By Bruce W. Marcus
 
Your mother raised you to be nice to everyone, and you've always been taught to be nice to journalists. Answer their questions. Tell them everything. Stop what you're doing and cooperate. Be polite.
 
That's the conventional wisdom. You've even heard that in these pages. But are there ever times to tell the press to bug off, and leave you alone? Maybe.
 
On the face of it, the press seems to have all the power. They speak to a lot more people than you do, and they do it with what the general public accepts, usually unquestioningly and with little reason, as objectivity.
 
Trade lore abounds with stories of a public relations person spurned. Back in the days of the famous columnist Walter Winchell, any celebrity -- or press agent -- who didn't cooperate with him might have done well to buy a grocery store for a new career. One press agent who promised him an exclusive, only to find that another columnist had inadvertently picked up the story, was driven from her otherwise successful career.
 
Virtually every company, and every marketing or public relations executive, has a story of being trashed by the press -- sometimes despite following all the rules and cooperating extensively.
 
But then, there are stories of companies that refused to deal with segments of the press, and are still around. Mobil refused to talk to Wall Street Journal reporters for years. There is no empty crater where Mobil once was; they still thrive.

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