P.R.

With the widening gap between the mega wealthy and everyone else, it is logical to conclude that much of the soft news that is reported in the media is placed there by people who can afford to pay the high price of P.R. There is no hard data to support this contention, but it is plausible that it is the wealthy among us—corporations, organizations, families, and individuals—who are paying for the services of an estimated 800,000 professional P.R. practitioners. If it is the rich who are paying for the legions of P.R. consultants and P.R. firms, then it can be unequivocally stated that the media has become increasingly the playground of the rich.