Watching the Bad News

 

No news flash here when I say Japan has had an earthquake and a tsunami. No shock when I mention the Fukushima nuclear power plant either. But something that did catch my attention happened when I was watching the reports. The Japanese government had told reporters that the Fukushima plant was not in as much critical damage as everyone was making it out to be. The American report in response asked the anchor if the government had said this because it was true or was it a PR move.

At the moment I was a bit offended that he would look for the deceit in such a tragic time, but then I began to wonder. I wouldn’t want to be lied to about something like that! Yet the people have already been through so much pain and confuse, to alert them to another danger before they are sure it will happen might be a bad idea. The people would panic making evacuation nearly impossible. Holding back information until after people evacuate could help things move more smoothly and the people would be safe regardless of the lie.

I don’t think PR should be conducted in a lie. If there is no standard of truth then companies and government would never have to make good on what they say. At the same time, I can understand the move of removing people from harm first before working them up. I can’t say whether the government was right in this approach or not. The plant hasn’t fully exploded so they might have been telling the truth and the reported was assuming the worst for nothing. Still, it gets me thinking about the role PR ethics plays even during tragedy.

I’ll continue praying for this country and for its leadership.

Because It’s What We Believe!

 

So imagine speaking on behave of your city to prevent a lawsuit; now imagine you were mayor Gow Fields fighting for the city of Lakeland’s right to hold optional prayer before a City Commissions meeting. The organization Atheists of Florida has placed a lawsuit against the city of Lakeland as can be read in the Lakeland Ledger.  It’s not a comfortable place to be I’m sure for the mayor. The prayer was optional and didn’t mention to which God it was addressed. Besides draining the city’s treasury, this law suit infringes on the city’s tradition of praying before meetings since the city’s establishment.

Is there a compromise that can be reached between these two groups? Probably not. Regardless of whether the city is sticking up for religion, tradition or just praying as a sign of respect, Atheists view it as an outright attack to their beliefs; the city sees the Atheists as senselessly attacking their values in government. A funny statement when you come to think of it. Atheist claim not to believe in a god and yet feel threatened when one is mentioned. The city government is actually taking the time to acknowledge that it might not be all about them and they’re getting attacked for it. Mixed messages everywhere.

Being the situation is only going to intensify, what can be done to build public relations between these two groups . . ? That I’m not sure any PR practitioner couldn’t solve, and yet government needs to keep high standings with its citizens in order to function, and of course if this organization wants to keep good standings with government and citizens their going to have to do a lot of PR work. (No one’s going to support a group that took their tax dollars). The city tried to reach a compromise by moving the pray to before the meeting officially starts, but that hasn’t lessened the organization’s feelings that a lawsuit is still needed.

Another interesting bit of info happens when the city of Bartow repeated Lakelands ‘mistake’ by allowing prayer before the school board meeting. However, board Chairman Kay Fields said that the meeting hadn’t officially started yet so no case could be made. In my opinion, the best way for this to be solved is if Lakeland continued to place the prayer before official meetings can be conducted this way there is no respecting religions in the meeting and Atheists can step outside it they feel offended. Likewise, the Atheists of Florida need to drop the lawsuit.