puff piece
Uncritical media coverage
A puff piece is journalism that promotes rather than critically examines its subject—an article, segment, or profile that reads like publicity material.
The term is dismissive, suggesting the work lacks substance or hard questions: The interview was a puff piece—she never challenged him on the scandal.
Common in entertainment and political coverage.
- flatteryExcessive insincere praise
- hypeExaggerated promotional fanfare
- media hypeInflated press coverage
- articleWritten piece or grammatical word
- advertorialsPaid promotional articles
feature · piece · praise · glowing review · cherry-picking · whitewash · publicity · propaganda · fluff · story · reputation management · spin · positive spin · polish · hagiography · native advertising · hyperbole · sponsored content
- publicitypublicity, PR, press conference, publicist, press release
- articlesarticle, magazine article, features, feature stories, columns
- media biasmedia bias, bias, editorial bias, slant, partisan
- PR tacticspress release, press conference, media kit, spokesperson, talking points
- hypehype, buzz, spin, hype train, overhyped
- journalismreporters, interview, editors, student editors, school paper
puff pieceexposé
Investigative journalism piece
investigative report · investigative journalism · investigative reporting · muckraking · hard news
puff piecehit piece
Disparaging article targeting someone
takedown · exposé · hatchet job · investigative report · character assassination
puffy, puffed, puffing, puffs, puffery, puffer, puffin, puffiness, puffball