It’s a crazy time in the world. As founder of one of the world’s leading public relations agencies, I can attest that the world of communications is continually changing. Media quote murderers and propaganda permeates it. The cheese has been moved in a world where The Gaza "Ministry of Health" is controlled by Hamas and regularly quoted as the expert source or authority on deaths and happenings in Gaza.
Al Jazeera this week removed a libelous story accusing Israeli soldiers of raping Palestinian women in Gaza, a day after it went viral on social media. “It was revealed through Hamas investigations that the story of the rape of women in Al-Shifa Hospital was fabricated,” tweeted Al Jazeera columnist and former director Yasser Abuhilalah. Al Jazeera is well produced, interesting television. Well done propaganda with a tremendous reach, and the Arab world benefits tremendously from it while learning to hate Israel.
When it was founded, Al-Jazeera received a $147 subsidy from Qatar, and continues to receive approximately $100 Million annually from Qatar subsidies. It serves a larger goal.
For many years, RT.com (formerly Russia Today) - Kremlin-funded Russian media – advertised throughout the US to influence the American people. Vladimir Putin has long realized the importance of public relations - from walking through Siberia shirtless to “finding” two ancient amphoras’ on a dive, the man is brilliant at manipulating the media for Russia’s political interests.
The New York Times ran a story this week on Amit Soussana, the first former hostage to publicly say she was sexually abused in captivity. In a world where we have finally been trained to believe women, The NY Times ran this:
A spokesman for Hamas, Basem Naim, said in a 1,300-word response to The Times that it was essential for the group to investigate Ms. Soussana’s allegations, but that such an inquiry was impossible in '"the current circumstances." Mr. Naim cast doubt on Ms. Soussana’s account, questioning why she had not spoken publicly about the extent of her mistreatment. He said the level of detail in her account makes “it difficult to believe the story, unless it was designed by some security officers.”
“For us, the human body, and especially that of the woman, is sacred,” he said, adding that Hamas’s religious beliefs “forbade any mistreatment of any human being, regardless of his sex, religion or ethnicity.”Mr. Naim criticized The Times for insufficient coverage of Palestinian suffering, including reports of sexual assault by Israeli soldiers on Palestinian women, which have been the subject of investigations by U.N. officials, rights groups and others.”
Baby killers and murderers who proudly filmed their own acts are afforded many paragraphs in the NY Times. People devoted to the murder of innocent people are afforded paragraphs in one of the world’s leading media outlets to question a woman who was kidnapped and raped. She is Jewish so #metoo doesn't apply. That is the way of the world in 2024.
Working in crisis public relations, there are timely decisions requiring decisions of whether to accept or shun particular clients. Clearly media outlets have no such dilemma as they quote murderers and rapists.
In 1933 Hitler hired a NYC PR firm, Carl Byoir & Associates, to portray Nazi Germany in a positive light to an American audience. The Nation exposed Nazi propaganda in America, and revealed that the agency was paid $6,000 per month to favorably influence media and public perception of Nazi Germany.
Edward Bernays, considered the father of Public Relations (and Sigmund Freud’s nephew), turned down work for Germany, as he was concerned about how his work would be used – particularly by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. While Byoir resigned the work after a year-plus of being paid, WPP, one of the world’s largest advertisings & pr conglomerates, describes the firm they acquired years ago as “one of the oldest and most honored public relations agencies in the business.”
Mega PR firm Ketchum has earned more than $55 million on Russian projects in the last few years until this most recent conflict. Ketchum has strengthened President Vladimir Putin’s hand as he invaded Crimea, opposed American action against Syria and pursued his global agenda.
Perhaps it’s the same argument one makes when they say everyone deserves a lawyer. PR Firm Brown Lloyd James represented the Syrian Government, and secured a Vogue profile and photo shoot for Asma al-Assad, Syria’s First Lady, which depicted her as “a rose in the desert,” describing her as the “freshest and most magnetic of first ladies, endowed with ‘dark-brown eyes, wavy chin-length brown hair, long neck, an energetic grace.’” The story was later removed from Vogue’s website, the magazine forced to repudiate Assad’s brutality (hundreds of thousands have been killed.)
Brown Lloyd James also made $1.2 million working for Libya’s brutal dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.
There is no Hippocratic Oath for those in the media or in the PR industry. Perhaps sleeping well at night starts at different places for different people. Ultimately, J.K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets had it right when she wrote, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
Ronn Torossian is an American Israeli Public Relations executive.