

A Healthy Dose of Fear is Appropriate When Dealing with the Press - trevin
http://randfishkin.com/blog/164/healthy-dose-fear-appropriate-dealing-with-press

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jedberg
I can totally relate to the part about an article coming out about you where
they didn't even bother to contact you.

That used to happen at reddit all the time! I'd see an article about reddit
and think, "You know, all you had to do was read our blog if you wanted this
to be even remotely accurate!".

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randfish
Got two emails and comments to the same effect. Not sure why this is such a
common problem among sources that are recognized/respected in the tech world.
I'd think once a reporter makes this mistake twice, their career is finished,
but that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

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patio11
This goes well beyond tech reporting. I've had very respected news
organizations attempt to do much the same shenanigans on issues with rather
more import than our inside baseball usually has. (Attempting to spoonfeed me
a desired narrative directly contradictory to actual facts and use me for
unbiased, expert pull quotes supportive of the reporter's narrative.)

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riordan
Can't agree more. Having once been a publicist, the first rule of dealing with
the press is to realize that they have ALL the power and that anything you do
must be in service of that.

The notion that everything is on the record is of particular note. You, run
into a journalist at a party and mention drunkenly your product launch
strategy. Consider it out of the bag because it's fair game to report now.
Expect a call the next morning.

Moreover that extends to anyone with familiarity with the situation. Your
dirty laundry can be aired in just such a way. Your employees offhanded
comments are fair game for stories.

I will note that the one thing you can and should do is contact a reporter's
editor if they've run a story about your company without calling for comment.
Be totally sober about it and make sure you've run whatever you plan to say by
someone with emotional distance from the situation. It's easy for it to come
off as "WAH WAH WAH why didn't I get called to talk about this bad thing" and
the best way for you to get your side across is to be as detached as possible.

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mjwalshe
From what I was told

1 Record all conversations with them.

2 Only talk to journalists from Proper organisations.

3 Only talk to journalits with domain Knowledge.

4 Only talk to journalists you and ideally other People you know trust.

5 Know what "Off the record" means and ask the hack which this interview is.

6 Also if you're an employee know where you stand legally - get Authorisation
- Still wish BT had let me do the post to alt.2600 that BT's press office
asked me to do.

