Reports on a study that found that public relations practitioners respond in different ways to different moral-ethical dilemmas and that they tend to think they are accountable in some situations to an authority higher than management. Concludes that subjectivism is the prevailing moral-ethical theory of practitioners. (FL)

Objectivity, truth, freedom, and social responsibility--key principles in contemporary media ethics--fail to provide a practical, coherent code for responsible journalism. During the initial television coverage of Watergate on June 19, 1972, for example, the three television networks all observed these standards in their reporting, yet presented…