A network of doubtful experts uncovered by Press Gazette has provided the British press with at least 600 pieces of often AI-generated and misinformed commentary over the past four years.
The commentary is offered to the media with the goal of securing links on news websites to boost search engine results for the trades-booking business MyJobQuote.
Britain’s largest newspaper publisher Reach has promised new training and tighter controls after its publications featured questionable MyJobQuote experts more than 200 times.
The Sun and regional publisher Newsquest took down stories featuring MyJobQuote experts this week after Press Gazette asked questions about their veracity.
MyJobQuote has not replied to repeated requests from Press Gazette to verify the existence or expertise of its team.
Gardener Fiona Jenkins is a veritable Alan Titchmarsh or Monty Don of the modern era and has been quoted 172 times in national and regional newsbrands and magazines in recent years.
Jenkins writes about Google search-friendly topics such as when to stop mowing your lawn for winter, how to grow garlic and the most dangerous plants for pets.
Her profile picture (shown below as featured in a Future publication) is 99% likely to be AI-generated according to AI image detector SightEngine.
Jenkins’ latest articles, shared via the press release distribution site Cision, also appear to be touched by the hand of AI, with her latest opus, ‘Autumn Garden Prep; What to Plant and Prune’, being 63% AI-generated according to detector site Pangram.
Despite a claimed 25-year career in gardening and landscaping, there is little trace of her online at all: no Linkedin page, no social media of any kind. And there are no pictures of her online in a garden, or even wearing gloves.
There is no way to book her services, and no trace of her work online, bar appearances for MyJobQuote.
This has not deterred major publications from using her work.
Jenkins has appeared in titles including the Daily Express, the Daily Mirror, Kent Live, Wales Online and The Sun, Daily Record and Ideal Home – making her the single most prolific dubious expert in Press Gazette’s extensive reporting on the subject.
Jenkins’ profile was one of several flagged in research conducted by Press Gazette and content marketing agency Neomam Studios, which campaigns against deceptive practices in PR.
Neomam Studios has found dozens of dubious experts (more will be explored in following pieces), across multiple sectors, searching through the Cision press release database. Press Gazette has manually trawled Google search and Google News for publications which have featured questionable experts such as Jenkins.
We have published a spreadsheet of more than 500 articles based on MyJobQuote’s dubious PR tactics which have appeared in better-known publications. See the full spreadsheet here. But we have found more than 600 examples in total (including smaller, independent and specialist titles).
Jenkins is one of a network of at least 15 ‘experts’ working for MyJobQuote, who cover everything from cleaning to building to pest control and who have been quoted in The Times, the BBC, The Guardian and dozens of other publications.
All have zero presence on social media, no way to book them for their respective professions, and provide viral soundbites such as: ‘Building expert reveals the one time you should let your taps drip’, ‘The five common bathroom sounds you shouldn’t be ignoring’,‘This is the best toilet cleaning hack’, and ‘Professional shares 12p item that can keep rats out.’
Advice can be misleading and dangerous
Real experts have told Press Gazette that much of their advice is misleading or even dangerous.
Take Robert Collins, for example, a ‘pest control’ expert who has appeared 59 times in British media outlets as an expert on behalf of MyJobQuote.
Collins has offered tips on viral pest-related subjects such as how ‘Rats hate one common food found in every household,’ and ‘Nine ways to keep spiders out of your home‘, with a particular focus on affordable, natural remedies that can keep flora and fauna out of households.
But the British Pest Control Association says there is no record of Collins being a pest control professional and “the advice attributed to him is not consistent with recognised pest management practice in the UK”.
BPCA technical manager Niall Gallagher told Press Gazette: “No trained pest professional would give this kind of advice in good conscience. A lot of it is old wives’ tales.
“Essential oils, conkers, and vinegar – none of these are used by qualified technicians because they don’t work. If someone follows ineffective advice, the infestation continues to develop, which means more breeding cycles, more damage and a harder job to fix later.”
Analysis of Collins’ profile image by AI detector Sight Engine suggests it is 99% likely to be AI-generated.
Like Jenkins (and many of the other MyJobQuote experts), the profile picture is passport-style, with a blank background.
Collins claims in one article that essential oils are “one of the safest and most effective natural ways to get rid of rats”.
