Digiday | PRNewser
Former Businesweek reporter Steve Wildstrom has worked as a "corporate reporter" for Nvidia and Cisco, Giselle Abramovich writes. Those are people who "who work inside the company and produce media like blog posts, videos, webinars and more," she writes.

The twist is this path isn’t exactly like public relations. Brands are realizing, to a degree, that if they truly want to be publishers they can’t just have people churning out corporate boilerplate. They’re loosening the reins a bit in a bid to attract actual reporters.

Wildstrom says he was worried how his colleagues would react, but "Cisco’s editorial policy is to forbid its writers from covering the company or its competitors," Abramovich notes. Wildstrom, who covers tech, tells her he steers clear of pieces he can't report honestly: "That’s how I have chosen to handle it. If I can’t be honest, I won’t write it," he says. "Whatever organization you work for, shy of BBC, NPR or PBS, it has commercial motives," former Ad Age editor and current content strategist Jonah Bloom tells Abramovich. "Ultimately, the consumer is the arbiter of whether your info is credible, useful and has integrity." (more...)

Public Relations Society of America
Gerard Corbett, chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America, says using a press release without attribution isn't plagiarism. Corbett made his point in response to the controversy surrounding Steve Penn, who was fired from The Kansas City Star last July for lifting material from press releases. Penn has since sued the paper.

Attribution is "recommended," Corbett writes, when journalists use direct quotes, facts or figures from press releases, but not when using dates, times or other general information. He pointed out that public relations professionals like seeing their releases published.

After all, those words found their way onto the paper through a meticulous and often grueling process of drafting, editing, re-drafting, reviewing and approving, all intended to present a company’s or client’s news in the proper light. And what better way to insure a story’s accuracy than to pull content verbatim from the press release?

But while public relations professionals are usually willing to overlook the ethics of a news organization publishing their content without attribution, given the benefits that accrue to their companies or clients as a result (all key messages delivered!), journalists still are facing scrutiny and criticism over the practice.

Here are six ways journalists can troubleshoot the attribution issue and use press releases more effectively. || Related: Washington Post reporter sent drafts to sources

MediaWire memo
Joe Conn, communications director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, sent the Dixie County Advocate in Florida a news release objecting to a Ten Commandments display in front of the local courthouse. The editor of the Advocate, a small weekly, responded:

From: Katherine McKinney Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 9:45 AM To: Joe Conn Subject: Re: Dixie County Commandments Display

Honestly, speaking for the people of Dixie County, we don't give a damn what you think.

Kathy McKinney Editor, Dixie County Advocate

Perhaps Conn should have expected the response. In July, the Advocate posted this to its Facebook wall: "ALERT!! STUPID federal judge says Dixie has 30 days to remove the Ten Commandments from the Courthouse.... Post your reactions here for the paper."

Memphis Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal tells readers today how it was deceived by the Schnucks grocery chain -- specifically, communications director Lori Willis, who denied on August 25 that a deal was in the works to sell Schnucks' Memphis stores to Kroger. "Typically, we would not comment on rumor and speculation, but I will acknowledge these rumors have gotten to a point with the media where I feel I need to tell you there is no truth to those rumors," Willis told reporter Tom Bailey Jr. "There is no deal regarding any sale or purchase with regard to the Schnucks company."

Eight days later it was announced that Schnucks was leaving Memphis and selling most of its stores to Kroger. Hundreds of employees will lose their jobs.

"I felt like our brand -- our newspaper -- was damaged" by Schnucks' denials, which prompted the paper to stay silent about sale rumors, says business editor Roland Klose. Readers, he says, have accused the paper of being "derelict" by not running rumor stories, but "we felt it would be irresponsible ...and it was such an adamant denial" from Willis. (more...)

Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
That's what 55-year-old Chuck Goudie -- "one of Chicago's toughest investigative reporters" -- asks 25-year-old Tarrah Cooper, who is Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's press secretary. The 2008 Missouri Journalism School graduate and former MTV intern "is beginning the job of a lifetime, even though she doesn't have much life time behind her," writes Goudie. (Cooper worked in the Department of Homeland Security public affairs office before joining Emanuel's team.) In his column for a suburban Chicago newspaper, Goudie lists the questions he sent Cooper and and never got answered, including:

• Does your youthfulness and lack of experience symbolize what seems to be administration focused on hiring managers under 35?
• Is there a set of written guidelines or protocols that you are working from in dealing with reporters and news organizations?
• How much will you be paid?
• What are your career aspirations?

Goudie also says that "it is interesting that the mayor's new press secretary felt no inhibition about displaying hundreds of personal photos on her public Facebook page, showing her partying with friends, in beach attire and at a slot machine."

Reaction in the comments section? Here's what "old lady 2205" writes:

Chuck, you sly old fox. What better way to start with the new mayoral administration than to go after the youngest and possibly most vulnerable staff member. This entire investigation must have taken you 45 minutes to an hour, including writing the article. I really expect better of you.

ProPublica.org || CJR.org
The dangers of that are clear, writes John Sullivan. "As PR becomes ascendant, private and government interests become more able to generate, filter, distort, and dominate the public debate, and to do so without the public knowing it."

In 1980, there were about .45 PR workers per 100,000 population compared with .36 journalists. In 2008, there were .90 PR people per 100,000 compared to .25 journalists. That's a ratio of more than three-to-one, better equipped, better financed.