{"id":37339,"date":"2013-07-10T10:02:49","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T09:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=37339"},"modified":"2013-07-10T10:02:49","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T10:02:49","slug":"fleet-street-fox-some-prs-are-just-plain-nasty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/fleet-street-fox-some-prs-are-just-plain-nasty\/","title":{"rendered":"Some PRs are just plain nasty"},"content":{"rendered":"

We asked Fleet Street Fox for her take on the current state of PR and media relations. Boy, did we get it.\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"FleetPublic relations types are always quick to sniff which way the wind is blowing, which is perhaps why in the past few years they\u2019ve started treating journalists like dirt.<\/p>\n

Some always have. But since journalism was, as a trade, marched to the public pillory by self-serving politicians and half-blind lawyers, PR experts have exploited it to bully, lie, threaten and control.<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t complain that journalists are hated; if we were loved we\u2019d be doing it wrong. PRs and hacks share a mutual discomfort that naturally arises from sometimes being at loggerheads.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s normal for spokesmen to say \u2018it\u2019s not my job to answer your questions\u2019, ask when the deadline is and ignore it, or issue statements so blatantly untrue they sound like Comical Ali denying the Allies are at the gates of Baghdad.<\/p>\n

There are some who are just plain nasty; but I\u2019ve always thought that was a fault in their medication rather than a default position for your whole trade.<\/p>\n

Yet in the 20-odd years I\u2019ve been a journalist I\u2019ve seen the arm\u2019s-length distrust that is only natural between us turn into actual hate. PRs have ceased to treat us as human.<\/p>\n

The other day a friend of mine rang a football PR to say he had a story about a player and wanted to check it for both accuracy and comment. The response was: \u2018We\u2019re not helping you, we\u2019ll just sue you if it\u2019s wrong.\u2019<\/p>\n

Not long ago a hack working on an innocuous TV talent show story was told by the PR that if it ran they would pull their paper from every press release, statement and interview opportunity. The editor was realistic, and dropped the story in return for continued access.<\/p>\n

Then there was a government press officer who insisted I and everyone in my industry always lied and she would never deal with any of us. When I told her the taxpayer money she earned was a bit of a waste, she said it was her job to \u2018talk to people \u2013 not you\u2019.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that just seems bullish to you \u2013 but trust me, it happens every day, on every tale from local yarns all the way up to Downing Street, and it didn\u2019t use to.<\/p>\n

Police won\u2019t confirm names of suspects, public officials have been jailed for talking to journalists despite not taking any money from them, and libel lawyers think it\u2019s Christmas.<\/p>\n

In times of recession and falling circulation, budgets shrink. There are many papers which are one big libel case away from closure. I was threatened six months ago with being personally sued and losing my home \u2013 something which has always been a possibility but never mentioned before.<\/p>\n

With the exception of corporations, journalists are probably the only people who don\u2019t have PRs of their own. We\u2019re not allowed to defend ourselves \u2013 reporters cannot risk a personal opinion in case they become the story.<\/p>\n

As a result everyone \u2013 and I include journalists in this \u2013 has forgotten that we are people too.<\/p>\n

We use the council services, we rely on the police, schools and hospitals, we vote, just like everyone else.<\/p>\n

We have the added bonus of being able to get our questions answered occasionally, and the extra risk of being shot at now and again.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been our turn to take the flak and we can take it. But that needs to be over now, and it would be nice if PRs and journalists could get back to not trusting each other like we used to.<\/p>\n

What do you think of Fleet Street Fox’s take on things? Is she right? Let us know in the comments below.\u00a0<\/span>

Fleet Street Fox <\/a>is journalist and author. She writes for the<\/span> Daily Mirror Online<\/a> as well as her<\/span> own website<\/span> fleet street fox<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We asked Fleet Street Fox for her take on the current state of PR and media relations. Boy, did we get it.\u00a0 Public relations types are always quick to sniff which way the wind is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":37392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7272,82,4054,4371,5741],"tags":[118,732,4516,4631,4632,4633,104],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}