Trade Journal Bias

This topic came up in a surprising way over on MorningNewsBeat but I can't let it go as it is an important topic.

The story is about soft drinks trying to change their image but one line the author wrote really stands out to me and matches my own experiences.  I'll include his brief write-up in its entirety but please visit the blog (daily) for the rest of the story.

The bad news about soft drink consumption is one thing ... but I get more irritated when companies try to spin stories about their products being healthy in a way that is deceptive. In the Daily News story, one writer, who did a piece in which a less-than-healthy food was positioned as a healthy alternative, was quoted as saying that she did not remember whether she'd been compensated for writing the piece.

Let me tell you something. As a writer of almost four decades experience, I can tell you that I remember the stories for which I got paid, and those that I wrote for free. That's one of the reasons that I'm very careful to label sponsored content on MNB - I won't get behind something I don't believe in, but I also won't pretend something is editorial when it is not. That's not fair to you, and it is not fair to the sponsor - I believe that transparency in such things gives us all more credibility, especially when I'm willing to turn down advertisers if I think their message is inconsistent with MNB's broader goals and themes.

By the way, trade journals routinely tell advertisers that if they buy an ad they'll write a positive piece about them, or they allow consultants to pay to write stories that promote their own businesses and/or clients while making it look like editorial. That's just one of the reasons I got out of that business.

Here is part of that last section again:

... trade journals routinely tell advertisers that if they buy an ad they'll write a positive piece about them, or they allow consultants to pay to write stories that promote their own businesses and/or clients while making it look like editorial.

All too often we've seen this exact bias.  Just pick the topic.  Payments?  Look at the major journals and you may find some of the symptoms of this style of writing in one or more of the journals.  Pick the topic and this is what is happening out there all too frequently.  I've seen it first hand and it is very disturbing.

Where is the news we can trust?

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant