You talk to anyone in the PR industry about the blatant lies that come out of their agencies on behalf of their clients and they will vehemently defend themselves with words like "integrity" and "credibility". The truth of the matter is, PRs lie. Some stretch the truth, some bend it and most outright break it.

Although not unique to our region, but we do have a rather unhealthy obsession with being the 'first' and 'only'. I will not pretend, we love being the first and we try to always be ahead of everyone else. The problem is when you are so focused on that and you forget to check if you are indeed the first or not!

Indeed it's not just a question of lying about just being first or only.. it also goes back to throwing out figures that have no basis in reality. And oh how we love to give out dollar amounts! The general justification a PR will have is that journalists love numbers and so we need them even if we have to make them up!

The real question is, do PRs know they're lying when they are? In other words, is it a lie if they don't do it knowingly? Or rather, is fact finding left to the journalists or the client, or the PRs?