Do you have to tell the truth reporters? Can you lie to the news media? This is a tricky issue because it used to be what I would say what every single media trainer in the world would say every PR person would say, never ever lie, you'll lose credibility of the reporter, they'll never trust you again, your career will go down in flames. Sadly, that's not true any longer. And I'm not gonna mention names here. And we're not here to talk politics.

But there are certainly examples here in the United States, but also in other countries around the world. Increasingly, where certain people in the political realm if they lie, and they lie often enough, hard enough, forcefully enough. They get away with it. Not only are they not punished, but sometimes major media outlets, networks will actually give them their own show will reward them, give them riches help them in their political campaigns. So Personally, I don't lie because I don't think it's ethical or honest or fair or good thing. And it's not the reputation I want for myself.

I don't recommend to my clients that they lie. But I also don't want to lie to you. And just because I think lying is not a good thing to tell you, you can never lie to the media, you're gonna have to make that judgment for yourself. Here's the thing, if you act like you're embarrassed, it's gonna hurt you. If you have a conscience, it's probably gonna hurt you. People can see it, they can smell it on you.

The people who seem to get away with this are ones who act like they can't tell the difference between a lie and truth. And they just state everything as if they have 100% conviction, even if they know they're lying. And they are able to get away again, I'm not advocating it. But the old rule of 100% never, ever lie. I can't in good conscience tell you it applies any longer. The current state of our news media and the public