Valley PR Blog

PR people are liars

By Charlotte Risch on November 18th, 2008 In Hype!

Yikes!

Yahoo PR people called “lying sacks of sh**”. I really don’t know much of the bigger story or backgrounds about Yahoo, Newsweek, the tech world in this post. But not really fond of the vicious words describing the industry of PR from bloggers and comments. According to Valleywag blogger, Owen Thomas

PR people routinely lie; it’s part of the job description. But the good ones don’t get caught.

This is after a tech columnist for Newsweek, Dan Lyons called Yahoo PR “lying sacks of sh**” when Yahoo CEO, Jerry Yang stepped down.

I don’t know about you, but I sure as heck don’t lie. Why would I do that? Whats the gain? What is the point? Maybe I am small potatoes in the PR world because I work locally and with small Phoenix businesses, but I guess I don’t understand why the perception of PR is this nasty?! Or maybe this is what happens in corporate PR? Sure, sometimes a client throws a curveball you didn’t see coming, or you have to hold on to some news until all the ducks are in a row, but to be called a liar and sack of sh** is a bit extreme.

What do you think? How would you have dealt with a situation if you were on the Yahoo PR team? Did they truly F-up their credibility and responsibilities if they knew Yang was leaving?

Comments

If the PR folks did lie, they undoubtedly got pressure from above to do so. Moral: if management culture is such that you as a PR person are forced to fabricate, then LEAVE. Your integrity is worth more than a paycheck.

Charlotte - Check the comment on the Valleywag link here:
“Believe it or not, PR people are sometimes the last to know. I was friends with the head of PR at a big dot.com back in 2001, when all kinds of crazy stuff was happening to the company. She told me that she would find out about big news maybe a day or two in advance.”

In big corps, PR people have to lie sometimes - I used to call it defensive-reactive media relations. Sorta goes against the job ideal, but in major corps, it can get messy.

When you have to tell a reporter that layoffs aren’t expected after a merger (when you know for sure that’s what’s going to happen), does it give you a solid sense of character integrity? No, but a job’s a job, and you’re expected to perform.

Love Ms. VandeVrede comment. How I once resigned a client, “You are my client. The media is my customer.”

Oh Good Grief! I’ve been in tech companies when issues have gone from the employee level to the top of the food chain via email in a single day,resulting in strategy reversals, business lines dropped, and more. What the PR people said a month ago likely was what was happening a month ago.

Add your Comment

Want Your Picture Icon? Go to gravatar.com and set a picture up to your email address for free. It also works on thousands of other websites, too!