Among the thousand natural shocks that journalism is heir to is the temptation to shill for money. Why muck about with persnickety editors when you can get cash on the barrelhead?
The latest opportunity to make a deal comes from DrColbert.com, the website of Dr. Colbert's Divine Health, a medical practice that seems to revolve around the promotion and sale of various supplements and books such as What Would Jesus Eat? (available in paperback).
DrColbert.com has a deal for you. You can earn cash–a $5 bonus!–for writing a blog post mentioning Dr. Colbert. Here are the instructions, according to an email sent out last month:
– Blog Post must contain unique content.
– Blog Post must be at least 100 words long.
– Adding an image increases creditability.
– Click here<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?eAccountable/a391d1bccc/0708f60f16/0e6a79efc0> for current specials to use as content….And so forth.
The email also said that takers would receive a free $25 restaurant gift card and "the opportunity to earn commission on each and every sale you generate."
This email was posted on the private mailing list of the Association of Health Care Journalists by Carol Gentry, an AHCJ member. Because the list is private, I asked Gentry to for permission to quote from her email.
Most reporters run from offers such as this, but not Andrew Holtz of the HoltzReport, a former medical correspondent for CNN. He turned and ran toward the fire to expose this pay-for-links scheme. He decided to "post something about how this doc is buying coverage. And then submit an invoice for payment." And that's what he did–along with adding a no-follow tag to the link to DrColbert.com, so Google searches would ignore it. And he reported DrColbert.com's use of paid links to Google. Holtz's post, with updates, is here, on a new blog he created for this experiment called Fake News.
He filed the post in early December. Last week, he announced, "I got paid!" A $5 PayPal payment was deposited in his account. He wasn't so lucky on the free dinner; the $25 restaurant gift card turned out to be a coupon for a two-for-one dinner offer with a modest discount on the price.
Holtz's experiment was fun, but fun with a purpose. Most of us are smart enough to avoid being fooled most of the time. But it's good of Holtz to remind us that we can't be too vigilant.
-Paul Raeburn
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