A Healthy Dose of Fear is Appropriate When Dealing with the Press

That used to happen at reddit all the time! I'd see an article about reddit and think, "You know, all you had to do was read our blog if you wanted this to be even remotely accurate!".

The notion that everything is on the record is of particular note. You, run into a journalist at a party and mention drunkenly your product launch strategy. Consider it out of the bag because it's fair game to report now. Expect a call the next morning.

Moreover that extends to anyone with familiarity with the situation. Your dirty laundry can be aired in just such a way. Your employees offhanded comments are fair game for stories.

I will note that the one thing you can and should do is contact a reporter's editor if they've run a story about your company without calling for comment. Be totally sober about it and make sure you've run whatever you plan to say by someone with emotional distance from the situation. It's easy for it to come off as "WAH WAH WAH why didn't I get called to talk about this bad thing" and the best way for you to get your side across is to be as detached as possible.

1 Record all conversations with them.

2 Only talk to journalists from Proper organisations.

3 Only talk to journalits with domain Knowledge.

4 Only talk to journalists you and ideally other People you know trust.

5 Know what "Off the record" means and ask the hack which this interview is.

6 Also if you're an employee know where you stand legally - get Authorisation - Still wish BT had let me do the post to alt.2600 that BT's press office asked me to do.