White Lies or Just Part of the Job?

 Savannah Okray 

so278618@ohio.edu 

As the power of the internet grows, so does the power of the people who produce content on it. With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, P.R. professionals and journalists and their capacity to form public opinion have only intensified. 

Although the internet helped us keep in touch with others during this scary time, it's also important to note how moving everything to the internet has made it much easier for the public to be deceived by the messages the web offers. 

Lying to transform public opinion

Some of these messages can't always be pinpointed to a specific person, as The Guardian declares in an article, "The anonymity of the web gives companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns that create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular politics." The article goes on to explain that this happens mostly when "the interests of companies come into to conflict with the interests of the public." 

In his findings, the author of this article talked to one man who was a part of a commercial team whose job was to flood online public forums and chat rooms with beliefs that would support the corporation they found themselves employed under. In this case, the man used over 70 personas to ensure no one caught him in the act. 

Although the presence of the online "robot" is ever-increasing, it's not the only way P.R. professionals and journalists can deceive us.

Leaving out information that's important for the public to know 

Online chatbots can't be entirely blamed for many of the half-truths we find on the internet. According to a report taken by The New York Times, in a meeting regarding the Russian influence in the 2016 election, the White House communications director, Hope Hicks, said: "that her work for President Trump...had occasionally required her to tell white lies."

Although she took back these claims after talking with several lawyers, this idea did not come without scrutiny from other reporters. 

Virginia Heffernan, a columnist at the L.A. Times, pointed to the P.R. profession when commenting on this article. "We know it's a crime to lie to the FBI. We knew it's a crime to lie to [special counsel Robert] Mueller. But, as Hope Hicks knows, lying to the media is traditionally called P.R." 

Credit: the Pine Log

PRSA chairman, Anthony DeAngelo refuted these claims in a penned letter to the L.A. Times stating that "Every profession can have bad actors or good people who make mistakes, and calling them out is a journalistic responsibility worth of public respect. Smearing an entire profession in the process of criticizing an individual practitioner is akin to equating Ms. Heffernan's work and the standards of the Los Angeles Times with those of the National Enquirer." He suggested that this was a "cheap shot" that allows people to call out the phrase "fake news." 

Transparency is key

Transparency is something that some journalists seem to forget about, especially in an online world where anonymity has become commonplace. However, this is a practice that shouldn't be overlooked because of its ability to influence journalistic credibility, something that has been attacked increasingly with President Trump's cries of "fake news." 

Leaving out crucial information can greatly impact how people think about the trustworthiness of journalism as a whole, which could lead to a direct attack on democracy as we know it. So, with everything in journalism, being as truthful and transparent as possible is always the best policy.