articles that defame someone. • Do not link random photos to a story that could be defamatory; for example, do not place a random group photo with a press release about the rise in crime. • Keep all your notes and tapes from interviews. • When you ﬁnish a story, edit it carefully and remove any potentially libelous material.

Ethics and Good Stewardship (Odwalla example) One useful way to judge whether or not our behavior is ethical is to decide if we are acting as good stewards. Today, we hear a lot of talk about stewardship; we are exhorted to be good stewards of our talents, our environment, and other resources. But what does that mean? To be a good steward is to protect and value that which is entrusted to us by those with whom we enter relationships. We need to look carefully at who we are and what our responsibilities are to our colleagues, our clients, and our community. Let's examine this case involving fresh juice manufacturer Odwalla.What the Odwalla case shows us is that good stewardship is also good business. (other side) Behaving in ways that are truthful, just, and responsible— in other words, acting ethically— may cost organizations in the short term. In Odwalla's case, the company had to pay the costs of recalling the juice; informing the public, the industry, and the government; and improving safety. However, the company also gained public respect and conﬁdence, factors that contributed positively to the juice maker's image and profits in the long term. As PR practitioners, we should always point clients toward the high road, reminding them that ethical behavior improves their bottom line in the long run. The choices that Odwalla's executives made in reacting to the juice crisis were informed by the company's corporate culture, that is, by the norms and values to which it adheres. Fortunately, in Odwalla's case, the company's values were ethical. Company leaders were forthright, honest, and just, putting the public's health and safety ahead of short-term proﬁts.

In the fall of 1996, Washington State health ofﬁcials notiﬁed Odwalla of a link between its fresh apple juice and several cases of E. coli, bacteria that cause an intestinal infection that can be life threatening to infants and young children. On receiving the notice, Odwalla voluntarily and immediately recalled its apple juice, sending delivery trucks to retrieve its products from retailer's shelves in seven Western states. The company hired Edelman Public Relations of San Francisco to handle the crisis.A communication crisis team was set up to handle media questions. The team made sure all information was made available to all company spokespersons and that company executives were available to answer questions. Media updates were issued daily. Neither Odwalla nor Edelman made any attempt to hide the truth. Lines of communication were established with consumers through a website and a toll-free 800 number. Business clients were brought into the loop quickly; top executives made personal calls to all 4,600 accounts within 18 hours of the notice. In addition, Odwalla voluntarily let the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into its plant for an inspection. It made a presentation to the FDA on the need for mandatory pasteurization. The company then formed an advisory board to develop safe methods for the industry for processing juice. Throughout the crisis, Odwalla was a good steward, behaving responsibly toward the public and the industry. The company acted quickly to take any tainted juice off the market and to tell consumers and business associates about the problem in order to protect public health. It then asked the FDA to inspect its processing plants to ensure that its juice was safe to drink and to regain public conﬁdence in its product. Finally, the company engaged the industry in establishing safety standards to try to avert a similar crisis in the future. By acting ethically, Odwalla not only survived the crisis, but also gained public approval. Ninety-seven percent 97% of the public felt the company responded well, according to opinion polls. Because of Odwalla's good stewardship, the company continues to thrive.

Organizational Norms For better or for worse, we often conduct ourselves according to the expectations of the organization or group with which we are afﬁliated. When the group's expectations are high, doing right becomes the norm and most members of the group will rise to its standards. When the organization's standards are lax or when we ﬁnd ourselves in situations where the right choice is not readily apparent, we must take the time to think carefully and clearly and to learn the rules that apply to the situation before we act.

Let's consider this situation. You just landed the internship of your dreams in the ofﬁce of investor relations for a successful pharmaceutical company. You are familiar with the company because your family owns some of its stock and monitors its progress regularly. This morning at a meeting you learned that the company is going to split its stock in the next few days. You want to give your family a heads-up, so you tell them about the stock split. Should you have told them? The ethical and legal answer to this question is no. As an employee of the company, you became an "insider," someone with access to important, conﬁdential information. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates the ﬁnancial transactions of publicly traded companies, has ruled that it is illegal for "insiders" to share information that could affect a company's stock price before the information is made public. In other words, when, as an intern, you gave your family a "tip" about the upcoming stock split, you became a "tipee" and violated insider trading regulations. As a public relations professional, you will often have access to conﬁdential information and will need to learn company and government regulations regarding disclosing it.

