Bad PR

First on PRNewser:: According to HelpaReporter.com (HARO) founder Peter Shankman, 25 journalists have reported that a competitor ExpertClick.com pitched them their source-to-journalist matching service right after their queries went live on HARO. I saw a number of the emails myself.

ExpertClick founder Mitchell P. Davis admitted via email (the same gmail address used in the 25 emails reference above) to PRNewser that his company is making a big push to increase journalist subscribership, but didn't completely deny scraping from HARO either, characterized by Shankman as a "massive bush league move".

Davis's email chalked it up to their recent purchase of 400,000 names from MediaContactPro and that he "can only assume that e-mails once published are in the public domain". Except, unlike what Bulldog is doing with Broadlook, journalists on HARO are on an email listserv only, and the people who use them are subject to Shankman's strict Karma-based terms of service. He bans people swiftly when caught abusing the system.

After thanking Davis for the information I asked him again to address the specific issue with HARO. He hasn't responded at the time of this post, and his company has been banned from HARO (presumably the same Gmail address).

I thought the coincidence feasible since the database ExpertClick is using is so huge (are there really 400,000 working journalists out there?), until I saw an email to Shankman from Irene Diamond from DiamondWellness.com explaining she only uses an unpublished, personal email address when posting on HARO.

More after the jump:

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Barack Obama made history last night as the first sitting President to appear on a late night talk show. Jay Leno and he covered a lot of ground including the AIG bonuses, the defense of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the coolness of Air Force One, and the his dismal bowling skills.

Obama made an uncharacteristic gaffe, likening his bowling score to something from the Special Olympics.

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton has already responded: "The president made an off-hand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics. He thinks the Special Olympics is a wonderful program that gives an opportunity for people with disabilities from around the world."

There are a few options for the Special Olympics to get a publicity kick out of this one. The first and most likely is to respond with some outrage, and use the platform to discuss the organization, solicit support, and ask the government to reaffirm its commitment to disability issues. The second--and more endearing and powerful--can be combined with the first: respond with humor.

In my email to Ryan Eades, Global Branding and Marketing Coordinator for the Special Olympics, I asked him to see if one of their athletes has topped Obama's score of 129 in competition.

Eades didn't respond to that question, though he said SE Chairman Tim Shriver responded this morning on Good Morning America
at the top of the show. A statement and transcript of the appearance will be on SpecialOlympics.org within the hour.

Related: Special Olympics and 130 Organizations Band Together to Promote Tropic Thunder

Twitter, the omnipotent panacea for the PR industry does have one important thing going for it: it's a steam valve for frustrated journalists. Yes, you should listen and learn their tastes and preferences.

Prompted by this tweet from syndicated columnist Anita Bruzzese (via Valleywag) I felt it high time to tell you what might be going through the mind of a journalist on the other end of your pitch:

"If you r a PR person & promote someone as a source to me, the person needs to be ready to talk ASAP. Waiting days to hear back is no good."

I will predicate this post by saying: I get it. I understand how busy PR people are, and I understand that the sometimes ego-killing task of pitching the media is often pushed down to the lowest rungs of the team. And, it is ok to say: "I don't know. I'll have to call you back". I also understand that a happy-happy-fun pitch can sometimes land in the inbox of a journalist on the hook already with something negative connected to your client, that you may or may not know is brewing.

There is a difference between proactive pitches, and unsolicited queries from the media. The latter affords the PR person more power to opt out or deflect as needed. The spectrum or response is something like this:

15-30 minutes: I am connected to the info you need.

1-2 hours: There was slight fuss here over how to bend the answer in to something positive, but I got it. Or, this had to go up the foodchain.

4 hours with a mild fumfer: I'm game but please don't flame us. I wrestled to get something for you.

4 hours with a nervous stymie: You're on to something.

4 hours with an arrogant stymie: If you run this, I may deny access to said company in the future. Or, "After all I've done for you!"

Next morning with no stories published: I don't care or am too disorganized.

Next morning with many stories already published: Sorry, we went with better ink.

Multiple days or weeks: Pathological ineptitude.

The good news is there are ways to quicken response time:

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Remember Glenn Selig, the former TV journalist who launched a Twitter account to let you know about his marquee client, accused wife disappearer Drew Peterson?

He's handling the media tour for accused Senate seat seller Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. And wow, is it going well. Instead of participating in the impeachment hearings, the Governor--and his hair--are on tour in New York. It began with a bit of fuss between the networks over who got him first over the weekend, evidence the publicist didn't get the agreements straight, or was intentionally creating controversy (note: there's enough controversy already).

Next stop: The View. Barbara Walters gave him the business via satellite. Joy Behar tried to get Blago to do a Tricky Dick "I'm not a crook" impersonation and ruffled his hair.

In fairness to Selig, he has a difficult crisis task here, and presumably a client who insists at writing his own talking points.

If the goal in the end is to avoid jail, invoking the names Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and saying Oprah was on the shortlist for Senate is not helping.

Blago will grace Larry King's set tonight. His highness of long format damage control will let the Governor to spin his best yarn as he does with all guests, or in this case give him plenty of rope to complete the hanging.

