"Outing" PR People: Before the blogosphere, most public relations people labored in obscurity. Can you name any of the PR people responsible for the tobacco industry’s misleading campaigns of the 50s and 60s? You would never have seen something like this: a personal attack on Jody Clarke the public relations person responsible for the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s ad campaign designed to sow confusion over global climate change.

Media Orchard says: If Clarke has a brain and can open her ears, she knows—knows—that the CEI ads do not accurately represent [the Al Gore documentary] An Inconvenient Truth or the facts about global warming…. One day she’ll be ashamed of herself—or her children will.”

I don’t disagree with the sentiment. At this point, given the scientific certainty about climate change, denying global warming is on a par with denying the holocaust. If I have a quibble, it’s that the comparison MO draws to the tobacco industry is unfair to the tobacco folks: after all, their product primarily harmed those who chose to partake, what’s happening with the climate threatens us all, and those who are least to blame—people in developing countries—are likely to suffer the most, or at least the soonest.

But my first reaction was that I was a little uncomfortable with the personal nature of this approach. But on further reflection, I think business people should be more personally accountable for the decisions they make. Decisions have consequences. People should be aware of those consequences when they make their decisions.