The continuing case for cutting out the middlemen

Last week, I posted article by John Lloyd in the Financial Times on the relationship - I used the word David Tebbutt, Chris Edwards and David Miliband, Minister of Communities and Local Government in the UK and a member of the cabinet. A terrific discussion that, while it looks like it's run its course in my blog, certainly doesn't indicate the end of different opinions about the concluding point I made. Now, a new window has been opened onto the journalism/PR symbiosis point with a ITN News reporter - has such an astonishingly-naive view about both PR and journalism that you have to wonder how on earth he has a job as a news reporter. (A cynical observer might say that perhaps he was in bad PR at some point in his career.) For instance:

[] Journalists at least start from the premise that their role is to provide accurate information to their audience. PRs do not even start from this point. Rather they begin from the position that their role is to make their bosses (company, political party, whatever) look as good as possible.

I accept there are many PRs who want to make their bosses look good but are not prepared to go beyond the truth in order to do that. Not least they understand that their future credibility depends on not "lying". But truth is not their primary goal. For most journalists truth is the primary target even if the pressures of sales and audience figures push some off course sometimes.

Journalists don't need to understand PRs, it will simply damage our work.