The Seattle Times' Jonathan Martin reports [3], "In response to a request to talk with [T-Mobile] CEO Robert Dotson and other executives this week, I got an email back from the PR firm Waggener Edstrom Worldwide [4] that ended with a strange request.

Hi Jonathan, Thank you for your phone call this afternoon and your patience while I looked into your request. While we won't be able to provide you with an interview we are able to provide the following statement. ... Please note that if you plan to use this statement in your piece, I am not a T-Mobile spokesperson and to use my name would be inaccurate.

If you are required to include attribution please do so to a 'T-Mobile Spokesperson'. Thank you and have a great weekend! Best, Danielle

To be clear, the statement is from a 'T-Mobile spokesperson,' but the spokesperson has no name, and saying that the spokesperson does have a name would be 'inaccurate.' ... John Stauber [5], author of Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry [6], said farming out media inquiries to external PR [7] firms is a strategy to 'distance the company from uncomfortable questions.' "