Another reason to hate CBS News -- It's become just one big commercial ad

[HamdenRice]

Just had to vent this morning. I stopped watching CBS News years ago, including CBS Sunday or whatever it's called, which used to be helmed by the legendary Charles Kuralt.

Anyway, they have Katie Couric do a segment on the musicial Robert Plant and the fact that he has a new album out. As soon as the segment ends, a commercial comes on and its -- guess what -- a commercial ad for that same album that the "news" segment just discussed.

How transparently bogus are they going to get with this crap? The segment was one long commercial. Wanna bet that CBS is a corporate relative of the record company that produced the album? I'm too lazy and pissed off to even google it, but if someone wants to confirm the obvious please do.

On edit: Even if the album is not by CBS Records, it's almost as bad if the segment was bought and paid for like the commercial, or the airing of the commercial was coordinated with the segment or whatever.

[Eric J in MN]

1. On "The Tonight Show" interviews with actors about their movies...

...are often followed by an ad for the same movie.

[JackRiddler]

8. Yes, well the Tonight Show is not pretending to be news.

Not that I don't have a problem with the 24/7 merger of program with advertising that was completed already with the launching of MTV in 1980, although it was always the goal for television from the days of the General Electric Theater. And it would be nice to have cultural coverage actually allowed to dispense the occasional bad review of a corporate product.

But Leno and MTV aren't pretending to be "the press."

[lonestarnot]

2. Jackson Brown's new one is fantastic!

Just say'n :shrug: Sorry I had too. Not to be misunderstood as a CBS endorsement for their commercial shit. Mute them is there is something you really want to see there. :evilgrin:

[gateley]

3. They're not 'news organizations' any more. They're for-profit corporations.

If we expect them to behave any differently, we're kidding ourselves.

[rox63]

4. Musicians, authors and actors do publicity tours and interviews all the time

And usually it's to promote their latest work. This is nothing new. If a viewer just watched the segment that included their interview, chances are they are a good bet to buy the latest work. So it only makes sense to advertise that work right after the interview. It's nothing nefarious, just business as usual.

Edit to add: CBS Sunday Morning has never been a "hard-news" show. Every week, they feature segments about music, films, books, art, etc.

[htuttle]

5. It's called selling editorial

It dates back to before radio. Print media does it all the time.

cf the book, "Toxic Sludge is Good For You" for modern examination of the practice.

[Lerkfish]

6. I was much more disturbed by the piece on "racism" before that one

it pretty much was whipping up the "Obama is a scary black man" specter and even though they had counter opinions, those opinions were weakly represented so in the end you just came away with the racism.

[hlthe2b]

7. Somehow, this is not even on my list of the million most

annoying things the MSM does.... Geebus, get a grip... (full disclosure, I didn't see the piece, but I like Robert Plant)

[Va Lefty]

9. Can't be any worse than the Today Show

Poor Dave Garroway must be spinning in his grave