By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)
The headline from a front-page story published in today’s Chicago Tribune certainly drove me to devour the entire piece in the print edition, which I always read while taking the CTA Blue Line el to work on many weekdays. Here it is: “Ex-Loretto Hospital exec wages bizarre PR campaign.”
You can read the article from this gift link I received.
While I applaud the Tribune for publishing this excellent and well-researched report from Jason Meisner, I would ask editors to please consider refraining from incorporating any reference to the practice of public relations when it’s quite clear — well, at least to me and hopefully many others in the profession — that a critical element of the article falls very, very far short of being accurate when concerning public relations.
As noted in the piece, a former Chicago-area healthcare executive was charged by federal prosecutors with embezzling some $300 million in non-existent COVID-19 tests at the height of the pandemic. The executive, who fled the U.S. last year after another theft indictment was filed, apparently has embarked on an effort to re-establish his “credibility” by claiming to have initiated a wide range of philanthropic “initiatives.”
These are outlined in this communications document — I will not refer to this unadulterated piece of garbage as a “news release” — which, as noted by the Tribune, contains not only glaring errors, but does not include statistics to substantiate the claims made. The weblink leads to a site that will be “Launching Soon.” The article also recounts previous communications from the alleged embezzler to altruistic programs that do not exist or are unsubstantiated.
One big question: Did an actual communications firm “craft” these messages?
I would share more, but my blood pressure already is on the rise.
Now, let me please reiterate to members of the news media and to anyone who will read the balance of this post:
- The scope of the practice of public relations is centered around honesty, adherence to established ethics, and supporting an open disclosure of information. In essence, it’s about building awareness for, acceptance of, and action towards something that’s good or positive.
- Individuals acknowledged as brutal dictators do not practice “public relations.” (The author of this document needs to be educated.)
- There really is no such thing as “good PR” and “bad PR.” There’s positive media exposure and negative media exposure. Again, public relations is a communications practice.
There. My blood pressure finally is going down.
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