Fox News Runs Press Release as Straight News

With all the media layoffs- many in the PR world joke about the day when our jobs will become so easy our press releases will be used as straight news. This has always been a joke- until it recently actually happened. Fox News ran an entire Republican Party press releases—typos and all—during a recent newscast without disclosing the source.

Is that so bad?

Ragan.com's blog PR Junkie flagged the event after media watchdogs Media Matters caught Fox News in the act:

In purporting to ‘take a look back’ at how the economic recovery plan ‘grew, and grew, and grew, Fox News’ Jon Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods—all of which came directly from a Senate Republican Communications Center press release. A Fox News on-screen graphic even reproduced a typo contained in the Republican press release.

Here’s the graphic. Can you find the typo?

My knee-jerk reaction is moral indignation. How dare they bamboozle us?

But PR pros strive to write great press releases. Ragan counsels them on it. Instead of flogging Fox News, maybe the PR industry should celebrate the GOP for writing a terrific news release.