For an industry that prides itself on pulling off media "coups" for its clients, public relations is surprisingly malnourished when it comes to self-representation. Sure, we have our weekly update of what's going on from the good folks at Haymarket that all the world can see if they choose but, generally speaking, PRs don't get much time in the limelight themselves.

There are a couple of reasons for that. Anyone who has ever had to explain to their mum why the article that they wrote is in their client's name rather than their own will testify to the fact that it's about pushing the people who pay the bills into the spotlight, not our humble (!) selves. And on the flip side, the media tends to steer clear of asking for our views on... well, pretty much anything, alarmed at the prospect of looking either a) lazy when it comes to sourcing commentators or b) naive for trusting anything that utters from a PR's mouth.

Because of that, and as anyone representing a client in a niche industry will tell you, you have to make the most of what comes your way. That's why it's so frustrating that PR - by and large - continues to fluff its lines on the big stage. We're not big fans of finger pointing over here, but it's nigh impossible to avoid in this case, so we're going to do it anyway. On yesterday's edition of The Bottom Line (listen here), journalist, economics expert and former Lemonheads vocalist Evan Davis interviewed a panel of the great and the good from the industry.

The unmistakable look of a man trapped in a studio betwixt three PRs at 8.30 on a Thursday night

Aside from refraining from giggles at Lord Tim's early assertion that "the Bell is me" (that being the Bell in Bell Pottinger which, as a colleague so astutely pointed out, is at least a graduation from being the ampersand in Saatchi & Saatchi), we spent the rest of the interview cringing at the conversation's devolution into something of a slanging match between him, Edelman's Robert Phillips and Julia Hobsbawm of Editorial Intelligence, a slanging match that we are of course now perpetuating.

We won't go any further than to draw your attention to the recording and Davis's growing sighs of frustration at being unable to get a sensible or unified answer from his panellists. While it might be raw idiocy to expect the heads of three competing communications firms to find a consensus on the industry, it's not unreasonable to expect them to come across as more eloquent than a room full of squabbling children.

At the very least, count us relieved that we aren't the ones doing the post interview debrief.

Chris E