You Scratch My Back....

Today's New York Times has one of those impossibly disingenuous stories about the alleged line between editorial content and advertising at CNN. There was a box of Total cereal on some anchor desk during a morning health segment sponsored by General Mills. Ellisblog is shocked. Shocked and saddened.

Everyone in the world knows that advertising buys coverage or softens coverage. During the collapse of Enron, the New York Times devoted very little coverage to the activities of two key Enron enablers; JPMorgan Chase and Citibank. Why did they devote so little coverage to these banks that laid the pipe for Enron scams? Why do you think?

Pretending that a cereal box on a morning show about health is a "story" is ridiculous. Maybe the NYT should do a major investigation of the movie industry and see what turns up. On the other hand, the movie industry is now their most important source of ad revenue. So maybe that won't happen. Ever.