PR Pile-on Overlooks What Most PRs Do

It’s been a busy week of accusations, gnashing of teeth, and protests of innocence.

The Middle East? No, I’m talking about the ongoing debate between bloggers and journalists on one side and public relations folks on the other.

Most bloggers (and many journalists) seem to assume that the only thing a PR does all day is dream up pitches and indiscriminately spam them to innocent victims.

If that we in fact what PR was all about then I’d have no problem writing off the entire profession as a blight on society.

Steve Yoder of the Wall Street Journal takes a good stab at explaining the roles of the PR person and why journalists benefit from having a public relations person acting as the go-between (as reported on Jon Greer’s blog).

Roles: Access, spokesperson, data provider/fact checker, fair commenter, tipster, educator, reality checker, advocate, storytelling aide.

This goes way beyond what seems to be the prevailing wisdom that only sees these roles: time-waster, spammer, ignorant slob.

Meryl Evans has pulled together a good collection of links to anti-PR posts, pro-PR defences and what she calls blogging wars. And Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz are planning a panel discussion June 1 to bring together the various sides in the ongoing flame war/bitch fest/angst-o-rama.

I’m losing track of whether the back-and-forth about annoying PR pitches and spammed news releases is on its fourth, fifth or sixth round. The debate will continue, hopefully with the occasional flash of understanding and open-mindedness.

Jon Greer link via Marshall Kirkpatrick.