Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

The shady individual who put up a faux press release on PRWeb about Google acquiring ICOA, the “neutral host” broadband wi-fi provider, for $400 million, got away with it long enough for several news organizations, now red-faced, to have picked up...

... the fake news release and distributed it. Also, long enough for a short-lived, but significant bump (a fivefold increase), in ICOA stock and for someone to pocket the profits before the stock plummeted again very quickly upon discovery.

In the wake of it all, ICOA said the story was a hoax, Google declined to comment, several high profile news publishers got egg on their faces, among them Associated Press, TechCrunch and The Washington Post — publications that ran the story and later had to issue retractions and PRWeb was forced to issue a mea culpa of sorts, an embarrassing apology after posting false news....

[The challenge of fact checking in a 24 x 7 news cycle ~ Jeff]

Kapitall Wire, Delivering Fresh Investing Ideas Daily , Investopedia: Is A Bad Reputation A Bad Investment?

...To our knowledge, no company has suffered lasting damage as a result of opening a factory in a poor country, printing its catalogs on paper from old-growth forests, or in the case of Tommy Hilfiger, having its founder falsely accused of racism.

When a company has its ethics called into question (excluding business ethics and adherence to law, a completely different subject), it’s rarely the end of the world. Usually, all the company needs to appease the indignant (and get back to making money) is a brief mention on the company website about its commitment to corporate responsibility, loaded with words like “virtues,” “stakeholders,” “ethical,” “progressive” and “fairness.”...

[Not so fast, Pilgrim... - JD]