Is PR cynicism tainting internal comms?

This is kind of incestuous (but in a totally innocent electronic kind of way), but I wanted to draw people to a fascinating post from Sue Dewhurst on the Black Belt Dojo blog.

Sue has been blogging about a debate held by industry publication PR Week in front of an audience of PR professionals and students who ended up voting against a motion that 'PR has a duty to tell the truth.'

Or as Millwall FC fans would sing 'No-one likes us, we don't care' (at least they've got the excuse of not having had media training).

If you view your job as being only to look after the interests of your paymasters without regard for long-term damage, without regard to your own reputation, you eventually lose your ability to do your job.

In that light of what Sue says, is internal comms at risk of being tarred by the same brush, the internal equivalent to its cynical external brethren?

I think the answer is dependent on how you do your job. Be seen to be an honest broker, and people will trust you. Try to defend the indefensible, and people will lose faith.

Comments

[Kevin Pearce]

Millwall fans, explosions in Second Life, whatever next?

[Sue Dewhurst]

I wonder what the outcome would be if you asked a roomful of IC people to debate whether WE have a duty to tell the truth? How quickly would people get into a discussion of 'well, it depends how you define the truth ...'

Personally I never like putting the words 'open and honest' together. Sometimes there are good reasons why you can't be open - things can be market sensitive, could be helpful for competitors, may cause more harm than good by being discussed ahead of time. But I don't think there's ever a good reason for lying.

When people ask 'why should we say we're doing this?' I usually say 'well why ARE we doing it? What's the truth?' We should have the skills to understand where people will come from, explain the truth well, and help them come to their own conclusions about why it's the right thing to do. And if we're desperately uncomfortable about telling the truth, it's time to look again at the business decision itself and see if it's the right one - not look to the internal comms person to make something up and then use their skills to make the lie look credible.