Monday, July 30, 2007
Times-Tribune roughs up WILK, others over advertorials
Dave Falchek of the Scranton Times-Tribune writes a scathing story about a recently-charged local homebuilder and how he used his "show" on WILK to promote himself, and how WILK washes its hands of the matter despite including the builder in the station's staff listing.
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25 comments:
Falchek's Da Man.
Quick question: Is "Electric City" still THE place to find ads for hookers in NEPA?
I don't think ANYPLACE in NEPA is a good place to find hookers.
Da Law and Yoo.
Do ya think you could have taken the time to mention in this article that Grandpappy Lynett and the Clan who sign the writer's paychecks, also own and operate WILK's competition???
Let's take a shot at WILK and pass it off a news. Ethical? I think not.
Besides, isn't the Angelina Jobey Show on ESPN radio just an advertorial for the newspaper?
The Northeast Business Journal ran a fawning piece on Scott Binsack about a year prior to Falchek's report. Trouble is, that Times Shamrock-owned publication never mentioned anything negative about Binsack. Hmmm.
That said, Falchek's series was excellent. Check out his article on the arrest in court and the comments Binsack made to his 19-year-old fiancee.
Read here: Binsack series
Times Shamrock has a standing practice of reporting on local radio without disclosing their conflict of interest. Sometimes, references have actually been removed from stories, per John Murphy's orders.
It's a shameful thing that they couldn't get away with in a more sophisticated market.
Guys, it's not the 1950s any more. These kind of ethical issues need to be addressed and disclosed.
HTF is owning a chcick station, a rock station and a sports radio station competition to WILK? Do those stations even have newscasts?
The T-T disclosing or not disclosing its ownership of other stations in the story is nowhere near as big a scandal as the actual news -- that WILK took cash from a shady, lying ex-con homebuilder and looked the other way while he used their airwaves to perpetrate fraud and ruin people's lives.
That's news no matter what Times-Shamrock owns.
11:22
Amen to that, brother!
If the story was written like a straight up news story (You know the kind. 4 W's sprinkled with facts) Then that would have been fine.
But, the story wasn't just about "a shady, lying ex-con homebuilder." It was about the "horrible" practice of avertorials. And how dare THEY do that.
One sentence saying that Times Shamrock owns WILK's competition (Or howvere you want to say it) would have been enough.
There is no way WILK knew about Binsack's problems when the sold him time. The people there are good radio folks who got fooled by a man who seems to make a living at that sort of thing.
As far as the selling of time goes, I have heard plenty of the same type of shows on ESPN Radio, glass houses baby...glass houses...
6:02 p.m.
THERE IS NO WAY WILK KNEW ABOUT Binsack?!
If that is the case, they need to totally review their policies and procedures. Binsack's criminal record was plastered over the Internet. His "reputation" preceeded him among suppliers, contractors, vendors and others throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania. He never paid advertising bills -- did WILK ask for ANY sort of references? If so, they would have found a trail of unpaid bills when it came to advertising.
There is a responsibility here that must be accounted for. Can just anyone walk into a WILK studio and buy a show? And is WILK innocent because they don't have a clue about that person's background?? That is such a cop out and an irresponsible, unethical point of view -- speaks to all that is wrong with journalism today. Oh, the president said there were WMDs in Iraq, so instead of investigating this info ourselves, why don''t we just report it verbatim? Pat Tillman? CIA agent exposed?
When are we as members of the media going to hold ourselves accountable for the information we deliver to the public???!!!
6:02 pm
There were plenty who were not fooled by Scott Binsack. Your comments do not put WILK in a good light. Are they village idiots? He talked about his criminal record on his show...all the time!
6:02 - what shows? List a few please.
ESPN Radio ran a show with some chiropractor/politician dude for a while.
They also had (or maybe still have) some show with the physical therapist for the Pioneers.
They also run that Jobey Fawcett (sp?) sports show.
And for Christ's sake, they actually put the Frendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner on the radio every March. (They all took turns blowing Bob Casey last year)
WHO THE FUCK WANTS TO LISTEN TO THAT????
As far as WILK goes one must assume they run some type of credit check on a client or have some guidelines in place to protect their station.
And since when did journalism come into the mix on the Binsack case? It was clear this was a paid for show, just as many others are that are carried on WILK, WBAX, WNEP, WYOU, WBRE and the list goes on.
Dear Professor 1:06 p.m.
"If one must assume" WILK runs some sort of credit check then they need to re-check that check, because it failed them this time.
Further, it was NOT clear to listeners that it was a paid show. WILK highlighted Binsack as an on-air personality alongside respectable folk like Nancy Kman.
Even 99 percent of the guests on the show had no idea it was Binsack who paid to be radio "personality."
And making excuses by saying it is common practice to provide such spots simply does not fly. We can't just keep doing things wrong because, heck, everybody does it....!
Once again when did the Binsack show become a news program?????
It was a paid info show and nothing else!
Sleazsy ok, but no worse than the shows on other stations that promise amazing health from taking their products!
WILK is run by a great staff that had they known about all of this would have never sold Binsack the time. If you can accept that, then just move on.....
7:57
You are not making any sense.
SCOTT BINSACK TALKED AD NAUSEUM ON HIS SHOW ABOUT HIS CRIMINAL PAST.
"The good folk" at WILK were not aware what was on their airwaves?
When did Binsack's show become a news program?! When WILK allowed Binsack to market it as such!! Get the facts straight!
Advetorials are evil, according to Times-Shamrock. Maybe they should come clean about the past.
The annual section formerly known as Progress -- Buy an ad, get a story.
Now defunct Cornerstone Sunday section -- only big advertisers were interviewed for stories.
Don Sherwood assault/sex scandal --a reverse advetorial, where car dealership ads were more important than reporting the news.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with an advetorial in any media format as long as it is very clear to the listner, reader or viewer that it is in fact an advetorial. The standard practice in print is to place in no smaller than 12 point type "paid advertisement" at the top and bottom of the advertorial, or if the entire section is an advertorial it is noted so on the cover. In radio and TV, it should be noted at the beginning and end of the program and in no less than 5 minute intervals if it is a longer program. If these generally accepted guidelines are followed then what ever is written or said, short of vulgarity, is not the responsibility of the media format being utilized. If it suddenly became the responsiblity of the media format presenting advertisements to assure the messages are all on the up and up, there would be no more news because there would be no more paid advertisements.
Just follow the guidelines media friends and nature will take care of the rest... meaning if someone is slinging a bunch of bologni and the media format tags it as paid advertisement, only the weak minded are going to respond and quite frankly there is no saving them from fraudulous opportunities anyway.
what kind of person would buy time on the radio to talk about his crimial past on the air??????
Give me a break...what happened did you apply for job a WILK and not get it?????
I have first hand knowledge that the womasn who supposedly won a free house from Binsack on his radio show is slapping a multimillion dollar lawsuit on WILK's owners
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