EthicalVoices - Real Ethics Stories from Real PR Pros

Fighting Mosquitoes and Misinformation: Ethics in the Public Health Trenches

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • July 7, 2025 • 0 Comments

This week on Ethical Voices, Tammy Gordon, the (past) public information department manager for the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District. [Editors note: I sat on this interview for way too long and she is now Director of Public Affairs at the Citrus Heights Water District], discusses a number of important ethical issues, including:

1) How to navigate ethical conflict when your job challenges your personal values

2) How to intervene when colleagues prioritize quick fixes over responsible practices

3) How to address unethical behavior without triggering defensiveness

How to Effectively Address Management Decisions that Conflict with Your Values – Carolyn Smith Casertano

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • May 27, 2025 • 0 Comments

This week on Ethical Voices, Carolyn Smith Casertano, MA, APR, Fellow PRSA, professor of practice in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona, discusses a number of important ethics issues including;

1) How to effectively address management decisions that conflict with your values

2) What to do when a client tries to hire your staff

How to Counsel Effectively When Your Client Has a Culturally Insensitive Idea – Fabiana Meléndez Ruiz

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • March 10, 2025 • 0 Comments

Fabiana Meléndez Ruiz, a strategic storyteller serving as the founder and CEO of Refuerzo Collaborative, discusses a number of important ethics issues including:

1) How to counsel effectively when your client has a culturally insensitive idea
2) How you can help organizations go beyond their biases
3) Unexpected ways PR pros fail ethically with the media
4) The most overlooked part of a PR person’s job

Acting Ethically With Financial Numbers

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • January 6, 2025 • 0 Comments

Bill Swanger, APR, Fellow PRSA, the founder of William Swanger Communications, shares a number of important ethical issues, including:

1) Why it is important to ethically address financial mistakes and clarify misunderstandings

2) Ethically navigating paid and unpaid content

How to best counsel your client when they want to respond unethically to an unethical competitor – Tatevik Simonyan

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • October 28, 2024 • 0 Comments

Tatevik Simonyan, the co-founder and director of communications and international relations at SPRING PR company in Armenia, discusses:

1) How to best counsel your client when they want to respond unethically to an unethical competitor

2) How to react calmly and ethically in highly emotional crises

3) Should PR create a global code of ethics for influencer marketing

4) What companies should know about PR in Armenia

Why it’s important to know many codes of ethics – Erin Kennedy

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • September 9, 2024 • 0 Comments

Erin Kennedy, the ethics committee chair for the PRSA Central California Chapter. She discusses a number of important topics, including: What to do when your boss wants to disclose information before you should How to better understand how those spreading misinformation think

Erin Kennedy, the ethics committee chair for the PRSA Central California Chapter, discusses:

1) What to do when your boss wants to disclose information before you should

2) How to better understand how those spreading misinformation think

The Importance of Really Small Things – Capt. Barbara Bell, USN (ret)

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • May 28, 2024 • 0 Comments

Captain Barbara Bell, U.S. Navy (ret). Captain Bell was one of Annapolis’s first female graduates and has a distinguished career as an aviator and naval flight test officer. Today, she teaches at the US Naval Academy and may discuss ethics even more than I do.

In this interview she discusses a number of important ethics issues, including:

1) The importance of the really small things

2) The ethics framework being taught to future Navy officers – and how everyone can apply it

3) How to understand and avoid biases

4) Never forget you are a role model

How to Deal with Biased Reporters – Missy Hurley

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • April 22, 2024 • 0 Comments

This week on Ethical Voices, Missy Hurley, the co-founder and CEO of B2 Communications, discusses a number of important ethics issues:

1) What to do when advocacy groups change your words to spread misinformation

2) How to deal with biased reporters

3) When ethically to disclose you used AI

The Importance of Comprehensive Ethics Policies – Joseph Abreu

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • April 2, 2024 • 0 Comments

Joseph Abreu, the Chief Communications Officer for the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller of Lee County, Florida, and 2024 National Chair of PRSA., discusses a number of important ethics issues, including:

1) The ethical importance of avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.

2) How to get ahead of AI ethics challenges

One key PR ethics lesson from the Pulse nightclub shooting – Ann Marie Varga

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • February 26, 2024 • 0 Comments

Ann Marie Varga, the internal communication manager for AdventHealth discusses a number of important ethics issues including:

1) One key PR ethics lesson from the Pulse nightclub shooting

2) How to protect your (and your team’s) mental health in crisis situations

3) Ethical issues in internal communications