Judeo-Christian definitions of ethics

Love your neighbor as yourself

Other Regulations (3) LOBBYISTS: Public relations practitioners who lobby, or contact executive and legislative branch ofﬁcials on behalf of their organizations or clients, must register with the government. They must also ﬁle statements identifying their clients and listing the issues on which they have lobbied. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Enacted in 1966, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is designed to make government documents available to the news media and the public. - Many of these documents are ﬁled by corporations that must report to regulatory commissions, agencies, and bureaus. - The act seeks to honor the public's "right to know" while providing exemptions that protect sensitive information and personal rights. ***Exemptions include trade secrets and some ﬁnancial and commercial documents. - Corporate practitioners are informed of documents that are ﬁled and are advised when an FOIA request is made. - Citizens often make requests unrelated to corporate matters. Many requests are from news media and interested parties who are seeking Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ﬁles.

STATE "RIGHT TO KNOW" LAWS: Some states have enacted laws that are similar to the FOIA. These laws give the public legal access to information about environmental hazards, occupational safety and health, and other social issues.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) One of the tasks of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to regulate the promotion of prescription drugs through advertising and public relations materials, such as news releases, brochures, pamphlets, and information on company websites.

The FDA requires that all materials tell consumers about the risks, as well as the beneﬁts of the drug, state clearly that the drug will not help everyone, and be accompanied by supplementary materials giving the full prescribing information. If you work as a public relations practitioner for a company or client that manufactures products regulated by the FDA, you should have the FDA screen all promotional materials before you release them.

Ethics and the Culture of an Organization Not all organizations will do the right thing when faced with a crisis. All too often, an organization's culture encourages denial of a problem and delay in taking proper steps to solve it, resulting in harm to the public and the company. A 43-state outbreak of salmonella poisoning resulted in the largest-ever food recall in U.S. history in 2009.

The Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) was forced to close two of its plants— ﬁrst in Georgia when outbreaks began and then in Texas after the contamination of food products was investigated and proven. The contamination scare was associated with killing eight people, causing more than 19,000 illnesses, and leading to more than 1,800 separate recalls. The recalls of peanut butter, cookies, crackers, frozen dinners, snack bars, disaster relief meals, and other foods sent peanut butter sales plunging by 25 percent. Stewart Parnell, president of PCA, served as spokesperson for the company. He apologized for the recall in a company news release and informed the media that the company was working with federal regulators. The FDA, which is responsible for food regulation, eventually determined the Georgia plant had knowingly shipped contaminated products to the nation's largest food makers. The makers of Jif, Skippy, and Peter Pan peanut butter began to run ads with coupons for savings on the products, advising consumers that their products were not contaminated. It was the American Peanut Council, a private trade association representing the American peanut industry, that worked with PR ﬁrms Ogilvy and Argyle Communication to educate consumers about recalled and safe products. The council put a list of products not recalled on its website. At the time of the Georgia plant closing, the PCA had ceased responding to media inquiries. Unlike Odwalla, PCA responded only to the recall and not to the deaths and illnesses caused by the outbreak of the food-borne disease. And the company did not take responsibility for what happened even after it became clear that it shipped contaminated food knowingly.

Another Look at a Difﬁcult Marketplace Given the scandals at Enron and Arthur Andersen, as well at other companies, it is troubling but not unexpected that in today's marketplace many American workers shrug off ethical concerns. ***Consider these results of a national survey of 1,500 U.S. workers regarding ethical behavior at the workplace: - About one-third ( 1/3rd 1/3 33% ) of respondents said their coworkers condoned questionable business practices by respecting those who achieved success using them. - Almost one-ﬁfth ( 1/5th 1/5 20%) said they observed coworkers lying to or withholding needed information from other employees, customers, vendors, or the public. - more than half (1/2 50%) said that misconduct was more likely in companies where top management only talked about ethics, rather than behaved as ethical role models.

