When I began my career, the world was different in many ways. For one,
there was a free press. No longer.

Hold on. Hold on. Let me explain. The media used to report the news.   Some
better than others but they reported the news in a straightforward way.

Today, there is new media, traditional media, right wing media, left wing media and completely irresponsible media. This stew of media poses problems and questions for PR professionals. Who do we take a story to? Who do we avoid? Who do we risk alienating with a genuine and legitimate story that a particular media source takes umbrage with? All of this, unfortunately, makes our jobs more difficult and our nation less reflective of the principles that guided the Founding Fathers.

Take a real world current example. This winter, a CNBC reporter issued  a call for  Americans to rally against government spending by holding modern-day tea parties. The White House found the call a threat to the  President’s plans and took the reporter to task. CNBC itself is a media outlet dividied, half leaning right and half leaning left. Therefore, a debate began inside the network and its parent NBC, which is decidely left on most issues.

Then the balance of the media jumped into the fray, with most of the traditional media agreeing with the White House and Fox News heavily  on the side of those who decided to take up the reporter’s call and actually launch plans for tea parties on April 15, tax day.

For PR professionals with clients inclined to become  involved in the story–tax services, affinity groups, authors, political pundits– who to approach with a completely non political pitch became a minefield. Although the tea parties were going on around the nation, some of the media
refused to cover them, some made them headline news, others said they were more about Rush Limbaugh than taxes and drive by shooters in on the Internet impugned the reputation of people on both sides of the issue, not on the merits of spending and saving but on patriotism, racism and conspiracies.

I have known for some time that the media has been reduced to this  sorry state in our history. But on April 15, I watched in near disbelief as media, online and off, made decisions whether or not to cover significant protests inside the US and whether to hail or nail the men and women who decided to participate and those who did not.

I used to wonder if a story would be of interest to a reporter, editor, producer. That has always been part of sound PR. Now we all  have to wonder if we don’t get blacklisted by bringing ideas that are counter to the reporter, editor, producer’s politics.

That is not a free press. As PR professionals our world has changed.  It may not be politcally correct to talk about it, but we have to learn how to swim in new waters. And they are infested with sharks.