

Anatomy Of A PR Spin - icey
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/19/anatomy-of-a-pr-spin-aka-how-to-lie-like-a-pro/

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rumpelstiltskin
The problem with Arrington's whining is the lack of reciprocity. They scream
bloody murder when their reporting is 'attacked' by PR, but what about the
multiple instances prior to this when their reporting really was inaccurate?
Can you think of a single post where they said 'we were wrong'?

If facebook doesn't release a phone in, say, 3 years, will TC admit they were
full of shit? Hell no. They'll simply say facebook did have it as a real
project but decided to kill it.

How can anyone take them as the 'blog of record' for startups if they don't
take responsibility for their inaccurate reporting at least once in a while?

~~~
evansolomon
Whether or not TechCrunch is reasonable about pointing out when they're wrong
doesn't seem relevant. Facebook "attacking" their post has nothing to do with
what TechCrunch might do if it turns out the post was wrong.

Facebook knows if the post was wrong, they're not "attacking" anything to make
a point in case it turns out to be wrong.

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notahacker
Anatomy of Techcrunch spin:

(1) We don't trust PR people and often tell you things they don't want you to
hear

(2) Sometimes the things they don't want you to hear are true, or become true.
Even the 'spin' hasn't expressly ruled out building a phone, ever. And if they
do, you heard it here first

(3) We're leaving open the possibility that Facebook aren't mentioning their
phone because it isn't going to happen. If they don't build a phone, ever, it
could just be that the project got killed and it had nothing to do with the
quality of our sources.

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j_baker
I'm calling linkbait.

"Our product didn't kill _that_ many people." - PR spin

"We're not building a facebook phone." - Possibly a lie, but I wouldn't call
it PR spin.

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CaptainZapp
Of course Facebook is not building a phone.

This is why they are apparently talking to hardware manufacturers to build the
actual thing.

Provided, of course, that the article is true.