These results are disturbing and beg for a change in the way we do business. One PR agency, Ruder Finn, is trying to tackle this problem by adding a new practice area in the ﬁrm to help its clients handle ethical dilemmas. The practice, launched in 2005, has "codes of conduct, risk assessment, training, and internal communication plans" as its core areas of concentration. Ruder Finn's action raises an important question: Can we as practitioners act as the conscience of an organization? Our answer as professionals should be a resounding "yes." To understand the challenges presented by this role, let's look at the ethical problems PR professionals face and the realities of the profession.

ETHICS AND STANDARDS OF PROFESSIONALISM When it comes to making ethical choices, you are your most important judge. You must understand the rules and challenge yourself to deal honestly, and sometimes courageously, with difﬁcult situations you encounter. "We can't legislate ethics, but we can motivate people to do the right thing," said SEC Cynthia Glassman when speaking about the agency's efforts to reform the mutual fund industry. Since inﬂuencing people's opinions and behavior is one of the functions of public relations practitioners, you— as a student of public relations— will need to think seriously about how you will do your job in a responsible manner.

What does it mean to deal ethically with the news media, stakeholders— including customers, suppliers, communities, governments, owners, stockholders, employees— and the general public? To whom will you owe primary allegiance— the organization for which you work, the people it serves, or yourself? How will you balance the interests of the organization with those of its key audiences, the general society, the public relations profession, and yourself? In other words, what does it mean to be an ethical and professional public relations practitioner? One way to sharpen your understanding of professional ethics and standards is to look at the current marketplace. It's a tough environment. Consumer conﬁdence in organizations of all types is low. High-proﬁle scandals, many of which were made worse by attempts at cover-ups, have rocked Wall Street, a number of top businesses, government agencies, and religious institutions. One example is the Enron scandal of 2001, which came to epitomize corporate excess.

Invasion of Privacy According to scholar Karla K. Gower, privacy—as ﬁrst clearly deﬁned by Justice Louis Brandeis and his law partner Samuel Warren in an 1890 Harvard Law Review article, "The Right to Privacy"—is the right to seclusion and to control overdisclosure of information about one's private life. The idea was expanded in 1960 by legal scholar William Prosser, who deﬁned these four 4 aspects of privacy: • Intrusion: Trespassing on private property or surveillance, the use of electronic or mechanical equipment to gather information • Appropriation: Using the name or likeness of someone without his or her consent for commercial purposes, such as advertisements or promotional pieces (does not include news stories) • False light: Making a nondefamatory false statement that creates a distorted picture of someone and is highly offensive to a reasonable person • Public disclosure of private information: Revealing embarrassing private facts that offend the average person's sensibilities.

What does this mean for public relations professionals? Practitioners need to take care not to misappropriate information or violate someone's informational privacy. Be sure to get written consent before using photographs of employees or persons outside the organization in public relations materials. Ask employees before publishing information about them in a company newsletter, an external publication, or on a website. In most states, the only information about employees that can be made public without their consent is conﬁrmation of employment, job title, job description, date hired, and date terminated.

BRIEF CASE STUDY No Child Left Behind In 2004, the U. S. Department of Education contracted with the PR ﬁrm Ketchum and with African American political pundit Armstrong Williams to help build public support for the Bush administration's education agenda. The deal, worth $1 million to Ketchum, was a campaign to promote the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education law. Because the administration was seeking to build support among black families for the law, $240,000 of the Ketchum deal was earmarked for Williams, who hosts The Right Side, a nationally syndicated conservative talk show on television and radio, writes op-ed pieces for newspapers, and heads his own public relations ﬁrm, The Graham Williams Group. Williams was to promote the law on his television show, encourage other black journalists to support NCLB, and urge "producers to periodically address" NCLB. Part of Williams' contract required that he interview then Secretary of Education Roderick R. Paige for television and radio spots. The interviews aired during the show in 2004. Since Congress prohibits lobbying or propaganda efforts to promote government programs, the Ketchum contract may have been illegal. Williams said he understands that critics could ﬁnd the arrangement unethical, but "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in." He said he does not recall telling audiences about the contract on the air but told colleagues about it when urging them to promote NCLB. In addition to working with Williams, Ketchum produced video news releases (VNRs) about NCLB designed to look like news reports. The Bush administration used similar releases to promote its Medicare prescription drug plan, a tactic that the Government Accountability Ofﬁce has called an illegal use of taxpayers' dollars. Early in 2005, Congress began inquiries into the Education Department's public relations spending.

