News

"Top Digital City" goes WiFi... and that's just the first of the fibs!

Most journalists have a reflexive response to the phrase "world-leading" - we throw the story in the bin. So it was an effort of will to actually decide to read the press release which said that Santa Monica was named "top digital city" before rolling out its WiFi network.

First off, it turns out that Santa Monica has not been named TDC. The phrase used in the Argonaut (local newspaper in this Little Britain corner of LA) actually reads:

has earned itself a spot as the top digital mid-sized city in the nation, according to a 2007 Digital Cities Survey conducted by the Center for Digital Government.

Mid-sized? Is it worth getting more details? All we have is the headline: "Santa Monica named top digital city ahead of rolling out a citywide WiFi network... "

You can see the full press release if you like. It's at M2 Communications which (it says here):

is a leader [whoop! whoop! danger! alert!] in electronic news publishing. Through its M2 PressWIRE service M2 offers affordable press release distribution as well as targeted, industry-specific distribution, all for market-leading low rates.

So you go there, to find this press release. And guess what! - you have to pay to read it.

Not really top digital anything, is it? Unless we're talking "digital dummies" who honestly think people pay to read PR puffs...