How do you stop fake news from entering the newstream? It's a good question.

Pay-to-play newswires that have become a trusted source of news despite the overt advertorial intention of the outlets. Last week, two hoax press releases were discovered circulating in major newswires. On Friday, a fake release purporting to be from Javelin Pharmaceuticals hit Business Wire with the headline, "US Supreme Court split - rules in favor of Big Pharma." More amusing was a fake on PR Newswire that said, "Obama Orders Full Investigation of General Mills Supply Chain Following Food Recalls." The General Mills release was briefly picked up by Dow Jones Newswire, WSJ Online and Fox Business News...

Hoax releases circulating in paid-content newswires encourage a deeper look at the issue of trust. However, I find the fact that the PR & media industry is only now concerned about "trust" little confusing. Consider the facts: newswire content is not written by journalists (but by interest groups), not fact-checked by anyone, and its service of content dissemination is assessible to any random Joe (after they fork over several hundred dollars). To me, any of these characteristics on their own would disqualify a universal element of journalistic integrity & trust.

I'm not saying that newswires aren't useful or don't have a place, but hopefully these recent hoaxes will inspire a greater awareness that ALL content on pay-to-play newswires needs to be fact-checked and independently verified before it is re-posted in independent media outlets as legitimate "news."

...now for a real press release:

Business Wire Comments on Hoax News Release and Announces Security Upgrades, Operational Changes

E-Mailed Releases Will No Longer Be Accepted, Effective Immediately, As Business Wire Accelerates Timing of Long-Planned System Upgrades

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In the wake of a fraudulent press release that is now the subject of a Federal criminal investigation, Business Wire will no longer accept client releases submitted via e-mail, effective immediately, Cathy Baron Tamraz, chief executive officer, announced today. The elimination of e-mail was scheduled to be part of a planned security upgrade this August, but this weekend's incident advanced the timetable for the policy change.

All press releases must now be submitted via "BW Connect," Business Wire's proprietary order-entry system, which is audited on an annual basis by leading independent network security specialists. BW Connect has been operational since 1998 without any breaches or incidents. The long-planned security upgrade will introduce additional safeguards to the system's multiple security layers. The system is subject to rigorous testing annually as part of the regulatory compliance sanctioning process in multiple international jurisdictions, as well as routine corporate audits.

"Business Wire on rare occasions accepted e-mails as an accommodation to clients," Tamraz said in explaining the policy change. "Based on this weekend's events, we have put an immediate end to this practice. Business Wire will only transmit releases that have been submitted via authorized users of BW Connect who file directly into Business Wire's editorial system using its secure, proprietary platform."

On June 18, Business Wire transmitted a press release for Javelin Pharmaceuticals that it since learned was fraudulent. The release was not issued or authorized by Javelin Pharmaceuticals. There is currently a criminal investigation underway in what appears to be a case of stolen identity and fraud.

Business Wire transmits more than 250,000 press releases annually; fortunately, such incidents have been extremely rare in the company's near 50-year history.

"We are continuously upgrading our security systems, and we pride ourselves on our track record," noted Tamraz. "We will continue to be extremely vigilant and provide the level of service our clients and media partners have come to expect from us."