Saxum|PR

USA Today ran an article today by Seth Brown titled How public relations helps steer opinion and the news. It was generally off-base and full of old stereotypes. It is time to end the debate of the necessity of public relations. In a world where brands are one YouTube clip away from financial ruin, employing the assistance of professional communicators to help explain complicated, and sometimes messy, situations in plain English has never been more important.

The Internet and 3G networks have changed the definition of “reporter” from someone who is a credentialed journalist into someone who has an iPhone and a Twitter account.

Gathering quality news content continues to be a costly venture for an industry that feeds a public that believes information should be free. To make matters worse, our collective attention span has never been narrower, yet we are absorbing more content than ever before. As a journalist, how can you gather the quality content your editor demands and the public expects while still getting all the facts straight? Enter public relations professionals.

The public relations professional can be to reporters what Robin is to Batman. We are both working toward ideals all humanity can believe in – the truth. We are a team. We work together to get the story right. Not because we are ideologues and our clients pay us to get it right, but because we have to get it right. If not, we would be out of business. The public does not condone liars or cheats and most of us are neither. Like all partners, there are times for disagreement, but a harmonious relationship is how we survive.

Spin and scumbags are old terms used to describe our profession by those who still believe classifieds advertisements are found in the daily paper and the evening news is actually a 30-minute television show watched by most Americans. The world has changed and our profession has changed with it.