I am often asked by people not familiar with the media industry, how do you get your stories? This is difficult to answer: public announcements, of course; there is a plethora of mandated announcements, like corporate reports, and public events that generate news.

But mostly, you ask people questions, and put their answers on television or in the newspaper, or whatever. This process of asking questions and getting answers is a delicate dance.

I think the one thing that the public in general doesn’t realise is how mediated this process of asking questions has become. There is no talking on the phone any more; just endless emails and people phoning to see if you got their emails.

Getting precise stats is tricky, but the US Department of Labor is one of the few government departments that keeps track of employment categories on a granular basis. In 2021, the department tallied 242,710 people employed in the US as public relations specialists. Add to that 59,850 public relations managers. That is a total of 302,560 people.

In the same year, the department said the US had 46,700 journalists. That means there were 6.5 public relations officers for every journalist. Ten years ago, the number of public relations staffers was 26,500, and the number of journalists was 46,500 — in other words, in a decade, the number of public relations employees has gone up, um, quite a bit, and the number of journalists is flat.

Now, this is tricky, because I work every day with public relations outfits, and many are staffed by excellent people, a number of whom I respect deeply. Mostly, we have a very professional relationship, by which I mean, we hate each other. PR reps hate the fact that they have to grovel in front of such transparently feckless people, and journalists hate the fact that PR people get paid so much.

Because that’s the other thing. The US Department of Labor records that in 2021 the mean annual wage of a PR specialist was $73,250, and the mean annual wage of a PR manager was $138,000. That compares with the mean average wage of journalists of $48,370 per year.

So what are the PR managers doing for those exorbitant salaries? Well, allow me to give you an example. Just today, I asked the public relations department of the German tech advisory company T-Systems, the following questions:

“Could I ask for your response to the press report in Welt am Sonntag that the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt is investigating allegations against T-Systems in connection with Gupta-linked State Capture allegations in South Africa? I see the press report quotes you responding that you do not yet have any knowledge of the investigation. Is this still the case?

“It also says that you cooperated with the State Capture investigations. In what way did you cooperate? I’m not aware that T-Systems made any submission to the Zondo Commission; did you? The response says, ‘Certain business relationships have been terminated.’ I presume this was in respect of the companies Zestilor and Sechaba. Is that correct, and when were those relationships terminated?”

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There is more, but I will spare you the tedium. This was the response:

“As a matter of principle, we do not comment on ongoing proceedings; this also applies to those of the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office. T-Systems remains firmly committed to the highest levels of good governance and ethical leadership. We do not tolerate any violations of the law and act swiftly to address issues. T-Systems South Africa (TSSA) have for several years cooperated extensively with the State Capture Commission (SCC) and other relevant authorities and shared information that can help their work.”

Allow me to parse this a bit, because the response is typical of so many I have got over the years. Clearly, the company is in trouble here, but, thank heavens, there is an investigation behind which they can hide, because the overall aim is to say nothing. The existence of an investigation provides them with the opportunity to use the old “ongoing proceedings” gag. Hence, sadly, and very unfortunately, we can’t say anything, because there is an investigation, report, sub judice, whatever.

The second rule is to not answer the questions asked, but to answer the questions you choose to ask yourself. (As Henry Kissinger once famously asked a press conference, “Ladies and gentlemen, do you have any questions for my answers?” Hence, I didn’t actually ask about T-Systems’ commitment to good governance — in fact, we know with unusual precision from the Zondo Commission just how committed they are to good governance — hint: not very much.

Then affirm the company is (after getting out the thesaurus) “working with”, “cooperating”, “participating”, “collaborating”, “upholding”, “supporting, “championing” and “defending” everything, at all times. Obvs.

In fact, we know from the Zondo Commission’s final report that T-Systems paid central Gupta-clan operator Salim Essa’s wife’s company millions, allegedly in an effort to keep its massively lucrative contract with Transnet and subsequently with Eskom.

We know this — and this is the funny bit — because T-Systems commissioned a report to consider whether this relationship reflected whether the company was, how should we put it, “firmly committed to the highest levels of good governance and ethical leadership”.

And the report, part of the Zondo Commission’s documentation, says emphatically this kickback arrangement was plainly risky and suspect. Obvs, again.

But, an informal relationship would be fine. Seriously. I am not making this up. That’s what they decided. So, they continued to pay Salim Essa’s wife’s company for about another five years.

And that is why we need an investigative press, because the level of honest communication between companies and journalists is now so mediated, so distant and so dysfunctional that it’s close to becoming a danger to public wellbeing. DM/BM