LA Times runs fake-news front-page ad, staff protests
posted at 8:48 am on April 10, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Everyone knows that the newspaper industry has hit hard times, and that they need to find a new way to monetize their product. The Los Angeles Times thought it had hit on one new vehicle for revenue — selling an ad on their front page that looked like a regular news story:
NBC is promoting tonight’s premiere of “Southland” with a front-page ad in today’s Los Angeles Times that appears to be unlike any other front page ad the paper has run previously. That’s because the ad is designed to resemble a news story.
As part of the next phase in its extensive marketing campaign for the John Wells-produced drama, NBC has bought a traditional strip advertisement that will run across the bottom of the Times’ page one and will feature key art from the show. It will be adjacent to another paid ad unit: an advertorial-type feature story documenting the first day on the job of a fictional Los Angeles Police Department rookie cop.
The faux story, headline “Southland’s Rookie Hero,” will promise readers a ride-along with new LAPD officer Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) during his first day on duty. To avoid reader confusion, the story will be printed in a different typeface than normal Times stories, and will also feature a prominent disclaimer: The NBC peacock logo and the word “advertisement” will appear just above the ad’s headline.
This has the reporters at the LAT up in arms. Peter Kafka reports that over 100 of the staff have signed the following petition to management:
We the journalists of the newsroom strenuously object to the decision to sell an ad, in the form of a phony news story, on the front page of the Los Angeles Times.
The NBC ad may have provided some quick cash, but it has caused incalculable damage to this institution. This action violates a 128-year pact with our readers that the front page is reserved for the most meaningful stories of the day. Placing a fake news article on A-1 makes a mockery of our integrity and our journalistic standards.
The Los Angeles Times stands apart from other sources of news and information in Southern California because of our willingness to report the truth, even when it angers powerful interests or puts us in peril. Our willingness to sell our most precious real estate to an advertiser is embarrassing and demoralizing.
What might make them more embarrassed was the fact that NBC didn’t have to do any arm-twisting to get this done. The LAT’s ad staff came to NBC with the idea, apparently with the blessing of the news division, or at least their tacit participation. Their press release said that the Times was willing to “stretch traditional boundaries,” which apparently includes coughing up ad space on the front page for fake news stories.
This isn’t really all that new for newspapers. Other advertisers in papers have been using variants of the same idea for years, perhaps decades, in order to give an appearance of actual news. The papers insist on a solid border and different font type in order to set off the ad from the real news, usually for health-care and beauty products rather than TV shows. However, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a newspaper use its front page for that kind of advertising. The staff has a point in this objection, although at some point, the entire concept of “pages” is going to disappear down the digital obsolescence hole.
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Dying.
bluelightbrigade on April 10, 2009 at 8:50 AM
that is pathetic, make it an insert like its a separate paper, not this.
rob verdi on April 10, 2009 at 8:51 AM
At least they’re getting paid for this fake news — unlike their normal fake news, which they print for free.
Evil Pundit on April 10, 2009 at 8:52 AM
It’s time for the rats to desert the sinking ship.
Disturb the Universe on April 10, 2009 at 8:52 AM
Let’s raise everyone’s taxes so we can bail out the LA Times.
petefrt on April 10, 2009 at 8:53 AM
barring the fact that it’s a stupid move, it aesthetically looks like crap. have they fired all their layout editors? it looks like it was laid out in MS Publisher or something, with the text running straight into the gutter; no white space etc. strictly rookie.
negentropy on April 10, 2009 at 8:53 AM
That’s right! All phony news stories that appear on the front page must be written by a staff journalist. It’s in the union contract and that’s the way business has been run for years.
(Maybe one of them will release the Khalidi video as retaliation?)
progressoverpeace on April 10, 2009 at 8:54 AM
Many already affectionately call the LAT Pravda. We might as well make it official.
Disturb the Universe on April 10, 2009 at 8:55 AM
They destroyed their credibility long ago. This old whore industry can’t die fast enough, imo.
vapig on April 10, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Ed, could we have a little plain English, please? “Monetize their product?” Can’t you just say “make money?”
BigD on April 10, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Since they don’t print any real news that might hurt The One, they needed to fill that space with something, right?
jgapinoy on April 10, 2009 at 8:55 AM
We just read yesterday the LA Times’ Rosa Brooks, kook extraordinaire, was leaving the newspaper for a job at the Pentagon. Wish that was the fake story.
