Daily Detente: Five Things The Media And Public Relations Have In Common

When was the last time you saw a front page story in the Washington Post (or any other top tier media outlet) in which press secretaries and spokespeople complained about the tactics, attitude and/or work habits of the reporters they deal with every day?

Just about as often as Newt Gingrich admits mistakes, I would imagine – as in, never.

Another Day At The Office For Jay Carney

No, you won’t often see national stories casting reporters in a negative light. But at least on an annual basis, you will see stories like the December 22 Post piece about White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and his staff, headlined, “Journalists complain the White House press office has become overly combative.”

It was a classic inside-baseball, warning shot across Carney’s bow – a lump of coal as he headed into what will probably be his last holiday break before the 2012 campaign makes life a round-the-clock nightmare. Given that Carney and his staff manage the flow of information to and from thousands of reporters around the world each day, it’s amusing when the complaints of “some reporters” trigger 1,400 words that can be summed up as:  A few of us don’t like the tone by which we are being held accountable for the stories we are producing.

Two second tier reporters complained on the record. Others did so anonymously. But a majority agreed Carney is better than his predecessor, Robert Gibbs, who endured similar stories until escaping to greener pastures. Two leading reporters, including Jake Tapper, essentially told their colleagues to suck it up. And, some academic historians reminded us that griping between the media and institutional spokespeople isn't all that new.

Having been the focus of a similar mish-mash as a public sector communicator late in the last century, I want to say for the record that the relationship between PR people and members of the media should always remain professional. No one should be subjected to curses in writing or verbally. The best PR people adhere to the Public Relations Society of America’s Code of Ethics (and journalists have an ethical code too.)

There is a dynamic context that affects both sides of the communications see-saw, but reporters and PR people have more in common than they think.

We Are Doing More With Less. There are fewer reporters and fewer editors working in the established, professional media today, and those that remain are working harder than ever before in a highly competitive, 24/7 online world. The media may not realize that PR people face the exact same pressure demands, and that responding to media inquiries is not our only task.

We Are Human Beings. I often remind clients that reporters are people too. They have families, elderly parents, children, bills to pay, relationships, health issues, good days and bad days. The same is true for agency and client-side communications professionals. Everyone has a job to do, but it’s not always easy to wall off your personal and professional lives.  

We Would Like to Remain Employed. Like everyone else in this economy, we are all just one business decision or bad break away from unemployment. Every reporter and PR professional with more than three years of experience is well aware of the dozens of former colleagues who have been laid off.  Reporters used to deride PR as “the dark side.” You don’t hear that snicker too often these days.

We Both Suffer From Bad Actors. There is less professionalism in journalism because, frankly, everyone has become a reporter in the wireless world. Anyone with Internet access can pretend to be a reporter, analyst or (even better) commentator and – with some ingenuity – reach thousands of people who may or may not know the difference. And there are equally amateurish PR people who send mindless pitches, who lie, who obstruct.

We Are Advocates Whose Goals May Not Intersect. Many government reporters justify their behavior because taxpayers pay the salaries of spokespeople. Positioned as stewards of the public interest, they expect public sector communicators to act as their facilitators. But spokespeople also act as reputation managers for their clients. As Bob Dylan wisely noted, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody.”

There is and always will be a natural, healthy tension between the media and public relations. Neither profession is particularly popular. Given the complexity of the relationship, our collective goal should always be détente. If we can turn the lights off at the end of the day content in the knowledge that we have been respectful and fair to each other, isn’t that enough?