Gene Weingarten, Washington Post columnist, used his Sunday, Nov. 25 column, which appears on the back page of the Post magazine, to launch his heaviest attack yet against PR and marketing.
Complaining that it takes 15 minutes each day to rid his voicemail of “Did you get my e-mail?” calls, he compared PR pros to the Gaboon viper, a six-foot central African snake with two-inch fangs, the longest of any snake.
Weingarten compared PR pros to the the Gaboon viper, which has the longest fangs of any snake. |
A bite causes “massive tissue damage, catastrophic internal bleeding, and a slow, shuddering death,” he said.
Marketers, who have made bed with the PR people, were likened to Erszebet Bathory (1560-1614) who slaughtered 612 young women so she could bathe in their blood and forestall the effects of aging on her skin. Among other activities, she would suspend bleeding women from a cage and have a “blood shower.”
Bathory, sometimes called the “Female Dracula,” was confined to her castle for life as punishment although several assistants were executed.
Weingarten “chats” with callers each Tuesday at noon at www.washingtonpost.com
“The marketing-PR axis makes the team of Hitler and Mussolini seem benevolent,” wrote Weingarten.
Gene Weingarten |
Another barb was: “When a sulfurous, steaming dish of PR is liberally seasoned with oily globules of marketing, the resulting concoction could nauseate a carrion vulture.”
He had received a form from a media list company that asked him “What are your beats, what types of stories would interest you, what tips would you give PR professionals who may want to contact you, and what is your preferred method of being contacted?”
Doesn’t Cover Lifestyles
Many PR pros think he is a “lifestyles reporter” although he says he knows of no such designation in any newsroom and it certainly doesn’t apply to him.
Marketers were likened to Erszebet Bathory, the 'Female Dracula.' |
His answers to the above questions include that his “primary responsibility is to savagely attack the quality of retail products” and he is interested in “exposing the unholy alliance between the PR industry and the soulless marketing industry which exists to dehumanize people…”
A Weingarten column May 20 that called PR pros “pathethic dillweeds” drew a comment by Mary Beth West, advocacy chair of the Society headed by Rhoda Weiss.
West told a Society teleconference May 24 that she had read the Weingarten column and considered it a “rant” that was so far-fetched that she could think of “no way to respond to it.”
She said that responding would be a “waste of time” because it would “not change the reporter’s opinion of our profession.”
Weingarten had complained that PR sources listed on several releases were unable to answer his questions about the products or services involved.
His column is circulated not only in the printed and web issues of the Post but through hundreds of papers and other media that subscribe to the postwritersgroup.com (including George Will, David Broder, E.J. Dionne, Charles Krauthammer and more than a dozen other writers). |
Aida Mayo, president MAYO Comms. & MAYO PR, LA, NY, SD & Bern, Switzerland (12/03):
Wonder if he ever wondered how PR folks feel about him when he doesn't respond to the email, or at least say "not interested" or "pass," like more project and quality journalists do. Don't you think they are calling because he has NOT responded. A lot of journalists from the NY Times to Seattle Times have said, "Call us if you don't hear from us after awhile, but before your event or story gets down to the wire."
If you don't like to cook, get out of the kitchen; fish or cut bait. Stop whining. At least you have a job. Half the folks at the LA Times and other newspapers have had to take a buy-out, because someone else is buying their paper out.
Cyrus Afzali -- Astoria Communications (11/29):
You know what's sad about this whole thing? It's too often true. I was on the journalism side for 10 years, including a stint at CNN, and I found all too often everybody relied on inaccurate databases and nobody actually read the outlets they pitched.
These complaints illustrate a sad fact in our industry: We trust junior staffers with the most important work we do. Why? Because they come with a higher-profit margin than senior staffers with more media relations knowledge.
The practice harms the whole profession and it amazes me that nobody has called into question this widely-used model. You don't see law firms entrusting complicated litigation matters to first or second-year associates.
In fact, in most cases, associates aren't even leads on litigation teams. Yet, we'll farm out media relations to account execs.
Brule Laker (11/29):
Weingarten took a valid issue - jargon-filled, verbose news releases demean our industry - and attacked it like the smart-aleck schoolyard bully. If he really cared about the issue, he would have called PR VPs or agency heads and asked them why this practice is allowed. Instead he went for cheap laughs and, in reality, didn't do very well in getting them.
Old Hand (11/28):
Weingarten should talk to his colleagues on the business desk at the Post. They'd explain to him there would be no business page if not for PR people. Or maybe he should talk to the Style editors (oh, that's right, there's no "lifestyle" beat there....) and ask them how they'd get by without the press releases they receive from the movie studios, museums, theater and dance companies, restaurants, and so forth.
I'm sure he thinks he's being unique, urbane and clever, but for the nearly 30 years I've been in PR there have been Weingartens who file nasty anti-PR columns like this one. They all hated PR people up until the PR person dropped a nugget of a story idea in their laps.
Just Kidding (11/28):
Gee, what would have happened if PRS President Rhoda Weiss' Advocacy chair, Mary Beth West, had said "The guy is right -- PR people who can't answer questions about the clients and products they represent should be fired?" There's that old truth thing again. It's still in the Society's code of ethics, but with no enforcement, it's apparently now "optional."
Fed up with this guy (11/28):
He is just a Chris Anderson Wanna-Be!
Wes Pedersen, Principal, Wes Pedersen Communications, Washington (11/27):
Think of Weingarten this way: By complaining so strenuously about the volume of email and voice mail he gets from PR people, he's confirming that PR is all about communications...and PR people, by and large, just aren't very good at that.
I sent the Post a letter noting that while while Weingarten while he [complained] loudly about voicemail, his name and a-mail address are affixed in bold type at the end of each column: [email protected]. Anyone want to send him greetings?
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd responds (11/27):
To my colleague Wes Pedersen...no need to get out of joint from Weingarten. In the old Shakespearean style, we should not protest too much. Maybe they guy has hit on something that many already knew: PR does not always mean "Popular Reporting."
If we also go back to reexamine the misuse of the (profession, business, industry)to market and sustain the Iraq mess, we should not be oversensitive when the likes of Weingarten ask what's going on.
Wes Pedersen, Principal, Wes Pedersen Communications and Public Relations (11/28):
I'm not overly sensitive, Joe. Matter of fact, I agree with Weingarten when it comes to the stupidity of anyone who calls and wants to know if his or her insignificant press release is going to be used. But Weingarten is too snotty by half. He's a shark feeding off naive young kids who've been told by media-ignorant supervisors to get evidence of use or potential use. I bitch about his bitchiness, not his basic message. Which is, "Why in the hell are you people bothering me about this crap?"
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd responds (11/28):
The Honick-Pedersen dialogue: You are quite correct, Wes, about this guy as an individual. OTH, if even an oaf like this fellow can raise some questions such as the poor PR kid pressed to do stuff from an arrogant PR boss, perhaps there are constructive potentials ... a little like where he finds ponies sometimes under all that stuff.
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