Slashdot Mirror
A Reporter, Posing as Sketchy PR, Asked 28 Media Outlets If They'd Take Money To Publish Content Without Disclosing it Was Advertising. More Than Half Said Yes. (breakermag.com)
Corin Faife, writing for BreakerMag: The level of deception used was minimal: we created a fake email account, and claimed to be representing a PR company. There was no fake website or domain associated; it was simply a Gmail address with a profile picture found by image searching "Russian actor." Next we compiled a list of blockchain media sites. This was by no means exhaustive, but to have a sense of the scale of the problem, we needed numbers. All in all, we reached out to 28 sites, and received a yes/no reply from 22 by the time of publication, with two inconclusive. [...] Of the 22 outlets who replied conclusively, 12 of them -- more than half the total -- were willing to publish paid content without disclosing it as such.
Not even a link to the article?
Ask me how the Heisenberg Principle may or may not have saved my life.
Is it any real surprise that a high percentage of blockchain sites are kind of shady?
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
And this is suprising?
brought to you buy, it's good for you, so purchase it!
I have these rare tulip bulbs for only three bitcoins.
Its the the future.
"Media Outlets" needs quotes. The cryptocurrencies in circulation are just scams, and these so called media outlets are feeding off the scam. There's no reason to be surprised by them taking money for further fraud, nor is there any reason to be huffy when cryptocurrencies get a legitimate treatment from the media (mostly ignore, but point out the scams).
You can't get something for nothing, and burning dead dinosaurs to try is an affront to the environment.
Headline: "Reporter, Posing as Sketchy PR, Asked 28 Media Outlets If They'd Take Money To Publish Content Without Disclosing it Was Advertising. More Than Half Said Yes"
Summary: "Next we compiled a list of blockchain media sites. This was by no means exhaustive, but to have a sense of the scale of the problem, we needed numbers. All in all, we reached out to 28 sites"
I know it's trendy to accuse any news organization, publisher, studio, website, crazy-uncle's blog, or AM radio shack broadcaster as shady, untrustworthy, or otherwise peddling falsehoods.
On the other hand, there's a BIG difference between "media outlets" and "blockchain media sites," (whatever the hell those are). The headline implies that some number of the big and names that one encounters on a day-to-day basis (the NYTimes, CNN, Fox News, CBS/NBC/ABC, WSJ, etc.) may be publishing paid content as their own. The reality of this news item is...far more underwhelming.
Honestly, Slashdot Editor, this is sloppy work even by the usual low standards.
I read the article and none of them I recognise as "Media outlets". From what I have seen they are more like blogging sites.
Hey, I have a website. Give me 5000USD and I post something for you without saying where it came from.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
The headline neglects to mention that these are blockchain media sites.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Just like the fake news out out by the Lugenpresse! I mean...lying press. They're always trying to do mean things to Herr Trumpenfurer, like publish what he actually says rather than the party accepted propaganda. Get with the program people, HE WON! He won and now we can bring Amerikkka back to the racist, slave owning, murderous, Kkkristian file it was meant to be.
Yep. Good times had by all (white) people, back when men were men, women and non-whites were beaten until they knew their place.
Ain't 'murika great folks? They think a fraudulent con with tons of money gives fuck all about them. Aren't they precious?
Your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it's been opened.
I'm shocked! Shocked! Next you'll be telling me the mainstream media buries articles at the request of politicians and runs articles that benefit them!
This story is a nothing-burger, because:
1) PR places send this kind of ad-story spam to all kinds of journalistic outlets everyday (and Corin Faife is a buffoon for even bothering to respond with his indignant How-Dare-You-I-Would-Never emails), and they regularly get published in the form of some fluff piece product review.
2) Literally not a single site on the list has any reputation or journalistic merit whatsoever. At best, they're the same sort of organizations as your local business news rags that just publish press releases about mergers and growth written and submitted by the businesses themselves.
3) What is this "Breaker" mag? I can't even find a wiki page. I guess good for this guy for hustling and honing his skills, but the site he's writing for has no better reputation than the sites he's targeting.
Some editors will substitue a blog post or news article with a properly written PR to save time on their end.
Fuck you Slashdot, seriously.
