Below the Belt

The WashPost’s Gene Weingarten is up to his old PR-bashing ways. No. He didn’t publish the e-mail addresses of those he intends to blackball for lobbing misguided story pitches his way.

He simply and quite understandably pointed out how inane and “lazy” (to borrow a term from our long-tailed friend) some PR pros can be.

He opens his most amusing, (though not for some of you) “Below the Beltway” Sunday column , via BL , as follows:

Whenever I check my office voice mail, I have to spend the first 15 minutes deleting messages. They all sound pretty much the same:

“Hi! This is Amber McChippie of Ernest N. Forthright Communications, and I was just following up on an e-mail I sent you about our client’s intriguing new book, Squat-Thrust Your Way to Inner Peace and Firmer Abs, and . . .”

(star-D)

“Hi! This is Madison Rosenblatt-Gonzalez of Constance Naggington Communications, and I was just following up on an e-mail I sent you about our client’s exciting new line of kangaroo–themed party bunting, and . . .”

(star-D)

“Hi! This is Heather . . .”

(star-D)

Mr. Weingarten attributes the barrage of misguided queries to the fact that one of the media database companies lists him as a “lifestyle” reporter. Imagine his glee when that database company called to offer a chance to elaborate on what he really does at The Post? Here’s how he began:

Q: What are your beats?

A: My primary responsibility is to savagely attack the quality of retail products and services. I rely on initial cold-call contacts from PR professionals to select which companies I will attempt to bankrupt through unfair reporting techniques leading to shockingly unfounded criticism…

Gene, thanks for the wake up call. Maybe one day you’ll make honest brokers out of all of us.