World of Suck

I work for a very large organization. The press frequently has interest in what we do. Peons like me are not allowed to talk to the press, so we have a Public Affairs Office. Lucky us. Most of the staff of the PAO are just paranoid little lap doggies of the management. That's fine. That's their job. However, the person assigned to us is also humorless and dumb as a sack of rocks. She has worked with our program for over 10 yrs and in that time has only absorbed a smidgen of understanding. Seeing what she gleams out of what I tell her makes me doubt everything I read in the press. She even had a flash of brilliance for a moment that lost its shine when she finally got it on paper.

So remember this the next time you read a newspaper. Press releases are typically homogenized and pasteurized versions of the real story. Perhaps not a lie, but certainly lacking depth. And that is assuming the person entrusted with the message actually understands!