This post
by Jeremy Zawodny about SixApart's public relations
consultancy allegedly 'spamming bloggers' made me
smile. Jeremy goes into great deal about 'horror of horrors'
receiving an email from a PR company!

The original post might be dumb but there are some very perceptive comments.

The first comment quite rightly asks "Is this really that big of
a deal?". Anil Dash of SixApart chimes in a bit later with an
excellent post which puts the whole thing into context.

And finally comment by Barbara Krause of Krause Taylor Associates,
the PR company responsible proves that she is right and Jeremy is
wrong. Barbara clearly does get blogs. And more importantly she gets
communications far better than Jeremy does.

Mena Trott of SixApart also comes out fighting with some very
sensible comments. She is spot on by saying she is "sick and tired of
the mob mentality that blogging sometimes brings out"

But it is Mena's final remark that really struck a note with me. "I
have to constantly defend blogging... and posts like yours make it
harder to do so."

One of my channels in FeedDemon is called "So-called A-list
Bloggers". It is dedicated to what I term the blogging mafia. Those
such as Robert Scoble and Steve Rubel who might know a hell of a lot
about blogging but constantly pretend that qualifies them to make
sweeping statements about blogging spelling the end of PR, marketing or
advertising.

If you want to listen to some real experts on professional
communications and how blogging fits into it then try reading these
blogs:

NevOn by Neville Hobson
PR Opinions by Tom Murphy
A Shel of my former self by Shel Holtz
POP! PR Jots by Jeremy Pepper
PR Studies by Richard Bailey
Mediations by Philip Young
Hyku Blog by Josh Hallett
Public relations from an Irish perspective by Piaras Kelly
Marketing Technology by Niall Cook

I don't claim that this list is comprehensive. Simply that when I
see one of these people's posts in my feeds then I look forward to the
possibility of learning something worthwhile.

p.s. Apologies. I had difficulty with this post as 20six kept timing
out on me and I accidentally saved it before I had finished.

UPDATED: I said the list wasn't comprehensive and the comments prove it. I forgot to include Phil Gomes of Edelman and an honourable mention for Stephen Davies the PR Blogger.
Stephen might still be a PR student but his blog is already a must
read. I missed it on my original list because he is in a different
channel in FeedDemon. He is in the North of England business blogs
channel instead of the PR one.