{"id":9464,"date":"2017-07-01T20:03:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T20:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9464"},"modified":"2017-07-04T09:50:20","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T09:50:20","slug":"putins-flacks-russias-stealth-public-relations-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/putins-flacks-russias-stealth-public-relations-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin’s flacks: Russia’s stealth public relations war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sue Curry Jansen<\/a>, Muhlenberg College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Russian attempt to influence the 2016 American presidential election, using what intelligence agencies call \u201cactive measures,\u201d has dominated U.S. headlines.<\/p>\n

There is, however, a second front in Russia\u2019s effort to shape the hearts and minds of American citizens, and it\u2019s received almost no attention in mainstream U.S. media outlets since the election.<\/p>\n

As someone who studies the growth of global public relations<\/a>, I\u2019ve researched the roles PR firms play in shaping public perceptions of international affairs.<\/p>\n

For years, Russia has been involved in public relations campaigns that have been developed and deployed by prominent, U.S.-based, global PR firms \u2013 campaigns intended to influence American public opinion and policy in ways that advance Russia\u2019s strategic interests.<\/p>\n

Legal propaganda?<\/h2>\n

Public relations is an industry that seeks to cultivate favorable impressions of corporations, products, individuals or causes. A company or public figure might hire a firm to increase visibility, advance marketing agendas, promote strategic initiatives or manage a crisis.<\/p>\n

But things can get tricky when foreign governments get involved. When they hire PR firms to influence public opinion in other countries, they could undermine the domestic values and goals of the targeted nations.<\/p>\n

In the 1930s, the PR firm of Ivy Lee \u2013 who, along with Edward Bernays<\/a>, is regarded as a \u201cfounding father\u201d of the public relations industry \u2013 was accused of circulating Nazi propaganda in the U.S. In response, Congress enacted the Foreign Agent Registry Act<\/a> (FARA) in 1938, which required foreign propagandists operating in the U.S. to register with the government. In 1966, FARA was amended to cover people promoting the economic and political interests of their foreign clients.<\/p>\n

In what has become an infamous example of political PR, Kuwait hired numerous U.S. and U.K. firms to drum up support for the 1991 Persian Gulf War. As part of that effort, PR giant Hill & Knowlton audaciously created a front group<\/a> to hold hearings \u2013 led by two U.S. Congressmen \u2013 on Iraq\u2019s human rights violations. Called the \u201cHuman Rights Caucus,\u201d the group wasn\u2019t actually an official congressional caucus.<\/p>\n

More routinely, foreign nations hire PR firms to attract foreign investments and promote tourism and trade. Such efforts are completely legal, and business-as-usual for corporate PR firms and lobbyists. All they have to do is register under FARA.<\/p>\n

While foreign government-funded advocacy campaigns are legal, they can be far from transparent. PR strategies are generally designed to hide the persuasive effort because \u2013 as the industry saying goes \u2013 \u201cthe best PR is invisible PR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnishing Russia\u2019s image<\/h2>\n

Russia\u2019s domestic PR business has grown rapidly since the end of the Cold War<\/a>, but Russian authorities prefer to use Western firms when targeting Western audiences. Since the U.S. is both a dominant force in PR \u2013 15 of the 20 largest global firms are American<\/a> \u2013 and a prime target of Russian influence efforts, it\u2019s not surprising that Putin\u2019s forces would turn to U.S. firms for PR services.<\/p>\n

Industry publication PRWeek reports<\/a> that Russia has spent US$115 million on Western PR firms since 2000, with most going to the U.S. firm Ketchum, a division of Omnicom. (To put that in context: According to the Center for Public Integrity<\/a>, the 50 countries with the worst human rights violation records have spent $168 million on American lobbyists and PR specialists since 2010.)<\/p>\n

From 2006 to 2014, Ketchum had ongoing contracts<\/a> with the Russian government and its state-owned energy company Gazprom.<\/p>\n

Charged with improving Putin\u2019s and Russia\u2019s image abroad, Ketchum facilitated op-eds<\/a> by Russian officials in publications around the world, including Putin\u2019s 2013 New York Times article<\/a> warning the U.S. on Syria.<\/p>\n

According to ProPublica<\/a>, Ketchum also placed what appeared to be independent opinion pieces praising Russia in the Huffington Post<\/a>, on CNBC\u2019s website (where links to those stories are no longer active) and in other publications without acknowledging their sources. The firm lobbied Time magazine<\/a> to name Putin \u201cPerson of the Year,\u201d which it did in 2007.<\/p>\n

