Union Carbide’s Bhophal and Tylenol are classic cases of PR crisis management. And now we can add H&R Block to the list.

It was announced on the radio this morning that H&R Block screwed up its own tax returns, and owes the IRS $32 million in back taxes.

Already, according to the radio report, H&R Block has lost 250,000 clients as a result.

If you were the CEO, marketing manager, or PR firm for H&R Block, what steps would you take to manage this PR crisis?

In her new book “Bait and Switch,” Barbara Ehrenreich writes: “PR is really journalism’s evil twin.”

“Whereas a journalist seeks the truth, a PR person may be called upon to disguise it or even to advance an untruth,” says Ehrenreich. “If your employer, a pharmaceutical company, claims its new drug cures both cancer and erectile dysfunction, your job is to promote it, not to investigate the ground for these claims.”

PR practitioners: Is Barbara way out of line? Or right on target?

Rick Bruner, an active blogger and my polar opposite in all things marketing, questions the effectiveness of my use of traditional media – specifically, articles I write for DM News

He derisively refers to trade journals and newsletters as “dead tree media,” and suggests that online communication, like blogging, is really where it’s at.

I’m not so sure.

So far my blogging has brought me a lot of fascinating discussions with bloggers (about 80 posts in its first week), but no posts from potential clients.

My DM News articles, on the other hand, bring me more than a dozen leads per article, all from the direct marketers who are my potential clients — because that’s who reads DM News.

My “dead tree” medium is highly targeted. I am not sure who reads blogs … but DM News has an audit-verified circulation of 50,000 direct marketers, which is my target market spot on.

Here’s my quick take on online vs. offline media….

Online is more high tech, more today’s hot topic, more the flavor of the month, more appealing to the under 30 crowd, and more interactive.

Online is easier to respond to, and the response and discussion is immediately visible to everyone on the Internet. The conversation can spread like wildfire, which is a real plus.

Offline is more traditional, more appealing to the over 50 crowd, and has greater selectivity.

Anyone can publish a blog, Web site, or e-zine. That’s why David St. Lawrence calls blogging “Citizens Publishing.”

But not everyone can get published in Harvard Business Review or the Wall Street Journal … or convince McGraw-Hill or John Wiley & Sons to publish their book.

And that’s why these dead tree media, unlike a blog, give the author a certain status and credibility that self-published online writings, like e-books, do not.

The best tact is a mixed-media approach: For instance, I am a regular contributor to dead tree media including Writer’s Digest and DM News. And I am the author of 60 books published by such mainstream publishing houses as Prentice Hall and Amacom.

But I also publish a blog, a free monthly e-zine, and downloadable free articles and special reports available on my Web site.

Does anybody have an opinion on which is better – traditional paper publishing, online publishing, or a combination? What has worked for you guys?