A lot of news is just ads cleverly concealed to look like news stories.

A simple example, when a national morning news show is telling you about ‘products they love,’ I presume that the makers of the product are paying to be a part of that segment.

I also presume if people knew that, it would make those segments less effective. These are not products the producers have just randomly discovered and want to tell us about (as they are often portrayed), rather they are products someone has paid to get featured on the segment.

I presume it’s effective advertising, too, because it looks a more like an endorsement from friends, or ‘word of mouth’, than a typical ad.

But, it also makes me question the integrity of the rest of the news. How much of the other content are ads or modified by advertisers?