Ice Cube & DJ Pooh, UVNTV.com & Wack Press Releases

So Ice Cube and DJ Pooh founded an Internet video site and all ProHipHop could say was Hip Hop @ CES: Ice Cube & DJ Pooh Promote UVNTV.com without any mention of ownership?

I make it a point not to harass publicists unduly but when one of the top pr firms in the hip hop game puts out a press release that manages to bury what I consider a major story, I think it's worth pointing out.  And, yes, this is partly annoyance at getting scooped by other bloggers after I'd already posted.

Check this UVNTV.com press release headline:
Hip Hop Icon and Entertainment Mogul, Ice Cube and Legendary DJ Pooh Leverage Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 to Launch the Web's First Real-Time Television Network UVNTV.com

The headline is ambiguous.  We know these guys aren't programmers and we regularly see releases with headlines like Chuck D and DMC Launch Beyond.fm that do not refer in any way to company ownership or executive status.  It's not a good headline for other reasons as well but the details should be cleared up in the first few lines of the release.

But the press release for UVNTV.com's only line relevant to ownership is the first line:
Hip hop icon, entertainment mogul Ice Cube and legendary DJ Pooh announced today the launch of the world's first real-time streaming television network online, UVNTV.com (U View Network Television).

That's it.  No direct statement that they are the founders, no backstory or founding tale and no information about who else might be involved in the company.  Not a good look.

But USA Today got the full story.  Guess they skipped the press release.

On the plus side, this is a nice boost for Microsoft's Silverlight product.

Comments

[Paul]

Publicists Press and hip Hop have never worked well together. I'm old friends with these guy's. Pooh started it and brought in Cube. I'm working with them, way to be a watchdog on the press. I like your blog.
http://nextthing.wordpress.com/

[Clyde Smith]

Thanks for dropping in.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes. Best of luck.

[Lynne d Johnson]

It's really hard when press releases don't get it right. Unlike newspapers, blogs don't always have reporters and research staff who can spend time following the release to get fresh quotes and background info. I think publicists need to a do a better job. I remember PR 101 where you learned to write a release so that it could be used as a story if necessary. That means you followed Journalism 101 rules to write press release 101. But that's the rub I suppose, many publicists nowadays weren't trained to be journalists or publicists.

I'd like to see what happens with this project as well.

[Clyde Smith]

I should clarify that I've encountered a lot of great writers and publicists involved with hip hop. The problems with this press release weren't really about hip hop at all.

The USA Today piece was what got picked up so most bloggers actually got the story right, unlike me, who was working with the press release.

[Kofi Sam]

It seems like Microsoft is pimping the hip hop communtiy, with this silver light stuff. I check UVNTV and its garbage, mainly because its not REAL broadband TV,and only celebs have channels, what happened to the indie filmmakers getting a shot....Last, they copied www.OVNTV.com, I beg everyone to check it out, Its far more advance and, a group of young black dudeS (FROM THE HOOD) created it. So I beg anyone to watch channels on OVNTV.com, than that garbage UVNTV.com

[An OVN Viewer]

This is a straight rip from the OVNTV.COM virtual CABLE SERVICE! It is completely free and the content is waaaayyyy better. The big boys at microsoft are watching and trying to monopilize every facet of the consumer industry. Yea I said it!