Comments on: The Academy boasts diversity efforts, Essence chief steps down, and 47% of marketers are creating more emotional content https://www.prdaily.com/the-academy-boasts-diversity-efforts-essence-chief-steps-down-and-47-of-marketers-are-creating-more-emotional-content/ PR Daily - News for PR professionals Thu, 02 Jul 2020 18:38:42 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 By: Ronald N. Levy https://www.prdaily.com/the-academy-boasts-diversity-efforts-essence-chief-steps-down-and-47-of-marketers-are-creating-more-emotional-content/#comment-99732 Thu, 02 Jul 2020 18:38:42 +0000 https://www.prdaily.com/?p=309628#comment-99732 Should PR firms and departments fire executives who have reported unpopular opinions, who perhaps had an extramarital years ago or who have been flirtatious annoyingly?

PR Daily reports that Facebook is being boycotted by some advertisers for transmitting opinions considered dreadful
(which they may be since I haven’t seen the opinions). Also that an accused executive is leaving Essence. Today’s New York Times has a headline: “Fox News Fires Anchor After Accusation of Misconduct.”

Ed Henry, the Fox Anchor, was forced out of his job says the Times “after several tabloids reported that he had engaged in an extramarital relationship with a woman he had met in Las Vegas.”

Essence CEO Richelieu Dennis will be replaced as reported today by a USA Today story with this lead: “Essence magazine named new temporary leadership days after someone claiming to be an employee posted anonymous allegations of mistreatment and abuse within the company.”

Should a PR firm or department fire any employee accused of an extramarital affair? How about editors of the Times, USA Today and PR Daily—should they continue to be employed if accused of infidelity or being annoyingly flirtatious?

How about if a site like Facebook didn’t express opinions objected to but only transmitted them with attribution?

And how about our hospitals, schools and financial firms—should they continue to employ even great doctors and others who had an extramarital affair even “years ago” as the Times says of Ed Henry?

I don’t know whether it was the Shakers or the Quakers but one of those groups is said to have required celibacy of all members. I guess it must have been Shakers since there have been many generations of Quakers. But should celibacy or a “never on Sunday” rule qualify PR execs and editors for faster promotions?

Is PR Daily missing a bet by giving awards only for excellence of PR achievement, not also for excellence of abstinence?

Or in truth, should firing people over their social lives or opinions be unlawful discrimination? If you are fired for an alleged extramarital affair years ago—or for being accused anonymously of flirting annoyingly —should you in fairness be able to sue for wrongful discharge?

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