Richard Edelman

Richard Edelman is the President & Chief Executive Officer of the Edelman (firm) public relations company, a position he has held since September 1996.

* Board Member of Centers for Disease Control Foundation, Atlantic Council, Harvard Club of NY City, Gettysburg National Battlefield Foundation, US Chairman of International Business Leaders Forum, Commissioner, Latin Media & Entertainment Commission

Background

According to his biographical note, prior to taking up his current position he was "president of Edelman's U.S. operations, regional manager of Europe and manager of the firm's New York office".

He currently has "assignments for Scotts-Miracle Gro, Credit Suisse, Swiss Re, Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center and Schering Plough Consumer Products. "He has counseled several countries on economic development programs, including Egypt, Israel and Mexico".

Edelman boasts that he "has special understanding of the non-governmental organization (NGO) movement. He has spoken on this topic at several conferences including The Institute of Social & Ethical AccountAbility, The Conference Board and the World Economic Forum".

"He has worked on several political campaigns including "Jim Thompson for Governor" and "Ed Koch for Mayor", according to his biographical note.

Edelman told "Esquire" magazine "in this era of exploding media technologies there is no truth except the truth you create for yourself." [http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1996Q4/]

Following the Federal Communications Commission warning that broadcasters should disclose the origin of at least some video news releases Edelman pragmatically conceded that disclosing government VNR’s "in some way" was reasonable. However, Edelman drew the line at labeling corporate VNR’s, which comprises the bulk of those produced. "I do not believe in the need for government to put a black box on any VNR that's produced for a company," he told "PR Week". [http://www.prweek.com/news/news_worldwire.cfm?ID=237511&site=3&setcookie=1]

Family

Edelman is married to Roz Edelman and has 3 children: Margot Edelman, age 20, Victoria Edelman, age 17, and Amanda Edelman, age 13.

Edelman & Journalism

"How serious is it for PR that the man who runs the foremost center for press and public policy in the US is fundamentally skeptical about our profession?" wrote in a blog posting following a speech by Alex Jones of Harvard University's [http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy] at a recent gathering of the [http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/archived_stories_2001/may/0516prseminar.htm PR Seminar] , a rather secretive annual gathering of top public relations executives. [http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives/2006/05/the_fork_in_the.html]

Jones told PR executives that news is moving away from objectivity, as "subjectivity, finding underserved markets, ideologically targeted, is a viable business strategy." The result is that we are "fast approaching a time of relative truths, resulting in an even more toxic partisan environment." Jones also lamented the cheapening of news and says that "media with reduced staff is looking for packaged content. The temptation will be high for PR people to do in print in video news releases."

Edelman called Jones' remarks a "very important speech" and called on PR pros to "to recognize that with our enhanced opportunity comes a very real responsibility" to "be more credible" and adopt a policy of "total transparency."

Edelman feels that public relations has been under ferocious attack, and has been weak in its ability to defend itself. He was particularly upset about the four-part 2004 BBC series, "Century of the Self," produced by Adam Curtis and based, in large part on Stuart Ewen's writings.

Edelman comments on the series:"One cannot deny -and the entire documentary is accompanied by a constant and repeated thread of statements by Stuart Ewen, the best known, intelligent and corrosive critic of the role of public relations in contemporary society and author of PR, a Social History of Spin!- that in these last 100 years public relations have had a historical role which one could at least fairly define as ‘ambiguous’. At the same time, one cannot deny that in that same period, and also thanks to Bernays’ theory and tactics, western societies have undertook a giant step forward in terms of quality of life and well being. Marketing, which owes more to Bernays than any other single individual, has allowed our western economies to grow, consumptions to develop and democracies to consolidate.

"To the contrary, particularly in these last ten, fifteen years, public relations have been the object of ferocious and constant social critiques and have not been capable of arguing full social legitimacy." [www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives/theCenturyofSelfeng.doc]

Der Spiegel Hits a Nerve

In response to an article in "Der Spiegel" reviewing the work of the PR industry, including examples of the work of Burson-Marsteller, Edelman and other major companies, Edelman let fly. [http://www.edelman.com/documents/Der_Spiegel_article_7.31.2006.doc] "This article is basically a conflation of cinema-induced fantasy, anti-Americanism, anti President Bush, anti-capitalism, and fear of propaganda stemming from World War II," he claimed. [http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives/2006/08/hit_me_with_you.html]

Other SourceWatch resources

External links

* [http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/ Richard Edelman's Blog]

Articles by Edelman

*Richard Edelman, " [http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/ An Open Letter to Karen Hughes--A Search for Dialogue and Support] ", "Speak Up", October 17, 2005.
*Richard Edelman, " [http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives/2006/05/are_ngos_return.html Are NGOs Returning to Activist Roots, or are they Maturing? How does Business Respond?] ", "Speak Up" blog, May 15, 2006, accessed November 30, 2006.
*" [http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives/2006/05/the_fork_in_the.html The Fork in the Road] ", "Speak Up", May 30, 2006.
*Richard Edelman, " [http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives/2006/06/why_bother.html Why Bother?] ", "Speak Up", June 05, 2006.
*Richard Edelman, " [http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives/2006/08/hit_me_with_you.html Hit Me with Your Best Shot, Again and Again] ", "Speak Up", August 07, 2006; This post was in response to " [http://www.edelman.com/documents/Der_Spiegel_article_7.31.2006.doc Masters of deception] ", "Der Spiegel", August 2006. (This is a rough translation of the article, in Word format, originating from the Hamburg office of the PR firm Edelman and posted to the blog of Richard Edelman).

Articles About Edelman

*" [http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/bio/ Richard Edelman President & CEO Edelman] ", undated, accessed October 2004.
*John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, " [http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1996Q4/ Flack Attack] ", "PR Watch", Fourth Quarter 1996.
*Erica Iacono, " [http://www.prweek.com/news/news_worldwire.cfm?ID=237511&site=3&setcookie=1 DoE report cites a lack of ROI, not ethics] ", "PR Week", April 25, 2005. (Sub req'd).