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The Submarine (2005)

by gat1 on 4/2/24, 8:08 AM with 5 comments

  • by ChrisMarshallNY on 4/5/24, 1:26 PM

    I remember reading an article[0] about how more than half of all "news" is spin.

    It was done by an Australian newspaper, called Crikey.

    [0] https://www.crikey.com.au/2010/03/15/over-half-your-news-is-...

    Here's the continuing series. They milked it for a while: https://www.crikey.com.au/topic/spinning-the-media/

  • by harpiaharpyja on 4/5/24, 2:37 PM

    The last paragraph is interesting. I guess the "whatever" that PR mutated into is the influencer culture we have now.
  • by andsoitis on 4/5/24, 1:36 PM

    I'm struggling to understand the author's logic:

    They start by saying:

    > Why do the media keep running stories saying suits are back? Because PR firms tell them to.

    then they go on to say:

    > I know because I spent years hunting such "press hits."

    before bragging:

    > Our PR firm was one of the best in the business. In 18 months, they got press hits in over 60 different publications.

    and then spinning a narrative that it isn't PR company or the company that hires the PR company, but it is the journalist who prints the information the company wants that is dishonest:

    > PR is not dishonest. Not quite. In fact, the reason the best PR firms are so effective is precisely that they aren't dishonest. They give reporters genuinely valuable information.

    > If anyone is dishonest, it's the reporters.

    leading to an insult that lacks self-awareness:

    > The main reason PR firms exist is that reporters are lazy.

    On the other hand, this is almost 20 years ago, so they were much younger and presumably less nuanced in their thinking and experience.