chapter 6 - Chapter 6 Ethics Teaching Perspective Chapter 6...

Chapter 6: Ethics
Teaching Perspective
Chapter 6 deals with the quality that differentiates public relations from most other
practices, the quality of ethics. Today, with communications standards sagging, business
leadership reputations skewered, and lying becoming more commonplace—no subject is
more important for public relations professionals and students.
The ethical problems of the Catholic church, CEOs, political figures, and
celebrities have had a profound impact on society. When the chief executives of some of
America’s most influential companies admit to cooking the books, duping the public, and
outright lying to the shareholders, something is very wrong in our society.
In general, public relations practitioners in their unique role of representing both
the organization’s and the public’s best interests, must be ethical in all that they do. This
chapter, then, talks about the implications of ethics in public relations as well as in
business, journalism, government, and organizations generally.
Subject of the “Voice of Authority” interview in Chapter 6 is legendary New
York practitioner Howard Rubenstein. Subject of the case study is Ketchum Public
Relations, which dropped the ethical ball in 2005 in the infamous Department of
Education-Armstrong Williams case.
Among topics discussed in Chapter 6 are:
Are we doing the right thing?
Ethics in business.
Corporate codes of conduct.
Corporate social responsibility.
Ethics in government.
Ethics in journalism.
Ethics in public relations.
Speaking of Ethics: Ducking the High Hard One
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is frequently mentioned as a potential Democratic
presidential candidate.
But he let his ethical guard down badly, with the disclosure that his résumé had
been altered to suggest that he had been drafted by a major league baseball team.