Solomon
Today, departing from an institution steeped in modernity, you say farewell to a
fine journalism school. Honored to address this graduating class, I will speak
with uncommon candor about the wisdom of your training and the opportunities
that lie ahead.
You
have studied how to write news articles and contrive news releases; how to dig
for truth and how to obscure it; how to produce journalistic sensations as well
as public relations; in short, how to unspin and spin. Like many others around
the country, this school of journalism imparts vital skills of reporting and
distorting.
Last
year, the national journalism magazine The Quill noted what is now occurring on
hundreds of college campuses: "Future newspaper reporters and broadcast
journalists regularly share classes and crowded curricula with aspiring public
relations managers and advertising copywriters." What an idyllic, pastoral,
almost biblical scene this evokes, with lion and lamb bedding down together.
Allow
me to extend the metaphor. It is neither cost-effective nor necessary to be at
each other’s throats. We all rely on the creative use of words and images. Why
perpetuate past rifts between journalists and PR professionals? Why polarize
when we can synthesize? For a fresh generation of media pros, a new modus
vivendi awaits.
Some
object to the efficacy of such pragmatism. We hear claims that public relations
and journalism are incompatible. These are different functions, the naysayers
moan. In recent years, they have steadily lost academic ground. Yet resistance
has not disappeared.
At
the University of Maryland, in 1998, the college of journalism went so far as to
boot out the public relations program. But some big guns in the PR industry
counterattacked and raised hell with top officials at the university. According
to the publication PR News, the embattled program got lots of backing from
"corporate communicators at deep-pocketed companies." Surviving handsomely, the
PR program found a new home at the department of communication.
I’ve
heard complaints from people like Dave Berkman, a retired professor of mass
communication at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where he was chair of
the department for a few years. He argues that when students take courses in
public relations, they’re learning to become "professional liars." He calls PR
"the antithesis of what journalism is supposed to be."
Berkman taught mass communication for 21 years, and now he doesn’t want to give
up the ghost. He laments that many college journalism departments now feature
public relations as the dominant program of study — and he alleges that "to
house PR with journalism is to give public relations an imprimatur of respect
and propriety that belies its inherently corrupt and corrupting nature." I say,
make that guy an offer he can’t refuse! Ha ha.
Unfortunately, he won’t pipe down about the public relations biz. "On the
occasions where truth and the client’s interests coincide, then you go with the
truth," Berkman grouses. "But because you are paid to make the client or the
client’s cause look good, truth can never win when it conflicts with the
client’s interests." And he goes on: "The purpose of journalism is to ferret out
the truth. The purpose of PR is to protect your client."
But
consider the glorious career of David Brinkley. After decades at NBC and ABC
News, he moved on to voice lofty TV spots touting the humanitarian goals of
agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland. You got a problem with that?
As
students, perhaps you feel a twinge of sympathy for Professor Berkman when he
asks rhetorically, "How do I teach a kid in Reporting 101 to go after the truth
and teach a kid in PR 101 how to lie?"
It’s
best to consider Berkman a spoilsport when he contends: "Journalism and public
relations don’t belong under the same academic roof. It’s like teaching
astronomy and astrology in the same department."
Hey,
the wall has fallen. The free market is our secular faith. To those who resist
the convergence, I say, "Get over it!"
In
the current media environment, only the intemperate fail to realize when
missions can be synergistic rather than antagonistic. Look at it this way: In
journalism, the job is to be as truthful as possible. In public relations, the
job is to be as misleading as necessary. Surely, we can find plenty of common
ground. In any case, build your career by proceeding discreetly to scope out the
limits. See what you can get away with.
Congratulations to each and every graduate. Go out there and search for truth.
But please, don’t carry the lantern too high.
Norman Solomon’s latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media." His
syndicated column focuses on media and politics.