Headlines Can Be Bought! Big, Big Surprise.

[ It's a bit hard to bear, when the print media starts pointing fingers at the Internet news services, trying to belittle them, too. It's like dirty old pots calling a few fresh young kettles black, like themselves. - BC Mary.] .................................................................................................................................................................... Headlines on popular Internet news sites can be bought for a price Bruce Cheadle Canadian Press - January 15, 2007 OTTAWA - Reader beware: the headline on your favourite Internet news site may have been bought and prescribed by a political party, candidate, lobbyist, corporation or TV show. [Hahaha. - BC Mary] In fact, just about anyone with deep enough pockets can pay some private Internet web proprietors to highlight legitimate news stories of their choice - along with deeply provocative, or flattering, headlines. There's nothing illegal about the practice. But it does raise troubling ethical questions and opens a quagmire in Canada's election advertising laws, especially during campaign periods when parties' ad expenditures are supposed to be closely monitored. If a political party pays a news site to highlight as a top story something that is deeply negative about an opponent, complete with a deliberately torqued headline, should that be considered advertising? http://tinyurl.com/ym9c9v

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