EthicalVoices - Real Ethics Stories from Real PR Pros

Purpose, Profit, and AI: The Ethical Trade-Offs Every Organization Is Making Today

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • September 14, 2026 • 0 Comments

This week on EthicalVoices, Martina Quinn, the CEO of Alice PR and co-chair of the Ethics Board to the International Communications Consultancy Organization discusses:
1) Can PR agencies embrace AI without compromising their values or contributing to the very problems they are trying to solve?

2) What happens to trust in PR when unethical practitioners ignore professional standards and the entire industry gets blamed for their behavior?

3) How to bring your whole team into AI decisions instead of imposing a strategy from the top down.

4) Three principles for making hard ethical calls when the answer isn’t black and white

Why kindness may be the most overlooked principle in ethical AI leadership

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • June 1, 2026 • 0 Comments

This week on EthicalVoices, Loren King, digital marketing supervisor for AI and insights at MorganMyers, discussed:

1) How coffee talks can build a healthy AI adoption culture

2) Why organizations need an AI philosophy, not just policies

3) Why communicators must balance AI innovation with humanity, empathy, privacy, and environmental impact

Ethical Lessons from the Front Lines of Healthcare Communications

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • May 4, 2026 • 0 Comments

This week on Ethical Voices, Linda Staley, APR, Fellow PRSA, corporate communications manager at Carilion Clinic discusses:

1) Why trust is the real currency in healthcare communications

2) How transparency in a crisis can protect your reputation more than perfection

3) How the ethical risks of AI and misinformation will shape our future calling

The PR Industry Wasn’t Built for Us—So We’re Rebuilding It

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • March 9, 2026 • 0 Comments

This week on EthicalVoices, Damaryan Benton, the founder of The PR Habitat, Co-Chair of the Queer Frontier Collective, and an account executive for Anomaly, discusses:

1) Why you shouldn’t confuse access with alignment
2) How early-career professionals can effectively challenge tone-deaf campaigns
3) Why authentic storytelling—not social metrics—must guide the use of AI in communications
4) Where young communicators can find a group built for them

Truth Under Fire: Ethics in Cybersecurity Communications

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • March 3, 2026 • 0 Comments

This week on Ethical Voices Bill Keeler, senior director of PR and communications with Semperis a leader in AI powered identity security, and cyber resilience, discusses:

1) Why “vaporware” claims are the fastest way to lose credibility in cyber PR
2) The ethics issues involved in ransomware attacks
3) The issues CISOs face – and how it is coming to the big screen
4) The power of transparency

This Week in PR Ethics (2/3/26): Fake posts, fake experts and fake photos

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • February 3, 2026 • 0 Comments

This Week in PR Ethics (2/6/26) Fake photos, fake posts and fake entries

Some interesting ethics stories over the past few weeks including Fake experts, fake entries, fake photos and more. CIPR deserves credit for calling out some of the most egregious issues. Unethical Wikipedia editing – CIPR calls out firms for the unethical use of subcontractors for wikilaundering Fake experts – CIPR

Climate, Truth, and the Ethics of Saying No

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • January 12, 2026 • 0 Comments

Joining me on this week’s episode of Ethical Voices is Mike Farber, the co-founder of GreenStory. He discusses a number of important ethics issues, including:

1) Why the most important ethics decision happens before you hire a person or client
2) Why “It’s legal” is one of the most dangerous phrases in communications
3) Why comms leaders must reclaim the truth

This Week in PR Ethics – 1/7/26: Robots, Start Ups and Oh So Many Failures

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • January 7, 2026 • 0 Comments

This Week in PR Ethics is back from its long vacation with a number of interesting stories, including many AI ethics failures.

Somebody Has to Ask the Question: Mentorship, AI, and Ethical Courage

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • January 5, 2026 • 0 Comments

This week on Ethical Voices, Kristin Amico, a writer, editor, content strategist, and the most traveled person I know discusses a number of important ethics issues, including:

1) Why most ethics failures don’t start with scandals
2) What the “Wild West” of AI really looks like inside organizations under pressure to perform
3) How fear, job insecurity, and “do more with less” environments quietly undermine ethical decision-making
4) Why mentorship is the most effective ethics safeguard for junior staff

Why Communicators Deserve the Same Privilege as Lawyers

By Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA • October 20, 2025 • 0 Comments

This week on EthicalVoices, Amie Hoffner, Vice President of Corporate Communications at American Dairy Queen Corporation, shares why communicators need the same protections as lawyers — and how to stay ethical when the lines between PR, marketing, and media blur. She discusses:

1) Why communicators should have the same legal protections as lawyers

2) How to avoid “on background” disasters

3) Why trusting your gut isn’t enough

4) How to counsel executives in media interviews

5) Why crisis simulations should include an ethical dilemma