Marcus on April 10, 2009 at 8:55 AM
LMAO! I always like a good laugh to start my day.
jbh45 on April 10, 2009 at 8:57 AM
Tommorrows headline: SOULS FOR SALE
roninacreage on April 10, 2009 at 8:57 AM
The death of the print media can’t come quickly enough for me.
Next up, network news – prime time news… These networks will either report the news as it is, and let the people decide, or sink in the same quick sand that print media stumbled into.
Keemo on April 10, 2009 at 8:58 AM
release the tape.
the_nile on April 10, 2009 at 8:59 AM
Just like the Obama stories are “news”. Cabal of Corruption.
marklmail on April 10, 2009 at 8:59 AM
They have reporters at the LATIMES?
Release the tape.
artist on April 10, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Don’t feel so bad guys. I didn’t have much respect for you before this happened.
Caper29 on April 10, 2009 at 9:01 AM
I guess we have to pay to put it on the front page as a news story :)
progressoverpeace on April 10, 2009 at 9:01 AM
So kind of them to put together their layoff list.
TheBigOldDog on April 10, 2009 at 9:01 AM
We 100 journalists who don’t know the meaning of the word journalism, do hereby heartily object to selling ad space, however we are happy to engage in political cork-soaking and video cover-ups to help get our hero Barrack Odingo elected…because we are journalists with integrity!
Signed,
a bunch of liberal pansies with an agenda!
P.S.
Radical Islam is a peace loving world view.
BillaryMcBush on April 10, 2009 at 9:01 AM
SouthLAnd premiered last night. Good show.
If that’s today’s paper, the ad came late.
maverick muse on April 10, 2009 at 9:02 AM
One should be cautious of a wounded animal.
fogw on April 10, 2009 at 9:02 AM
I can understand that desperate times call for “stretching traditional boundaries”, but this is really a bad idea. I wonder this affected sales were for that day. They’ve opened a can of worms, now other major advertisers are going to want to be on page one, too.
I’m all for newspapers staying in business, but I didn’t see that the journalists offered up any suggestions of their own. Maybe they should work together to try and save the paper instead of just showing their righteous indignation.
scalleywag on April 10, 2009 at 9:02 AM
They are kidding, right? Tell me they are kidding.
The new LAT banner:
“If it’s news that’s news to us.”
Yoop on April 10, 2009 at 9:03 AM
Yes.
BadgerHawk on April 10, 2009 at 9:03 AM
Classic!
progressoverpeace on April 10, 2009 at 9:03 AM
Have you ever seen a bigger group of totally unethical people with absolutely no standards beyond, “to serve and protect the Left” acting acting as if they actually had integrity? It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.
TheBigOldDog on April 10, 2009 at 9:05 AM
As others have said: Since most of the “news” stories today are unpaid ads, why not fake people out and actually get paid for it.
katablog.com on April 10, 2009 at 9:05 AM
Me thinks,it might be border line close,
to chasing Hamas’s fake ambulance attack
news story!!
That story was fake as well!!(sarc).
canopfor on April 10, 2009 at 9:07 AM
That damage was done long ago by the “journalists” who circulated the petition.
OhioCoastie on April 10, 2009 at 9:08 AM
Yesterday’s LA Times
The only news is that they run an ad front page.
It is visually an ad, looks like an ad, reads like an ad.
Full page advertisement propaganda sheets written as documents or as news features have been printed inside papers and magazines for years promoting pharmaceuticals.
So the only novelty in yesterday’s LA Times NBC SouthLAnd ad was that it got printed on the front page.
maverick muse on April 10, 2009 at 9:08 AM
It’s kind of like a Spitzer-class call-girl being offended at being called a Hooker.
TheBigOldDog on April 10, 2009 at 9:08 AM
Confirmation . . . It is truly The Los Angeles “Slimes”.
rplat on April 10, 2009 at 9:09 AM
heh
maverick muse on April 10, 2009 at 9:10 AM
I think papers are going to have to rethink their whole way of doing business, just like the automakers. I used to subscribe to a lot of magazines, but the reason I don’t anymore is because the amount of ads vs. the amount of stories got bigger and bigger to where it just wasn’t worth the cost anymore. Newspapers are becoming the same. Who wants to buy a paper where the ads have now taken over the front page?
scalleywag on April 10, 2009 at 9:13 AM
nothing new here… direct response companies have been running ‘fake’ news articles for a very long time… since the Sears catalog days or before.
