The fact that Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has suffered significant public relations damage over the course of the financial crisis is well known. But it continues to fascinate people. The New York Times weighed in with an interesting look at Goldman's PR woes in relation to those of BP and Toyota. The gilded bank's woes are severe even by those standards.

But one expert offers an analogy that suggests the depths to which Goldman's image descended, notes the Times. The expert sees parallels to the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. "The priests thought they should be protecting one another rather than the children in their care," he says. "Goldman now has the same problem. It turns out it's, 'We make money for ourselves first, and our customers second,' when it should be the other way around. This is going to hurt them for years."

Ouch! The bank has reason to cry foul on this one. Likening executives of the firm to priests protecting pedophiles is certainly a low blow. And yet despite all of the criticism of Goldman's woeful attempts to deal with its image problems, both it and BP have seen a bit of rebound according to recent polls. Time may lead to further healing, barring additional missteps.

For more:
- here's the article
- here's a look at the PR woes over time

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