ABSTRACT
Public relations has suffered from a bad reputation for virtually all of its history. That bad reputation is based on rather convenient arguments that cite limited and selected examples of unethical or unlawful public relations to say that the entire profession is inherently evil. Because of this kind of card-stacking against public relations, misunderstandings about the profession and negative stereotypes prevail. Sadly, then, the unethical or unlawful behavior of one PR professional can adversely affect everyone as people can often find it easier to point out the bad because it is not supposed to happen, whereas good things are expected and, therefore, are not noteworthy. Such a negative orientation is highly skewed and unreasonable. As we will see in this chapter, public relations operates in many of the grey areas of ethics and law, but clarity about ethics and the law with clients and our own organizations not only mitigates any problems, but it also substantiates the overwhelming efficacy of the profession.
