At Mother’s Knee

I guess the Edelman/Wal-Mart flap still has legs. More fake blogs ("flogs") revealed.

I am in 100% disagreement with those PR pros and other bloggers who are inclined to forgive Edelman this breach using the logic that "mistakes will be made" in this "new era." I object to the suggestion that we are all "learning some valuable lessons" at Edelman’s expense.

Any and all lessons that arise from this brouhaha should have been learned at our mothers’ knee. Like this one:

"Don’t lie."

Sound familiar? Maybe you heard that one from your parents at some point? Just a guess.

This is the definition of the word "flout" — "to treat with contemptuous disregard." Edelman’s Wal-Mart team flouted the rules of engagement. They knew all along that the "right thing" would be to operate transparently, yet they cynically disregarded this central rule of Social Media. They purposely misled consumers, the blogosphere, the media, et al., for as long as they could get away with it. The fact that some "junior staffers" are being blamed is pathetic.

Many people view this episode as a wake-up call about blogging. It’s not. It’s a wake-up call about ethics in general. It’s just one more dark stain on the reputation of an industry that ostensibly prides itself on Reputation Management. The fact that the PRSA remains silent, and WOMMA feebly panders (don’t bother leaving a comment for WOMMA here: it’s a moderated forum and if you are fuming mad, as I was this morning, it seems your comments are deemed invalid) just makes this ethical problem all the more odious.

Susan Getgood does a better job of maintaining a rational perspective, without giving Edelman a pass.

Update: The WOMMA page devoted to "blog disclosure" now seems to be current with its comments, and, blessedly more controversial.

Tags: edelman, wal-mart, edelman+wal-mart, flog, womma, prsa

Posted on: October 21, 2006 at 5:23 pm By Todd Defren

nellie lide says:

October 22, 2006 at 7:02 pm

Todd – it does make me sick that these pr organizations that supposedly stand for ethics won’t even listen or speak out. very depressing. as for the junior staffer question – don’t they have managers overseeing them? I don’t get it.

Jennifer says:

October 23, 2006 at 10:53 pm

I completely agree — if PRSA doesn’t take a stand they’re going to lose members — and undermine the APR. The numbers of those leaving the org will be few, but the intellectual and ethical capital in those few will never be recovered.

I just can’t believe this happened. Of course they knew — but what are they going to say? “We were going to do it for as long as we could get away with it?” *????*

How disgenuine Edelman is. All their talk of transparency and ethics was just a veil to hide their press-agentry flog. It was nothing more than window-dressing. Makes me want to leave PR once and for all. We all know if the Dixie Chicks would have just apologized, everyone would have pretty much forgiven them. But, anymore, “I’m sorry,” just isn’t cutting it. What will the case study on this be?

Apologizing isn’t cutting the mustard. Why is that? The public, and PR practitioners most of all, know that PR folks regard admission of fault and mistake as the anecdote for crisis. But, admitting fault was not the anecdote for Edelman. That’s because for some things there is no anecdote.

Mike Sacks says:

October 24, 2006 at 5:08 pm

The issue as simple as you describe. Basic lessons of honest and ethical pr practice were cast aside.

Far too many bloggers were too easily willing to say “we’ll they learned their lesson.”

If it was another agency that doesn’t so cater to net nerds, a much bigger deal would have been made. But since it’s the loveable Edelman crew, fuggetaboutit