Choking on doughnut coverage

TheStreet.com’s Marek Fuchs is all choked up with how the business media took a news release from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts — a company that has disappointed in the past — and wrote stories without questioning what it said.

Fuchs wrote, “With this as a backdrop, the company issued a boilerplate press release on Friday. Its headline: ‘Krispy Kreme to Realign Its Franchise and Company Stores Operations.’ Some executives were in, some were out. Same old, same old. The company even wound up citing the CEO, Daryl Brewster, for this typically vapid quote buried down at the bottom, a fittingly modest gesture: ‘These changes will result in a more responsive, leaner and focused field structure that we expect will help us drive same-store sales, improve unit economics and reduce system costs.’

“And then what happens? May I choke to a violent death on a glazed cruller.

“Reuters runs with a headline, no less than 20 minutes later: ‘Krispy Kreme realigns operations.’ I guess it took them a full 20 minutes to edit down Krispy Kreme’s slightly longer headline. But it gets worse. Much worse.

“Remember that throwaway line (completely lacking in backup facts) about how this reshuffling of the executive deck (once again) will magically drive sales? Even the press release author was not shameless enough to put that up high. But Reuters? Right in the lead!”

Read more here. He’s got an Associated Press example as well.