The "placed" story and other failures of journalism

Sarah Lacy is outraged by PR behaviour:

A company pivoted (read: failed) and decided it wanted some positive press. So it paid someone to write a story. Not a press release or a guest post, an actual fake news story, paid for and produced by the company. And it is now sending it around to tech blogs, asking if people who have forgone easier and more lucrative careers choosing instead to report and write news for a living can just cut and paste it under their own bylines. Or, you know, “something similar.”

Are you fucking kidding me?

If only this behaviour were unique to tech blogs. If only traditional media had never published anything like this. If only…