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 answe