Shilling for Comcast

The moral of this story, I think, is that it is getting more and more difficult for PR agents to stage stunts designed to put their clients' interests in a better-than-deserved light.

It seems that the FCC held a hearing at Harvard Law School this week on the thorny question of net neutrality. Much to the surprise of the organizer, the room was packed to overflowing - in fact, according to the MediaPost report, an estimated 100 people were turned away from the hearing room.

Turns out that, according to the pro-net-neutrality group Free Press, all those spectators were hired hands - being paid by anti-neutrality Comcast to get into the hearing and hold seats for Comcast employees and supporters, so that they could cheer the testimony of a Comcast executive. Comcast admits the stunt.

OK. Hardly a major criminal undertaking, by any standards. But I suspect it's the kind of thing that we see at, say, large public demonstrations which have been organized by various advocacy groups, which gather members or non-members, some free, some paid, to show up at the demonstrations to cheer on one side or another in a dispute.

The problem, in the minds of Free Press (and, I presume, the groups reporting the event) is the "paid" part - sort of an outrage-for-hire situation, if you will. And, now that it's revealed, something of a black eye for Comcast, which apparently got caught with its hand in the cookie jar.

And that brings us back to the PR geniuses behind this kind of thing. In today's media world, you can stage this kind of event - but you will find it virtually impossible to hide the fact that the event has been staged. The rules have changed. If there's anything to be "caught" at - you will get caught. Welcome to the new, more transparent world of public relations.

Hat tip: MediaPost