You are writing against generalization, the fact that when someone writes good or bad things about one or a few persons (be they bloggers, geeks, techies or PR) then all of these “corporation” feel to be all attacked at the same time.

But you are doing the same thing when you say:
[...] somehow when a blogger decides to make a negative comment about someone who works in XX, it’s deemed okay. In fact other bloggers will often rally to their sides and talk about how they too know that all XX people are in fact bad people. [...]
I would think you did not really mean “all people”…

Coming back about PR itself: it is a difficult job, dealing with touchy and demanding execs who do not help and touchy journalists… but you know this is part of the job description.

You know you will need to educate your customer’s expectation and explain them why the WSJ article is not complete. You know you will need to teach them why you cannot write in the press release that this is a “revolutionary product”, as they insisted to be written for the previous product, and the one before.

You know that you will have to tell them that journalist X is a bright person, but that s/he will ask hard questions and that they have to answer in a straight way, not using some convoluted words without a meaning.

You know that meeting this Y journalist with a new client who is really great will be difficult because your previous meeting was with a client that deliberately followed none of your advice.

You are infuriated that journalist Z who does not return your calls while you are calling him/her just when you have real PR info that you know will useful for him/her.

You shout and cry when reading what journalist Z has written after an interview, and how they have stupidly misunderstood and not taken the time to call you back for checking.

But all of these are part of the job description.

Like the success you had in briefing that great exec that you helped to be and look greater yet.

Like the damage control you successfully led after some disastrous information, but when all the journalists you had build confidence with trusted you and listened to your side of the story and then presented to their readers a balanced view of the problem.

Like this pleasant dinner with a journalist which produced no immediate result, except that your client looked so smart that after some weeks the journalist was calling him/her regularly to get a positive quote.

There are joys, there are pains. They are all part of the job… even if we prefer some over the others!

- Dearth of talent: quality of professionals and lack of quality training facilities for communications professionals. PR is almost never the career of choice but happens by accident when nothing else clicks. Fortunately, that is changing now.
- PR-ignorant clients: lack of understanding among clients and weak corporate communications professionals on the other side who are unable to hammer in the importance of PR within their own organisation, reducing agencies to play the role of media messengers and facilitators
- Work pressure: I am not sure if its an issue of under-staffing or poor time management practises – perhaps a bit of both, but at any given time, you will see a PR executive is under pressure and stretched for time as s/he juggles with multiple accounts reacting to client demands. This does not leave them with much time to focus on quality, proactive, strategic PR.
- Lack of accountability: PR is hardly a passion for many..when anything becomes just a job, chances of your striving to excel in the field are little. Sometimes executives on an account are clueless about facts and statistics pertaining to their own clients or their industry. There is a need to take this job more seriously.
- Media hostility: I have often cursed myself for electing this thankless profession (having said that, if I were to do it all over again, I doubt I would choose anything else!!) where on one hand, one had to put up with client complaints and on the other, media arrogance and their often unreasonable tantrums. I could never understand why we could not together build a healthy ecosystem where information was the core, not ego.

I do see things changing now and perhaps we are moving towards a situation where PR is slowly getting the importance it deserves. There are more and more clients who are savvy enough to involve agencies and communications professionals in all strategic initiatives, and media that appreciates good work done by PR. But clearly, more needs to be done given the fact this is perhaps the only stream that could help a company forge a holistic relationship with all its stakeholders and its value is still woefully underrated.