Is the Wall Sreet Journal actually journalism?

Question

They wrote a story based on what a PR guy wanted them to say.

Is that journalism or advertisement? You decide:

source:

http://newspapertree.com/news/2694-the-successful-pitch-behind-the-wsj-story-on-the-downtown-plan

Answer 1

I think your premise is an overstatement.

Public relations staffers do their best work when they alert media members to a possible story ... but don't write the story for them. El Paso probably was pretty smart to hire an outside agency to help get the word out about what it was doing, since there are few pros within city government to serve that function.

It's really no different than the work by a chamber of commerce or an economic development group.

I will add this -- if the WSJ reporter took the lazy way out and rewrote the information without investigation, then shame on him/her. But that would be unusual, especially at that level.