You know the Rathergate battle has been won when PR firms step into the breach and try to take credit. Reader Mashiki Amiketo pointed us to this amusing article in PR Week:
Two DC PR agencies eagerly fanned the flames of election-year scandal last week – one for the left and one for the right.
Creative Response Concepts (CRC), the VA-based agency promoting the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, used right-wing blogs and news sites to turn a CBS report casting doubt on President George W. Bush’s National Guard service into a potential black eye for both the network and the Democrats.
A CRC client, the Cybercast News Service (CNS), was among the first to voice suspicion that documents suggesting Bush had received preferential treatment in the Guard were forgeries.
“After the CBS story aired, [CNS] called typographical experts, got them on the record that these papers were fishy, and posted a story by 3pm Thursday,” said CRC SVP Keith Appell. “We were immediately in contact with [Matt] Drudge, who loved the story.”
It’s nice to know that we were “used” by Creative Response Concepts, an organization I’ve never heard of. And I don’t doubt that Matt Drudge “loved the story,” since by 3:00 p.m. his link to Power Line was already an hour or two old. But, hey, PR firms do this kind of thing for a living, so you can’t blame them for trying.
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