PR is meant to be the bridge of open, honest communications between a client and the media. However, the new reality of “alternative facts” presented by Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway has frayed PR’s relationship with the press and branded us as spin doctors.

“Spin isn’t and shouldn’t be a public relations tactic,” said PRSA chairwoman Jane Dvorak in a statement on “alternative facts.” “By being truthful, we build and maintain trust with the media.”

In his first press conference Spicer denounced the media with open hostility, arguing the White House “can sometimes disagree with the facts.” While PR and journalism may clash over how facts are represented, the facts themselves should never be a point of contention. Our effectiveness as communicators depends on our profession’s credibility. “Alternative facts” – spin – ruins it. A trusting relationship with the press is one communicators cannot afford to squander. Spicer himself acknowledged this truth in January, saying “If you lose the respect and trust of the press corps, you’ve got nothing.”

The view of journalists as enemies promoted by Spicer’s rhetoric arises from President Trump’s ongoing “war with the media.” Ezra Klein of Vox writes “Trump’s need to delegitimize … the institutions that might report damaging facts about the president” is a strategy meant to train his base to only trust information from the White House as truth. Yet as former GE CCO Gary Sheffer said, PR practitioners “aren’t reporters’ only source of information. Journalists are going to write … about you with or without your participation.” Rather than refusing to communicate, it is our job as PR professionals to convince clients that offering a perspective on an issue is always preferable to leaving its interpretation to conjecture.  A closed or untruthful relationship with the media always hurts the organization more than the journalist. We must persuade our clients that the press is our partner, not our enemy.

Repeated enough in the echo chambers of social media, unfounded claims can become “alternative facts” without appropriate attribution. PR Council president Anne Green said “There is a danger to our society becoming disengaged from the high stakes of defending actual, provable reality.” The work of journalists is becoming increasingly difficult in a time where the press secretary himself is working to distort facts. PR professionals have an ethical obligation to provide the press with accurate information. We must collaborate with, not undermine, journalists in their cause of providing the publics we communicate to with the truth.

The IABC Code of Ethics begins with “I am honest—my actions bring respect for and trust in the communications profession.” Spicer and Conway’s concept of “alternative facts” directly contradicts their ethical obligations to the practice they represent. PR practitioners should condemn their behaviour for portraying a version of our profession as false as their facts. PR and journalism are both purveyors of information, and natural partners in safeguarding the truth. In these times of state-sponsored falsehoods, the fight against “alternative facts” does not belong to journalists alone.