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An open letter to PR flaks
Sep. 11th, 2006 09:36 amDear PR Flak (for whomever):
Hi. You don't know me, and you don't really care about me. Nor do I you. But we are forced by circumstance to work together from time to time, seeing as I am something of a minor vangard for various print publications, being a reporter and all that.
When I am assigned to do a series of stories on a particular topic, and you have been notified ahead of time of the type of person I am looking to interview, please note that it is YOUR JOB to vette the potential interview subject and make sure they are comfortable with me actually doing the interview, before you give me their name to call and set it up. I don't say it's your job to put them at ease; that is my task. Yours is simply to make sure they wish to speak to me in the first place.
DO NOT - I REPEAT, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE - do a half-assed job of talking to the person for two minutes, casually throwing out "would you mind your daughter being in the paper?" and then giving me that mother's number. I had to listen to Mom then hem and haw around for five minutes how she had to check with this person and that person and someone else before she could possibly consent to an interview. THIS IS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE DAMN CERTAIN OF BEFORE HANDING IT OFF TO ME. I have like 15 other interviews to cram into the next month, and this is not my idea of fun when I already have three jobs, okay?
I was probably not the friendliest I could have been with Mom. Then again, that is not my job - that's yours. That's why you're paid at least twice as much for your one job as I gross in a year among my three jobs, and you don't have to run as much.
Do we understand one another? Probably not. *sigh*
No love,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Asshole Reporter
Hi. You don't know me, and you don't really care about me. Nor do I you. But we are forced by circumstance to work together from time to time, seeing as I am something of a minor vangard for various print publications, being a reporter and all that.
When I am assigned to do a series of stories on a particular topic, and you have been notified ahead of time of the type of person I am looking to interview, please note that it is YOUR JOB to vette the potential interview subject and make sure they are comfortable with me actually doing the interview, before you give me their name to call and set it up. I don't say it's your job to put them at ease; that is my task. Yours is simply to make sure they wish to speak to me in the first place.
DO NOT - I REPEAT, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE - do a half-assed job of talking to the person for two minutes, casually throwing out "would you mind your daughter being in the paper?" and then giving me that mother's number. I had to listen to Mom then hem and haw around for five minutes how she had to check with this person and that person and someone else before she could possibly consent to an interview. THIS IS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE DAMN CERTAIN OF BEFORE HANDING IT OFF TO ME. I have like 15 other interviews to cram into the next month, and this is not my idea of fun when I already have three jobs, okay?
I was probably not the friendliest I could have been with Mom. Then again, that is not my job - that's yours. That's why you're paid at least twice as much for your one job as I gross in a year among my three jobs, and you don't have to run as much.
Do we understand one another? Probably not. *sigh*
No love,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Asshole Reporter
