May 2011 Archive

The arrest and incarceration in New York of Dominique Strauss-Kahn last week made the headlines worldwide. DSK, as he is also called, was the head of the International Monetary Fund, a former Finance minister in France and was until the scandal a very serious contender for the French Presidency.

He has been accused of sexual assault and attempted rape of a hotel housekeeping employee.

In his recent letter of resignation from the IMF Mr. Strauss-Kahn said:

“To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me. I want to protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion, and especially - especially - I want to devote all my strength, all my time and all my energy to proving my innocence.”

The reaction has been mixed in France. According to a recent poll, 57% of the French believe that he is the victim of set-up. Bernard Henri-Levi the philosopher and author is outraged at the media coverage of the arrest and court appearance because of its humiliating effect on his long time friend. French law prohibits the publication of images of an identifiable person who has not been convicted. President Sarkozy instructed his government not to speak publically about the case.

We should first remember that under our system of law, any individual is considered innocent until proven guilty. A verdict on this case is months or most likely years ahead.

However if the allegations are true, the word that then comes to my mind is “shame.”

A shame for France, for international institutions and shame for us…. Men! If convicted, he will then have by his actions, shamed his country, the organization he worked for and his gender.

Nevertheless, sometimes shame can have a positive role in society. Shame can be good deterrent to un-ethical and illegal behavior. Most of us fear shame and public disapproval. We never want to be embarrassed or be an embarrassment. According to Ruth Benedict, the American cultural and social anthropologist, shame occurs when cultural and social values are violated. It is reassuring to think that society has values, even though they change with time.

Shame can also have a corrective or even a redemptive value. Any moment of shame or embarrassment should lead us to a serious soul-searching that can in turn lead us to a change of behavior.

As Willard Gaylen, the American psychiatrist and bioethicist once said:

“Shame and guilt are noble emotions essential in the maintenance of civilized society, and vital for the development of some of the most refined and elegant qualities of human potential.”

It was revealed last week that Facebook had hired, secretly, the PR firm of Burson-Marsteller to generate negative stories about Google and its new social network site Social Circle which Facebook claims is infringing on people’s privacy.

The Press, Bloggers, and PR professionals were quick to criticize the PR firm. Rosanna Fisk, the CEO of PRSA said that it was “unethical and improper.”

Burson-Marsteller posted on its website on May 12 the following text that offers no apology:

“Now that Facebook has come forward, we can confirm that we undertook an assignment for that client.

“The client requested that its name be withheld on the grounds that it was merely asking to bring publicly available information to light and such information could then be independently and easily replicated by any media.  Any information brought to media attention raised fair questions, was in the public domain, and was in any event for the media to verify through independent sources.

Whatever the rationale, this was not at all standard operating procedure and is against our policies, and the assignment on those terms should have been declined. When talking to the media, we need to adhere to strict standards of transparency about clients, and this incident underscores the absolute importance of that principle.”

Facebook’s response is below:

“No ’smear’ campaign was authorized or intended. Instead, we wanted third parties to verify that people did not approve of the collection and use of information from their accounts on Facebook and other services for inclusion in Google Social Circles - just as Facebook did not approve of use or collection for this purpose. We engaged Burson-Marsteller to focus attention on this issue, using publicly available information that could be independently verified by any media organization or analyst. The issues are serious and we should have presented them in a serious and transparent way.”

The issue here is not whether Facebook’s concern about privacy is legitimate or not. The issue is about the tactics used and the lack of transparency. The PRSA code of ethics states that Public Relations professionals should “revealed sponsors for represented causes or interest.”

However there is another issue here that concerns all of us. Is it OK, when we advocate for a client, to point out some negative aspect of our client’s direct competition? After all, comparison is the only tool we have in order to differentiate a product from the competition.

The basic questions are can one compete ethically and what are the values to respect in order to do so?

Let me list just two:

1.     Truthfulness: We have to make sure that whatever we say about our client’s product is accurate and not misleading. The same is true when we make reference to the products of our client’s competition.

2.     Transparency: We should always try to let our correspondent know who we are representing. There may be cases when our clients request anonymity but we should make sure that the motivation for the request is morally acceptable.

We should remember in whatever we do or say what Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote:

“Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.”

The dramatic announcement of the killing and post mortem capture of Osama Bin Laden by President Obama on Sunday May 1st provoked strong and mixed emotional reactions worldwide. Feelings of jubilation, relief and vindication were evident both in the press and on broadcast television.

