By Jim Wittebols
Buffalo, NY – Many times before have I used this space to address the growing problematic influence of public relations efforts on the kind of news you and I get from mainstream media. This month's segment from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting brings us a fly on the wall perspective on the relationship between media outlets and pr mavens. As much as I read and am aware of situations like those described here shortly, when I heard this one, I was appalled.
We know that PR professionals work hard to get "puff pieces" placed into the news. Less well known is that journalists and editors often meet with PR flaks to suggest how to get better access to the news media. That's what was on the agenda at a meeting of the Publicity Club in New York on January 23rd. According to a report in a PR trade publication, Newsweek's top editor suggested cultivating a long-term relationship with writers and editors, writing them frequent hand-written notes to "develop a moment that can be shared." Newsweek also announced that it will be unveiling a new "soft" news section called "Focus" and seemed to indicate that PR professionals should target this part of the magazine. "It will open up opportunities for quick hits." The editor also suggested that publicists should "hammer" the reporters who work on the section with their pitches. Sounds like a great section to skip in Newsweek if you're looking for, well, news. -- from the public radio program Counterspin produced by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
So, Newsweek is holding seminars to tell PR specialists how they can best use the magazine for their purposes. Amazingly, Newsweek still has the nerve to call what they do journalism. Of course there is mutual benefit for both the news media and the PR practitioners. The benefits to PR folks are that their propaganda appears in a cloak of journalism. For media outlets, the cost of putting out a paper or producing a news show is lowered when you have agents paid by news sources doing your work for you.
The Pentagon long ago learned these lessons-inundate reporters with enough material to prevent them from sniffing around for news that may not be as favorable. Thus Pentagon public information offices are well staffed and effective at taming what little critical impulses may exist.
More subtly, government/press relations operate similarly. And the recent spate of official events and ceremonies surrounding Hamid Karzai's world tour are an example of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. We have been treated a series of PR events that have little bearing to what's happening on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The image of Hamid Karzai as a moderate leader who is intent on integrating his society with the rest of the world contrasts with some of the realities of his country and government.
During this time there has been a steady deterioration of his shaky coalition government in Afghanistan. While some mention of this is made in passing in U.S. media, media in other countries are fully pointing out that crime is rampant in the capital of Kabul (recall that crime is what made Afghanis welcome the Taliban into power). You can also learn about warlords in various parts of the country setting up their mini-states or reinventing feudalism. The result of a media focus on Karzai as he is paraded around world capitals is that Afghanistan and the future of U.S. involvement is seen in rosy terms.
You will find scores of reporters, producers and photographers at these dignified looking "official" events. The hard and far less glamorous work is to find the reality behind the veneer. Don't rely on outlets like Newsweek or CNN to get you to that reality before things get too bad to ignore. Get off the beaten media path and seek sources of information that get away from the coats and ties and value the old fashioned reportorial "sniff on the ground."
Against the grain, I'm Jim Wittebols.
Dr. Jim Wittebols is a professor of Commmunication Studies at Niagara University.