West Virginia Public Broadcasting hasn’t published news about political interference at West Virginia Public Broadcasting
By Chris Roberts National Public Radio’s David Folkenflick reported today (Monday, Feb. 13, 2023) about politicians interfering with journalism at West Virginia Public Broadcasting. The organization last year dismissed a part-time reporter for several stories alleging that state-run facilities abused people with disabilities. The reporting clearly angered politicians in the state, who claimed her work […]
Never take financial tips from a Kardashian or other celebrities, especially when they don’t tell you it’s an ad
By Chris Roberts Never take financial tips from advertising. And never, ever take financial tips when it’s advertising and they don’t tell you it’s advertising. Kim Kardashian peddled EthereumMax’s crypto asset in Instagram posts in June 2021. What she didn’t do was tell her audience that she was paid $250,000 for the sales pitch. That’s […]
A Universal action: When PR’s goal is to hide the truth
By Chris Roberts Very few people knew just how devastating was the June 2008 fire at the Universal Music Group’s archives that destroyed the master recordings of thousands of musical artists – from Count Basie to Snoop Dog, Chuck Berry to Nirvana. The company made sure. In fact, it took 11 years before the public […]
Facebook’s public relations efforts raise ethical questions
The New York Times took a penetrating look at how Facebook has handled the continuing questions about how it deals with its own shenanigans, and its difficulties in stopping the shenanigans of those who would use Facebook for its own propaganda and misinformation purposes. The Times‘ “Deny, Delay and Deflect” story makes the world’s biggest […]
The Ethics of artificial intelligence: Platform magazine says public relations has to think about AI, too.
Artificial intelligence is slowly taking over the world. And, as usual, the technology is bounding far ahead of the law and the ethics. In this Platform magazine article, student writer Skylar Spencer raises some of the questions that everyone — whether in the AI business or a consumer of AI-enhanced technology — ought to be […]
Loyalties and transparency: Clients wonder what ad agencies are hiding with rebates from media companies
There’s an old saying in advertising, attributed to department store magnate John Wanamaker or to carmaker Henry Ford: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Companies that pay advertising agencies to buy media time have another worry inside one of those halves. Business Insider says a […]
What I learned from working on the Society of Professional Journalists’ new Code of Ethics
This month’s biggest personal and professional success may not make it on my tombstone, but it is a thrill to note that words I wrote are included in the Society of Professional Journalists’ new code of ethics. Delegates of the nation’s largest journalism association approved the code on Sept. 6, 2014, nearly 18 years after […]
Re/code shows the power of solid journalism, transparency
I’ve been a fan of Walt Mossberg and Karen Swisher for nearly two decades, since The Birmingham News publisher was smart enough to buy Mossberg’s weekly “Personal Technology” column from The Wall Street Journal to publish in the “My.Tech” section that I created for The News back when AOL and Windows 95 were a thing. […]
Facebook news feed emotion experiment was a failure of journalism ethics, too
News that Facebook manipulated content of nearly 700,000 users continues to make waves, and now a Democratic senator has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the company and researchers properly notified and/or debriefed users that they were being used as experimental subjects. The 2012 experiment tested whether users posted higher levels of positive […]