Been reading for a long time, and every fucking time there's a good story about cryptocurrencies, or even specifically about Bitcoin, the story logo is always a Dollar bill or some other bullshit.
When its some shady crap, you fuckers put the Bitcoin logo front and center, or if its about some aspect of the space involving scammers, con-men, etc...
Just come out and say it. "Slashdot doesn't like Bitcoin, and here's the latest story on why you should keep things just as they are FOREVER."
Corporate fuckbags.
n/t
it was simply a Gmail address with a profile picture found by image searching "Russian actor."
Zounds! Now even fake Russians are undermining the integrity of our ... er ... blockchain news blogs?
AOL Content Pusher, posing as a an unbiased user driven news aggregation site, asked 1.2 million readers to believe their headline was true. Half of them thought it may be.
It's nothing new and is a fairly common thing among tech sites, especially ones that allow submitted stories to come from unpaid contributors. These kinds of stories are typically cyclical and I guess its the crytocurrency blogs turn to be exposed for the practice.
The other 50% were probably angling for a better price
So lately we've seen: (in no particular order)
Guy gets accused of rape, LYNCH him!
Expensive cars are expensive to repair
Facebook pays $1 fine for stealing $1000
Governments all spy on each other, but sometimes they get caught
Lawyers are screwing you for $500 an hour, but AI can screw you 150 times faster!
Next up:
msmash and BeauHD discover that the check was not really in the mail, some people really weren't sick on day's they were out, and that hooker really doesn't love them.
You forgot to hit the "Anonymous Coward" button.
These are simply blogs for Cryptocoins.
Too bad. He should have tried this with Fox, Breitbart, Daily Stormer, CNN, NBC, ABC, etc. and seen if a one of them would do that. I have my suspicions that several will, but few of us could afford it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
A Reporter, Posing as Sketchy PR, Asked 28 Sketchy Bloggers If They'd Take Money To Publish Content Without Disclosing it Was Advertising. More Than Half Said Yes.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
You're forgetting that a bomb was sent to Robert De Niro. The bombs sent to Democratic politicians and allied media were false flags, all right -- but not by Democrats, to influence voters. I think it's pretty obvious that the Ciccios, the Barzinis, Hyman Roth's crew, Nicky Santoro, the Provos, and Don Luchese were behind this.
From TFA title:
We Asked Crypto News Outlets If They’d Take Money to Cover a Project. More Than Half Said Yes
(a) "Crypto News Outlets" is not really the same as "Media Outlets" -- to be fair though, TFS says "blockchain media sites".
(b) Who cares? They're crypto / blockchain media outlets/sites -- whatever the hell *that* means.
(c) See (b).
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
this is how retards like Trump get elected
then more retards vote for him
fucking retards
gonna go kick a retard after work just because of this bullshit
They had no problem outing the offenders, but where was the list of those who showed some integrity and shut that crap down? They make the point that the offenders were "used as trusted news sources", implying that they were doing a public service by outing those that shouldn't be trusted, but then they didn't bother to list those in whom such trust is well placed.
The disparity in treatment almost makes seem like there was some other motive to this article besides objective journalism. Like this news outlet that focuses on crypto might have something to gain from shaming naughty news outlets focusing on crypto and not mentioning the names of news outlets focusing on crypto with integrity. Hmmm...
Ironic that one of the tags at the bottom of the article is "ethics".
I must retract the above statement. They did list the good guys. It was one sentence near the end of the article with no other discussion so I over looked it. Mea culpa.
Still, the statement starts with "Without dwelling wholly on the negative", when the fact is that this one sentence in the entire article is the only element that wasn't dwelling on the negative.
Reporter posing as sketchy PR guy asks sketchy sites to do sketchy things. Some say YES!
There isn't a single aspect of cryptos that isn't a scam.
So...we still did not realize we invented a fantasy and live on it?
Hoomans...
all content on the various media outlets regardless of their media type is paid content. even intranetwork advertising is paid content. on tv there was just now a liberty mutual commercial and at no point did the network prefix it with "and now a paid content thing"
Could we please stop insulting actual crypto people by calling these "crypto sites" and so forth? They aren't doing any crypto work, they're just trading something tangentially related to the field of cryptography.
IT WAS HER TURN!
It seems like 50% of "blockchain" media outlets had journalistic integrity. I would call this a win.