• Undisclosed payments to PR man and part-time journalist Armstrong Williams by the U.S. Department of Education, through Ketchum Public Relations, to praise a Bush administration program, "No Child Left Behind," in his reporter and commentator role.
• Another of the big agencies, Fleishmann-Hillard, involved in an overbilling and misrepresentation scandal at City Hall that resulted in criminal charges being filed and dismissal of key agency staff members.
• Paid Video News Releases (VNRs) that were not labeled as such but passed off as independent news reports.

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), often criticized for being quiet on key issues, is beginning to speak out. Judith Phair, the 2005 president of PRSA, recently testified at Congressional hearings on the ethics of VNRs. She has also spoken out on national media.

She discussed PR's problems with Virgil Scudder on May 25. Following are excerpts of that interview.

Scudder: What exactly is PRSA's position regarding video news releases?

Phair: Our code of ethics calls for disclosure of all sources of information. A VNR is the video version of a press release and should be clearly marked as to where it comes from. We have said very strongly that there should be no attempt in a VNR to present someone as a neutral source who is not.

I'll cite the famous Karen Ryan example. It ends with "This is Karen Ryan reporting." That is misleading. What we ask is that she say "This is Karen Ryan from the Department of Education."

People who practice public relations responsibly, ethically, and credibly have no trouble at all revealing the source of information. In fact, they endorse it.

Scudder: Do you think the TV stations would use that if she did?

Phair: I think they would. Virgil, quite frankly you've got a lot of (local) TV stations with huge news holes to fill.

Scudder: What about Ketchum and the Armstrong Williams situation? I assume that what happened there violates PRSA's code of ethics.

Phair: It certainly does. He [Williams] was functioning as a reporter, but he also had a public relations agency. And, therefore, he was interviewing, for example, [former Education Secretary] Rod Paige without disclosing that he was doing the interview in his function as public relations person [for Paige]. It's an absolute conflict of interest. And, certainly a violation of the PRSA code.

Scudder: The reputation of PR and American news media are both very low right now.

Phair: Exactly.

Scudder: What do you think should be done?

Phair: I see this two ways, Virgil. I certainly see the fact that we have taken a series of hits over the last several months, so you have a perfect storm in a way. You've got the overbilling issue with a branch of Fleishman-Hillard in Los Angeles, and people saying they worked for a government agency in the city when in fact they were working for Fleishmann. You've got the Armstrong Williams case, you've got the ongoing VNR case, you've got reporters in some instances who were being paid by different government agencies writing stories without disclosing that payment and presenting themselves as neutral sources. We can't afford any of these things in our industry.

But, the upside of this is that this is an opportunity for us to step up and acknowledge what is wrong. And, number two, [point out] what is right and what we are going to [do] to make sure things are right in the future. There is a responsibility for big agencies to examine their practices and to say, "here is what we're going to do to prevent these sorts of things from happening in the future."

Public relations has done many good things. There are many wonderful campaigns that we've been part of. We help facilitate the free flow of information in a democracy. That means we have responsibilities, and the media have responsibilities.

Scudder: How well are the media meeting their responsibilities?

Phair: It's hard to be categorical because different media are dealing with different kinds of problems. I see some lapses in the media, which I don't excuse at all, but I see the lapses as coming from this need for speed, not checking of sources as was done in the past because you've got to get the story out fast before somebody else gets it. We're all dealing in a new media world and we need to examine how we operate.

Scudder: Are you optimistic?

Phair: Yes, Virgil, I am optimistic because I think that when problems come all at once they focus you. Do I think all the problems are over? Probably not, and I think we have to acknowledge that. But I see many people in the industry speaking out on ethical issues-people like Richard Edelman, for example-saying we have to take action and that's good news. I think it's going to be a long, hard road but, yes, I am optimistic.