Working the Case 1. Evaluate Ketchum's activities on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education. How well did Ketchum serve all the interests of all the persons involved? On what are you basing your evaluation? Please explain. - He states that he's doing what he believes in, however congress prohibits lobbying or propaganda attempts to promote government programs, therefore he is not abiding by ethical standards and that is not whats best for the public in the long run. The NCLB could suffer from his attempt to undermine the law, and those involved in his activities are also liable. 2. What ethical principles did the PR ﬁrm break or follow? How so? They broke the law, but they did it to promote a good cause that would benefit society as a whole.

Summary and Review: Avoiding Harm

• A primary objective and responsibility as a PR professional is to ensure that you avoid doing harm to others through the use of words and actions. • PR professionals must avoid libel. • Libel and slander are two different grounds for litigation against an organization or individual. Libel is usually written or otherwise printed injury, while slander is spoken. But both usually involve accusations of defamation, a statement that causes another to be hated, ridiculed, or scorned—harming reputation. • Successful libel lawsuits prove a statement as false, defamatory, and malicious. • Trade libel involves defamation of product, not the product's manufacturer. • Privacy rights can be infringed upon through intrusion, appropriation, false light, and public disclosure of private information. • Negligence, professional misconduct resulting in personal injury, is an important concept for PR professionals to be aware of though not usually a cause for litigation against individuals in our ﬁeld. • There are strict state laws regarding product liability and as a PR professional it is incumbent upon you to disclose information regarding defective goods.

Summary and Review The Bottom Line

• At the end of the day, ethical decision making is your responsibility. As much as it would be nice to have every circumstance and decision codiﬁed, that is not the case. You must make the decisions. • Personal credibility and access to top management are crucial to making the best decisions and providing the best counsel.

Summary and Review: Freedom of Speech

• Because it is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, freedom of speech is guaranteed an individual no matter what the government thinks about it. • Limitations to freedom of speech have been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. While corporate speech is generally protected, commercial speech is regulated.

Confronting PR Ethics Violations The assumption that PR practitioners— given the nature of their jobs— must be dishonest is at the bottom of many negative attitudes toward the profession. Many people think that practitioners who represent companies found guilty of ethics violations are themselves unethical, an accusation that may or may not be true. Baker and Martinson write that "critics insist that public relations has been used as manipulation by powerful political, economic and social interests intent on achieving their own narrow goals at the expense of the greater good." PR practitioners are often labeled "spin doctors" or "spinmeisters"— ruthless liars willing to manipulate their publics for their employer's gain. The difﬁculty with these criticisms is that they contain some truth. EXAMPLES OF ETHICAL VIOLATIONS WHERE PR PRACTITIONERS HAVE BEEN CRITICIZED next card under same heading as above ^^^

