Collegiate Times

You are definitely a nutcase - We have never employed a psychologist. I can tell that you are a 20 something without any experience in the world. Grow up.

Wow. You really need to research PR before writing about it. Most of the things you talked about aren't even driven by Public Relations. Test scores? That's about government funding. Liability insurance? Um, that's about our legal system and how often plaintiffs score huge paydays after slipping on a wet floor.

At its worst, PR tries to sell you on something. At its best, PR creates the dialog between an organization (company, school, candidate) and its key publics (customers, students, employees, constituents).

Packaged food? Yes, it's not "whole food" or "fresh food," and while I agree that whole and fresh is better for you, packaged food is shelf stable, provides variety even out of season, and can be safer. The canning process began long before WWII. Besides, people buy what they want and like, not what they're duped to buy. That might work once, but if they didn't like the product, they'd not buy it again.

Anyway, I know this is probably a college assignment for you or something you can tuck into a portfolio to get a job. My advice is to not share it with potential employers. It's not very well-written and would have benefitted from a fact-checking process.

PR is a tool. It is not the foundation. The foundation is the product/viewpoint/case/etc., that a person, or company, or organization has. People are hired and paid to utilize their PR skills to accomplish goals, the same way advertising people are paid to create ads. Now I don't see you bashing the large advertising firms that doctor the images to create incredibly skinny models for fashion mags. Are they at fault or are the brands they represent, who want to portray a certain image, at fault?

PR is a tool; just like water hoses are for fireman, a 9-iron is for Elin, and your bong is for smoking weed. So just relax, get into the work force and see how quickly your views change of things. OK?

The first thing I noticed when reading this editorial piece (after about a paragraph or two) is that much of what infuriates this writer is not a result of PR. I agree with most of the previous comments to this editorial piece, therefore will not be redundant and repeat.
I think it may help writers like this one to share what infuriates me about some of the media. It is not the job of the media to provide an opinion, unless editorial, but to share with the public information. It is vital to a journalists job to research the subject, find the ALL the CORRECT facts, and then report to the public.

For the sake of being redundant, my only comment is that maybe you should research what public relations is before writing a post about it.

The extent to which the author misunderstands just about everything he's talking about would be saddening if I could just get past my utter amazement.

First of all, PR and advertising are NOT the same thing. Never have been, never will be.

Second, blaming PR for the bulk of our nation's woes since WWII takes all of the responsibility from those who are actually responsible and puts it on some nameless, faceless group of evil PR pros. If you think we got into an unjust or unfounded war, blame the people who put us there, not these imagined messengers.

Finally, subliminal advertising? Really?

I also do not want to be redundant and restate what several respondants have already said. As someone who majored in communication and recently completed a large portion of my education that was devoted to PR, I can tell you that PR's focus is not on the spinning and lies that you claim it to be, but instead is rooted in social sciences, research, understanding, rationality, measurement, and ethics. If you truly understood the PR world you would know that PR professionals are usually the first ones to call out those that do a disservice to our industry by acting immoral and unethical. Our roles as PR practitioners are to consistently strive to improve our occupational fields with ethical business practices, not destroy them with lies, deceit, and spin.

Wow, I'm not only a public relations professional, I have the power of hypnotism! Here I was thinking I had research my audience, build relationships, communicate facts clearly, be transparent and advocate on behalf of their interests.

Why is it that you are one of the few that are immune to this hypnotism, and the masses are not?

Oh poor society who is just mere zombies chasing a shiny red apple. I don't think you are giving enough credit to your fellow rational citizens.

And like what everyone else has said. You are not really talking about public relations here.

If I'm not mistaken, this is a Virginia Tech blog. If I'm correct in that fact, you should visit a meeting of Virginia Tech's Chapter of PRSSA (the Public Relations Student Society of America). I'm sure some of those students would be able to correct some of your misguided views about PR and those who practice it.

Also Mike, I highly doubt that speeches made in Congress are in the style of television commercials. As most of our Congressmen and women are career lawyers, they probably learned to deliberate in law school. Again, that's not PR.

