NY Times reporter Joe Nocera's favorite sports drink.
You know what I realized while scanning the news today? In the world of media and marketing, we are all a bunch of haters.
It began while reading this — Joe Nocera’s new NY Times business blog. In his July 14 entry, he spends 586 words berating a PR professional for sending him a not-so-newsworthy pitch.
This pisses me off for a few reasons. The first is obvious. PR is what I do, and understandably I don’t like when someone from a well-respected national newspaper trash talks my vocation. Secondly, I’m sort of over the obligatory antagonistic relationship that journalists feel compelled to have with public realtions practitioners. It’s boring. They treat us like a “butter face” morning-after girl, when in reality, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the demands of a 24/7 news cycle without our help.
This is not to say that I’m sticking up for the woman who wrote this ill-targeted, kind-of crappy pitch just because I’m in PR. In fact, that’s not the case at all. I take my job very seriously and have worked in both journalism and PR, so I can see both sides of the coin. If she wants to be taken seriously by a journalist at a renowned publication, she should probably save the stroller stories for the features editor. Or she could at least proofread.
At any rate, to all other journalists with similar chips on their shoulders about public realtions: Get over it. We have a mutually symbiotic relationship.
Perhaps Nocera’s haughty and condescending tone is the part that irks me the most. He says:
“Like most journalists, I have an in-box inundated with p.r. pitches, most of which go directly to the recycle bin, where they belong.”
Listen, Joebaby, calling us “flacks” and arguing the the utility of PR pitches just. isn’t. helpful. I think one commenter had the right idea with his advice on how Nocera should handle future pitches.
“Hit delete, block or give them feedback. Let’s all pay it forward and think before sending!”
— Posted by Paul Armstrong
That’s right, Joe Nocera. One love. One freaking love.
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Update from PR Blog News: ‘Nocera to PR: Screw You.‘
