Title: DC PR Firm Claims Credit for Rathergate
Time/date: Fri, Sep 17, 2004 at 2:19:58 pm

Here’s a story at PRWeek claiming that a DC right-wing PR firm was instrumental in “driving” the CBS Killian memo story, and that they were “in touch with bloggers:” Two DC firms ramp up efforts over latest presidential controversies. (Hat tip: Mike.)

WASHINGTON: Two DC PR agencies eagerly fanned the flames of election-year scandal last week - one for the left and one for the right.

Creative Response Concepts (CRC), the VA-based agency promoting the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, used right-wing blogs and news sites to turn a CBS report casting doubt on President George W. Bush’s National Guard service into a potential black eye for both the network and the Democrats.

A CRC client, the Cybercast News Service (CNS), was among the first to voice suspicion that documents suggesting Bush had received preferential treatment in the Guard were forgeries.

“After the CBS story aired, [CNS] called typographical experts, got them on the record that these papers were fishy, and posted a story by 3pm Thursday,” said CRC SVP Keith Appell. “We were immediately in contact with [Matt] Drudge, who loved the story.”

CRC worked with CNS and the Media Research Center, another media watchdog client, to push the story into the mainstream press.

“We’ve been communicating with bloggers and news websites to make sure they know it isn’t just Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge who are raising questions,” added CRC president Greg Mueller.

Please note: no one from this public relations firm ever contacted me; I have never even read the Cybercast News Service article to which they refer. Spelling it out explicitly: LGF has never been in contact with Creative Response Concepts, in any way, at any time. I’m not very pleased that they would try to send such a message, while claiming credit for breaking the story.