Hacker’s love to make trouble – they’re mischeivous by nature. Hacking celebrities’ twitter accounts, messing with the Google page – it’s all in good fun. However, these hoaxes have recently wormed their way into the PR world when a third phony news release hit Business Wire. Issued on behalf of Javelin Pharmaceuticals, the June 18 release was titled “US Supreme Court split – rules in favor of Big Pharma.” Evidently, these false releases made it past the gates through email. Business Wire is now no longer accepting releases through email.

These hoaxes call into question what Business Wire does to validate press releases and whether or not it can remain a strong PR resource. The dismenation of false information is as diffucult to clean up as oil in water. It also makes it more difficult for an honest message to be heard through the chatter, making the job of a PR professional more difficult.

Business Wire transmits 250,000 releases annually.