Monday, September 30, 2019

Deceptive media tries to pass off ads as news

Have you ever noticed that if Disney adds an attraction to a theme park, the media runs stories trying to get people to go? This is not news. This is advertising portrayed as news.



Sometimes, reporters like something that they want people to support. In this case, we are talking about Disney fans who want Disney to be rewarded for their work. These reports should not be taken as serious journalism. They are clearly not intended to provide important information. They exist purely for the sake of promoting something.

These promotions come in many forms. I have seen news outlets provide these types of ads for movies, politicians, ballot measures, and so much more. People need to do a better job at identifying these ads.

In recent years, one of the most annoying advertising campaigns from supposed news sources promoted Michael Wolf's book, Fire and Fury. This book was essentially designed to convince people to hate Trump as much as possible. After posting an excerpt that made it clear that Wolf was making up the details, the book became a best seller. The author even had to include a disclaimer because he knew his book wasn't trustworthy, and he wanted to avoid a lawsuit.

In this case, several mainstream outlets came to their senses. After selling the book for Mr. Wolf, they started acknowledging inaccuracies. Even so, the initial advertising portrayed as news helped him more than the justified criticism hurt.

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