Krempasky.com

Let me start by saying I don’t have any particular interest in Overstock.com. I certainly don’t own any of its stock and while I’ve shopped there the results have been decidedly hit and miss. Mostly hit.

But I have spent the last few hours (and with my attention deficit that ought to be measured in dog years) following the story of Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne vs. a Business Week reporter. Dr. Byrne clearly feels that he’s not been well treated by this particular publication (and by the looks of it, many others) and exacted a bit of retribution.

Reporter emails list of questions to company PR staff in preparation (or hope?) of an interview with Byrne. It’s a long, long list and more important – an agressive list. So Byrne, instead of following the old rules decided to not only respond to the questions in writing and at length, he posted the entire exchange online.

Dear Tim,
I appreciate your taking the time to write such an exhaustive list of questions. Since you did nothing to indicate the interview was off-the-record I am treating it as on-the-record (that is the journalistic convention, I believe), and so have reprinted your letter below. I trust also that you do not mind me responding in this public forum, as you also failed to stipulate otherwise (as some reporters have when they interview me by email).

Much talk is being made in the PR blogosphere about the story.

• Fighting Fire with Fire… Turning the tables on Media
• But it’s a harbinger of a changed situation for journalists.
• Does this sort of interview posting satisfy Sarbanes Oxley?

As if this wasn’t enough for entertaining reading, it appears (if Byrne is to be believed) that Tim Mullaney not only called the Overstock offices, he went off on a receptionist. Something about not continuing to dig once one finds himself in a hole.

Aside from the watching-a-trainwreck excitement this story yields, there is a lesson here. I wrote something at least loosely connected a few weeks ago. In this case, however – instead of dealing with private correspondence – I think that the Overstock CEO has it exactly write when he responded (in a similar scenario with a NY Post reporter):

in my worldview, any communication which is on-the-record for me must be on-the-record for the reporter as well.

Amen. And good for everyone. Good for the consumer of information, the news junkie – anyone that appreciates getting the whole story instead of preselected snippets. And when reporters or journalists complain about the practice, it only aggravates the growing trust deficit for many traditional media outlets. (note: what a great opportunity for enterprising journalists to lead in their own field by pulling back the curtain on the news process)

If I had to guess, I’d say this story is going to not only make a good amount of news (likely in publications not called Business Week) but has already been emailed to the vast majority of professional journalists in this country. Now – if we can just get a similar majority of PR people to not only read it but learn from it we’ll be set.

The wrong lesson? Fear of communicating and asking questions.
The right lessons? Set ground rules. Never write something in your professional capacity (a pitch, a survey, an inquiry) that you wouldn’t want published.

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