“A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”
Illinois senator Everett Dirksen may or may not have uttered that pithy phrase. But either way, it came to mind as I read the news yesterday afternoon that a jury had returned a $10 million verdict against Taser International.
Even in today’s inflated world, I think of that as a lot of money. And so I expected pretty solid coverage of the jury’s decision.
I needed that because I wanted to link to the news on the brand-new Arizona Attorney Magazine News Center. Taser’s an Arizona company, they came up on the short end of a legal case, it all made newsy sense.
But as I searched for a solid story on it, all I came up with were … company press releases.
The first link I saw came from a respected business weekly. The headline about $10 million grabbed me. But the story sounded like Taser’s PR department had penned it. It appeared to be factual, but the entire focus was on the number of jury verdicts they have won, and on the plaintiff arguments that the jury rejected.
Hmm, I thought. There has to be something better out there.
But after about 30 minutes of searching, I’ve come across the same release about 20 times, all posted as news by multiple publishers. I really have to hand it to Taser’s web-optimization people.
This occurred the same day that news-ish mogul Rupert Murdoch was hammered with a cream pie as he testified to Parliament. We here in the States appear to take great pride in the assertion that journalists here would never engage in such phone-hacking behavior.
I think they’re right. But our web-ified news regime deserves a cream pie of its own. Passing off press releases as news was considered poor form even before the Internet. But the Web has intensified the scramble for content. And corporate PR mills appear happy to fill the gap.
As for linking to the story, I’ve decided to wait 24 hours. I’m sure I’ll find something of value tomorrow. It’ll keep.
Follow @azatty
July 29, 2011 at 9:39 am
For the record, I issued a press release that hits a wire service. That release hits every news org and it’s up to the news org to either post the release as is which is simply a press release post and/or the news org does a story on it. I can say that I captured a multitude of stories on this with hours of the verdict so I don’t know how you’re searching for this on the web. Even our local Phoenix Business Journal reported this within hours: http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2011/07/19/jury-levies-10m-judgment-against-taser.html (note the time sequence of the publication).
If you want to call me a corporate mill for issuing a single (and required) press release on this matter then you’re missing the some key facts on that (see: http://bit.ly/qFgdRk).
First that certainly wouldn’t qualify me as a mill by sending our release to the wire as is required for publicly traded company and Fair Disclosure. If you’re stating that news orgs deserve a pie in the face for posting a press release as news stories, then that’s something else entirely as I’ve not seen that done. This is how the wire services work and is standard practice. I have seen most of the top news orgs post press releases that have ticker symbols and they are full shown as press releases in all of my experiences.
I think I know what you meant but it maybe I’m missing the point and perhaps the main issue is news orgs posting press releases (again, that’a standard practice). If I’m really missing the boat, then at least spread the love as the plaintiffs in this case issued TWO releases on the news wire on this matter and their releases were posted on the web as well. Does that make the opposing counsel a corporate lawyer mills instead? Not in my opinion, as again, this is standard practice for press releases.
If you’re inferring that news orgs should do stories on this decision, they have — and lots of them. We’re always open to phone calls as we have our contact information on our releases and the TASER web page at http://www.TASER.com. If you need the stories, I can shoot them out to you as it’s no secret.
Sincerely,
Steve Tuttle
Vice President of Communications at TASER
July 29, 2011 at 9:47 am
Thank you for your note, Steve. I’m sorry if I was unclear, but my post was about the news organizations in the immediate 24 hours or so after the news broke. The post was not about those who issue press releases as a matter of course, like Taser. A release is a valuable part of the process, and many great stories start with a release just like yours. But they shouldn’t end with it.
Thanks again.