It's fitting that Kevin Dugan and Richard Laermer chose Under the Volcano as the site to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of their Bad Pitch Blog. Unsuspecting PR pros drinking too much could blab right their way to fiery sacrifice.

Bad Pitch is the scheidenfreude staple for PR pros. The duo, Director of Marketing Communications at FRCH Design Worldwide, and CEO of RLM PR respectively, sometimes redact bad pitches, and sometimes not. It's all in good fun with an educational mission. Less bad pitches, happier journalists.

Amazingly, some of the pitches they blog come directly to them, as sincere efforts to get attention.

The party is on Monday, January 12th. You can find the details on Bad Pitch, and RSVP on Facebook. Don't say we didn't warn you--see you there!

PRNewswire may be sending the same pitch out to thousands of bloggers, verbatim, illustrating something about blog relations. Bloggers may copy-and-paste your pitch and run it at will. I confirmed with "mean ol' meany" that this pitch from a "crazy person" did land in his inbox recently, not last spring:

"I'm your media relations rep for PR Newswire, which offers political journalists and bloggers public interest news via email. We were the exclusive newswire for the Democratic and Republican conventions, and we continue to release policy, legislation and administration news. The release below just crossed our wire."

Same pitch used in February, and again April, and not by the same rep.

Press releases are an inexpensive, and linkable SEO item though. PRNewswire is currently sitting 82nd on the Techmeme leaderboard, just behind competitor BusinessWire at 77th. Just come up with some new pitches, please.

Apparently Crockett, Tubbs, and not even Spencer were for hire in the case of pesky blogger Hamilton Nolan from Gawker. Two private investigators have been snooping around his home town in Florida seeking information, saying it's a background check for a potential job.

The former PRWeek reporter joined Gawker in January of this year to cover advertising, media, and PR.

I checked with Nolan and he said "I have no idea who it is," but did confirm that about 10% of his posts are about the public relations industry.

What is clear though, is the PIs, or "dicks" involved, Steven Brown and Rachel Singleton don't investigate many people who have the ability to publish their email addresses and cell phone numbers for the entire Manhattan media scene to see.

Feel free to send information on this incident to us here, or use the Anonymous Tips window on the main page. Discretion guaranteed.

(Lindsay Lohan steals mink, nightclub pitches Wired)

Despite thousands of blog posts and comments out there on the Chris Anderson PR spam issue, the lessons aren't getting through. We suspect the combination of the temptations of mail-merge features of programs like Vocus and pressure to land blog placements will keep PR bloggers in posts like this for years to come.

Noah Shactman, Wired's Danger Room blogger (and mediabistro Circus speaker this week) took a moment at 3 AM to out a few of the least appropriate.

One is on behalf of a nighclub owner looking to buy Lindsey Lohan her very own mink, and another is to tout Barack Obama's buffness. So close to geeky defense tech, yet so far.

(Lori Wortz, partner at Sterling)

Mike Connell, a reporter at the small daily Port Huron Times-Herald in Michigan uncovered some serious opposition astroturfing yesterday by one Lori Wortz, a heavy in Michigan GOP politics, and partner at the Sterling Corporation PR agency.

Accoring to the piece, Wortz created and incorporated faux-grassroots "Gambling Watch" just weeks ago, and sent out mailers to alert citizens of two new casino projects in the state. Sterling represents competitor MGM Mirage.

A quick search of the Internets reveals Wortz's deep, faith-based connections with the MI GOP, dating back to Pat Robertson's Presidential campaign. She's currently--or at least till today--on Mitt Romney's "faith & values" committee in Michigan, one state he managed to carry in the primaries. She was also quoted in an Financial Times piece about the win, though was not identified as a GOP operative.

Our email exchange with Connell showed his good work did not go unsung:.

I am listening to the congressional hearing Webcast and taking notes so it looks as if I'll be tied up for awhile. The Sterling story has come up a couple of times during the hearing. John Dingell mentioned the story and deplored the tactics, as did Candice Miller, who again equated it to Jack Abramoff tactics. Shelley Berkley of Nevada took exception to equating anyone with Abramoff.

Though the scoop was not credited directly, the mailers did get mentioned in the AP story about the hearing.

PS: Click through to the Sterling site. The flash navigation looks and sounds like a deck of shuffling playing cards. Hit me! Blackjack!

The Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch.org broke a Nebraska agency's embargo regarding an American Idol crop circle.

The agency in question, Swanson Russell doesn't represent mischievous aliens, rather Claas LEXICON combines.

This elicits either a big fat sigh from us if the agency used the deadly combination of a mass form letter combined with the E-word, or a snicker if it was intentional flame-baiting. We wish it was the latter.

PRWatch's Judith Siers-Poisson went through considerable trouble to reprint Jennifer Windrum's pitch and even link to the combine maker. Rather than thank Ms. Siers-Poisson, Windrum commented on PRWatch about how the inclusion in media databases somehow constitutes an agreement to honor embargoes.

We really don't follow this trend of angry PR people commenting on blogs about their own mistakes. Your better off pretending it was part of your "strategic master plan," and you forgot to run it by the client first.