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Public Relations: Biting the Handout They Feed You

The bane of every newsman's existence is the publicity handout. In a never-ending stream, handouts arrive in the morning mail to proclaim that Consolidated Everything has just named Jim Jutjaw as the new vice president in charge of personal advancement; or that Sandi Starlet's high-rise bust does not keep her from reading on her back; or that Senator Somnolence has forthrightly called for further discussion.

With few exceptions, the self-seeking blurbs are quickly ripped open and then ripped up. But even that takes time, complained Miami Publisher Jay Morton of the weekly...

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
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