• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 3, 2017

We still have fake news -- the real digital media kind. Does this mean we will continue to have advertising attached to that content?

Media consumers can be a suspicious lot. Then again, they can be lazy. If news is fake, it doesn’t mean advertising adjacent to that content -- in written text or inside a bit of video content -- will have any ill effect on them.

Still, The New York Times has said, “the marketing industry is facing a moral quandary.” For some, it is an easy decision. “I would much rather pay a little premium as a brand and go for verified sites,” Raja Rajamannar, CMO MasterCard, told the Times.  “But it’s a question again of how much and where.”

While Google and Facebook say they want to crack down on fake news content they distribute, there is a bigger issue that has surfaced -- and an easier media buying decision. Racist, anti-Semitic, and/or violent content can have an immediate negative effect on brand value.

Fake news can be more sly and invasive than that. Users can consume this type of content and be long gone before many realize there is no truth to the story. But looking deeper, does anyone believe consumers will remember not only where they have read the story -- but the specific advertising that accompanied it?

No marketers -- big or small -- would want a long-term arrangement with any despicable content. But for a quick hit, many could be tempted. Long-term associations,  if consumers become better in identifying all kinds of content -- fake news and its regular advertisers -- they will feel used and betrayed.

The betting is small and mid-size marketers buying digital media -- those with lesser auditing procedures than say big upfront TV advertisers -- will continue to support, with or without their knowledge, fake news for the foreseeable future.

Now go further: What if those fake news sites become more sophisticated in obscuring how bogus they are? Will digital media sellers -- Google and Facebook -- continue to keep up with all this, becoming more likes journalists and editors in vetting out questionable content?