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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Media Scientology Ads and Rigged "Best of" Lists: Which Is the Worst Crime Against Journalism?

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 11:23 AM

Technology reviews by website CNET have long been respected for their thoroughness and integrity, but that reputation has come under scrutiny after a top reporter quit over what he says is editorial interference by its parent company, CBS Corp.

The short version is this: CNET reporters selected a Dish Network device as the best home theater product of last week's Consumer Electronics Show. CBS, which is currently involved in a legal battle with Dish Network, made CNET reporters choose another best home theater product.

2. Yesterday afternoon, the Atlantic ran a large advertisement for the Church of Scientology, with only a small tag at the top that read "SPONSOR CONTENT" to indicate that it was any different than other Atlantic content. The outcry online was so fast and so scathing that the Atlantic pulled the advertorial within hours. The notice on the former location of the Scientology page now reads, in full:

We have temporarily suspended this advertising campaign pending a review of our policies that govern sponsor content and subsequent comment threads.

If you missed it, Slate has a screenshot of the whole article, as well as The Atlantic's longer apology for running the advertorial.

It's been a shitty week for journalism, and it's only Tuesday! We all know that journalism is dying—journalists tell us so, all the time—but the only question I have is: Who is making journalism more dead?

UPDATE 12:49 PM: As always, The Onion wins: "SPONSORED: The Taliban Is A Vibrant And Thriving Political Movement."

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Comments (8) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Journalism died a long time ago.

Now, get over yourselves and start selling ads on your front page like a real newspaper.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on January 15, 2013 at 11:30 AM

The thing is, The Atlantic (and HuffPo, and others) have had "sponsored content" on their pages for a really long time that is clearly designed to look like journalistic content. So it's kind of a shame that it takes something as clearly batshit crazy as Scientology to get people to make a note of it and question the practice more broadly.

Posted by bleedingheartlibertarian on January 15, 2013 at 11:46 AM

Woodward & Bernstein killed journalism when they let a movie be made about them that had Robert Redford as a star. Now it's all about breaking a story big enough to become famous and have yourself portrayed by one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Posted by Sir Vic on January 15, 2013 at 12:00 PM

Advertorials are fine as long as they're clearly marked. They shouldn't ever look like editorial content. Simple!

Posted by Puty on January 15, 2013 at 12:20 PM

I don't have a problem with the usual advertorial for Carnival Cruise Lines or some Shell Oil "Energy Roundtable"; that's just business. Business is fine with me. I DO have a problem with it being for Scientology. Seeing Miscavage's smiling face shining from the podium like Kim Jong-Un is different, and deeply offensive. They have really blown a hole in their 156-year-old reputation.

I'm not entirely sure that CNET or CBS have reputations to damage at this point.

Posted by Fnarf

on January 15, 2013 at 12:40 PM

The 24-hour "news" cycle killed journalism. When they couldn't find the stories to fill the time and instead invited people to give their opinion and call that news it began a downward spiral we now see. The only 24 hours "news" is completely local (NWCN) and they retell the same stories every 15 minutes and only available on enhanced cable. Anything else (CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CNBC, etc) is now pretty much all opinion and one-sided stories meant to confuse and obfuscate the reality of most situations. Yah the only news and journalism rests entirely with the few small local-grown outlets. Everything else is just media.

Posted by Amalink on January 15, 2013 at 1:27 PM

This poll is a cruel libel of vultures.

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on January 15, 2013 at 3:46 PM

@6 - While I don't think you're entirely wrong, one of the biggest killers in the early '90s was umpteen local stations noticing that A) CNN was getting a lot of viewers and B) producing more, longer and flimsier local newscasts was cheaper than paying for syndicated programming.

There's always been the impetus for news outlets to "get there first", we're just seeing the worst possible version now. (The late Herb Caen, who wrote briefly for Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, once mentioned that a sign in the newsroom purporting to be a quote from Hearst himself - "Get It First, But First Get It Right!" - had long been graffitied with "Screw Getting It Right, Get It Written!")

Posted by DonServo on January 15, 2013 at 6:41 PM