Stories by Seth Arenstein

Earlier this month a prominent columnist, writing about White House Communications chief Hope Hicks, essentially said it is the job of PR pros to lie to the media. PRSA chief Anthony D’Angelo promptly disputed that idea. Now Hicks apparently herself told House investigators that yes, she must tell white lies sporadically as part of her job. Once again D’Angelo says such a claim is wrong.

Our weekly roundup of trends, news and personnel moves in communications and marketing. This week’s stories include the growing list of companies cutting ties to the NRA (and those that are trying to find middle ground), the unspecified inappropriate behavior that brought down a Ford president and Facebook’s apology about tweets the President cited as proof that Robert Mueller was off course.

So many communicators tell us that internal communications just might be the most difficult assignment for a PR pro. This article provides real-world examples of how two brands, Slack and Dropbox, build engagement and excitement within their ranks with the ultimate goal of creating brand advocates.

APCO spent 6 months asking 1,000 of what it called “hyper-aware and influential U.S. consumers” how much credence they put in corporate social responsibility. As you might expect, 90% of those surveyed said it was highly important. One of the more interesting takeaways is that the public judges a company’s social goodness by how well it treats employees.

The horrific events in South Florida that left 17 people dead and roughly twice that number wounded was the 25th fatal, active school shooting since Columbine in April 1999. While the shootings share many characteristics, they differed in a number of the ways communications figured into the equation.

“Honestly, I’m here to talk about the Olympics, not gossip,” gold medal winner Shaun White said in response to a reporter’s inconvenient question about a sexual harassment accusation that eventually was settled out of court. But reporters aren’t paid to stick to a star’s script, usually—the Olympic champion knows that now.

Comedian/actor Jim Carrey has begun a campaign to dump Facebook due to the company’s profiting off fake news and ads it sold to Russian agents during the U.S. presidential election. Part of Carrey’s beef is that Facebook still isn’t doing enough to stop it. He’s removed his Facebook page, given up his Facebook shares and urges concerned investors to do the same. Should Facebook consider Carrey’s actions a crisis or a bad day?

Another in our look back at social activity in 2017. Today we examine the most-engaged influencers in the businesspersons’ category.

What will be the main drivers of brand reputation when the Reputation Institute issues its Brand Trakr report next month? CEO activism, handling of fake news and rumors and workplace culture will be among the factors getting heavy play in the report, the Reputation Institute says.

As a communicator, you know what you and your immediate colleagues think of you. But what about the C-suite? Do its members consider PR highly valuable or would it take a reputation crisis to make them realize communications is a valuable part of any company? That’s what we asked some 200 communicators.