Frankie Flack: Hey journalists, you blur the lines too

Man, I feel for the guys to Status Labs, the PR firm that got outed earlier this month for trying to buy their way onto CNBC.

Now, I’m not going to defend the practice of buying coverage. That’s not PR, and the news consumer gets screwed over pretty badly when she can’t tell whether her fishwrap (or cable dial) is stuffed with payola.

The trouble is, media companies have been working like hell to blur that line. You want “native advertising” or “sponsored content” or whatever the evil genius green-eyeshade guys at your major media companies are calling it? Just cut a check to your favorite outlet.

But the line in broadcast is even fuzzier — this is where my sympathy for Status emerges — because of the existence of a shadowy industry in Florida that no one seems to talk much about. There are a variety of production houses down there (why Florida, I have no idea) that spend their days calling companies and telling executives that their product would be great on such-and-such a show.

The “shows” are glorified infomercials, but the production guys never say that right up front. They mention that the show is hosted by some vaguely credibly celebrity and runs in some huge number of markets on some huge number of channels (including, by the way, some cable business channels). It sounds, in other words, not unlike modern television journalism.

And only after you’re a bit down the road with these guys do they mention the “production fees” involved, which makes clear that this is not an enterprise that sees the provision of information as their main goal. They’re selling access to the airwaves. It’s advertising, thinly disguised.

Some efforts are even more brazen. Balancing Act, a show on Lifetime, has a morning show that is allegedly operated on that model: want a product shot? Ante up for production fees.

So I can see folks at Status, whose clients are being barraged by offers from producers to put products on, say Fox Business or Lifetime, getting confused about the rules of engagement and making the ask proactively.

I don’t know if it really went down like that. I’ve never met the Status team. Don’t know if this was a bad read of the landscape or something intentionally manipulative. But it’s clear there are a lot of people out there trying to confuse both viewers and companies about the independence of the video flowing through the cables.

The solution here isn’t easy. Obviously, PR firms shouldn’t buy coverage. But I could find almost nothing from inside-the-media press watchdogs on these production company practices, certainly nothing like the scorn heaped on online native advertising.

Maybe questionable broadcasts in the middle of the night — even with famous hosts — isn’t enough of a threat to the sanctity of the news business to bother. But as the Status/CNBC blow-up suggests, the very idea of blurring lines gets to be a slippery slope. While online native advertising is getting the attention and scorn it deserves (you’ve all seen the John Oliver clip, right? Good!), there are still shady corners that could use some illumination.

C’mon media reporters: get on this.