Comments on: Make Sure Not to Send Bruce Sterling Any News

By: rory olcayto

rory olcayto — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:55:00 +0000

Hey what's the problem?

Susan Wise got her message out...

We all now know of Virtela's remarkable performance. Bravo!

Bruce Sterling did the ironically surnamed Susan a favour! god knows why she approached him in the first place tho, LOL

By: Tim Allik

Tim Allik — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:42:00 +0000

Todd, why was Sterling the wrong person? He had “written” (actually, cut and pasted) a blog post about the Middle East cable severings and he his email address is published on the blog as well. I know now that he was the wrong person because he’s just made it clear that he doesn’t want to receive or news or information from primary sources. But how was anyone to know that prior to this episode?

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:23:00 +0000

Yup. Bruce Sterling ain’t a journalist. He’s an author (a respected sci-fi/cyberpunk novelist) who simply doesn’t understand the journalism process. He’s used to working in an ivory tower and dictating his pronouncements down to the masses.

It’s nice to see the support Susan’s getting. It was a good pitch. It was just sent to the wrong person, and it reiterates the care that must be taken when pitching bloggers.

PR people are still used to the kind of professional nonchalance you get with real journos. First it was *bad* pitches. Fine! Call us out on them! We’ve all written one, and it’s great blog fodder. But now it’s *good* pitches!

By: Tim Allik

Tim Allik — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Doug, the simplest thing that Bruce Sterling could do is take his email address off of his Wired blog, but something tells me that the powers that be at Wired probably wouldn’t go for that.

It’s ironic that a guy who apparently made his name being a forward thinker (as a novelist of the cyberpunk genre) is so backwards when it comes to social media today. No comments allowed, no e-mails allowed. Might as well put it on paper and send it in the mail.

By: Doug Haslam

Doug Haslam — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:01:00 +0000

A couple of interesting comments from Steve Rhodes on Twitter, here and here. In short, he points out that Bruce Sterling isn't a "traditional" reporter, but a science fiction writer and cultural critic.

I can't say that Wired makes it clear on the blog who Bruce is or what the blog's purpose is, something the PR executive here sussed out from content; incorrectly apparently.

What is clear- now- is that Mr.Sterling is not open to input from PR-- or anyone else, for that matter. There are, however, more civil ways of making that clear.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:54:00 +0000

All I can say is -

Send me news.

A few PR folks already do, and I welcome it. I may not use it on my radio show, but I always respect and thank you for it.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:12:00 +0000

Thanks for posting this. With all of the (valid) rants about lousy pitches, someone does exactly the right thing, and still gets railed against. Disheartening.

I hope Susan Wise gets the support she deserves, both from the PR community but also bloggers.

Jen

By: John Johansen

John Johansen — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:05:00 +0000

The Internet has proven time and time again that if you don't know how to construct a proper rant, you will fall on your face.

This is not a properly constructed rant mostly because, as Tim pointed out, the content he's railing against is relevant to his story.

Per Twitter, if his background isn't in journalism, maybe we need to re-think the whole Citizen Journalist movement to avoid seeing these painful blunders.