• Conﬂicts of interest, situations in which a professional has competing profes- sional or personal obligations, which would make it difﬁcult to fulﬁll his or her duties fairly. An example from political PR is illustrative. Mark Penn, then chief strategist for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, is also CEO of the global PR ﬁrm Burson-Marsteller, which represented the Columbian government. When Penn met with the Columbian government ofﬁcials during the campaign, despite Clinton's opposition to a free trade agreement with the South American nation, he said his business with Columbia involved only those duties related to his ﬁrm. But he admitted that the purpose of the meeting was related to the trade agreement. The result of this conﬂict of interest was that Penn lost his posi- tion with the Clinton campaign and Burson-Marsteller lost its contract with the Columbian government. • Violating nondisclosure agreements, which are legally binding contracts in which a person or business promises to keep speciﬁc information as a trade secret and not disclose it to others without proper authorization. Nondisclosure statements are internal and external documents. PR practitioners sign these contracts when working with proprietary information from clients, and employees of PR ﬁrms are often asked to sign these agreements that are intended to keep conﬁdential the creative work of the PR ﬁrm. For instance, if a PR practitioner is assisting in the launch of a client organization's major product innovation the practitioner is ex- pected to keep the innovation a secret and not share it with anyone. Similarly, if an employee of a PR ﬁrm is involved in a pitch— presentation for new business— to a client that includes a new or creative approach, the PR ﬁrm's employee is ex- pected to keep the information conﬁdential. Also, some PR ﬁrms ask prospective clients to sign nondisclosure agreements to keep the contents of a PR approach revealed in a pitch conﬁdential. • Engaging in unfair competition or commercial activity that tends to confuse or deceive the public about the sale of products or services. • Representing dubious clients, those whose motives or behavior is suspect. An example may be the two PR practitioners who resigned from working for the "Octomom" Nadya Suleman. Suleman is the single mother of six who gave birth to octuplets conceived through in-vitro fertilization in 2009. • Engaging in deceptive practices, which mislead consumers. • Giving gifts to the media with the intention of gaining favorable press coverage. This is a major concern for practitioners who work with the news media who cover travel and luxury products because travel to cover quality accommodations and cruises and samples can be misconstrued as gifts. Reporters are usually pro- hibited from accepting travel or samples by their organizations. • Failing to safeguard conﬁdential information, resulting in leaks or use of client information.

Summary and Review: Creative Property Protections

• Copyright laws protect authors and joint authors of creative works by giving them exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, perform, or display their work. The work is protected as soon as it is produced in a tangible form. Facts and ideas do not fall under this category, but artistic expression does. • It is not necessary to register for a copyright in order for it to be valid, but it is helpful to the copyright owner in case of an infringement allegation. The work a PR professional does for an employer belongs to the employer. • As a PR professional, you may use facts and ideas from other work as long as it is presented in an original way, but you must seek permission to use any portion of a copyrighted work unless it falls under the doctrine of fair use. • Trademarks are used to identify a product and distinguish it from its competitors, and patents grant an inventor exclusive rights to make or sell an invention for a period of time. Once the period is passed, a patent expires and the invention is in the public domain.

Summary and Review Ethics and Standards of Professionalism

• Ethical codes of professional public relations organizations give practitioners guidelines to follow. • Practitioners need to follow their own inherent sense of what is just and not let themselves be misled by unscrupulous persons or their own weaknesses. • While the PR professional and her conscience is really her own best judge of what is ethical, there are professional codes that help guide conduct.

Summary and Review What Is Ethics?

• Ethics is hard to deﬁne and sometimes harder to practice, especially given today's tough business climate. • Ethics may be broadly deﬁned as doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. • Public relations professionals have a unique opportunity to help steer their organizations and clients in proper ethical directions. • Understanding the philosophical theories behind ethics and applying tools for decision making, such as those presented in this chapter, may help practitioners make ethical choices.

Summary and Review Professional Codes of Ethics as Guidelines

• Members of groups depend upon each other to behave in the manner that the group has established as appropriate— the manner that reﬂects its norms and values. • Professional codes exist for PR practitioners and for many of the audiences with which the practitioner have frequent contact. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), and Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) have all adopted professional codes with which you should become familiar.

Summary and Review Orienting Yourself for Ethical Decision Making

• One way to orient yourself is to think about the ways in which people see things and make decisions and look for yourself in those descriptions. • Absolutists see actions as either right or wrong. Relativists believe that our values are molded over a period of our lifetime, while situationalists make decisions based on the circumstances and one case at a time. • You can judge based on what you perceive to be good intentions or what you perceive to be good results, but sometimes you will ﬁnd that there are no clear answers to ethical problems.

