Now some of you may think I am impatient; I have also heard that some of you think I have an aggressive approach to getting information. So it was amusing to be on the other end.
On his second call, I explained to the journo that the banks only knew where they had come overall. They didn’t know how their competitors had done or the results of the various categories. So he would have to agree not to share the information with them if he rang them up. He then told me that he was already calling around, so he could easily put all the information together himself. He followed this up with an email.
“We are happy to respect an embargo if you give us one, but we intend to run a story today if we don’t get a release. Please let me know if you will send the release today,” he wrote. At that point I informed him he had two hopes, Bob Hope and no hope. I may have to rethink my own approach to getting information. Clearly the aggressive Muppet system doesn’t work.