It was not until I went to work as a reporter in the newsroom of a daily newspaper that the reality of ‘news releases’ made much of an impact. Each day, dozens, sometimes hundreds of news releases landed in the newsroom. As the new reporter without a beat, I inherited these news releases and I quickly learned how to process them.

We had a huge waste container in the center of the newsroom and in it went copies of the newspaper, hot off the press; everyone in the newsroom would get a first off the press copy of the paper and we would all read as quickly as possible to be sure there was not some terrible gaff, an upside down story or, worse, a hole where an advertisement should have been.

Galley sheet size copies of stories, false story starts from our typewriters and the dozens of story notes, telephone messages, they all got dumped in the trash.

On my first day on the job, the managing editor called me to his desk in the sea of desks (no private offices) in the newsrooms and pointed to a pile of news releases, press kits, some sent by express services, some loaded with postage, some hand written, some hand delivered.

“Take these,” he said, motioning to the big waste container in the center of the newsroom, “and get the BS out of them.”

Noticing my dumb look, he picked them up and told me to bring the others and follow.

We went to the waste container and he started sorting through the news releases and press kits. He particularly hated glossy, packed with ‘BS’ press kits and he would sort through them by pulling out the news story in them (if any) dumping the rest of the contents.

Out spewed fact sheets, color and black and white product photographs, brochures, free rulers, electronic calculators, key rings, calendars, product samples and with each dump he would say, “This is BS” (only he used the real words). “This is BS,” and a nice pen and pencil set from Cadillac Motor Division would come out. “This is BS,” and he would dump a nice looking pocket mirror, a brush, another calendar, invitations to dinner, product coupons from P&G (free) and more and more ‘BS.’

Then he scooped up the stories and went to his desk. He made it absolutely clear that what went into the waste container would stay there. Even my $150 per week salary would not give me – or anyone — dispensation and permission to get that free pen and pencil set. Glossy press kits with dozens of pages, probably produced by the thousands for tens of thousands of dollars were trashed.

He would sit with ten, fifty, one hundred stories and give each one a glance. A few would get ‘spindled’ for later review or assignment, some he would mark for publication using a grease pencil and the rest, probably 95 percent of all them would be thrown at his feet where, I guess, the new junior reporter without a beat was supposed to pick them up and toss them into the…. big trash container.

The managing editor also made it clear he had great disdain for “PR types” and heaven help the public relations person who telephoned him (especially if we were on deadline) to ‘sell’ a story. “If you want to know if your material made our newspaper, buy a copy and check it out,” he would say.

After a few days of watching this and emptying the ‘BS’ news releases and ‘BS’ press kits into the big trash container, the managing editor showed me his story evaluation technique.

The only rule: is it a local story and is the contact information quickly available. Is there an ALL CAPS headline at the top of the story “Royal Oak Barber Invents New Scissors” would stay in, and “Cadillac Dealer Gets New Eldorado” would go. It’s not brain surgery and no amount of gloss or free pencils helps a bit. We were looking for local news and we all grew to hate the hype.

After a while, even a new junior reporter without a beat could cull out the ‘BS’ and pretty soon I got my first assignment: emptying press kits and taking the stories to my desk where they had five to ten seconds to live, or go off to the big trash container.

I suspect today’s newsroom is still the same. Except now the ‘BS’ is sent to electronic hell and into the Big Trash Container in The Sky at the click of the key and over there, in the corner of the news room, some beatless junior reporter is probably dumping out press kits, telling no one in particular, “this is BS.”.