Psst, Hey, Buddy, How Much for a Blog Post?

The New York Times reports this week on payola and product reviews on blog posts. While not entirely shocking, it discusses how some more popular bloggers, such as Colleen Padilla of classhymommy.com, are sent free products from companies hoping for positive reviews. "If she does not like a product, she simply doesn't post anything about it," the times writes of Padilla, whose site receives 60,000 visitors a month.

So... ClassyMommy doesn't give its readers the full picture. Sure, the Web site is helpful to parents, but it's sort of lying by omission, no? If a product doesn't pass muster, why is that so? What about products that aren't safe, and therefore get panned? And do its readers know that Padilla's reviews of Healthy Choice TV dinners are essentially sponsorships?

The NYT goes on to explain that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating this pay-for-play arrangement in blogs nationally, citing that consumers have a write to know.

I agree; I'm of the school that says free food always tastes better. And I admit to reluctantly, if briefly, engaging in undisclosed pay-for-play myself, when I was a staff book reviewer for Amazon. The company was under enormous pressure to become profitable in those days, and a book publisher had the bright idea of asking to pay Amazon to prominently feature certain titles for a certain length of time--known as "cooperative marketing" in the book business.

We soon learned that just about EVERY book publisher was willing to fork over cash in exchange for a review and a placement on the site, with homepage placements at a premium, and spots on other book sections--such as health, which I covered--going for a few thousand less.

Amazon's marketing managers went along with the offer, but not without an uproar from the book reviewers. We countered that our readers' trust would be tarnished, that it was a penny wise and pound foolish approach to revenue generation.

In fact, one editor was so peeved, she faxed a reporter friend at the New York Times, who promptly wrote a page-1 story about the situation. The PR emergency that followed was a low point for many of us, career-wise, but the upshot was that management agreed to designate paid placements as such.

But one of the marketers who disagreed with this disclosure countered with this: The books that are so attractively arranged on tables in the aisles of Barnes & Noble are placed there through co-op marketing money as well. Same with the cereal that's on sale at the end of the grocery-store aisles. Shouldn't ALL stores disclose this to their customers? Or are the customers too happy to stumble upon titles and products that they like to care that they're essentially being advertised to, without their knowledge?

Photo of falling coins by Ian Britton, courtesy of freefoto.com.

Now, Now, Don't Cry: Foolishness and the Onion's TV "Segments"

Gymnast Shawn Johnson Put To Sleep After Breaking Leg

I think the wry folks at The Onion will certainly win more Webbies for this: The "Today! Now!" TV-news spoofs. Some of the gut-bustingly funny segments include "Gymnast Shawn Johnson Put to Sleep After Breaking Leg" and "FDA Approves Depressant Drug for the Annoyingly Cheerful." These are not appropriate to watch anywhere where you shouldn't snort. Consider yourself warned: Hiccups are a distinct possibility.

From the just-so-slightly overdone makeup of the show's hostess to the potted dark-red orchids, to the overwrought music, a-bit-too-loud chuckling and dramatic zoom-out camera effects, the resemblances to real TV news coverage are many. So much so that, if you watch these clips on YouTube and venture to read the reader comments, you'll almost feel bad for the viewers who think the clips are real.

For the Shawn Johnson "story," one hapless reader wrote, "is this real? can anyone confirm this? if it is, it really p***** me off!" (sic). The back-and-forth that commenters get into are sometimes entertaining in and of themselves. But all in all, they reveal the pathetic state of media literacy in our country. C'mon people. The extraneous punctuation on "Today! Now!" wasn't a big-enough tip-off?

The amazing use of ex-CNN anchor Bobbie Battista in some of The Onion News Network's breaking-news segments might be one factor adding to the confusion, but overall, the percentage of watchers who get fooled is downright scary. For the sake of our country's future, let's just hope that a lot of those who are fooled are actually trying to fool us into believing they've been duped. One can hope, at least.

Don't Have a Cow: New York Times Art Critic Awestruck by Simpsons Stamps

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for "The Simpsons," and not just because watching it is one of the best ways to improve a crummy day. Likenesses of several landmarks in my Massachusetts hometown have wormed their way into the fabric of Springfield, thanks to Lance Wilder, one of the show's background designers, who grew up a few blocks away from me, and whose mother was our elementary-school music teacher.

Bart's prison-like school on the show is based on my even more suffocating middle school, and the town hall is modeled on the library where I spent so many hours as a kid (because we had no internet in ye olden days). Hometown lore says that Lance pulled three all-nighters in a row during finals week his senior year at the Rhode Island School of Design to create an audition tape that won over "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, and has been working there ever since.

This May, the Simpsons family was immortalized on 44-cent stamps, and their simple yet evocative artistry have sent New York Times art critic Roberta Smith rhapsodizing over their perfection. While it took three months for her to need stamps badly enough to run to her nearest P.O. and take notice of them, the ordinarily restrained Smith comes close to gushing about these beauts.

You can tell she had a hard time restraining herself, but her prose glows. Among her compliments: Their "peerless expressions" "[project] maximum psychic and visual power" with their "succinct encapsulations of each character" and "extraordinary chromatic wattage." She even compares their artistry to that of Andy Warhol and sculptor Richard Serra (!), and asks, guilelessly, "Really, are these not among the best American stamps ever?"

While I shudder at how the hapless quintet of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie reflects upon our country, I have to say Smith's criticism dignifies the show and further elevates Mr. Groening's status of cultural genius. Bravo to the show, to Smith, and to the U.S. Postal Service!

How Long Might Your Next E.R. Visit Be?

Several years ago, a scary statistic circulated heavily in the press: The average managed-care doctor visit in the U.S. averaged a mere seven minutes.

I just read an even scarier health-related stat: A third of Americans who head to an emergency room for medical care will need to wait at least two hours.

In a Boston Globe article, New Republic writer Jonathan Cohn details how doctors and citizens in France and the Netherlands wouldn't trade places with U.S. citizens when it comes to medical care. He points out that usually we hear about Canada and Britain in this respect; the sentiment that America's health-care system is broken is spreading, apparently, and a two-hour typical E.R. wait is just one of the problems.

Just wondering--could this negative perception (entirely warranted, IMO) affect our tourism industry? Are people afraid to come to our country because they're afraid of the treatment--or lack thereof--they may receive if they become sick or get injured? And, as an extension of that, could our troubled health-care system eventually lead to a drop in immigration?

Hmmm....maybe that's what the Republicans' grand plan is when it comes to opposing Obama's health-care reforms?

Cohn's article sure made me want to trade places with the French. Instead of heading to an E.R. if you're very sick outside of your doctor's office hours, you're more likely to get a house call from a doctor on call. Ooh, la la.

My six-year-old son had an innovative idea for cutting down your E.R. wait time: Cover yourself with fake blood, like the kind he saw big kids use last Halloween. That might be something that gets the doctors' attention, he said.

Photo of Amsterdam canal by Ian Britton from FreeFoto.com.