Gallagher said: “No, essential oils don’t work on rats. If they did, every pest controller in the country would have them on their vans.”
A DIY expert from the same site, Thomas Goodman, who has featured in the Manchester Evening News, Derbyshire Live, The Daily Express, Grand Designs Magazine and Living Etc is also impossible to find online with no social media presence.
Goodman has also opined on building-related issues in the BBC and the Guardian.
Analysis of his profile image by SightEngine suggested it was ‘likely AI-generated’ with a probability of 88%.
Gardening expert Harry Bodell has appeared in the Daily Express, The Sun and the Daily Mail among many others.
Like Jenkins, his picture is on a plain background and appears to be AI-generated, with a 99% probability according to SightEngine.
MyJobQuote is a major client of Cision’s press release distribution service. It appears to have dozens of ‘experts’, and sends one to two press releases per day – emailed via Cision to thousands of journalists.
This has continued even after Press Gazette challenged MyJobQuote about the veracity of their experts, although the rate of releases has slowed.
What appears to be a sister site, PriceYourJob (launched at the same time as MyJobQuote in 2013), also features experts who appear to be fake and whose ‘work’ has appeared dozens of times in the British media.
MyJobQuote appears to have grown into a major business with more than 35,000 mainly positive reviews on the site Trustpilot. It claims to have generated billions in revenue for UK tradespeople and to have 50,000 paying advertisers on the platform.
MyJobQuote is managed through ICM Enterprises, owned by Carl Meredith. Meredith has not responded to requests for comment.
Cision, which describes itself as a leading global provider of software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals, was bought by an affiliate of Platinum Equity for $2.7bn in 2020.
Reach: ‘Our readers deserve better’
Reach’s chief content officer David Higgerson said: “It is deeply upsetting and concerning when our journalists – or any journalists across the industry – are misled by people creating fake experts. It is clear that this is becoming a bigger issue, with more sophisticated efforts to mislead being deployed.
“Our readers deserve better and we will continue to tighten our controls around this and work with our newsrooms on training and protocols.
“At the same time the industry will need to work together to develop new ways to manage these growing threats.”
Press Gazette first sounded the alarm over invented experts being promoted by dubious PR companies to secure SEO links in April when we ended the career of Barbara Santini, a psychologist working for a sex toys company who had become one of the most widely-quoted mental health professionals in the UK.
In June we revealed that several stories about lottery winners who had won lost winning tickets, complete with photos, which had appeared in the national press, were PR fabrications created to secure links for a casino website.
In September we revealed that former royal cleaner Anne Simmons, who had appeared dozens of times in national newspapers including The Times, was another PR invention created to secure valuable mentions and SEO links for paying clients.
Press Gazette has repeatedly highlighted this issue with UK press regulator IPSO, which has a requirement that its member publications “must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information”. Yet IPSO member publications are the most common offenders when it comes to publishing fake PR content.
The common thread in all these stories is a reliance from journalists on information shared via email from sources whose credentials have not been checked.
A spokesperson for IPSO said: “Press Gazette’s continued investigations highlight concerns about fake, AI-generated content and remind editors and journalists of the risks posed by large language models.
“We would urge readers who identify inaccurate, AI-fabricated content to complain to IPSO. Publishers regulated by IPSO are accountable for their content. They have a duty to take care to satisfy themselves that sources are accurate. The standards set out in the Editors’ Code set them apart from non-regulated titles which helps to maintain trust and credibility with readers.”
Press Gazette has contacted all the publishers named above for comment, but only Reach responded with a statement.
Neomam’s Alex Cassidy said: “Working with subject matter experts is the bread and butter of collaboration between PR and journalism, so this proliferation of untraceable ‘experts’ is evidence of a larger systemic problem in the UK media.
“The rise of generative AI tools has contributed to this, but the prioritising of speed over substance on both sides is also partly to blame. Journalists need time to ask questions, rather than being pushed to publish templated articles to meet an impossible daily quota. From the PR side, a return to actual expertise in the form of established client profiles, media relations, and thought-leadership content on the client site is the way forward.
“Journalists and PRs share the responsibility not to misrepresent expertise. A combination of all these factors, along with an increased ability to spot when a pitch might be too good to be true, should help create a reliable expert ecosystem in the UK press.”
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