‘The best PR is premised on truth’

The best PR is premised on truth. It’s a phrase that seems to say everything, yet really tells us nothing. Of course, the best PR is premised on truth. So is the best journalism. So are the best business practices. For ethical and for ultimately self-serving reasons, since dishonesty usually comes back to bite one in the proverbial backside.

“In fact, the best PR is premised on truth …” wrote Richard Edelman in a paragraph curiously buried at the bottom of a March 29 blog post in which he took “exception” to Jeffrey Goldberg’s New Yorker article, “Selling Wal-Mart,” about Edelman’s client and the role of the agency in helping Wal-Mart craft an image makeover. And, having given us his take on p.r. and truth, Edelman continued, “…and that is why Wal-Mart’s leadership on environment, prescription drug prices and affordable products is getting favorable coverage.”

Again, perhaps a true statement in that there may be a linkage between good p.r. and truth and favorable coverage on those particular issues (I’d have to review coverage to be sure on the latter). But, it is certainly an equally uninformative statement. At least, in terms of the focus of the Goldberg piece, which was on the use of current and former Edelman executives in crafting a new positive image, an exercise apparently designed to diffuse critical coverage of the company on issues related to “driving American jobs overseas,” its being a reportedly “heartless” employer, etc.

The best advice any public relations firm that premises its work on truth can give a client is that if you’ve got a problem, fix it – ‘fess up, tell what you’ve done to correct the problem and move on to the many positive things you are doing. It’s the old “when you’re in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging” school of advice. Trying to help a company mask its problems with other initiatives or justifying a p.r. approach with utterances that clearly don’t connect with the reality of a client’s situation is a true disservice.

Richard Edelman can object to Goldberg’s coverage, but the critical media coverage will continue – witness the additional critical stories in the past week in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the latter picked up and run nationwide by the Associated Press. Only when Wal-Mart stops digging a hole and tries to correct the situations that are the focus of the critical reporting will it be able to effectively put forward the positive things it is doing – hopefully with Edelman’s help.

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