Fake press release issued

Bloomberg reported that a fake press release was issued for an Atlanta-based company. Business journalists should care about such issues because they often rely on press releases as the basis for stories.

James Gunsales wrote, “PR Newswire said it distributed a false news release this morning about Innotrac Corp., a call- center and warehouse services operator.

“The bogus press release came from a third-party distributor called eReleases, whose statements are carried on PR Newswire, said Rachel Meranus, a spokeswoman for PR Newswire. The fake statement said Innotrac had won a ‘multiyear, multi-million- dollar’ contract with Siemens AG. Innotrac shares soared before PR Newswire distributed a company release saying the first was unauthorized.

“‘We are reviewing our policy of accepting public company news releases from eReleases,’ Meranus said in an interview. ‘This has sent up a red flag for us.’

“The release, posted at 8:31 a.m. New York time, originated with Baltimore-based eReleases, a press release services company that works with PR Newswire, which is owned by London-based publisher United Business Media plc.

“Atlanta-based Innotrac, which manages warehouses, shipping and customer service call-centers for retail and wholesale companies, distributed a release at 11:13 a.m. characterizing the original release as ‘totally false.”’

Read more here. After Bloomberg and others were caught writing stories from fake releases, the wire service changed its policy and began referring to what newswire the press release originated in its stories.