The reaction to his demise was overwhelmingly positive worldwide in the political class. As far as I know the only political leader that objected was Ismail Haniya, the leader of Hamas who called Bin Laden “A Holy Warrior!”

Some people questioned the appropriateness of rejoicing over Osama’s death.

Benedict Carey of the New York Times in his May 6th 2011 article Celebrating a Death: Ugly, Maybe, but Only Human writes that social scientists believe that such a reaction is a measure of how society perceives the severity of the crime and the threat of the perpetrator. He quotes Michael McCullough, a psychologist at the University of Miami and author of Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct who says: “Revenge evolved as a deterrent, to impose a cost on people who threaten a community and to reach into the heads of others who may be contemplating similar behavior.”

Psychologist Elisha Goldstein Ph.D in her Huffington Post blog post entitled Osama Bin Laden Dead: A Mindful Response, wrote, “It seems to be a false happiness; at the root it’s really anger or fear.”

Lori Palatnik, author and Jewish educator disagrees. In her Aish.com blog post entitled, When Evil Falls- Is it proper to celebrate Osama Bin Laden’s death? points out that in the Jewish tradition, victims are allowed to rejoice when justice is done. She refers to the biblical miraculous story of the drowning of the Egyptian army pursuing the Israelites who were fleeing from bondage. God allowed the Israelites to joyfully sing for their liberation but chastised the Angels for joining them in the song. God asked the Angels, “How can you sing when my people (the Egyptians) are dying?

The desire for revenge and the feeling of vindication are legitimate because they are closely related to the concept of justice.

There are however some legitimate ethical issues we should have the courage to address, even if it is difficult to do emotionally.

Should Bin Laden have been arrested and tried rather than killed?

Should Bin Laden have been shot if he was unarmed?

At the present time, we have conflicting information on the exact circumstances of his death, so it is difficult to even begin to answer to those questions. In any case Bin Laden was a mass murderer who vowed to continue killing Americans and Jews anywhere in the world as well as any citizens of any state that did not embrace Islam. He was a global threat because he had the will and the means to execute his goals. He had to be stopped and he finally was.

As Samuel Johnson once wrote:

Vengeance is an act of justice.

Greg Mortenson, an American humanitarian, is co- founder and director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute that, according to the website: “promotes and supports community based education..”

Greg has done wonderful things for others in his life and should be commended for it. I only wish there were more people doing what he did and does. He has built a number of schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was even nominated of the Nobel Peace Prize!

He wrote his story in a book called Three Cups of Tea who became a best-seller. I have not read it yet but I am looking forward to it.

Two weeks ago, on April 17^th, CBS 60 Minutes ran a story that exposed some factual errors, misstatements and exaggerations in his book. One may say that he “fictionalized” an account that was published as non-fiction.   Writing a book about past events is difficult and the temptation exists to summarized or condense events for clarification and maybe also for dramatization. If only he had prefaced his book with a sentence such as “this account was inspired by real-life characters and events” or “this is a condensed representation of my story.” All would have been fine.

But he did not and now is facing a major controversy. Everything he has said or says today is scrutinized. He is even accused of mishandling funds of his foundation The Central Asia Institute.

Rushworth M. Kidder, President and Founder of the Institute of Global Ethics and the author of Moral Courage is very severe in his article called “Three Cups of…Well, We Thought it was Tea.” He said that we, the readers should expect perfect accuracy from nonfiction writers whether they are journalists, historians or intelligent analysts. He thinks that poetic license should be reserved for poetry, drama, film and fiction.

Nicholas Kristof in his NYT Op-Ed entitled “Three Cups of Tea, Spilled.” is more forgiving. He is willing to give Greg Mortensen the benefit of the doubt until we know more to “a man who has risked his life on behalf of some of the world’s most voiceless people.” Mr. Kristof visited some of Greg’s schools in Afghanistan. He writes: “Girls in his schools were thrilled to be getting an education. Women were learning vocational skills, such as sewing. Those schools felt like some of the happiest places in Afghanistan. ”

Being accurate and avoiding deception is central to ethical character but I am a firm believer that we should be judged not by our words only but also by our actions. Greg Mortensen has given ample proof of his altruistic behavior. We should give him credit for that.

As Benjamin Franklin said:

“Well done is better than well said.”