[nitwit005]

McDonnalds didn't hire any internet shills or anything like that. The media bought into their lawyers public claims about the case without bothering to investigate anything, and the TV talk show circuits picked it up.

Unfortunately, you often don't need to try particularly hard to get the media to repeat false claims.

[DamnYuppie]

Especially when you have one of the largest advertising budgets in the world!

[nitwit005]

Contacting reporters is basically free, and they're usually happy to get stories from corporations. I doubt they had to spend much of anything.

Besides, there's little point in spending more than you'd lose in a settlement on a PR campaign to avoid the settlement.