One of the PR outreach techniques most frowned upon by journalists has been dubbed "PR spamming" - where reporters wind up on an email list pitching stories that have no relationship whatsoever to his beat.
Giving PR spam the boot is the objective of a New York Times reporter.
New York Times reporter David Segal, a/k/a The Haggler, has had enough. After unsolicited pitches imploring him to write about "Christmas Cookie Treat Boxes, or a document previewer called Igloo, or a liquor called Pura Vida Tequila" - and noting that the odds of his writing about any of these topics "could safely be described as nil" - Segal devised what he calls a "one paragraph get-out-of-PR-spam kit." He published it in his column and urged reporters everywhere to follow his lead.