… class action lawsuit solicitations, ‘enhancements’, garden miracle stuff, diet pills, snugglies …
What is a new spin on this is that the LA Times saw no issues with running this ad on the front page.
gatorboy on April 10, 2009 at 9:14 AM
So, how much would it cost to put a Tea Party ad on the front page of the LAT?
faraway on April 10, 2009 at 9:15 AM
As opposed to the fake news stories in the LA Times that aren’t paid ads?
The “reporters” (ie: Obama propaganda regurgitators) should be glad that their management found another revenue source to pay their salaries.
Psst: struggling newspapers… Here’s a novel idea for you: start reporting NEWS in the form of FACTUALLY recounting what happened instead of what you were told to say in the Obama morning conference call…
wildcat84 on April 10, 2009 at 9:15 AM
:snicker, snicker: BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
Thanks Ed, this made my morning!
crazy_legs on April 10, 2009 at 9:16 AM
While there are good journalists, there were enough bad ones over the last couple years who sold out to be Obama’s mouthpiece and lost the public’s confidence in the process. But do you think they consider that a cause for loss of revenue? Nah, it is probably Bush’s fault the paper’s are getting desperate.
scalleywag on April 10, 2009 at 9:18 AM
My change to the journalists’ letter to better reflect reality.
WashJeff on April 10, 2009 at 9:19 AM
When insanity promotes insanity, it only reiforces the fact that journalism is dead. Anyone who would pay for this sickness is as brain dead as those who promote it.
volsense on April 10, 2009 at 9:23 AM
What sanctimonious nonsense. LA Times? Journalistic standards? How do you make a mockery of the moral standards of a crack-head hooker?
mr.blacksheep on April 10, 2009 at 9:25 AM
What’s wrong with this? What with Hollywood Henry Waxman, MS13 and South LA gangs running rampant, the LA Times has been producing
newslocal advertising since the Pentagon Papers were first released.SeniorD on April 10, 2009 at 9:28 AM
The “journalists” (I use that term lightly) complain about a fake news story on the front page…. So, what’s the difference between that and what they write?
suzyk on April 10, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Integrity?
Standards?
When did this start?
N. O'Brain on April 10, 2009 at 9:32 AM
Fiction among half-truths. Who here actually believes 100% of what they read in the papers anymore, anyway?
AubieJon on April 10, 2009 at 9:34 AM
This isn’t such a bad thing. I’ll bet it’s the first time in years something besides libtard propaganda has appeared on the Times’ front page.
Cicero43 on April 10, 2009 at 9:41 AM
The News room Imams want an exclusive on false stories. How dare the advertising bring in false stories called infomercials.
I watch very little television. I notice the big networks sell a lot of half hours for infomercials.
seven on April 10, 2009 at 9:46 AM
What’s the big deal? I get bombarded by ads on the home page of almost every newspaper’s web site. No diff.
KS Rex on April 10, 2009 at 9:46 AM
The LA Times has run
on the front page for years
During the last 30 years, EVERY LA Times “news” story of which I had personal knowledge was reported false to fact! 100% … False stories.
But I know the other ones were correct, ha ha ha ha ha.
Pravda West, Read the Lies, Read the Times.
CrazyGene on April 10, 2009 at 9:47 AM
Huh. They make Democrat press releases look like news stories too.
Akzed on April 10, 2009 at 9:48 AM
“We the journalists of the newsroom strenuously object to the decision to sell an ad, in the form of a phony news story, on the front page of the Los Angeles Times.
The NBC ad may have provided some quick cash, but it has caused incalculable damage to this institution. This action violates a 128-year pact with our readers that the front page is reserved for the most meaningful stories of the day. Placing a fake news article on A-1 makes a mockery of our integrity and our journalistic standards.”
Oh, the tangled webs we weave.
percysunshine on April 10, 2009 at 9:55 AM
How about reporting the Truth of what our fighting Men and Women accomplished in Iraq and Afghanistan…… silence or lies printed.
