My first job out of college was a reporter for a crappy little daily newspaper making $125 a week to cover township trustee meetings, car wrecks, and bake sales. I quickly discovered that PR was infinitely easier than journalism, and considerably more lucrative. Besides, in PR you don't have to be all anal about facts, sources, attribution, and stuff.

Ever since I've been alternately amused and appalled at the internecine relationship between PR and the news media. Early on, I learned that both professions can be very flexible about ethics. After three different knights of the keyboard passed off news releases I wrote as their own columns, I was at once delighted and dismayed. When a reporter violated an embargo so he could "scoop" the only other paper in town, I sought consolation in that the story was on page 1, above the fold.

As I sunk ever deeper into corporate PR, I was only mildly surprised to learn that, at least in the trades, the "wall" between editorial and advertising was quite porous. Puff pieces, excellent placement, and endless goodies directly correlate with the size of your ad buy. I admit to enjoying my share of dinners, junkets, and luxury suites at ballparks. (You might even call me some sort of strumpet.)

I am writing for Furthermore because it continues the tradition of that other blog: skewering hypocrisy in a profession drowning in it; because I still hold faint hopes that PR might one day emerge from the shadow of advertising and make a valuable contribution to public discourse; but mostly because I like poking pretentiousness in the eye.

Next week: "The Ministry of Truth Lives!"

Bruce Pilgrim is the CEO and janitor of Bruce Pilgrim Marketing Communications, LLC. He recently published his first book, Talking to My Cats: A Small Business Journal.