You can trust us by now

Okay here's the truth: PR people and journalists smile and say nice things to one another over the phone and via e-mail, rely on one another far too much, and wish they didn't. From the PR point of view, I suppose journalists must seem like cynical layabouts, who wouldn't know a good story if it jumped up and punched them on the nose, (which is what a lot of PR reps would like to do to). Of course that 'good story' almost always originates in the splendid and unprecedented successes that their firms are desperate to broadcast to the world, via us hacks naturally. Given half a chance a journalist will bypass a PR representative altogether, in a bid to talk to someone who can speak authoritatively on behalf of their organization. Having some e-mailed answers dribbling back to your inbox days after you sent them, is depressing, not only because it reminds you that you're not in fact employed in some edgy profession of scoops and libel cases, but also because the answers are invariably duller than the paper they're printed on. Businesses are sensitive, we know, because they're often responsible for colossal sums of money and their employees' livelihoods and they don't want their reputation tarnished in print, and it shouldn't be, unless they've done something to deserve the bad press. But they and other organizations, could on occasion I feel, look at exactly how they manage the information they give to the media. One of the most nefarious habits of press relations in Poland is that of the authorization of quotes, though some people want you to send the whole article before it goes to print, which is quite frankly, just damned cheek. I believe it's a legal obligation for journalists in this country to send their sources a list of their remarks before going on to publish them, so they can be corrected for factual errors and checked for any misquotations. If only. What I often get back in practice is a wholesale revision of what the person actually said, word for word, when we met. Such afterthought is also given free rein in that whole paragraphs are often appended to the original quotes, making a total mockery of the interview that occurred in the first place. This smacks of total arrogance and is offensive in the extreme. "Why don't you just go and write the article yourself?" I want to say. And then go and publish it some place else. I shouldn't have to use superlatives but the people who do co-operate with us here at Eurobuild by giving us the time of day, trusting us to use their comments as accurately as we can, (yes mistakes do happen, but we also try to minimize them), and expressing a desire to read the article we're researching for, after publication, truly are wonderful. Do join their ranks soon