Thedeets.com blogger Ed Kohler just fired another shot across Village Voice Media’s bow for their shady online media practices.
Kohler hits some of the same notes I covered in my piece on VVM—which owns the Seattle Weekly—and the company’s use of a social networking site to unscrupulously promote their advertisers, but he managed to find a pretty embarrassing slip up by a VVM ad rep.
Specifically, Kohler dug up this review by Minneapolis CityPages Sales Operations Manager Emily Neumann, posted on her Likeme.net page:
Stellas: STEEELLLLAAAAAAA A Street Car Named Desire..need I say more! I mean…really as if the beer being on Tap doesn’t fulfull your urge to scream this line at every turn, Stella’s permits you to yell it out all night (Much to the dismay of your co-drinkers) but hey…after a few Oyster shots…you’re not going to care…cause everyone will be your STELLLLAAAA
Punch: Punch me drunk..silly and sideways. Gosh darn this is good pizza! Plus…an orange sign..it just makes you happy!
JD Hoyt’s: Smoky, Cajun Cahrcoal Grilled food, with the service and food of a Four Star Restaurant, but a atmosphere that makes you feel like your family. Try their Pork Chops, you’ll never find anything else like them!We’re the kind of place you look for when you travel to a new city – a friendly , shining, non-corporate place that showcases all that is good about the city that it calls home, the kind of place your cab driver might take you if you ask for the best steak or pork chop in town. Great food, staff, service, wine list and special cocktails. Our award winning entrees are prepared on our custom designed 100% hardwood burning charcoal grill, searing your order to juicy perfection
What’s wrong with this picture? Take it away, Kohler:
That ambitious attempt at a second paragraph by EmilyN seems inconsistent with her previous writing. Why did she suddenly start spelling things correctly, without a ton of ellipsis, and switch to first person plural?
Maybe it’s because she ripped that content directly from the About page on JD Hoyt’s website?
Yes, she’s actually plagiarizing her reviews using the website of the place she’s reviewing.
By stealing copy from a restaurant’s own website, Neumann’s doing some serious damage to VVM’s claim that ad reps are simply reviewing businesses they dig. If an ad rep can’t even be bothered to write a brief, gushing review for a business, how good can it really be?
Thedeets.com sums it up well:
CityPages is pissing away the trust of their users by handing over control of their restaurant reviews to their advertising department.
Wow. The oh-so-pure Stranger keeps beating the same tired thread. You guys care to acknowledge the fact that it was your newsroom who was the one passing off an advertising executive as an actual editorial staffer?
Or are we supposed to forget that?
Who the hell trusts ANY of those kind of review sites? Maybe Yelp a little but I’ve always assumed all online public review pages are full of self-promotion at the least. This is only slightly worse.
Hey Don, what were the facts of that case you mentioned?
Let me guess, they make money doing this and you don’t?
I see …
Look, most interactive reviews are filled with positive reviews by workers, owners, friends and families of the restaurant and negative reviews from people at other restaurants.
We’re not stupid.
Give it up.
Your first “reporting” on this was so sloppy and vindictive that nothing you write on it can be taken seriously.
NOBODY CARES. you are an embarrassment to yourselves.
funny how all these anonymous drive by commenters show up every time, trying to get jonah to stop writing these stories. care to identify who you guys are that you need him to stop so badly?
I’m likely not the only Slogger wondering the same thing. At least @1 has some stones.
No actually. The fact that The Stranger once screwed up does not mean that you guys at Village Voice get to put a gag on Jonah. It doesn’t work like that.
Wow, things must be really sloooooow over at Teh Weakly; Don “I’m such a hack I can’t even hold down a commentary slot on Sound Politics” Ward has come a’trolling to the SLOG!
They lost Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, and everything went into the shitter. Seriously, look that woman up. She’s great.
Don, why don’t you actually rebut the fucking story instead of getting all defensive? You’re such a bitch every time you troll SLOG. Jonas piece clearly hits home and you know it, so either fucking defend your company or stop trying to point fingers.
Wow, things must be really sloooooooow over at the Stranger if their ace reporters spend all day scouring the internet looking for any hint of VVM dirt. Do you really think your readers care about this crap?
Instead of relentlessly slagging the competition, why don’t you guys work on improving your own pathetic little paper?
Fine print***
In a taste test, readers overwhelmingly chose the delicious taste and drinkabilty of The Stranger compared to cross city rivals – Seattle Weakly.
Read whatever paper you want @13, I really couldn’t care less.
@3: Facts about Dave Segal’s departure in 2006 are here. He subsequently did a couple years of hard time in the O.C., then we hired him back as a music writer.
Why bother even having reviews? In return for a nice pricey ad, papers all over can meet their reduced payrolls by simply publishing press releases instead of criticism for books, movies, theater and restaurants.
@1: Village Voice Media has been caught engaging in practices that constitute a clear conflict of interest. Trying to discredit the messenger won’t change that.
the Stranger regularly reviews restaurants without bothering to check any facts or even talk to anyone in the establishment. The favorite places always get a free ride and lots of free advertising