In a Washington Post story on Friday, media columnist Howard Kurtz detailed an extraordinary formal sexual harassment complain filed against a Miami Herald reporter by a military Public Relations person, of all things. I've been on one side of the PR/Media battle lines for a long time, and have had numerous heated exchanges with people who's job was to prevent me from obtaining the information I needed for a story, but this! It helps if you know the male PR Navy Commander who filed the complaint against the female reporter is retiring next year.
Despite the adversarial relationship between the two sides, PR people generally know they have to try to satisfy the reporters while protecting the folks who sign their paychecks, and it makes for some difficult terrain to traverse. All sides have a tough job, and that tension often causes angry flareups. There are some PR people I won't deal with, or will ignore, because I don't trust them. There are probably some PR people who will avoid dealing with me for the same (incorrect, of course) reason. It's a dance in which the partners are forced to work together with sometimes opposite ideas about whether they're waltzing or line dancing the cupid shuffle.
During my three-years in the U.S. Army, I occasionally acted as a low-ranking enlisted escort for civilian media. And I can promise you those reporters would have had to have basically broken some of my bones before I would have complained even informally about their behavior. The story told by Kurtz will be fascinating to watch. The results could have a significant impact on PR/media relations, especially in the military. 
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