Wow, he got some good pop over the last few days, with this post about Valleywag being wrong a ton and how to game the system, and this one about enterprise software. Of the two, I think the comparison between Valleywag and the UK press is the more amusing. There is an element of truth here - Valleywag has been struggling with accuracy a bit more than usual, and the Zuckerberg rumor was over the top. His fourth point made me giggle a bit:
4. Send it at a time when it’ll be hard for them to check it out. Notice that that story about Zuckerberg broke on Friday evening. Everyone knows that PR people are harder to find on Friday evening cause they are usually out at the company beer bash or getting ready for a weekend, especially if they had a rough week. Remember: PR people have lives. Bloggers don’t. Take advantage of that. Truth be told Valleywag doesn’t call the subject of their stories anyway, so it really doesn’t matter. But the lie will go further if PR people can’t be reached for comment by other bloggers/journalists who MIGHT actually try to follow up on the rumor.
I've quoted for years an old Twain quote: "A lie can make it around the world in the time it takes the truth to get its shoes on," in order to make the point about responding rapidly to rumors. Four hours is my rule of thumb -- four hours to debunk a pernicious rumor or have to deal with the aftermath for days. This means that PR people, even ones (like me, I think) who have lives, need to have a way to being reached. But hey, I might pilot this "beer bash" concept to get out of some of those Friday evening calls... ;)