The Lord Arrington and prMac

A pox on both your houses…

I’ve been wisely counseled that it’s better to tone down my blog posts and do less railing against my own brothers and sisters in the PR industry and write of the great positives that transpire and inspire us to keep persevering in this vastly misunderstood profession. It’s no secret that I don’t subscribe to the traditional PR compensation model…fat retainers based on even more bloated hourly fees; and that I believe that the accountability of pay-for-performance PR is fairer and ultimately more productive for all the parties. And, that I particularly don’t like the arrogance of many PR agencies nor their counterparts in the media…old, new, or social. Thus, I’ve tried over my last few blog posts to follow a reformed line and stay toward the beige of the profession.

But then I run across Michael Arrington’s latest rant in his (I’m sad to admit) influential TechCrunch posting, “I Pissed Off a Spammer Today” regarding his encounter with press release spammer, prMac, and I can’t help but fall immediately off the wagon and head for my keyboard with a vengeance.

Here’s a snippet of what the Lord Arrington has to say…


“It’s no secret that we consider the PR industry, for the most part, the bane of our existence. They’re just under too much pressure to get results, and when we don’t do what they want (write about their clients), things turn ugly. And before things turn ugly, we get spammed. By phone, by Twitter, by Facebook, by email, by mail and by fedex. Some PR firms will lie, cheat, manipulate and then just smear your reputation to get what they want.”

Really, Michael? And technology blog postings…particularly those that have made a practice and considerable revenue by deciding which companies and which technologies deserve their lucrative praise… are the purest form of media journalism and therefore deserve to throw stones at will at an entire profession dedicated to supplying that which has made you so important…information that you pass along, true or not. Give me a break…

Ironically however, the Lord Arrington was at least half correct in his hyperbole. Not in his rant against PR-types in general, but about the firm, prMac, that is not a public relations firm per se, rather a distribution company for press releases written by the PR-types that seem to plague Arrington like a swarm of gnats on a summer picnic. But again to add to the irony, Arrington is not upset about what this firm does…distribute multitudes of written material of dubious news value and charge their customers accordingly…but that he can’t get them to leave his particular picnic alone. And because his picnic has been ruined for the day and put him in such a bad mood, he decides it’s worth a ridiculous inference…that spammers of email press releases are PR professionals…

“…the whole PR profession really needs to get a grip. We aren’t here to do their bidding. We serve our readers. At least, the readers we like. And our community. If they want to be part of that community, they need to lose the sense of entitlement…”

Arrington’s arrogance however isn’t any greater than that of a company that seems to believe that the mass distribution of press releases via email spam is a legitimate means of gaining positive awareness…nor the ignorance of those PR firms that pay these folks for such a dubious service.

Next time…back to beige.

When Did Integrity Become a Four-Letter Word?

All the news that’s not fit to print

A few days ago a well-respected citizen in the small town I reside in, was unfortunately killed in a bicycle accident. An experienced cyclist wearing a helmet as always, he simply hit a pothole in the dimming light of dusk, and was thrown headfirst over the handlebars. One of those horrible reminders that life and fate are fickle and never to be taken for granted. In the days following however, I have witnessed an absolute outpouring of testimonials to one quality above all others of this gentleman…integrity…his insistence throughout his life of truthfulness and fairness in dealing with others, even to the point of sacrificing his career on occasion.

With a certain article in the New York Times still fresh in my mind. I couldn’t help but wonder what many of our contemporary “blog journalists” will be remembered for when it’s their time. “Integrity” “Truthfulness”… not a chance in hell.

When Michael Arrington openly and proudly boasts that what he reports in his highly popular TechCrunch blog is not always true, but that he “doesn’t want to lose the rawness of blogging.” The article points out that Arrington, with a law degree and no journalism training, sees less importance in credibility and fact checking than in an involved readership. “Getting it right is expensive,” he says. “Getting it first is cheap.” Now there’s a philosophy to live by and be remembered by.

None of this, and certainly not Arrington, his super arrogance, and his less-than credible blog posts, would be of much importance if it wasn’t, unfortunately, indicative of what passes for journalism in these days of blogs, tweets, and YouTube “gotchas.” Just when did reporting backed by solid investigative research become the exception and not the rule? Sure, we all want and demand our news fix quickly and conveniently in this fast paced world. But at the expense of truthfulness? Just when, exactly, did integrity become a four-letter word?

We in the PR profession often get blamed for playing slipshod with facts in defense of our clients. And undoubtedly some of us have. But we look like paragons of virtue compared to those interviewed for this Times article.

It was only a few brief months ago that Arrington wrote his famous blog about his life being threatened and therefore he was going to cease writing and go into hiding after someone deliberately walked up to him and spat in his face.

Arrington stated at the time it was “the right thing to do…and spend time getting a better perspective on what I’m spending my life doing.” Perhaps Arrington should have spent a bit more time on this reflection…or better yet, report in his next TechCrunch blog that he was heretofore going to only print real news…Wink. Wink.