Today’s PRSA (Sierra Nevada Chapter) seminar was fantastic. Dr. Judy Strauss, co-author of the recently released book, Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, spoke volumes for an hour about what it means to manage reputations online.

I vehemently disagree with one line of thinking she presented. That will be the subject of my Friday morning post, which was actually written before today’s presentation. At the same time, she pretty much puts most public relations practitioners to shame with her knowledge and know-how. And she’s a marketing professor.

At the luncheon I was surprised to hear one of my posts was circulated locally, of which I had no idea. I was flattered. Then I remembered this site’s goal is not just to be critical of the news media, as this post was. I try to reserve salvos for the public relations problems seemingly ever-evident.

So here goes.

Maybe I’m naïve and ignorant. I simply just don’t get pitches deliberately gone awry. Being mistakenly mis-targeted is one thing, a bit like my spelling and grammar–general ineptitude.

But to deliberately try to pitch a media outlet that simply has no use for your story idea is beyond comprehension. I have an upcoming post on what it’s like being on the receiving end of bad public relations—first is being targeted for pitches of no relevance to what I intend to cover, and second is refusing to be added to a news-release distribution list from a major organization despite multiple requests.

It’s fair to say, since I have experience in both freelance writing and PR, that I can sympathize with journalists who hold grudges against PR people. To them, often rightfully, we are biased, spin-doctoring scum.

Today’s email makes it more apparent why. Peter Shankman, who gleefully runs helpareporterout.com, had to go on the warpath. Shankman’s rules are explicit and simple. His cause is noble. Every journalist and PR person in the world should sign up for his emails. Today, though, he was pissed. His email, slightly edited, explains it all:

“Welcome to the last HARO email of the last day of April!

“Unfortunately, my quest to root out idiocy and heal the rift between PR people and journalists took a setback today, when one reporter who posted a query got three pitches that were so off-topic, and so not-even-remotely-close to what she wanted, that I had no choice but to ban them. It was such a no-brainer, it was sad.

“I’m not going to out the agencies publicly. (Although I’m not ruling it out in the future…) But know that I’m serious about this, people. You screw up like that, and you’re history. Go pay the other service $6,500 a year and SPAM to your heart’s content. But it won’t happen here.

“What gets me the most angry about this whole thing is that it’s not like you simply “made an error.” You had to consciously THINK about whether this pitch worked, then, KNOWING it didn’t, you chose to send it ANYWAY. I just don’t get why you’d do that.”

I know why: Too many PR people are arrogant assholes.