The idea that ``content is king'' is a favorite slogan among media people, since it's comforting to think that the industry is ruled by its creative side. Comforting, but fictional.
Online communicators of all stripes, whether they blog or tweet or befriend on social networking sites, are now supposed to tell you when they've received any money or freebies in connection with recommendations they post about products they've tried out.
Apparently Dean Zuleger, top administrator of the small Wisconsin town of Weston, isn't universally loved. On The Wausau Daily Herald's website, some of Zuleger's constituents posted nasty comments about him -- his temperament, his girth, his management style, his pay -- under make-believe names.
Publishers have been tailoring their products to suit particular enclaves of readers for decades. The logic of zoning is that you create customized editions brimming with content that the people who live in a particular area are especially eager to see.
The problem of how to cover claims that are both sensational and false is a perennial problem that journalists face. It has resurfaced with the much-repeated, and much-debunked, allegation that Democratic healthcare reforms contain a proposal that would empower government bureaucrats to cut off treatment for people who are dying.
Ben Stein is an unusual figure on the contemporary media scene. He has academic legitimacy, since he has degrees from Columbia and Yale and his dad was the late Herb Stein, a top government economist under Presidents Nixon and Ford. He's political, having been a speechwriter for Nixon and Ford, and his economic commentary appears widely -- Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Sunday Morning, Fox News.
Product endorsements have been around for generations. Thanks to long training, the public is fully prepared to listen to celebrities, ordinary people, or actors impersonating ordinary people as they burble with delight about their lustrous hair, all-weather tires, air freshener or whole-grain lip gloss.
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