Things Turn Ugly in the 'Hacks vs. Flacks' War
Journalists often call publicists "flacks" and publicists call journalists "hacks," though rarely in earshot of one another. But the gloves came off last week after Chris Anderson, the executive editor of Wired magazine, chided "lazy flacks" …
Context & Ripple Effects
The spat has been brewing quietly for years: back in October 2005, Doc Searls noted that PR people get at least as much flack as they give, capturing the mutual disdain both sides usually kept offstage. What changed this week is venue — Wired executive editor Chris Anderson aired his grievance with 'lazy flacks' publicly rather than privately, and the New York Times reports the gloves came off on both sides.
The escalation fits Anderson's own trajectory at Wired: the magazine published an unedited version of its Jason Calacanis interview by Adario Strange in June 2007, and its March 2007 'Radical Transparency' cover package made openness a house doctrine. An editor who preaches transparency turning his blacklist into a public shaming is the doctrine applied inward.
First-order effects
- Publicists pitching Wired now face a named, hostile gatekeeper — Anderson's complaint signals that sloppy or irrelevant pitches cost access to Wired specifically, not just goodwill.
- Journalists at other outlets gain cover to voice the same complaints openly, since a marquee editor has broken the norm that this friction stays private.
Second-order effects
- PR agencies will be pushed to tighten list hygiene and pitch targeting, because one influential editor's public blacklist threatens client relationships across multiple outlets.
- Rival magazines and blogs can position themselves as easier, fairer points of contact for flacks, turning editorial-access etiquette into a competitive differentiator.
Third-order effects
- If transparency norms keep spreading from content to process, the informal access-for-coverage economy between newsrooms and PR shops becomes auditable — and every future breach becomes a publishable story rather than a quiet grudge.
- A durable adversarial frame of 'tech press versus tech PR' takes root, one both sides will invoke in later, larger conflicts over coverage and influence.
The trend: The once-discreet bargaining between journalists and publicists is being dragged into public view as transparency culture makes professional discretion look like something to be exposed rather than preserved.