General Mills investigates fake news release

General Mills Inc. is investigating the source of a fake press release on the PR Newswire service that falsely stated that the U.S. president had ordered an investigation into the cereal maker’s supply chain.

Anjali Cordeiro of Dow Jones Newswires writes, “The release, which went out at midnight EDT, was ‘completely false,’ General Mills spokeswoman Kirstie Foster said. The company alerted PR Newswire soon after the fake statement ran, and the news release service issued another release that asked journalists and readers to ‘disregard’ the first as it had been sent by an ‘unauthorized sender.’

“Foster said General Mills is unaware of the source of the release but is investigating. She declined to offer further comments on the investigation and didn’t comment on how the fake press release may have made its way through the PR Newswire, which has a vetting process before publishing releases.

“A representative for PR Newswire, a unit of United Business Media Ltd., couldn’t immediately be reached. The fake release had at least one clue that suggested it was a hoax. Steve Sanger, who was listed as a contact in the fake release, is the company’s former chief executive and not a media relations person.”

Read more here. Dow Jones ran a story based on the fake release here. A story and headlines also appeared briefly on the Wall Street Journal and Fox Business sites, according to a General Mills release.