The Blog DoggerThe widening gap between ethics and communicators

An informal poll showed PR pros unaware of ethics code, PR celebrates itself in Philly, IABC defends itself online and the Strumpette resurfaces

A blogger’s informal poll of PR pros revealed not a single respondent knew the details of the PRSA code of ethics. Lou Covey, a corporate communications consultant and blogger at State of the Media, said he recently polled 100 PR pros and journalists mainly in the San Francisco Bay area. Twenty-five percent responded: One PR pro made reference to the Association of Business Publication Editors and another made mention of the PRSA.

However, zero PR pros “could identify a code of ethics in the PRSA,” according to Covey. Several PR respondents said they adhered to internal codes of ethics at their respective companies, although none of those codes were available to the public.

“The bottom line here,” Covey writes, “is that I fear we’ve come to a place where the professional communicators on both sides (PR and news gatherers) have taken the issue of ethics so for granted that it no longer means anything.”