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On December 6, the Public Relations Society of America [10] (PRSA) "conducted a communications workshop for external affairs and management staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency [11] at FEMA's offices in Washington, D.C." PRSA offered the workshop after FEMA's controversial fake news conference [12] in October, where FEMA staffers played reporter, asking their boss softball questions. PRSA's press release [13] said the workshop was the first time "that a federal government agency formally engaged and consulted the Society ... involving staff on the topics of crisis communications [14], ethics and reputation management." PRSA hopes the workshop "will be the beginning of an ongoing interaction with FEMA -- as well as an open door to relationships with other government agencies," according to its press release. PRSA has also worked with the U.S. State Department [15] "on public diplomacy [16] for Congressional members and their staff," reports O'Dwyer's. In 2000, PRSA revamped its ethics code [17], getting rid of all internal enforcement mechanisms.
Links:
[1] http://dev.prwatch.org/users/6/diane-farsetta
[2] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/crisis-management
[3] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/public-diplomacy
[4] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/ethics
[5] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/media
[6] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/propaganda
[7] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations
[8] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/us-government
[9] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.prwatch.org%2Fspin%2F2007%2F12%2F6793%2Ffema-and-prsa-blind-leading-blind&linkname=FEMA%20and%20PRSA%3A%20The%20Blind%20Leading%20the%20Blind
[10] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Public_Relations_Society_of_America
[11] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Federal_Emergency_Management_Agency
[12] http://www.prwatch.org/node/6695
[13] http://www.prsa.org/supportfiles/news/viewNews.cfm?pNewsID=1467
[14] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/crisis_communications
[15] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/U.S._State_Department
[16] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/public_diplomacy
[17] http://www.prsa.org/aboutUs/ethics/preamble_en.html
[18] http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1207prs_fema.html