(2017-01-09) It's Time For The Media To Do Something About Its Shameful HelpAReporterOut Problem

Ryan Holiday: It’s Time for the Media to Do Something About Its Shameful HelpAReporterOut Problem

It’s Time for the Media to Do Something About Its Shameful HelpAReporterOut Problem

When I first heard about Help A Reporter Out in 2011, I had two reactions. As a marketer, I immediately saw a service that allowed reporters to phish for confirmatory sources (Confirmation Bias) as a potential vehicle for people to build up press clippings on the cheap. A way to become branded as an expert quickly and easily. Free publicity from real news outlets? I knew clients would love it. As a human being who likes, you know, the truth, I was horrified.

What I remember most vividly about the stunt was that media refused to look at itself critically in any way. A New York Times editor was asked if they would stop using HARO as a result. They announced they would not be changing their policy. Other writers complained that without HARO, how else would they find sources?

HARO is a service designed by a PR man, owned by one of the world’s largest marketing companies designed to give marketers easy access to legitimate press. Their slogan was, at one point, “No Such Thing As Free Publicity? There Is With HARO?” (Today it is “A Source For Every Story”)