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On press releases
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Posted on Sep 01 2000
I’ve always gotten the greatest kick out of watching what happens to the press release that I simultaneously deliver to both the local papers. Very seldom are they printed entirely as written. Nor do others’ releases, I can only surmise.
I see everything about Senator Reyes deleted from a release in the Tribune that shows up the same day in the Variety, like sometimes I never even see my releases in the Variety but they appear in the Tribune on time. It amazes me how obvious it can be at times.
So imagine my delight when, at my son’s Mt. Carmel Open House Night on Monday, I heard his Freshman Literature class instructor announce to the parents that they will be reviewing both local papers’ articles on the same stories, or releases, that are submitted for consideration. My wife looked at me and smiled when my son’s teacher said that this is to teach the students about bias.
I really hope you can print my letter, and help the students and future leaders see what their instructor wants them to learn about the world out there
I’ll be starting by giving them a copy of this letter to show them how it works, and all the releases we deliver to both the papers for this school year.
Thank you very much for being a case study for this year’s freshman at Mt. Carmel.
Richard A. Pierce
SGMA Executive Director
Publisher’s Note: Any decent news organization who values its independence treats news releases as “fodder”. In other words, we rely on stories submitted by our reporters and steer clear of the work of spinmasters. The issue that students ought to explore is accuracy, fairness, definition, simplicity and brevity.
