Journalism died a long time ago.

Now, get over yourselves and start selling ads on your front page like a real newspaper.

The thing is, The Atlantic (and HuffPo, and others) have had "sponsored content" on their pages for a really long time that is clearly designed to look like journalistic content. So it's kind of a shame that it takes something as clearly batshit crazy as Scientology to get people to make a note of it and question the practice more broadly.

Woodward & Bernstein killed journalism when they let a movie be made about them that had Robert Redford as a star. Now it's all about breaking a story big enough to become famous and have yourself portrayed by one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Advertorials are fine as long as they're clearly marked. They shouldn't ever look like editorial content. Simple!

I don't have a problem with the usual advertorial for Carnival Cruise Lines or some Shell Oil "Energy Roundtable"; that's just business. Business is fine with me. I DO have a problem with it being for Scientology. Seeing Miscavage's smiling face shining from the podium like Kim Jong-Un is different, and deeply offensive. They have really blown a hole in their 156-year-old reputation.

I'm not entirely sure that CNET or CBS have reputations to damage at this point.

The 24-hour "news" cycle killed journalism. When they couldn't find the stories to fill the time and instead invited people to give their opinion and call that news it began a downward spiral we now see. The only 24 hours "news" is completely local (NWCN) and they retell the same stories every 15 minutes and only available on enhanced cable. Anything else (CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CNBC, etc) is now pretty much all opinion and one-sided stories meant to confuse and obfuscate the reality of most situations. Yah the only news and journalism rests entirely with the few small local-grown outlets. Everything else is just media.

This poll is a cruel libel of vultures.

@6 - While I don't think you're entirely wrong, one of the biggest killers in the early '90s was umpteen local stations noticing that A) CNN was getting a lot of viewers and B) producing more, longer and flimsier local newscasts was cheaper than paying for syndicated programming.

There's always been the impetus for news outlets to "get there first", we're just seeing the worst possible version now. (The late Herb Caen, who wrote briefly for Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, once mentioned that a sign in the newsroom purporting to be a quote from Hearst himself - "Get It First, But First Get It Right!" - had long been graffitied with "Screw Getting It Right, Get It Written!")