Her business card said, "Stephanie Harnett, senior associate, Mercury Public Affairs." But the union organizers remembers that she said she was a University of Southern California journalism student when she interviewed them.
Now Harnett is out of a job. The company she worked for, and the client she was representing, have denounced her and her undercover tactics.
For a journalist, it is should be a difficult and a last-ditch decision, to go undercover to get a story. Editors must be involved in the decision.
Gawker's Hamilton Nolan, who broke the story, said it best on how the PR world views going undercover to get information.
“Even within the PR industry it is considered horribly unethical and scandalous to pose as a reporter in order to spy for a client.”
Click here to read a round up of coverage and comments.
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