Newspaper Proudly Announces It Will Only Cover Political Candidates Who Buy Ads

from the fair-and-balanced dept

There's been a lot of talk lately about claims that blogs are somehow posting stories without revealing if companies are paying for them, and even the FTC has announced plans to come out with guidelines to stop such behavior. But, of course, that assumes that it's only "blogs" that do this sort of thing, and not the mainstream press. And, to be honest, I can't think of a dumber thing for a blog to do, because if evidence of such a thing ever came out, it would destroy that blog's credibility. Yet, apparently, some in the newspaper business have no problems overtly and proudly advertising such things. A whole bunch of folks have submitted the story of a weekly newspaper in Key West Florida that alerted local political candidates that if they want coverage, they need to buy ads:
"As far as candidate forums and debates, we'll cover those when we can, but if candidates want their campaign covered, they have to pay to play.... I gotta pay the bills."
While a bit shocking in its honesty, it also should raise pretty serious questions about the credibility of the publication, which promises "fair reporting and fair representation." Though, given that it looks like the Conch Color website was designed in 1996 (yes, it has a clip art animated spinning globe -- and I'm almost surprised there's no animated "under construction" gifs), perhaps its credibility was already in question.
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Filed Under: credibility, ethics, florida, journalism, key west, pay for play, politics
Companies: conch color


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  • icon
    Thomas (profile), 8 Sep 2009 @ 12:51pm

    Are we sure ..

    That's not a parody site? Click through to some of the "Photographic Chronicle"-ing of Florida life. It's kind of funny. Especially the out of focus shots.
    "I gotta pay the bills."??? The website is 80% ads ..

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Free Capitalist (profile), 8 Sep 2009 @ 1:40pm

    Excellent idea!

    Maybe this site (spoof or no) is ahead of everyone else on political reform. To date, political media coverage has been a strictly closed market -- insiders only.

    What they propose may be the first mechanism for a non-tool (non-Dem, non-Rep) to get coverage for their campaign from a traditional news outlet.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 8 Sep 2009 @ 1:45pm

      Re: Excellent idea!

      So then you would be fine if a blog did this sort of thing?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Danny (profile), 8 Sep 2009 @ 2:26pm

    This is not a big deal; move along here

    They aren't saying that ad payments will result in editorial content. What they are saying is that they aren't going to invest (much) money in editorial content, so if candidates want to get their names out there, they have to buy advertising to do it.

    While this may not be a great journalism advancing the usefulness of this weekly paper to its community, there is nothing ethically wrong in deciding not to cover a particular type of news.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    iamtheky (profile), 8 Sep 2009 @ 2:29pm

    Websense blocks that site identifying it as an 'alternative journal'. Credibility stops right about......there.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2009 @ 3:07pm

      Re:

      that maybe you school, workplace, or government's opinion and not WebSense. WS is customizable.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    GJ (profile), 8 Sep 2009 @ 2:40pm

    put it another way

    If you, as a local candidate don't take out an ad in a local newspaper, you're probably not much of a viable candidate.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Sallo (profile), 8 Sep 2009 @ 2:40pm

    Look at me, look at me!!!

    Maybe it is just a self promoting stunt to get people to the site. After all, didn't we all go and look?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Redphantasm (profile), 8 Sep 2009 @ 3:25pm

    Sky blue, flower pink, and lavender. Screw the bills, they need to pay their IT department.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Sep 2009 @ 3:44pm

    We are talking about the conch color here.

    http://www.conchcolor.com/

    I frankly don't care how corrupt this guy is or isn't.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bruce Partington, 8 Sep 2009 @ 4:45pm

    What about BoingBoing

    BoingBoing runs ads as stories all the time with zero disclosure, and it's one of the most prominent blogs out there.

    They seem a little insecure about it, too.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike Masnick (profile), 8 Sep 2009 @ 5:28pm

      Re: What about BoingBoing

      BoingBoing runs ads as stories all the time with zero disclosure, and it's one of the most prominent blogs out there.

      I've never heard of that or seen any evidence of it.

      Got any?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Sep 2009 @ 6:13pm

    What do you expect, it is Florida

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    John Doe, 9 Sep 2009 @ 4:00am

    How is this a surprise?

    Doesn't it bother anyone that newspapers endorse candidates? How are they supposed to be unbiased when they actually endorse someone?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

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  • identicon
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    I'm agree with that because even they are promoting government publicity they need to be fair and if they do a bad campaign probably their government won't work very well in the future. Generic Viagra

    link to this | view in chronology ]

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