Good, Bad, and Ugly

Have things gotten so bad in the news business that you will now publish press releases for UFO enthusiasts with the unaltered lurid headlines that their agents give you?

Watch your credibility as a news organization circle the drain. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish Reuters from The Onion.

David H.

You might want to take more care to keep “articles” like this  one from looking like actual journalism.

J.M.

It was only midway through this article about Afghanistan that I realised it is unlikely that Reuters is the source behind it, but it is on your Website and is cleverly disguised as such. Is it a hack?

How did a press release like this get through? Does Reuters endorse this POV?

Eric

We’ve heard from a number of readers about things like this showing up in online searches recently.

As the label says, it is PR (as in Public Relations) Newswire, and is a stream of press releases not written by, selected, edited or endorsed by Reuters.

The releases do move on our site, though, and not every reader may understand the PR Newswire distinction.

The possible confusion is compounded by the ARTICLE designation appearing at the top of these pages.

We are adding some text to the pages where these items are presented, to underscore the line between this content and Reuters news.

It should be in place in about a week: GBU Editor

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