This post reads like something Glenn Beck would write about policy creation - a serious agenda plus lack of information with just a touch of lunacy. If you had mentioned up front that this post was for entertainment purposes only, I think you would've received a warmer reception. Good luck with all that.

PR is not about mind control. Please do some research before writing about it again. Also, it would be nice to see some sources for all of the claims made in this writing.

Have a nice day :)

This is the stupidest, most illogical article I've read by the CT (that's probably an exaggeration because almost every article is). PR and marketing and advertising are totally different. PR professionals and firms place an enormous emphasis on ethics. In fact, telling the TRUTH, even if it is shameful, is one of the first things PR pros recommend to people or companies caught in a scandal! Learn about the industry, fool.

Public relations and marketing are not the same thing.

wow...pretty clear that there's no journalism school at this place. this is inane even for an opinion column.

finally Peter Griffin's "what really grinds my gears" segment has arrived to the CT. the kid sounds angry about the whole world, he needs to have his backpack searched when he comes to campus

Sign me up! Where's that magic wand that will make people buy things they don't need? More than half of my friends are out of work right now because they have been laid off in marketing and advertising. Guess what! Sales dropped and people didn't buy the products. If a product or idea succeeds, it's because of a lot of hard work on a lot of people's parts. Just go try your ideas out in the real world and see how that goes for you.

Is there no academic advisor or editor for this publication? Mike, if I were you I would go ahead and enroll in a history of communications course and never include this in your writing portfolio.

M. Stuart has said everything I was thinking as I read this article. I would also like to add that without PR, corporate social responsibility wouldn't exist, and there would be far less corporate donations/grants. I would like to know what your area of study is that makes you so high and mighty.

Most of the reports we work with in the industry check facts, you should too. There are significant differences between advertising, lobbying, and public relations. Its debatable whether PR fits into the larger umbrella of marketing, but regardless the topic of your rant is more about marketing and advertising, fueled by companies selling products to you. So, get the facts right, develop some order to your writing, and realize the PR does not stand for PRopaganda.

The good thing about this article is that it gives A LOT of credit to PR professionals, which is sort of flattering. The bad thing is that it's based on inane and completely untrue ideas. And, it gives zero credit to the powers of the people, the press, and plain old logic.

This post demonstrates a mind-blowing level of ignorance. I've read quite a few anti-PR diatribes, but never one so fundamentally flawed.

oaihsfaomwoahgoawgahwgoawwhgawhgagw

^That was my face hitting my keyboard. Because reading this rant makes me do that.

Remember how when you were a kid, your teachers used to tell you that opinions aren't right or wrong? They lied to you. I'm sorry. This is horribly, horribly wrong.

I was so pleased to read a lot of the well thought-out, rational comments to this post - which is more I can say for the post itself. I was going to give this school publication a little slack and chalk it up to ignorance to the what the public relations industry is all about. Then I noticed the "related articles" and I see there have been other posts questioning the school's investment in a PR agency following the 2007 tragedy. I'm all for holding your school and faculty accountable, but shouldn't the paper hold it's writers accountable for reporting the facts instead of speculating? Editorial and opinion columns are one thing but ranting about things that you are not knowledgable of is a whole different story.

Mike - this post and these comments may very well live on as the top result for a "Mike Bogacki" internet search.

Ironically, *now* you know what PR is.

The CT really needs to do something about quality control instead of focusing on comment "moderation". This is becoming an embarassment to the school.

How about you try doing some research before you go on a rant? None of what was described in your "article" was even public relations - shouldn't you be able to properly define that which you're ranting about? I think I'm going to draft a rant on a sorry, ill-informed pseudo journalists...

This is terrible and irresponsible reporting. PR is to blame for all of society's problems? Was the industry to blame for the Civil War somehow? Here's a tip: be truthful. The CIA did fund the Taliban, about 20 years before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Tell me, Mike: How did PR contribute to the CIA funding the Taliban? People have responsibility to learn for themselves. The PR industry is not in charge of educating everyone about everything, but maybe with a few more ranty posts, you'll get the job done.

