The One With the Worst Conference Ever
I spent my Valentine's Day at a conference in Los Angeles that was supposed to be focused on developing relationships with reporters. It would seem that this type of conference would be best given by a reporter or editor, but it was given by a lawyer who hates reporters. Interesting. First of all, he never got up from his desk to walk around or interact. He didn't even get up during the breaks. That lost our attention easily, but his topic would soon get me pretty riled up.
He kept talking about how reporters are lazy. They never want to leave their desks or meet their sources and want to get all their information from the Public Information Officer in one phone call. Being a former reporter and knowing many, many others, I don't know anyone who had this attitude to reporting. I always visited my sources, and leaving the office was my favorite part of the job. He later said that reporters don't even like to go to their offices. Hmm. He gave a lot of inaccurate information, going so far as to say that reporters will often call and pretend to be someone they are not to get information from you. He said reporters have dirty friends at the phone company that will allow them to get unlisted phone numbers for sources. It was crazy.
But the funniest part was that this guy was a lawyer! Of all people, lawyers should be able to understand that negative perceptions of a certain profession are not always true. We came to find out, however, that with him, it was true. He angrily told a story of how a reporter found out a company that he was representing was selling cigarettes to 9-year-olds. However, through an aggressive PR campaign, he was able to triple the sales for that company. Way to go!! Now, many more 9-year-olds have access to an early death. He also represented a company who rented their airplane to a guy who ran out of gas on his flight and had to land on a street. In doing so, he wrecked into a bus of disabled children. Because of the media, this story, which in his opinion should not have been a story, was in the news for three weeks. His job included making sure none of the injured children sued.
My boss was correct in referring to this guy as Lucifer throughout the conference.
So, in a good, lazy reporter fashion, we blew off the conference and lunch and spent the next several hours in a bar. I couldn't have been prouder of my PR colleagues. :)
He kept talking about how reporters are lazy. They never want to leave their desks or meet their sources and want to get all their information from the Public Information Officer in one phone call. Being a former reporter and knowing many, many others, I don't know anyone who had this attitude to reporting. I always visited my sources, and leaving the office was my favorite part of the job. He later said that reporters don't even like to go to their offices. Hmm. He gave a lot of inaccurate information, going so far as to say that reporters will often call and pretend to be someone they are not to get information from you. He said reporters have dirty friends at the phone company that will allow them to get unlisted phone numbers for sources. It was crazy.
But the funniest part was that this guy was a lawyer! Of all people, lawyers should be able to understand that negative perceptions of a certain profession are not always true. We came to find out, however, that with him, it was true. He angrily told a story of how a reporter found out a company that he was representing was selling cigarettes to 9-year-olds. However, through an aggressive PR campaign, he was able to triple the sales for that company. Way to go!! Now, many more 9-year-olds have access to an early death. He also represented a company who rented their airplane to a guy who ran out of gas on his flight and had to land on a street. In doing so, he wrecked into a bus of disabled children. Because of the media, this story, which in his opinion should not have been a story, was in the news for three weeks. His job included making sure none of the injured children sued.
My boss was correct in referring to this guy as Lucifer throughout the conference.
So, in a good, lazy reporter fashion, we blew off the conference and lunch and spent the next several hours in a bar. I couldn't have been prouder of my PR colleagues. :)
posted by Rachel at
12:10 PM
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