Every once in a while, I receive an email that makes me say “WTF” and “EWWWWWW” at the same f**king time. Today, I received one of those emails from Sarah H., a PR freelancer who tried to LITERALLY BRIBE ME to write about her clients on TechCrunch for a few hundred bucks.
Here, read for yourself:
As a career journalist and a human being with morals, this email made my skin crawl. Seriously, this is NOT ok, Sarah H. This is the kind of stupid shit that gives real PR professionals a bad name. It’s completely immoral and unconscionable to bribe reporters and columnists to write about clients. It should make you want to vomit, Sarah H. It certainly made me want to.
Sadly, this is not the first time, or second or third time, that somebody has tried to pay me to write about their company. It happened a few times while I was at Mashable. Luckily, the journalists and contributors I know would never say yes to somebody like you, Sarah H. They have too much integrity.
So no, Sarah H., PR freelancer, I will not write about your client for $500 or any amount of money. Please take a vacation and heavily reconsider how you conduct your business.
Welcome to the web. =P
I receive daily emails like that… Most of the times are to some “scam and phishing” companies, trying to get some link juice…
NO, even for 10000 USD…
Well, don get offended but its not like journalists don get persuaded ! Appreciate your thoughts but PR professionals are sometimes asked for bribe ! You should also write about that guys