Spin docs take a funny turn

… Falling into this last category, presumably, is PR supremo Mark Borkowski (below). ‘What on earth was the Privy Council thinking …

How does one take the news that the Institute of Public Relations has gone all legit and become the Chartered IPR? Last week, after 50 years of trying (apparently), the spin doctors’ union was at last granted the title by the Privy Council, whose job it is to hand out these gongs. But what does it all mean? That depends on who you listen to.

Colin Farrington, director general of the newly named body, says: ‘This is a national endorsement for a profession that is all too often dismissed by critics as being all about spin, fluff or misinformation …

‘That’s not to say that spin doesn’t exist anymore, that it isn’t going to be a problem, or that the debate about ethics and responsibilities is over. But having a chartered body for the PR industry will help to put clear water between the serious professionals prepared to be accountable through joining their professional body and signing a code of conduct, and those who aren’t.’

Falling into this last category, presumably, is PR supremo Mark Borkowski (below). ‘What on earth was the Privy Council thinking of, awarding this shower a charter?’ he says. ‘Incredibly for over 50 years the IPR or its equivalent has been told “no, bugger off”, but now, in the era of Alistair Campbell, Downing Street has seen fit to grant PR a respectability it utterly fails to warrant.

‘Laundering and ironing the reputations of politicians, drug companies, arms manufacturers, tobacco producers and junk food sellers, is not a respectable business. It’s a covert, no-holds-barred war, in which editors and journalists have to be superhuman in their refusal to be swayed.’

It looks as if Borkowski will be seeking fellowship of the newly chartered organisation, then. ‘FCIPR? FCKIT’, he ends his missive. Sounds like a no, but this debate will continue.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1418368,00.html