Let’s start a new trend where you refuse to speak to journalists unless they can guarantee that the final publication will contain a link to your side of the story.
If you can be replaced by someone else, I am almost certain the journalist will simply find another target.
But if the article is going to be about you… this could be interesting. Even if they asked other people to give them quotes about you, I believe there is still the norm of asking you for a quote. And “add this link” seems like a reasonably simple request that would be difficult to deniably refuse. “Mike asked us to include a 20-character URL in the article, but that would go completely against our journalist independence and integrity, so we had to refuse this blackmail” sounds kinda stupid. (You definitely should make the link short and simple.)
I would still expect some passive-aggressive reaction; at the very least, making the link unclickable, but probably also making a typo in it. “We honestly tried to follow his silly request, but hey, mistakes happen.”
Let’s start a new trend where you refuse to speak to journalists unless they can guarantee that the final publication will contain a link to your side of the story.
If you can be replaced by someone else, I am almost certain the journalist will simply find another target.
But if the article is going to be about you… this could be interesting. Even if they asked other people to give them quotes about you, I believe there is still the norm of asking you for a quote. And “add this link” seems like a reasonably simple request that would be difficult to deniably refuse. “Mike asked us to include a 20-character URL in the article, but that would go completely against our journalist independence and integrity, so we had to refuse this blackmail” sounds kinda stupid. (You definitely should make the link short and simple.)
I would still expect some passive-aggressive reaction; at the very least, making the link unclickable, but probably also making a typo in it. “We honestly tried to follow his silly request, but hey, mistakes happen.”