Just Nuts, I Tell Ya

An employee in the Washington bureau of PR Newswire, a service that provides press releases to media outlets, was fired yesterday after she used the slug LOONY-BIN-RALLY for a press release about a mental illness march today in South Philly.

The news release was about a coalition of homeless advocacy organizations, including formerly homeless individuals, set to gather in Philadelphia "to call upon the state to invest the political and financial capital needed to fund permanent supportive housing, which promotes recovery from mental illnesses."

Susan Rogers, director of special projects for the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, was said to be "furious" and "offended" by the loony bin slug but also reportedly "devastated" to learn that the insensitive employee had been fired.

"This was an error in the very poor judgment of one employee and she has been terminated," PR Newswire spokeswoman Rachel Meranus told Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News. What the gossip fails to mention in his column about the matter is that he happens to be the person who told Rogers about the story's slug. (Oops! Talk about inserting yourself into the story.)

I'm a little confused why Rogers would be "devastated" to learn that the creative slug writer was terminated. Perhaps she thought the woman just had a loose screw and deserved a second chance?

Having worked at PRN "back in the day" I can tell you from experience that NUT-JOB-RALLY was clearly the better choice.

UPDATE: Gawker has the embarrassing PRN CORRECTION!