Summary and Review Ethical Challenges for PR Professionals

• PR professionals must look at their work as more than a job. The profession requires that the practitioner put his client and the community ﬁrst. In other words, we must value our duty above self-gain. • Ethical decision making is especially complicated because the practitioners has many audiences to consider, including clients, news media, government agencies, educational institutions, consumers, stockholders, the community, competitors, critics, and fellow practitioners. • Sometimes there is a conﬂict between the practitioner's personal values and what is required by a client or employer. • Conﬂicts of interest, violating agreements, serving as a front group, and making false statements about products are just a few ethical concerns for practitioners.

Models of Ethical PR Communication Scholars have created models to describe the way public relation practitioners communicate with their clients and society. None has been adopted by professional public relations organizations, but they present interesting ways for practitioners to look at their practice. Here are some of the pros and cons of using each model as a basis for constructing ethical standards: • Attorney-Client: In the attorney-client model, public relations practitioners are seen as functioning as lawyers do, representing a client. - The potential problem with using this model as an ethical standard is it allows for just one version of truth to be communicated, that of the client. - The interests of the public may not be served, especially if important information is withheld. (The Public Relations Society of America has said that this model does not apply to PR.) • Enlightened Self-Interest: Proponents of the enlightened self-interest model believe that if business is conducted with the public interest in mind, the business will proﬁt. To them, it is good business to behave ethically. - While this may be true, enlightened self-interest suffers as an ethical standard because actions are motivated only by proﬁt, ignoring other considerations, such as serving the common good. • Social Responsibility: The social responsibility model holds that companies have a responsibility to society. - Professors Kruckeberg and Stark go even further, suggesting that "... an ethical approach to public relations might be found through an emphasis on the restoration of the community." - While social responsibility may be a worthy standard, deﬁning exactly what a company's "social responsibilities" are may be problematic.

• Partisan and Mutual Values: According to Professor Fitzgerald, partisan values are commitment, trust, loyalty, and obedience and rest on the practitioner's obligations to his or her client or company. Mutual or "higher" values rest on respect for human rights and also need to be considered when serving the client or company. - This *partisan and mutual values model* highlights the biggest ethical challenge for public relations practitioners, balancing the interests of the client with the interests of those who are affected by the client's actions. - Should public relations practitioners place public interest above the interests of the client or company? If so, when? • Two-Way Symmetrical: Based on a theory of public relations developed by professors Larissa Grunig and James Grunig, the two-way symmetrical model says that if the talks follow ethical rules, the outcome should be ethical. - The problem with this model is that the company, not those who are inﬂuenced or affected by the company's actions, usually sets the rules. • Professional Responsibility: The professional responsibility model tries to solve the problem of balancing the interests of the client or company with interests of the public. - It holds that the public relations practitioner's ﬁrst loyalty is to his or her client or company and that he or she best serves the public interest by avoiding or minimizing harm to all those affected by the client's or company's actions.

Summary and Review: Regulating Speech

• Speech is regulated by various federal and state regulations and agencies. Federal agencies regulating speech include the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). • Many of the duties of a PR practitioner, especially media relations and writing or publications, involve regulated speech. You should familiarize yourself with federal and state regulations that apply to this type of work.

Summary and Review: Working with Lawyers

• The thriving practice of litigation PR makes extensive use of media relations and behavior research. • As it has evolved, litigation PR is a prominent part of dealing with crisis planning and management.

Summary and Review Tools for Ethical Decision Making

• Ultimately, you, your client, or the organization with which you are working are responsible for making ethical choices. • There are several decision-making tools that can give you a framework for thinking through an ethical dilemma.

Law Firms as Clients In all likelihood, more public relations ﬁrms will ﬁnd themselves advising attorneys on how to deal with the media. ****Here are some practical tips from journalists:**** • Know where the ﬁrm would like to see its attorneys' articles published. Encourage the attorneys to read the publication and build a relationship with its editors and reporters, a key to landing stories about the ﬁrm in the publication. • Before you pitch a story to a reporter, know who the reporter is. Read his or her stories to ﬁnd out what the reporter covers. If an attorney is called by an investigative journalist for questioning, encourage the attorney to do a quick background check on the journalist before talking with him or her.

