Do no harm

Amongst the many things which make me despair of modern society is power of negative publicity, coupled with it's seeming necessity. On the one hand it can be a marvellous tool to effect positive change, and the power of the internet is beginning to place much of the power we associate with the daily press in the hands of anyone with an internet connection. On the other is the underlying implication that it's possible to commit great harm - just so long as no-one finds out about it. That such a mentality seems to be pretty much business as usual in the corporate world is simply depressing.

I suppose negative publicity functions as a sort of check and balance, hopefully reigning in some of the worst corporate excesses, but for the most part it relies on the reactionary and notoriously fickle press, a situation which is far from ideal and places more power in the hands of newspaper editors than I'm entirely comfortable with (particularly now that the UK government seems intent on developing policies to placate readers of the Daily Telegraph). It's easy enough to point to the internet as the great leveller in such affairs, but the amorphous blogosphere doesn't yet seem able to muster the laser-like zeal of the red tops.

Am I naive in wishing for a world in which the words "do no harm" are inscribed in every board room across the planet? Why is that companies need to be shamed into doing what's often quite obviously (loaded words I know) the right thing?

Here's the story that sparked these particular thoughts: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/25/disney_we_willwont_s.html