'PR Newswire' Employee Slugs Release 'Loony-Bin Rally,' Gets Fired

Flackers, a word? You will almost certainly be fired should you use the slug "LOONY-BIN-RALLY" on a press release about a march for mental illness. Yesterday, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Dan Gross reported that a PR Newswire employee had done just that, prompting her dismissal and a pleading correction from the company, which distributes press releases to over 4,000 news aggregators. How did the company stumble across the faux pas? Why, News man Gross called in the tip himself! Filling a regular column is hard. "PR Newswire deeply regrets an error that occurred yesterday in a news release, re-sent below," the correction reads. "PR Newswire understands that such terminology feeds the prejudice and discrimination associated with mental illnesses and will take steps to ensure that nothing like this occurs in the future." Thing is? The original wasn't wrong, per se. After all, it was a rally for a loony-bin. Full-blown insensitivity, on the other hand, typically warrants something a tad weightier. Like a press release. Release after the jump.

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