EVERY SO OFTEN the public relations industry plaintively wonders why journalists hold it in contempt. Well, it’s because the feeling is mutual. They’re in the business of using us. It’s often a satisfactory professional transaction, but respect rarely enters into the equation. Plus, we have different concepts of success. Our triumphs, we flatter ourselves, involve truth (or at least comeuppance). Theirs are triumphs of manipulation.
Witness the PR Campaign of the Year as awarded by PRWeek to the powerhouse firm of Weber Shandwick Worldwide for its work getting the 2008 Olympics awarded to Beijing. You have to be a subscriber to read the story online, but happily (they are good at this business, after all) WSW has been e-mailing around facsimiles of the story, which you can read here.
