Who is dumber: Internet Explorer users or the media?

As we start the new term it seems a good time to review some PR happenings of the summer... This first one is a hoax: a press release claiming that Internet Explorer users have a lower IQ than other browser users was picked up and reported in by the BBC, CNN, Forbes, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and many other prominent media outlets. Only when BBC readers found that the company behind the 'research' had only been trading for a month, had staff photos lifted from a French company and refused to answer calls did they begin to question whether these media should have checked their sources a little better. With the competition to fill paper and web pages as quickly as possible, standards slip, leading us to question the credibility of modern media with implications for the credibilty of PR. See teh blog 'A PR Guy's Musings' by Stuart Bruce for more.