Sorry for the C&P, but I'd hate for anyone to miss this article in today's Sun.
Outraged Francis cancels spot on Money Matters
David Baines, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Page D4 - Business BC section
Many people are clamouring to appear on Market Matters, the one-hour penny stock infomercial broadcast every Saturday at 11 a.m. on CKNW and the Corus Radio Network. But Diane Francis is not one of them.
The editor-at-large for the National Post had been scheduled to appear on the show, which is owned and produced by Vancouver's Blender Media, on Oct. 7.
This surprised me, as Francis has been a tireless campaigner against stock fraud, and many of the companies that are featured on Market Matters are, at best, questionable investment offerings and, at worst, infested with stock offenders.
When I filled her in on some of the details of the show, including the fact that junior companies pay $6,500 to get asked patsy questions by host Tom Jeffries, she was outraged and immediately cancelled.
"This show was misrepresented to me when I agreed to be interviewed," she told me. "If I had known that they charge companies, I would never have considered being interviewed. It's not journalism.
"This kind of radio should not be allowed. Infomercials on TV are identified visually the entire time the program is aired, and identified as such on TV guides.
"The problem with this radio-informercial is that the show sounds like bona fide programming. The listeners also likely don't realize that this type of programming arrangement means the anchor and producers have a conflict of interest, journalistically speaking.
"The conflict is that these are not arm's-length interviews by independent journalists. Their salaries are being paid [indirectly] by the people or companies they are interviewing. Selection of subject, therefore, is not based on merit but on money."
She is absolutely right, CKNW listeners would be wise to take her words to heart.