> Why do the media keep running stories saying suits are back? Because PR firms tell them to.
then they go on to say:
> I know because I spent years hunting such "press hits."
before bragging:
> Our PR firm was one of the best in the business. In 18 months, they got press hits in over 60 different publications.
and then spinning a narrative that it isn't PR company or the company that hires the PR company, but it is the journalist who prints the information the company wants that is dishonest:
> PR is not dishonest. Not quite. In fact, the reason the best PR firms are so effective is precisely that they aren't dishonest. They give reporters genuinely valuable information.
> If anyone is dishonest, it's the reporters.
leading to an insult that lacks self-awareness:
> The main reason PR firms exist is that reporters are lazy.
On the other hand, this is almost 20 years ago, so they were much younger and presumably less nuanced in their thinking and experience.
The PR firm engages honestly with the journalist: "here is an article about how suits are back and calls out my client's suits as being particularly popular right now."
(i.e. it is a thinly veiled ad for their client)
If the journalist blindly publishes this, they are being dishonest with their readers who might assume (especially 20 years ago) that this was an unbiased article, based on the journalist's own research.
It was done by an Australian newspaper, called Crikey.
[0] https://www.crikey.com.au/2010/03/15/over-half-your-news-is-...
Here's the continuing series. They milked it for a while: https://www.crikey.com.au/topic/spinning-the-media/