PR agency Ricochet Public Relations has named and shamed its client as being the source of incorrect information passed on to the media. In a rare outbreak of responsibility in the PR world, Ricochet didn't fall on its sword for the client. Nor did it fudge or blur the issue of responsibility over an incorrect article published in Application Development Trends (ADT).

ADT's correction is here, the key bit is below.

Editor's Note: Application Development Trends retracts a faulty vendor claim included in the article “Off-grid software brings speedy approach to enterprise apps,” which posted at ADTmag.com on June 21. We regretfully admit inaccuracies to the following statement: “IBM – which executed the software’s scalability testing – reports Symphony is more scalable across Windows and Linux than DataSynapse and other grid products, functioning across all operating systems.” Kevin Acocella, public relations representative for Deep Computing, IBM, says that while IBM provided the computing environment for Platform Computing’s product scalability testing, IBM did not conduct the testing, nor did the company compare the Symphony 3 product scalability to that of DataSynapse. The statement was supplied to ADT staff by Platform through Ricochet Public Relations, the firm handling the company's announcement. According to a representative at Ricochet, the false claim came directly from Platform and was included in press information, consequently appearing in our article.

Ouch.

A small storm in a small teacup perhaps, but credit to our competitor Ricochet for their refreshing candour.

Disclaimer: we do the PR for the wronged vendor in the spat, DataSynapse, hence we tracked the story.

Tags PR, ethics