That same year, according to Reuters<\/a>, Ketchum tried to convince the State Department to soften its assessment of Russia\u2019s human rights abuses. The firm also contacted reporters who cover Russian human rights abuses urging them to also tone down their criticism.<\/p>\n

Faced with intense criticism<\/a> after Russia seized Crimea in 2014, Ketchum formally ended its contract with Russia in March 2015, tersely announcing<\/a> that it \u201cno longer represents the Russian Federation in the U.S. or Europe with the exception of our office in Moscow.\u201d<\/p>\n

However one of its partners, GPlus, continued the relationship under similar terms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Exploiting the loopholes<\/h2>\n

Late last year, Russia\u2019s Minister of Communications Nikolay Nikiforov announced<\/a> that the Kremlin would be seeking new contracts with Western PR firms this summer to improve its global image, with the intent of spending between $30 and $50 million a year \u2013 possibly more. He indicated that Russia is seeking smaller, less expensive \u2013 and perhaps less visible \u2013 firms than Ketchum.<\/p>\n

PRWeek quoted<\/a> a leading Russian political analyst, Stanislav Belkovsky, who told the publication<\/a>, \u201cThere are a number of schemes that can be used to avoid U.S. accounting rules on lobbying and PR.\u201d In other words, he was pointing out that there are ways to avoid registering with FARA \u2013 and thereby concealing the sources of the pro-Russian messaging.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Project on Government Oversight, an independent non-partisan watchdog group, cites loopholes in FARA<\/a> that make it difficult to police violations. Even when violations are discovered, prosecution is rare. Instead lapses are usually remediated by late filing. This is what happened in the recent cases of Donald Trump\u2019s former campaign manager Paul Manafort<\/a>, who represented pro-Putin forces in Ukraine, and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn<\/a>, who represented Turkey. Though they had both been working as foreign lobbyists for an extended period of time, they only recently filed with FARA as foreign agents.<\/p>\n

And because the U.S. regulates lobbying \u2013 not PR \u2013 another common legal loophole<\/a> involves contracting with firms that have both public relations and lobbying arms. Clients will then channel as much of their business as possible through the PR arm.<\/p>\n

The blurry line between PR and news<\/h2>\n

PR is rarely covered by the mainstream media in the U.S. Yes, non-profits like ProPublica, the Center for Public Integrity, the Sunlight Foundation and NPR fill some of the void.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a contrast to the U.K., where publications like The Guardian extensively cover the nexus of public relations, politics and policy<\/a>. During prime minister Tony Blair\u2019s tenure, PR grew rapidly in Britain as politicians and businesses adopted American-style electioneering and promotional techniques. Perhaps for this reason, British media outlets are more attuned to the ramifications of public relations.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s attack on mainstream media as purveyors of \u201cfake news\u201d and its promotion of \u201calternative facts\u201d has rallied journalism to a vigorous defense of the First Amendment, and has led to calls for critical media literacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet research indicates<\/a> that as much as 75 percent of U.S. news begins as public relations. For transparency advocates, this is a problem. By definition, PR is a biased, monetized form of communication that seeks to advance the vested interests of clients. Even some public relations industry figures have recently acknowledged<\/a> their field\u2019s role in the dissemination of \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the past two decades, the newspaper industry has contracted, with advertisers and readers migrating to the internet. Conversely, the PR industry has experienced growth in both employment opportunities and salaries<\/a>. In the U.S., there are now nearly five PR people for every reporter<\/a>. Americans are now being exposed to more public relations than ever before.<\/p>\n

While some PR serves worthy causes \u2013 promoting health, education, charity and disaster relief \u2013 I believe all PR deserves closer scrutiny because it bypasses the norms of democratic processes: transparency, accountability and the right of all interested parties to have voice in civic debates.<\/p>\n

To Edward Bernays, the father of modern public relations, the terms \u201cpublic relations\u201d and \u201cpropaganda<\/a>\u201d were interchangeable.<\/p>\n

\"TheWe should think of PR the same way, scrutinizing it with as much critical rigor as we view propaganda.<\/p>\n

Sue Curry Jansen<\/a>, \u200c\u200c\u200cProfessor of Media and Communication, Muhlenberg College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sue Curry Jansen, Muhlenberg College The Russian attempt to influence the 2016 American presidential election, using what intelligence agencies call \u201cactive measures,\u201d has dominated U.S. headlines. There is, however, a second front in Russia\u2019s effort to shape the hearts and minds of American citizens, and it\u2019s received almost no attention in mainstream U.S. media outlets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[2668,308,2338,1827,2187,234,104,533,1212],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9488,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9464\/revisions\/9488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}