Bloggers Alert to Fake Press Conference

by | Jun 23, 2008 | Observations

I don’t know how I missed the story last October about FEMA’s “fake” press conference, but I did. Last week when I was at the PRSA Excalibur awards, they did a funny presentation of the Top 10 PR Mistakes of 2007. The number one mistake? FEMA’s fake press conference, using their staff as reporters.

I know the adage is there’s no such thing as bad PR, but in this case, that definitely does not apply. The blogosphere immediately erupted with buzz about it, another example of the power of blogging.

Here are a few links with reactions:

MSNBC
The Washington Post
CBS News

If you want to see the actual fake press conference, here’s a YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071nO9V22jA

What can we learn from FEMA’s mistake? The active blogosphere makes it hard to cover these types of mistakes up. We’re living in a world with a constant news stream and with everyone so connected, word spreads quickly. In our small corner of the blogosphere, rarely do we have to deal with controversy (which I’m glad of!), but we still must keep our eyes and ears open to the world around us.

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