Is Cohen calling the kettle black?

June 11th, 2008 by Julie Napieralski

Usually I steer clear of political discussions. Ray has far more passion for politics than I do, but this case hit close to home for me so I couldn’t resist.

Last week, CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen blasted the public relations profession in a commentary that was in response to the release of Scott McClellan’s new book. There were revelations that the former White House Press Secretary lied about important policy decisions made by the Bush Administration.

You can read the original commentary for yourself, I’m not here to refute his every point. In fact, I agree with him in that McClellan’s dishonesty has painted an ugly picture of our profession. PRSA has responded admirably to this issue, as they should. As a dues paying member, and our local chapter’s board member in charge of advocacy issues, I am grateful.

But here is my issue with Cohen’s “flak” about public relations professionals. Cohen makes the claim in his commentary that public relations professionals are trained to be dishonest, and basically calls us all a bunch of liars. In my experience, there are only two absolutes in this world (that’s death and Christmas bonuses, right?). Anyone who speaks in absolutes is generally lying, or at least grossly exaggerating to make a point. Cohen’s exaggeration (which he admits to here) makes him no better than the dishonest flacks he describes in his original commentary.

He played it perfectly. Cohen wanted to make a point and he wanted people to hear it. So, he took some liberties – at the risk of damaging the reputation of others – to make it happen. And, it worked. Everyone is talking about Andrew Cohen. I bet his publicist is smiling.

This entry was posted by Julie Napieralski on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 and is filed under News, Public Relations, Rants and Raves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.