3 ms·

Beware the fluffy story - the hidden influence of PR agencies

42 points by camtarn 16y ago

camtarn 16y ago
A nice reinforcement of pg's 2005 article on the PR agencies behind the 'news': http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html Even human interest stories aren't immune.
Uhhrrr 16y ago
It's not just the fluffy stories either: http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html From the section "Suffer the Little Children": "...the story of babies torn from their incubators was repeated over and over again. President Bush told the story. It was recited as fact in Congressional testimony, on TV and radio talk shows, and at the UN Security Council. "Of all the accusations made against the dictator," MacArthur observed, "none had more impact on American public opinion than the one about Iraqi soldiers removing 312 babies from their incubators and leaving them to die on the cold hospital floors of Kuwait City."84 At the Human Rights Caucus, however, Hill & Knowlton and Congressman Lantos had failed to reveal that Nayirah was a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family. Her father, in fact, was Saud Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to the US, who sat listening in the hearing room during her testimony. The Caucus also failed to reveal that H&K vice-president Lauri Fitz-Pegado had coached Nayirah in what even the Kuwaitis' own investigators later confirmed was false testimony."
ergo98 16y ago
The press is incredibly lazy. It isn't limited to just PR fiction that gets repeated as fact, it's just gross sloppiness that multiplies as each layer of the press cites the other as a source or an authority. Shilling, but related - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1958746 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1958746
dangrover 16y ago
"And remember, this ‘fluffy’ little story about the cute little pig we’d all love to cuddle ended up with a 30% increase in the sales of sausages…" I love the irony.
mattdeboard 16y ago
I'm an in-house PR specialist (i.e. not a contractor/PR agency employee). Half the fight of getting your story in the press is finding the outlet and reporter whose beat/publication matches up with the story. Just because a concept comes from PR doesn't make it a lie, or untrue. Where I work, there are regularly compelling stories that make excellent human interest features. I make sure those stories get attention. What is the harm? Packaging a company's story into a journalist-friendly format doesn't strip the story of all merit automatically.
- tomjen3 16y ago
  Lying about it does, or at least it should.
  - mattdeboard 16y ago
    Sure, but lying about it is a great way to not get published.

42 points by camtarn 16y ago

A nice reinforcement of pg's 2005 article on the PR agencies behind the 'news': http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html Even human interest stories aren't immune.

Uhhrrr 16y ago

It's not just the fluffy stories either: http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html From the section "Suffer the Little Children": "...the story of babies torn from their incubators was repeated over and over again. President Bush told the story. It was recited as fact in Congressional testimony, on TV and radio talk shows, and at the UN Security Council. "Of all the accusations made against the dictator," MacArthur observed, "none had more impact on American public opinion than the one about Iraqi soldiers removing 312 babies from their incubators and leaving them to die on the cold hospital floors of Kuwait City."84 At the Human Rights Caucus, however, Hill & Knowlton and Congressman Lantos had failed to reveal that Nayirah was a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family. Her father, in fact, was Saud Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to the US, who sat listening in the hearing room during her testimony. The Caucus also failed to reveal that H&K vice-president Lauri Fitz-Pegado had coached Nayirah in what even the Kuwaitis' own investigators later confirmed was false testimony."

ergo98 16y ago

The press is incredibly lazy. It isn't limited to just PR fiction that gets repeated as fact, it's just gross sloppiness that multiplies as each layer of the press cites the other as a source or an authority. Shilling, but related - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1958746 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1958746

dangrover 16y ago

"And remember, this ‘fluffy’ little story about the cute little pig we’d all love to cuddle ended up with a 30% increase in the sales of sausages…" I love the irony.

mattdeboard 16y ago

I'm an in-house PR specialist (i.e. not a contractor/PR agency employee). Half the fight of getting your story in the press is finding the outlet and reporter whose beat/publication matches up with the story. Just because a concept comes from PR doesn't make it a lie, or untrue. Where I work, there are regularly compelling stories that make excellent human interest features. I make sure those stories get attention. What is the harm? Packaging a company's story into a journalist-friendly format doesn't strip the story of all merit automatically.

tomjen3 16y ago
Lying about it does, or at least it should.
- mattdeboard 16y ago
  Sure, but lying about it is a great way to not get published.