Twitter is an amazing communication tool used by professionals in every industry. If you follow many journalists, you’ll notice quite a bit of complaining about PR people — some deserved and some not.

It’s an interesting trend, because journalists can openly complain about some of the stupid pitches that we get on a daily basis, but you rarely hear any push back from the PR companies or their representatives. The reason is really very simple — they can’t.

PR reps have to be concerned about the companies they represent, so they can’t go off publicly on a reporter, no matter the circumstances. There are a few Web sites where they can post anonymously, but if it ever gets back to the client, they could lose their jobs. So, they mostly stay quiet.

Let me be clear — there are terrible PR people in the tech industry. However, there are terrible journalists too.

Some journalists use their name and popularity to bully PR reps into giving them exclusives or other favors. Others use the name of their big publication to demand preferential treatment. Either way it’s a dick move.

I have a lot of friends on both sides of the PR fence. Most of them are really nice, ethical people that want to do a good job for their client or publication. Some don’t.

Luckily, I’ve had great dealings with almost all PR reps in the past 20 years. Hopefully, that will continue.

The next time you see someone bitching, remember, there’s two sides to every story. This one is no different.