tricrossTri-Cross, an abstract strategy game from sggc Games for Competitors, had a small first edition run in 1986, but is now being released in an updated package by the inventor’s son and partner.

The game is played on a cross shaped board. The rules aren’t online – only hints about how the pieces start hidden like Stratego but get revealed during play – so I can’t tell you more about it. Two to four players.

But that’s not what I’ve come here to talk about. Let’s talk about source.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily in the Atlanta area and its suburbs, with a history going back to 1868. Source’s reporter has been writing for twenty years and won several journalism related awards.

Yet the story appears to be a press-release with a thin veneer about schools picking up the game. The “old-school board game” is lauded not only by the subjects of the story but anonymously by the reporter.

Links within the story look like page rank links; one from the word “Glenn” links to the company’s news section (???) and one mid-way thought the article from the name of the product to the company’s web site. The URL at the end of the article, in contrast, has no link.

Really? That’s what you thought was worthy of  publication?