ALBANY, NY — The New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) is primarily concerned with helping those in public service understand the ground rules of governing. The JCOPE website says it promotes integrity by “helping those in public service understand their ethical obligations, ensuring transparency through rigorous public reporting disclosures, and providing accountability through enforcement actions to address ethical misconduct.”

But recently the JCOPE board wandered into territory where many thought that it did not belong. The 13-member board approved 10 to 3 an advisory opinion that said that in some very specific cases, public relations professionals must register with JCOPE as lobbyists.

The opinion brought a spate of angry headlines from newspapers: from The Long Island Herald on February 4: “State should butt out of the press’s business;” from the Suffolk Times on February 5: “Ethics board should fight corruption, not the media;” from the Lockport Union Sun & Journal on February 1, “New state ethics rule defies reason;” and from Politico New York on February 1, “JCOPE’s ‘media consultant’ mistake.’”

JCOPE’s advisory opinion does not say that any public relations (PR) person who speaks to a reporter needs to register as a lobbyist, only a PR person who speaks to an editorial board of a newspaper, and only when the PR person is engaged in grassroots lobbying.

Information on the JCOPE website explains, “a communication is ‘grassroots lobbying’ when it takes a clear position on a specific ‘government action’ and asks the public or a segment of the public to contact a public official in support of that position. ‘Grassroots lobbying’ essentially is an attempt to influence public opinion in favor of, or in opposition to, a particular ‘government action’ with the expectation that the public will then influence a public official to act in the same manner.”

Therefore, if a paid PR person speaks to an editorial board with a specific take on, say, the minimum wage or single payer healthcare in New York State, and hopes to convince the editorial board of the correctness of the position, that person is now expected—at least by the board of JCOPE—to register as a lobbyist. It’s a view that is not sitting well with many PR firms, especially a firm called The November Team (TNT), which has launched a mini-crusade against JCOPE.

In an email sent out on February 8, the PR firm wrote, “Many editorial writers have said that JCOPE’s new regulation would have a chilling effect on the free exchange of information between journalists and their sources. Others have warned that government monitoring of those exchanges would be a logical and necessary enforcement step.”