Inside FNC PR…
Jim Romenesko published his long talked about piece on FNC PR. Johnny Dollar called it a “hit piece” but it isn’t really a hit piece though it does have a negative tone that permeates most of the article. The article is pretty accurate. FNC does have a list they maintain. Back in the summer of 2007 one of my most trusted sources told me about that list and who was trusted and who wasn’t trusted. At the time TVNewser was one of those sites that wasn’t golden.
However, Romenesko’s article only scratches the surface in a few key areas. I also think it makes a mistake of making Irena Briganti the focal point rather than the culture of FNC PR as a whole. Irena isn’t a bad person and doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Nothing that goes on at FNC PR doesn’t transpire without Roger Ailes’ at least tacit approval. If Ailes didn’t want his shop acting in some of the more sketchy ways the article mentions, he’d have put a stop to it long ago. That right there should tell you that this can’t all be laid at the doorstep of Irena Briganti.
Inside Cable News 
January 19, 2012 at 7:11 pm
You have anything more recent than 2007? Lots has happened since then. Many new websites, many new people in charge of old and new websites so in the technology age 2007 is light years past. You have an inside source even from 2011?
I don;t know this Irena person but do you know her personally or is it that you know of her and have exchanged emails, twitter, etc. and is that your basis for saying “she isn’t a bad person”?
Just asking!
January 19, 2012 at 8:10 pm
To ansswer the first question, I was just citing when I learned of the list and that was 2007. Nothing more. Nothing less.
To answer the second question would require violating off the record material. Not gonna do that.
January 19, 2012 at 9:10 pm
What does being a “bad person” mean? I mean aside from shooting a couple lawmen, Billy the Kid wasn’t a bad person some say.
January 19, 2012 at 9:25 pm
Bad example, Kelly.
January 19, 2012 at 10:38 pm
Interesting read. Nothing there terribly surprising. The truth, probably, is that some of those “blacklisted” think too highly of themselves and others truly are unfairly kept off the channel because someone’s delicate nose got bent. Show me Whistler’s mother sitting on a park bench and I’ll show you an old lady off her rocker.
January 19, 2012 at 11:27 pm
What does being a “bad person” mean? I mean aside from shooting a couple lawmen, Billy the Kid wasn’t a bad person some say.
That has to be the stupidest straw man point I’ve ever seen.
Interesting read. Nothing there terribly surprising.
Yes, and that’s what makes it surprising because there were arguably worse things that could have been cited and weren’t. Most of the article I could pigeonhole into the “PR shop doing what a PR shop does” category, albeit on the extreme end of the spectrum in some cases. Every PR shop yells at writers. Every PR shop has favorites and sometimes ices writers for a time. It’s the stuff that every other PR shop doesn’t do but FNC PR does that is controversial bordering on incendiary. And most of that never got touched in this article.
Romenesko’s piece painted a picture of FNC PR but from one particular direction. There were other directions that weren’t included. As to what those other things were, I’ve written about them here before so I don’t need to repeat myself now.
January 20, 2012 at 12:38 am
There were other directions that weren’t included. As to what those other things were, I’ve written about them here before so I don’t need to repeat myself now.
Uhh..yeah you do. I can think of at least three people off the bat who haven’t read it, then there’s us old guys with the memory loss…
January 20, 2012 at 1:35 am
Sounds like Fox News to me. “We’re powerful. Play along, or be exiled.” Fine for a political organization. Not so much if you’re in the journalism game.
January 20, 2012 at 9:53 am
hmm… do I detect the scent of smoldering embers?
January 20, 2012 at 10:00 am
Recommed last week’s PBS “American Experience” on Billy the Kid: “When the law is corrupt, the outlaw is a hero”.
Caution: not for the stupid, nor men made with straw.
January 20, 2012 at 10:03 am
People that spend all their time on cable news ought to get out more.
January 20, 2012 at 12:12 pm
^^^ People that spend all their time writing snarky comments and nothing but snarky comments ought to get out more…
January 20, 2012 at 12:47 pm
That was especially good snark.
January 20, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Give a man a Joke Of The Month Award…