• Understand timeliness and deadlines. Do not hold on to good stories; send them out to reporters or editors right away. Get back to reporters when you said you would. • Make sure the client understands the difference between "off the record" and "not for attribution." "Off the record" means the reporter cannot print what the interviewee says, in any context; the information can be printed, however, if it is gotten from other sources or becomes public. "Not for attribution" means the reporter can print the information, but not the source's name. • Advise the client to answer reporter's questions brieﬂy but truthfully and to disclose all. Do not let reporters ﬁnd out for themselves information the attorney may not want them to know. Encourage them to act like prosecutors, who will reveal plea-bargains during a trial before the defense has the opportunity to do so. • Educate legal clients about the value of public relations.

EXAMPLES OF ETHICAL VIOLATIONS WHERE PR PRACTITIONERS HAVE BEEN CRITICIZED Some of the ethical violations for which PR practitioners have been criticized in recent years include the following: • Establishing front groups, or groups of citizens and so-called "experts" who claim to represent the public interest but are really a cover for promoting the interest of the corporation. The practice is often referred to as astroturﬁng, a term coined by former U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen as a wordplay on "grassroots democracy" efforts, which are spontaneous undertakings by individuals. - Two examples of front groups: A California-based PR ﬁrm that represents SUV manufacturers created Sports Utility Vehicle Owners of America to launch efforts against proposed clean air regulations, and the Center for Consumer Freedom, largely funded by the food industry, was created to publicize what it sees as "greatly exaggerated" reports of obesity morbidity. • Conﬂicts of interest, situations in which a professional has competing professional or personal obligations, which would make it difﬁcult to fulﬁll his or her duties fairly. An example from political PR is illustrative. Mark Penn, then chief strategist for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, is also CEO of the global PR ﬁrm Burson-Marsteller, which represented the Columbian government. - When Penn met with the Columbian government ofﬁcials during the campaign, despite Clinton's opposition to a free trade agreement with the South American nation, he said his business with Columbia involved only those duties related to his ﬁrm. But he admitted that the purpose of the meeting was related to the trade agreement. - The result of this conﬂict of interest was that Penn lost his position with the Clinton campaign and Burson-Marsteller lost its contract with the Columbian government.

• Violating nondisclosure agreements, which are legally binding contracts in which a person or business promises to keep speciﬁc information as a trade secret and not disclose it to others without proper authorization. - Nondisclosure statements are internal and external documents. - PR practitioners sign these contracts when working with proprietary information from clients, and employees of PR ﬁrms are often asked to sign these agreements that are intended to keep conﬁdential the creative work of the PR ﬁrm. - For instance, if a PR practitioner is assisting in the launch of a client organization's major product innovation the practitioner is expected to keep the innovation a secret and not share it with anyone. - Similarly, if an employee of a PR ﬁrm is involved in a pitch— presentation for new business— to a client that includes a new or creative approach, the PR ﬁrm's employee is expected to keep the information conﬁdential. Also, some PR ﬁrms ask prospective clients to sign nondisclosure agreements to keep the contents of a PR approach revealed in a pitch conﬁdental. • Engaging in unfair competition or commercial activity that tends to confuse or deceive the public about the sale of products or services. • Representing dubious clients, those whose motives or behavior is suspect. An example may be the two PR practitioners who resigned from working for the "Octomom" Nadya Suleman. - Suleman is the single mother of six who gave birth to octuplets conceived through in-vitro fertilization in 2009. • Engaging in deceptive practices, which mislead consumers. • Giving gifts to the media with the intention of gaining favorable press coverage. - This is a major concern for practitioners who work with the news media who cover travel and luxury products because travel to cover quality accommodations and cruises and samples can be misconstrued as gifts. Reporters are usually prohibited from accepting travel or samples by their organizations. • Failing to safeguard conﬁdential information, resulting in leaks or use of client information.

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