Economist slams PR industry, refers to it as ‘slime slinging’

In the wake of the Burson-Marsteller scandal, the publication bemoaned in a piece titled “Slime Slinging” that there are six PR pros to every journalist.

The Economist praises Christopher Soghoian, who was the first to blow the whistle on B-M’s smear campaign against Google.

According to the magazine, it used to be that PR pros were the gatekeepers for anyone who wanted to report on their company. Not so in the Digital Age.

The story concludes:

“As Mr Soghoian has amply demonstrated, these non-traditional journalists do not necessarily feel obliged to play by the rules.

“They may not care about being cut out of the loop if they reveal PR firms’ maneuverings; and they don’t have to deal with a growling, red-faced news editor demanding to know why they didn’t get a story that had been spoon-fed to a rival, more PR-friendly paper.”