Before I am accused of being “Debbie Downer,” how about our friend "Jaded Jack"? Only last week curmudgeon, sweetheart and the single-most-important chronicler of the PR Industry ever, Jack O'Dwyer, wrote an Op-Ed nearly pleading with the Industry's association PRSA to stand up and do something about the PR reputation problem. Jack said, "With no PR organization presenting a positive view of PR, PR's bad press has continued unabated." Jack sums up the problem and paints a pretty grim picture:

"The New York Times' Frank Rich described PR as 'empty gestures,' lack of 'substance' and press avoidance while Der Spiegel called PR pros 'Masters of Deception.' Most Americans think PR is just another 'sales tool,' a Harris/PRSA poll found. In other words, PR is a selfish activity of organizations that lacks redeeming public service qualities."

Yikes!

And then to top it off, there was the release of Sharon Barclay's research study last week, "The Prevalence of Women in PR." Of the 10 key reasons Barclay cites, the #1 reason is that women philologically have 10 times the white matter as men... which makes them superior at lying.

"What’s more interesting is that the extra white matter in women’s brains also means they’re better liars whether they like it or not. According to research by Yaling Yang and Adrian Raine, both of the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences (published in the October 2005 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry), more white matter – the wiring in the brain – helps in the formulation of deceptions. 'More white matter may provide liars with the tools necessary to master the complex art of deceit.'"

Hmmmmm. Ironic. Reputation managers valued for their ability to lie. I would imagine an accountant would have a lot of cachet after having done time for embezzlement. Or how about surgeons with high mortality rates? Or the arsonist as fireman? The mind swims. Funny. But not as funny as the PR Industry's response.

Richard Edelman, CEO of one of the world’s largest PR firms, addresses the Der Spiegel article in his blog. Forget the body of his post with all the dodging, puffing and pointing fingers. The “tell” is in the title, i.e. “Hit Me with Your Best Shot, Again and Again.”

Hit me again and again?! How loaded is that? Putting aside any potential that Richard is calling out for some German dominatrix to spank his quivering alabaster bottom… what that says is that he’s totally desensitized. He’s numb and apparently not alone. The very mechanism that a healthy marketplace relies on to self correct, is out of whack. WMD’s, Katrina, the daily horror in Baghdad, etc., etc, etc., we’re info overloaded and take awful all in stride. As my buddy Carmine Giovinazzo is like to say investigating this week’s murder on CSI-NY, “Wadyagonnado.”

So, how bad of a spanking are we getting? According to Custom Research Worldwide which produces the GfK Trust Index -- a survey of some 20 thousand respondents in 19 countries as to the levels of trust people have in professional groups like lawyers, journalists, the clergy, managers, doctors, the military, and the police -- politicians (PR’s more flamboyant colleagues) are at the bottom of the barrel. So what.

So what?! Excuse me but after a while, being at the bottom labels you and keeps you at the bottom.

Well, apparently that’s already happened. PR’s become cultural stereotype. It’s the perfect straw man. Want to win a public debate? Want to neutralize an opponent's agenda? Accuse them of PR. Here, this caught my eye a few weeks ago.

Schools push to win pupils
Catherine Jun
The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Hoping to stem the tide of students leaving the city's public schools, the district will spend $500,000 on a marketing plan this summer that will include television and radio ads, billboards and posters on city buses.

Using the slogan "Come Home to DPS," the ads will highlight Detroit Public Schools' high-achieving schools and niche programs aimed at attracting families who have left for charter schools or neighboring districts.

Last year, the district lost about 11,500 students. District officials say a similar campaign stemmed what could have been a bigger loss.

So what did the program’s opponents do? Perfect political-communications strategy… they accused the school board of PR. Jeanne Allen, President Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C., wrote in an Op-Ed: “Public relations won't buy better Detroit schools.”

Is a $500,000 campaign to promote Detroit schools a smart investment in education?

Not only will their efforts likely fail, but it is public money squandered that could have been spent trying to provide a better education for children.

That money could buy 100 scholarships for children to private schools that succeed in educating and providing community and family to children who often have none. It could help 10 charter schools expand services. It could pay bonuses to the best and brightest of Detroit's teaching force, avoiding the potential departure of at least 100 top-notch professionals who often leave within their first few years, fed up with the stifling and bureaucratic environment.

Get serious about student achievement rather than PR, and you'll be amazed at how much you'll accomplish -- at a fraction of the cost.

Fact is, the majority of the money is earmarked for media buys (advertising). Allen knows that. But to accuse DPS of PR is absolutely the same as accusing them of frivolous waste.

I am reminded of a recent article in the Herald Tribune on the unspoken rules of sporting insults. Even trash talk has its accepted limits. But to accuse someone of PR... well... that’s got to be over the top. It’s not quite “hate speech,” but it is way past name calling.

So, again, is it beyond repair? As I said, sure looks that way. As O’Dwyer so often points out, if PR and especially PRSA cannot clean up their own house, how can they be expected to change the Industry’s perception globally? Not likely.

How’d that happen? How’d we get in this mess? It’s a long story. Suffice to say we are living the prediction made some 15 years ago by Larissa Grunig, Elizabeth Lance Toth, Linda Childers Hon in their seminal book, “Women in Public Relations: How Gender Influences Practice.” We are seeing the business of PR being relegated to the level of typing pool. But this pool is not populated by the straight-backed well-groomed girls of the Institut Alpin Videmanette in Rougemont. In the eye of the public it’s comprised mainly of inflated egos, hucksters, liars and out-and-out swindlers who spend their days role-playing business and trying to invent new methods for surreptitious selling.

“So? So what? Billing has never been better. Go ahead... hit me with your best shot,” you say. “I will likely forget it on my way to the bank.”

But for some of us, we are very uncomfortable with what the business has become. We remember when dignity, ethics and integrity were first and foremost. Good PR is grounded in truth; and a good PR pro helps you present your best case grounded in truth. PR isn't how to lie better; it's how to tell the truth better.

The two seem almost irreconcilable. In a word, the PR business sure seems “hopeless”.

POST SCRIPT

As I was writing this, Jack reminded me “We have to give these people hope... or they'll complain.” He’s right.

The challenge then is how to gracefully deal with hopelessness. Here, by way of a little story: The mother of one of my closest friends in college was a congresswomen. Amazingly talented and totally inept when it came to anything domestic. Not domestic as in the U.S. but rather, domestic as in her home. It was a TOTAL disaster. Affluence notwithstanding, there was just piles of stuff everywhere. Where something landed, it stayed. Consequently, she had a theory: the livability of a home is 5 years, 7 if larger that 4,000 sq. ft.

Bottom line: I think we just need to measure the square footage of PR and work the equation. I am thinking that it just may be time to move. The House of PR is dead.