ethical dilemma

I was faced with a sort of dilemma at my internship last week.

The other intern and I are tasked with working on important press releases, importing them into a service we use to send out these press releases, and then of course sending them to our large mailing list of local businesses, local news, local donors, and often state and national businesses, news services and other important and influential people. Therefore, it is obvious that what we send out must be excellent--carefully edited to the point of perfection, even if it must be completed during my lunch hour or before I go to bed.

Many people do not understand the importance of public relations, sometimes even those who work in it. So much of PR is writing, at least a significant portion of the area I am working in.

I was assigned a very important press release to be sent to businesses, universities, and non-profits across the country. While uploading my work into the web service to prepare it to be sent out, I came across a press release the other intern had written. Not to be judgmental, it was horrendous. My friend remarked that Google Translator could have written a better article. While this release was not planned to have the national scope as mine and a few others we have worked on, it was still meant for many important people--those that affect the success of the business.

I was busy working on my release that had to be sent before I left for vacation. So I didn't have much time to spend working on the other. I have never been a tattler, and I can't abide people that just cause drama and trouble for everyone around them while trying to make themselves seem better. So because of this, unfortunately, I did nothing.

While on our web service a week later, I saw that my boss's boss had edited the release, so the problem was solved. But it was the first situation I had encountered in my various internships and jobs in which I truly did not know what to do.

Thoughts? I know I have PR readers, but I also know this is something everyone encounters at one point in their careers.