Robert Scoble illustrates the disconnect between "old" PR, "new" PR, and what Apple does:

Last night one of the people who’ve been on the ScobleShow (my video show) wrote me and told me he was fired for appearing on my show without PR permission. I won’t tell you who that was since he’s interviewing for a new position now, but it made me realize that when I aim my camera at someone that there are real consequences for doing so. Now, the guy in question should have known that would have pissed someone off. Most big companies, in their employment agreements, have in there that you aren’t allowed to talk with the press unless given permission by the PR departments.

That would be "old" PR, where transparency is discouraged, and all news is left to the PR department for dissemination. Scble tried very hard to break that mold at Microsoft when he was there, and he's doing the same thing at PodTech. However, the "old school" approach does seem to work quite well - for Apple:

Steve Jobs is MANUFACTURING great PR by keeping everyone’s mouth shut. Heck, I’ve met some people I KNEW had an iPhone and they were so scared of retribution or consequences that they wouldn’t answer a single question.

Everyone has heard the hype surrounding the iPhone - and most of that hype has come from guarded statements from the top of Apple, followed by rampant speculation elsewhere. Contrast that with how MS handled information about Vista (or, how we handled information about Pollock), and you see the danger of promising (or even seeming to promise) too much too early.

The question is, which approach will work out over time? The current theory is that the "new" PR of transparency is the way to go, but the Apple counter-example is pretty compelling.

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