COMM 106-001
Test #2
PR ETHICS MINI-CASE STUDY (Pgs. 114-115 in your textbook):
"The Sad Memoir of Scott McClellan”
By all accounts, Scott McClellan was a nice guy—but that didn’t make him a good press
secretary, or even an acceptable one. McClellan’s problems in controlling the unruly White
House press corps were well documented. He simply couldn’t do it, especially while
representing a George W. Bush Administration with which many reporters disagreed and found
suspicious. However, one thing President Bush was never accused of was his ‘lack of loyalty’.
He famously stuck by people like Scott McClellan who had worked with him since the early
days in Texas.
Bush’s well-known loyalty was one reason why McClellan’s tell-all memoir “What Happened:
Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” which turned on the hand
that fed him for his entire career as a government employee was so shocking and reprehensible.
He violated some of the PRSA’s Code of Ethics and was correctly criticized. That being said,
please provide your opinions about the following questions:
1. In general, what are the public relations ethical considerations revealed by the McClellan
case? (Keep in mind the various definitions of ‘ethics’ we discussed in class, as well as
how we define it in the PR industry.)
2. How would you assess Scott McClellan’s ethical responsibility to be loyal to his boss vs.
his ethical responsibility to reveal what happened at the White House? Elaborate on how
you think he should have handled the situation (at least one to two paragraphs).
3. Which of the six PRSA Code of Ethics core values (discussed in class and listed on pages
108 and 119 in your textbook) do you think McClellan violated? Please choose at least
three core values and explain how McClellan violated the ones you chose.