Kristen Ruby

Kris Ruby Web Site Linkedin Ruby Media Group Web Site

As a television commentator and a public relations consultant, the ability to wade through misinformation is more important now than ever before. As newsrooms reduce the amount of journalists on staff and as the Publicist to journalist ratio becomes skewed of 6:1, the onus is on PR professionals to fact check anything they are submitting to the media. This means we must practice fact checking with anything our clients are submitting to us that we submit to the media. I urge every PR professional and TV commentator to take this pledge. The fact checking must start with you. Do not trust anything that is handed to you. Do the work that a journalist must to do verify and claims made. Do not distribute hyperbole; distribute facts. This means you will disagree with clients occasionally on what is given to you. That is okay. You have a core ethical responsibility to pitch facts to the media from verified, trusted and credible sources. Fact check all information to confirm it is true before submitting it to the media. Cite any outside sources so all claims can be verified. State the difference between an opinion piece vs. a factual piece. If something is sponsored, state that, too. If you cannot verify something that has been given to you to pitch, do not pitch it. Period. Fact check all credentials that are presented to you in a clients executive biography before pitching the bio to the media. Continue to update, verify and fact check anything that has your name or agency attached to it. Be the change you wish to see in the world. Don’t rely on a journalist to do the fact checking. As a publicist, it must start with you. If you do not fact check what you pitch, you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.