WDAF-Fox 4 anchor Rob Collins was featured along with 25 other local anchors in a Conan O’Brien monologue recently who read the identical copy provided by a PR firm introducing their stories, according to Mediaite.
Collins, who graduated from East Texas State in 1995, parroted the line, “I scream you scream…well, you know the rest” (around 1:24) about a phone app.
I don’t doubt they read from the press releases from the political campaigns, too.
So what’s the difference between this… anchors reading the line verbatim from the PR agency press release… and the Star’s Steve Penn writing lines verbatim from the PR agency press release? Does that mean Rob Collins should be fired? Although, in all fairness, it probably was the producer who copied the lines from the release.
Tom is right! There is no difference; in both cases, it is wrong. (Although, as he correctly points out, Collins probably was told what to say and the Star (supposedly) did not approve of using the press release verbatim.)
Regardless, these are NEWS men. How about researching a story, then writing it … without relying on the hack who wants you to use his press release (without attribution).
It’s no wonder there is so little confidence in news organizations today.