How about reporting that the Obama campaign disabled software on their fundraising sites which validates credit cards and leaves a donor trail for auditing purposes so that foreign sources of money and anonymous donors in the US could give more money to the campaign than they legally would have been allowed to give if they had not disabled the software…….. absolute silence.
How about reporting on the illegal voter fraud cases all over the country being perpetrated by ACORN and other Dhimmicratic Community Organizers which perpetuate Dhimmicratic control of local elections and disenfranchisement of military and pro Republican voters, and which place the fair and free elections of local politicians outside the realm of union bosses, local thugs, and political machines friendly only to one party rule in the country (ala Illinois inability to provide more than 28% of any vote to a Republican in any national race… what, are there less than 28% Republicans in Illinois or is the ballot box so stuffed by illegal Dhimmicratic registrations that Republicans in Illinois just don’t vote?)……. absolute silence.
Their Integrity was lost when they claimed again and again that the United States Military, an organization made up purely of our own Sons and Daughters, was incapable of winning an insurgent war against backwards, misogynistic, evil, and ignorant men who would enslave their own mothers and kill their own daughters and sons if it brought them power, and then refused to recognize Victory even when it rolled over the top of them in a New Iraqi Army T-72 tank. Their Standards were set when they refused to run any story which was not about how Bush screwed up something in their world. “If it doesn’t bash Bush, then we don’t print it.” “All the Bush bashing that’s fit to print here, again and again, and again…..”
Screw the LA Times. I hope they all get fired and go to Hell in a cattle car. I get better, and more accurate, news about current events by listening to Grandma tell me about the world during the Great Depression of 1933 or putting a seashell to my ear to let the ocean roar than listening to the newsroom of the LA Times.
Subsunk
Subsunk on April 10, 2009 at 9:57 AM
Advertorials are garbage.
Wait – so is the entire American media.
Dave Rywall on April 10, 2009 at 10:01 AM
Evil Pundit on April 10, 2009 at 8:52 AM
The Winner!
TugboatPhil on April 10, 2009 at 10:02 AM
.
Haa, ha, ha……
Johan Klaus on April 10, 2009 at 10:09 AM
And of course there is the CBC and BBC.
Johan Klaus on April 10, 2009 at 10:11 AM
So what else is new. :)
poxoma on April 10, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Nothing new here. Business as usual. They are going down.
BetseyRoss on April 10, 2009 at 10:16 AM
All the news that is fit to make up…
Continuing a long tradition.
Paging Patterico. Patterico to the white courtesy phone.
juanito on April 10, 2009 at 10:18 AM
Even though this has been quoted numerous times already, it bears repeating again and again…
Seriously that’s just comedy gold
Sugarbuzz on April 10, 2009 at 10:18 AM
“journalistic standards” ROFLMAO!
Cry me a river.
ornery_independent on April 10, 2009 at 10:19 AM
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the guy reporting on this stupidity is named Kafka?
Kafkaesque:
- of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings ; especially : having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality.
ExcessivelyDiverted on April 10, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Strangely enough, they’re up in arms because the fake news story had more credibility than the regular news they print…
Mazztek on April 10, 2009 at 10:30 AM
That newspaper would spoil the fish.
mchristian on April 10, 2009 at 10:45 AM
How could they tell?
N. O'Brain on April 10, 2009 at 10:48 AM
Ed–Please check the link on BillaryMcBush. Since when did HA approve links to an Obama sex toy? Pretty sure this violates the HA Terms of Use.
Anyone else see this?
conservative pilgrim on April 10, 2009 at 10:48 AM
But during the campaign weren’t all Obama articles in the LA Times unmarked paid political advertisements?
albill on April 10, 2009 at 10:51 AM
How is the ad any different than the other news on the front page?
notagool on April 10, 2009 at 10:55 AM
What is the difference in this and the Obama campaign? Besides the amount of money involved…
right2bright on April 10, 2009 at 11:01 AM
When you are perpetually printing lies on your front page anyway, why not make a buck by selling the front page for a few pieces of silver.
volsense on April 10, 2009 at 11:14 AM
That was the truest story on that paper’s front page in years! Let them eat bankruptcy!
Christian Conservative on April 10, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Pride goes before a fall.
TheSitRep on April 10, 2009 at 11:18 AM
No sympathy from me either. Since when have newspapers cared about facts lately. At least this article blatently showed the NBC logo at the top of it. They have no problems making up statistics or publishing tabloid trash about Sarah Palin, but suddenly this comprimises their standards?
