Gizmodo Blogger: ‘PR Kowtowing’ To WSJ’s Mossberg ‘Should Have Ended Five Years Ago’

Gizmodo editorial director Brian Lam wants PR professionals to stop giving preferential treatment to The Wall Street Journal. He tweeted last night:

PR kowtowing to walt should have ended 5 years ago. the emperor has no clothes. and no one under 40 reads him

Lam, and Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky were upset because The Journal‘s personal tech guru Walt Mossberg posted a story on TiVo’s new “TiVo Premiere” model before they were able to.

Initially, Lam accused Mossberg of breaking an embargo, but it appears he had “his own private publish time,” according to Lam.

Having previously worked in tech PR, we’ll say this: it’s unfortunate if Mossberg was indeed given a “private publish time,” which basically means TiVo gave Mossberg an exclusive and then briefed a bunch of other reporters under embargo.

Reporters, of course, hate this. It seems Lam and the other bloggers should be more upset with TiVo PR. Yelling at Walt isn’t going to do any good. Walt is a competitor, and a competitor at a much stronger and well-known brand, at that.

According to this release, Ruder Finn handled PR for the “Tivo Premiere” release.

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