Still Dancing: We are now six years into the Bush administration and the White House press corps is still dancing to whatever tune Karl Rove decides to call.

The latest example is the coverage of Katrina victim Rockey Vaccarella, who travelled from New Orleans to meet with the President and thank him for the great job the administration is doing with the clean-up in the battered Gulf region. Most of the media lapped up the story of a regular guy trekking north in his trailer in the hopes of being granted an audience with the most powerful man in the world.

Of course, the entire story turned out to be “fake news” in the true sense of the term. Rockey turned out to be a wealthy businessman and Republican politician, who stood for office as a GOP candidate whose journey was far from the speculative adventure the media portrayed: he had an invitation and an appointment before he left his home in St. Bernard Parish.

How do you preach the gospel of authenticity to clients when reporters fall so eagerly for the inauthentic?