Drive-by Blogging: My PR Blog Neighbours Are Revolting!

The appeal of snarky, bitchy blog posts is undeniable. And, quite frankly, reading blogs would be boring without some of the raw entertainment of celebrity-style journalism thrown in for good measure.

So I'm not entirely sure why I have such a negative reaction to the shoot-first-check-facts-later approach that has burbled into my RSS feed aggregator lately.

I think it's because I'm uncomfortable with the basic premise of gossip -- that someone else's pain is a source of entertainment. It's bad enough when a writer highlights some embarrassing or unwise moment in someone's life (I've done my own share of calling people out on mistakes when I spot them).  What's worse is when the writer manufactures a controversy, and hammers their target quickly and harshly. I call it Drive-by Blogging.

Gossip-mongering entered the often bland world of blogs about PR and business communications this weekend. A Gawker-style blog was started by someone who claims to be a woman, with a provocative I'm-naked-but-covering-my-breasts photo in the top banner without actually saying it's a photo of the author. "Her" first target is an obvious one - the top PR blogger Steve Rubel, and the agency that recently hired him with great fanfare. None of the "facts" in her post solid enough to prove or disprove, right down to the supposed office pool paying out on the exit date of Rubel from his new firm.

(Do I believe the author really exists by the name she gives, and that "she" really heard about an office pool as "she" describes? Nothing I've seen so far leads me to believe this was based on a real event. This could just as easily be one of those Penthouse Forum situations, where some nerdy guys write fake letters from women about their hot sexual encounters.)

A nasty little post, with lots of innuendo and references to male and female sexuality. The first post to the blog was accompanied by an e-mail campaign to many PR bloggers (myself included), leading to lots of enthusiasm expressed by the iconoclasts and traditional males of the bunch, and lots of traffic to the new site. Giddy does not begin to describe the response (see links below).

This comes hot on the heels of the lambasting by Allan Jenkins of a company that republishes others' blog entries for cell phone users, calling out a European blogger who appeared to be connected to the company.

Unlike attack-and-run artists, Allan sent an e-mail asking for clarification. After a fair bit of digging, Allan discovered the blogger in question wasn't involved in the company, and the company was more naive than devious. To his credit, Allan revised his post and published a follow-up describing what he'd discovered. But the post had already been published, complete with accusations of stealing content for commercial gain.

There are dozens of examples of nasty attacks on A-List bloggers like Robert Scoble, all of which no doubt serve the purpose of gaining the attacker some attention.

Despite evidence that this sort of behaviour is remarkably effective at attracting links, site traffic and buzz, I'm sticking to the Phil Gomes Golden Rule of PR Blogging.

Long-time PR blogger Phil wrote a new year's post promising to focus more on persuading people about effective communications and less on finger-pointing and superficial tricks of the Web 2.0 trade. Phil hasn't let this get in the way of his sense of humour, but I've noticed him being less fixated on the popularity of his blog. He's taking the high road, and I respect him for it, even if it comes at the expense of large spikes in site traffic he isn't getting from the salacious posts he isn't publishing.

I'm not adding to the link love that has already given the new Strumpette blog a big boost. If you want to find the original post, click on one of the links below, and you'll find the new blog easily enough.

Strumpette blog buzz: 

• How to Get Ahead, Andrea Weckerle;
• Bad Character Blog Falls Flat, Robert French;
• Amanda Chapel, Fishing for Comments, B.L. Ochman;
• New 'Naked Journal' on PR Business Doesn't Read On Message, John Wagner;
• Strumpette's First Post - 41 Comments and Counting, Scott Baradell;
• If that Is your Real Name, David Parmet;
• Naked PR, Neville Hobson.

(My headline is an obscure reference to the old joke about the courtier rushing up to the king and saying "Your majesty, the peasants are revolting!"  "They sure are," replies the king, "but you're no beauty yourself.")

Tags: strumpette, gossip, gawker, drive-by-blogging

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Comments

[Andrea Weckerle]

Eric: I didn't give Strumpy any link love. Glad to see you didn't either.

[John Wagner]

Eric:

Nicely put, as always. I'm not as down on the Strumpette as you, but I do see your point of view.

But what's this you're saying about Penthouse Forum letters being fake? All this time I thought I had made a mistake by not attending a small, Midwestern college where I would be alone in the laundromat at midnight ... well, you know what happens next.

[Eric Eggertson]

Andrea and John:

Thanks for stopping by.

And John, I never said for sure that all those letters were fake.

Just the ones that said having sex was fun under the following circumstances: in the sand; on bare wood floors; hanging out windows; on a moving motorcycle; in the back of a Social Studies class; with the entire sports team; with her best (female) friend in the shower in full view of the neighbour's window; with a brutish handyman/landlord/uncle; with a 13-year-old boy; in the snow; while driving; on skis; under a moving train... well, you get the idea. Sorry to spoil a long-held belief in the integrity of American journalism.

[John Wagner]

Next you'll try and tell me that professional wrestling isn't real.

Oh, wait. I already knew that!

Anyway, this whole episode has been very interesting. I've enjoyed reading the POV of both sides.

[Allan Jenkins]

It's a fair cop, Eric, and I have been kicking myself for week.

What I should have done was track them and Löic down, have a word, and blogged the result.

Repenting. Still not humble, but repenting.

[Ike]

You know, this thing did kick off just before April Fools Day...

[Eric Eggertson]

Allan:

I know where you're coming from.

I find I usually have time in a blogging session to either write up a piece or do some research, but not both. Add to that the subtle but unending pressure to post something new and interesting, and you have the ingredients for the occasional shoot-first-ask-questions-later scenario.

Part of the problem is that when you contact your prospective subject (or target, as the case may be), you also give them the opportunity to scoop you by posting something on their own blog about your inquiries.

Plus, calm and measured blog posts don't get a lot of attention.

The end result: a lot of factors push you to write quickly and pump up the conflict a bit.