Re: Laura Miller and PR

Another PR-company-owning FrontBurnervian sheds still more light on the issue:

Clearly, Laura presumes in her denial that public relations is simply “publicity” or the pursuit of publicity.

The Public Relations Society of America, probably the first among many public relations associations, defines public relations in a complex manner. But “publicity” in not mentioned. Laura’s work for the coal company probably fits squarely in the middle of this definition.

The 100-year old “father” of public relations, Edward Bernays, said in 1992:

“Seventy years ago, H.L. Mencken wrote in The American Language that public relations’ is a substitute for ‘press agent.’ I got him to accept my definition when he wrote his supplement to that work. In that supplement, he identifies a public relations practitioner as ‘an applied social scientist who gives advice to clients or employers on social
attitudes and the actions to take to win the support of the publics on whom the viability of the client or employer depends.’”

Methinks she protests too much.