Daniel J. Edelman, a Public Relations Counselor

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By: Doug Bedell

The last paragraph in The Washington Post's obituary of Daniel J. Edelman, who died January 15 at 92, speaks volumes on his importance to the public relaltions profession. PR people, Edelman felt, bore some of the responsibility for the dishonesty in a corporate scandal like the collapse of Enron in 2001. "They went after the lawyers and accountants but nobody said 'what about the PR people?'" he told PR Week back then. "What does that say about us — that we are irrelevant? Are we just the press release distributors for lawyers? Isn't this a call to action? We are supposed to be the corporate conscience and we have to get involved in counseling."

Yes, Daniel Edelman was a counselor, and he mirrored all that is best in the profession of public relations. Read the Post's piece for the full scope of his long career in the craft.

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About the Author

Doug Bedell has a background in journalism and PR and is the owner of Resource Relations LLC in Central PA, focusing on organizational and crisis communication. He’s the community manager of SimplyFair.net, a social network on fairness. On the Web, Doug’s at www.ResourceRelations.com. On Twitter, he’s @DougBeetle.

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