Rabbinical Proclamations and the Need for Restraint

While I doubt the topic will engender any real deabte, I think most of you will agree with me, I'll post it anyway.

There has recently been two publicly debated kol korehs, one in Israel and one in the USA. I refer to, of course, the ban on VosIzNeias and the ban on Selling Apartment to Arabs. On one of the blogs I frequent, Emes Ve-Emunah, he closes with the following:

"I say the following with the greatest amount of respect. I say it precisely because I do believe these people are leaders despite their repeated mistakes– and that their voices should be heard.

In my view all future requests for bans be rejected. If for example they perceive a problem with a website they should speak out. They should explain objections and the Halachic and Hashkafic issues. But in no way should they ever put their names to anything like this ever again if they want to maintain whatever credibility they have left. Perhaps by doing so they will be able to rebuild their stature as effective rabbinic leaders to even greater numbers of people."

I wholeheartedly agree with this. There's an old saying amongst lawyers "Never write what you can say, and never say what you can communicate with a wink and a nod." Or something along those lines. My problem with the ban on the apartments, for example, was not the p'sak halacha per se, but the fact that it was publicized. For an individual to ask a shaila and obtain that same p'sak is no problem whatsoever. But not every p'sak needs to be published for the whole world to read and hear, and certainly not to have various rabbonim sign their names to it. Things must be done with an eye towards public perception as well.

As well, I was under the impression that rabbonim don't pasken shailas that won't be listened to by the masses. Or, rather, I thought that was so in Talmudic times. I question whether the ban on VIN doesn't fall under such category. I would think that there are few people that go on the internet who would also listen to this p'sak. I could be wrong, but I tend to doubt it. In fact, I think this is more of a case of bad publicity is better than no publicity. By publicly issuing this ban, more debate about and, one would thing, more web traffic has gone to, VIN than ever before.

So, the question I pose is when and under what circumstances is a public proclamation called for?