Posted on 06/01/2018 11:59:36 AM PDT by BBell
London paper ‘sold its editorial independence,’ Open Democracy claims.
The London Evening Standard is facing accusations it sold “favorable news coverage” to six major companies, including Uber and Google, in a £3 million deal.
Open Democracy, a political U.K.-based website, accused the paper of offering positive news coverage to the likes of Uber and Google in exchange for corporate partnerships worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, as part of an upcoming campaign called London 2020.
According to the report published Wednesday, the Evening Standard told corporate partners they would not just get the usual, clearly labeled “advertorial” content, but also news and comment pieces “that will appear to readers as routine, independently written editorial.”
The Evening Standard, which is run by former U.K. Chancellor George Osborne and has a circulation of close to 900,000, issued a statement Wednesday night denying the allegations.
The London 2020 project, set to launch June 5, involves six “themed projects” that will run over the next two years and focus on issues such as clean air, schools and workplace tech, according to Open Democracy.
The project’s six corporate partners have each paid half a million pounds to be involved, it claimed. The plan will include “favorable” news coverage of the firms involved that will not be flagged as commercially-branded content, Open Democracy claimed. Several “unbranded news stories” written by staff reporters are planned to run next month, according to the organization.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.eu ...
This kind of stuff has been going on since there was a press. The question is has a company as large and controlling as google ever been involved.
The media has been selling itself out since it started.
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