• by October 5, 2004

LET'S SEE IF WE HAVE THIS STRAIGHT - CBS News, an organization some still believe to be among journalism's best, has retained a former state attorney general to investigate a story by its premiere investigative news team, "60 Minutes," which cited false records in its investigation of President George W. Bush's military career.

Newspaper publisher Hollinger International has just revealed that following an investigation into "circulation inflation" practices used at its Chicago Sun-Times daily, the publisher has found similar practices have been used by two of its other Chicago area dailies, as well as its prestigious Jerusalem Post. Along with the new disclosures, Hollinger said it would record a pre-tax charger of $27 million to cover the cost of resolving advertising claims against the papers.

Hollinger's disclosure follows a similar investigation that led to a similar charge and a similar advertiser compensation plan by newspaper giant Belo.

These and other revelations have caused the entire newspaper industry to take a shellacking of lost confidence from advertisers, and the only one coming out smelling clean in the whole matter is the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the organization that's responsible for auditing newspapers and making sure their circ is what the publishers say it is.

The newspaper circulation debacles follow an equally traumatic revelation by the ABC that magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr willfully misrepresented circulation data for its now defunct Rosie magazine, and those revelations only came to light because of a civil trial between G+J and celebrity editor Rosie O'Donnell.

The founder, head and namesake of one of the most closely watched magazine publishers, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, has been found guilty of federal obstruction of justice charges and is about to serve time.

A top media executive at WPP's Ogilvy & Mather and MindShare units pled guilty to falsifying media billings data for an advertising account he was handling for the White House.

Nielsen's TV ratings, the "currency" of the entire TV advertising marketplace, were once again the subject of Congressional hearings - the first time since the game show scandals in the 1960s.

TV programmers, advertisers and agencies are clandestinely embedding products into program content - even news content. And everyone thinks this is a good thing?

Public relations and video news release companies are now producing news-style programs for corporate and branded products and are leasing time on local TV stations and cable networks that present them as genuine newscasts.

News and information sites like weather.com are incorporating "advertorial" content seamlessly into their weather information news.

Magazines continue to push the boundaries of editorial and advertising fusion, despite strict and explicit guidelines by the American Association of Magazine Editors.

In an effort to reduce radio advertising clutter (a good thing) Clear Channel Communications is asking advertisers and agencies to pay more for less (a bad thing), and plans to convert all of its 60-second advertising units into :30s that cost about 75 percent to 80 percent of the price of a :60.

Reporters and writers for top newspapers like The New York Times and USA Today have been dismissed for allegedly fabricating stories they presented as fact.

Let's see, did we leave anything out? Oh yeah, just this: What the hell's going on here?