What if you pitched a story, and the media produced it without you?

I recently pitched a TV outlet in another state on a story to coincide with the season premiere airing of the new "Bionic Woman" series on behalf of a client of mine, an orthopedic medical products company. The pitch revolved around the hundreds of thousands of "real bionic women" walking among us - those women who have benefited from advanced joint replacements and new technologies that allow for safer surgeries and more precise placement of knee and hip implants. Back when the original "Bionic Woman" series aired in the late '70s, gender-specific knee replacements, ceramic hip materials and navigation guided surgical systems were nothing more than science fiction.

Cool story pitch, right? You're darn tootin'.

Well, the TV station expressed interest and asked me to find some subjects. I started lining up an orthopedic surgeon and a couple patients to be featured in the piece and tried repeatedly to get back in touch with the reporter and assignment editor, but could not get a call or e-mail back. Then, just a few days ago, I finally got a call from the assignment editor letting me know that the station had sought out a surgeon and his patients on his own. Obviously the doctor they profiled was a competitor of the surgeon I had lined up. Even worse, that doctor uses a competing orthopedic device company's knee and hip implant products.

I was confused, frustrated, angry, humiliated, and every other emotion you might imagine. In more than a dozen years of partnering with media outlets on stories, I have never had a reporter take a story pitch, find their own sources, and not tell me. While I certainly respect and admire the media's independence and their responsibility to produce stories according to how they best see fit, I find it highly unethical to bite on a story opportunity and indicate that they are moving forward with you in good faith, and then go in a completely different direction.

I expressed my disappointment, harshly but respectfully, to the assignment editor and I had to call my client, the surgeon, and his patients to apologize profusely and stress that this was not standard operating procedure (pardon the pun - totally unintentional, but it works). Doctors, lawyers, and many others are already skeptical of the media and this didn't help. On the flipside, many media representatives are highly skeptical of the intentions and motives of PR folks. And I know there area lot of hacks out there that give the rest of us a bad name. But I pride myself on my high ethical standards and my relationships and reputation are all I've got.

It turns out that the surgeon I had lined up is good friends with the station management (oops) and he called his contact to share his sentiments as well. The station is now going out of their way to find him another opportunity in the coming weeks, but the damage is done.

As a PR professional, I can't burn bridges with media outlets because I rely on them for my clients. But I can tell you that I'll be very wary about who I work with at that station from now on.

So my question to you is, has something this ever happened to you (whether you are a PR rep or a reporter)? And if so, how did you handle it?

I feel better just talking about it. Thanks for listening.