There's been a few diaries recently about HBGary, and their actions in support of clients including BoA.
Well it seems that they aren't the only clients using PR to plant stories....
According to the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/... everyone's favourite social networking site, Facebook, has been getting into the act.
Facebook hired a PR firm by the name of Burson-Marsteller in order to pitch anti Google stories to the news outlets, concerning the new Google Social Circle.
Tellingly, the Daily Beast article that the BBC links (http://www.thedailybeast.com/...) says that Facebook not only confirmed it overnight, but admitted that they tried this for two reasons.
The first reason is that they felt the Social Circle generated privacy concerns. The second, and more telling reason, is that Facebook resented Google trying to use Facebook data.
If two tech companies who both present a 'trust us, dude' attitude, resort to tactics like this, what's going on with companies we don't trust?