Honey, it's the end of the semester. You have a lack of sleep and you are writing crazy things. You clearly don't know what PR actually is, and it is offensive/unfair for you to cast an entire industry in a negative light - especially when your reasoning behind that is so far-fetched and off.

Your passion for disdain of all aspects of America seems to show through in this article more than any logical or factual backing to your outrageous claims. I'll go ahead and side-step the obvious observation that most of the issues you discussed actually have very little or even nothing to do with the public relations profession and move on to educating you on something you may not have known.
Public relations professionals adhere to a code of ethics that specifically goes against the devious and coercive tactics you seem to think we employ. Any one who has taken even one public relations course or spent one day in a public relations office could tell you that the accusations you are making are clearly not applicable to any self-respecting professional. I am sorry if you have had a bad experience with someone in the field of public relations. There are bad eggs in every profession. Please don't generalize or project your bitterness at life onto a very respectable profession.

Clearly you have no idea what PR actually is. Maybe you should take advantage of your college education and take a PR class or two before writing a ridiculous article about it. Don't blame PR for the problems in the world.

I, unlike the other commenters, do not think you are a total nutcase, though I do think your anger is misplaced. While PR does sometimes create fake news that feeds products to the public, it can be used for good as well. It's just a tool. It's the people applying PR in an unethical fashion that cause the problem. Are guns evil? No. Lenny Bruce showed us that words aren't evil either. It's the people saying hurtful things, that cause harm. PR isn't to blame; it's just a tool. Capitalism and American culture, which you may be aiming at, are much larger machines.

I'm a VT alum and have owned my own PR business for 20 years.

You, sir, don't have a clue.

I was so confused and angry while reading this column...and then I read the comments.

CT must not realize lies and deception do not result in good PR, therefore, good PR pracitioners follow a code of ethics. I recommend the author take a look at some case studies.

"...a fraction of the nationalities of the 9-11 hijackers." Right, they were mostly Saudis, but see, they found this country that would let them gather, set up their bases, build camps, bring in weapons, train terrorists, hatch plans, and send people out to do terrible things: Afghanistan. Relatively speaking, their nationalities were beside the point.

This seems like, um, what's it called, oh yeah: SPIN! Misusing a fact and ignoring the pertinent facts in order to make an empty argument. In PR these days we're talking about the death of spin. Get on board, dude!

Seriously -- skepticism is healthy, but as soon as you give away your credibility, people stop believing you.

You know what infuriates me (besides non-sensical fanaticism)? Poor grammar, syntax, and a general laziness in the written delivery of thoughts.

Seriously, I know 9th Graders who could have written this. All they needed to do was watch MSNBC and then replace "republican" with "PR"...

Gee Whizz Mike
Lets make a statement. Let's put something (anything) out there.
I guess though that if the only thing that infuriates you is PR then some other poor begger is being left alone.
It appears that you have been captured, trussed up and brain-washed by PR, but, just in the nick of time you find salvation and realise that PR is the bane of your existence.

It's probably about time you realised that people are not as silly as you seem to think. They have their own minds and own opinion and you, with your opinionated, banal diatribe will not make a difference, sadly.
Maybe you could take several courses as suggested in other comments, become educated and realise you are not an island.
There are many other streams of life to explore. I hope you don't continue to become so insular.

This is the fist article I've read from the Collegiate Times and it will be the last. Do some research before you start running your mouth on things you know nothing about. The issues addressed in this rant have nothing to do with PR.

Can we get the CT to issue an apology for publishing this garbage?

haha, i really love the fact that all of these comments are exactly what i was thinking. i read this article and was so confused about the tangents that it was taking. he started by saying he was going to rant about PR, but ended up talking about World War II and tried to make connections that didn't work.

and i'm 22 and work at a PR agency and know that this is completely false. by the sounds of the other posts, this guy has a lot of classes to go back and take...

Well at least PR doesn't use wild speculation and unsubstantiated claims. That seems more like your thing.