From the Dept. of WTF?!: Tennessean Hot Link Ads!
Just when you thought The Tennessean couldn't lower their journalistic standards much further, they've now taken to peppering their hard-hitting news reports with the dreaded double-underline hot links, which link not to other stories or information relevant to the report, but to ads for phones, mortgages, you name it.
For instance, take this story from today's Tennessean. See those hot links? Not only do they link to ads, but if you merely run your cursor over them, the ads pop up and obscure the story. Now, double-underline advertising hot links are nothing new on entertainment and special-interest websites, but in a, ahem, serious newspaper? The irony is that this particular story, by reporter Bob Smietana, is an otherwise informative and interesting piece about the division Sarah Palin has created among Southern Baptists.
We did an informal survey of several newspapers, from The New York Times to regional papers such as the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Memphis Commercial Appeal and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and found that all of these papers still seem to respect the sanctity of news reporting. All of these papers still engage in that archaic practice known as "linking to stories or websites that are actually relevant to the article."
The Tennessean's practice is similar to those annoying pop-up ads that are starting to appear on prime-time TV shows. But at least sitcoms and reality shows make no claims to being legitimate sources of news. Does this seem pathetic to anyone else?
Comments
I do not see any double-underlined hot links on the story to which you link.
Posted 10/02/2008 at 01:44:04 PMNewspapers are dying. We'll see all manner of attempts to stave off the inevitable. I don't fault them for trying to survive. I do fault them for underreporting.
Posted 10/02/2008 at 02:03:55 PMJoshua, I'm not sure why. I just hit the link again, and the hot links are still there. In the ninth paragraph, the word "homes" is linked to an ad for mortgage rates. In the 11th paragraph, the word "phone" is linked to an ad for mobile phones. And in the 17th paragraph, the word "house" is also linked to a mortgage rate ad. Try again maybe? And you may have to wait a minute before the links become active.
Posted 10/02/2008 at 02:15:35 PMThere are three commercial links in the daily fishwrap story that I see. One for a phone and two for home loans.
Posted 10/02/2008 at 02:15:50 PMI have no hot links on the story as a result of following your link, either. But I do know the double links to which you refer.
Posted 10/02/2008 at 03:54:59 PMJoan, the links are still there. Did you wait a couple of minutes after you linked to the story? Sometimes it takes a while for the links to load, even though the story has loaded. Or maybe some computer don't read them, for some reason.
Posted 10/02/2008 at 04:12:21 PMSo what you are saying is that you move your pointer along the lines of text in the article you are reading? Just like you do with your finger when reading a book?
All it takes is one episode with you mouse pointer and those fucking links and you (should) know better than to touch them again.
Posted 10/03/2008 at 08:04:16 AMProblem solved
1. Get firefox 3
2. Install the following plugins:
adblock plus
no script
flashblock
When I use Internet Explorer (IE) I see all the crap you describe, but none with Firefox and the above mentioned plugins.
The web 2.0 community's vision of "rich media" is an attempt to make web browsing as annoying as watching TV or commercial radio - ads every-fucking-where. No thanks.
Posted 10/03/2008 at 08:13:28 AMHarris, apparently you are missing the point. It's not a question of how I read or use my mouse. It's a question of putting advertising links inside hard news stories.
Moe, thanks for the tips. All good suggestions.
Posted 10/03/2008 at 10:59:34 AM