Originally Posted by
bunyip
As a "request" it's fine to want a member of the press to get permission for a quote. As a "require"-ment or expectation, it's naive and fails to take account of the fact that the press (yet another 'profession') have few professional qualms about tapping the phones of the dead to get a story.
I maintain that the P-word is as dangerous as the F-word (flexibility), as your count of definitions only goes to show. It means so many different things to so many different people, and very rarely the same thing to both the speaker and the listener. Content is everything, yet the context is never made clear: it's most commonly abused as a 'value-added' tagline. Everybody in a job is told, and believes, they are a 'professional'. Some use it to hide misconduct: Vanessa George and the authorities in Rotherham could all describe themselves as "professionals", and their colleagues would have been assiduously encouraged to 'respect' them as professionals. It can also, inadvertently, lead to those 'outsiders' (who don't carry the 'professional' label) feeling patronised and offended. I've spoken with plenty of mums who are sick of having the 'professional' views of professional teachers, professional health workers, professional carers put upon them and made to feel totally inadequate because they are 'only' parents - not "professional" parents and therefore, by extension, mere "amateurs" at raising children. :(