Public Accountability vs. Mavens of Malarky

By Michael Willard

I mark my tenure in public relations from the first day I walked into the office of the man who was about to become the fourth most powerful person in the United States.

It was the mid-70s and that man, Robert C. Byrd, was a month away from becoming the leader of the United States Senate. I was picked from West Virginia obscurity where I toiled as a wire service bureau manager.

Though I had never met Byrd, he put me in charge of communicating his public persona and policy directions to…