In today's (July 21, 2009) Al Watan daily from Qatar, there was an op-ed piece by Raji Amer. In it, he blasts PR companies for being unprofessional. His main gripe? Press releases that are not well written, forcing him to rewrite them. He says, essentially doing their job for them.

Can you imagine a world where PR practitioners and journalists were one happy family? Yes, like buddies! Before you start fantasizing further, allow me to point out that this would be the mother of all disasters for news.

I often find it funny how much attention is being given to the struggle between PR's and Journos. This isn't unique to our region. In fact, this is how it has always been (and shall remain); an eternal struggle for power. A quick google search confirms what I have long believed. These two groups are locked in it till the death. Hell, I would say long after that as well.

The very nature of the relationship dictates that it is a barely civil relationship, underneath which lies contempt and sometimes (but rarely) respect. Tala's article in the National, covered here started a conversation that is still happening. A public conversation, which surprisingly, still continues.

The most recent was the National's, Transparency drive strains media, PR relations, gets warmer in identifying the complexities of the relationship.

Journalists have the power to publish or not publish certain material and PR's sometimes want things to be published and others not.. their interests are for the most part in conflict of one another. They are, by definition, rivals! This is not to even get into the "PR's don't know how to do their job" to "journalists who can't even write" arguments. Beneath it all, it is a mere pull and push war going on between the two sides.

I say, let it continue. The more balanced the scales are (and I prefer them to favor the journalists) the better. All that is happening now is that journalists are starting to gain some of that control. The status quo is changing. Is it the drive for transparency or is it more than that?