Boo-fricken-hoo.
BakerAllie on April 10, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Tick-Tock…
d1carter on April 10, 2009 at 11:24 AM
“a new way to monetize their product”
I rather like the motto of local newspaper’s founder (way back in the 19th Century) We have three aims; Fear God, Tell the Truth and Make Money. Perhaps they are causally related?
LTC John on April 10, 2009 at 11:25 AM
The LA Times editors said this?
This from the newspaper that had no problem front-paging a fake news story about a Marine shooting an Iraqi girl?
Spare me.
Ryan Gandy on April 10, 2009 at 11:30 AM
The only thing that could be sicker is to actually pay the subscription price to support this garbage.
volsense on April 10, 2009 at 11:36 AM
How long did LAT’s collective staff’s noses grow when they wrote that?
jukin on April 10, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Wait…since when are there any journalists in the newsroom of the LA Times??
Mike D. on April 10, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Of course it’s an ad by NBC, the most left of the networks. And Southland is not good. It has the typical memes: the cruel, heartless LAPD, the mean streets of LA, the cops the same as the bad guys, yada yada.
PattyJ on April 10, 2009 at 12:09 PM
That was the best piece of journalism I have read in the LAT in years. And now I learn it was fake! What is the world coming to.
TexAz on April 10, 2009 at 12:16 PM
This is a very bad sign for newspapers.
Not because of the “loss of credibility” nonsense; that’s a load of horse manure. But because it’s a sign that advertisers are re-evaluating the effectiveness of their marketing venues.
Most businesses are run by hard-nosed individuals, but they often treat their choice in advertising venue like picking out their ties — as women’s work. That’s why advertising agencies are run by airheads and light-loafers.
And that’s also why many forms of media, even failing liberal media, tend to get more ad placement than common sense would dictate. But when times get tough, advertising is one of the first things companies re-evaluate.
There are STILL plenty of companies advertising in the Yellow Pages. Think about it: when is the last time you, or even anybody you know, actually used a paper book to get a phone number? They might as well put smoke signal codes in there.
In terms of wasted ad dollars, newspapers today are a very close second to Yellow Pages. They outlived their usefulness more than a decade ago, and the market is only now beginning to figure that out.
logis on April 10, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Change you can believe in.
DannoJyd on April 10, 2009 at 12:31 PM
the journalists of the newsroom…our willingness to report the truth, even when it angers powerful interests or puts us in peril…our integrity and our journalistic standards.
Riiight.
warbaby on April 10, 2009 at 2:10 PM
I used to work the journalism “beat” in Los Angeles, and I can honestly state that the motto of the L.A. Times ( or any other media outlet for that matter) was never the public relations statement, “Fear God, Tell the Truth and Make Money,” but rather, “Fear we do not have enough of our god, money; and the Truth is whatever we tell you it is,” followed by the all-important “make our viewpoints and secular belief system the focus of our work to convert the public to our value system” (which is completely contrary to the 10 Commandments and promotes the devil-inspired aleister crowley commandment, “do what thou wilt”). And if anyone thinks the devil isn’t the prince of the media, one of the kingdoms of the world, think again.
simeon on April 10, 2009 at 3:38 PM
Ads = Money; No Ads = No Money.
Reporters can’t do math?
PresidenToor on April 10, 2009 at 4:35 PM
Let me see if I’ve got this right: now that you have prostitued yourselves by lying and obfuscating the truth in order to get a total incompetant elected, you suddenly expect me to care that your management is a bunch of lying whores too?
Really? What in heavens name could make me care? A pox on all your houses.
drunyan8315 on April 10, 2009 at 5:41 PM
Next week it will be a two headed cow and space aliens among us. Can you say, “Circling the drain”?
davo on April 10, 2009 at 5:59 PM
Hey, it makes a great bird cage liner!
regmgr on April 10, 2009 at 6:48 PM
What’s the big deal? They’ve been selling these spaces to Leftist Politicians, Activists, and Organizations for years.
- The Cat
MirCat on April 10, 2009 at 7:37 PM
Just the left coast version of the NYT. Hopefully both will end up in the dust bin of history, wailing and crying “of what might have been” if only the rubes had followed their instructions.
GarandFan on April 12, 2009 at 3:18 PM
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