SIR,—As a journalist of over forty years' standing, who happens
to be working also in the field of public relations, .may I be allowed to reply briefly to Mr. Cyril Ray's diatribe against the latter?
Able newspaperman though he is, Mr. Ray has a bee humming so loudly .in his bonnet on this subject that it reduces him to practical incoherence. Having heaped gratuitous insults on PROs, he sud- denly turns round and writes that he does not refer 'to the people appointed by commercial and industrial firms, or by Government departments, to act as liaison officers with the public and .the press. But that is the very definition of what a PRO is and does!
That some practitioners of the profession are not up to its best standards may be readily granted, and the same, pace Mr. Ray, applies to journalism —with one essential difference : provided a jour- nalist writes what his editor and publisher expect of him, he is safe enough.
On the other hand, the PR man is so to speak condemned to truthfulness, for his entire capital is the confidence placed in him by the press and other organs of public opinion whose help he must enlist if he is to achieve his task. If he proves unreliable, or attempts to outwit editors, his career in public relations will be a painfully short one.
Having a foot in both camps, may I, with due respect, submit that this sniping between journalists and PROs has lasted long enough and that, as an old French saying has it, it n'y a pas de sot metier, it n'y a que de sottes gees?
RENT ELVIN Tranby Croft, Rowlands Avenue, Hatch End, Middlesex
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