it turns out that some of the Kerry commercials are being written, edited, produced and put on satellites for the purpose of generating news articles. They have not actually aired on any network or local station — except in reports about the Democrat’s campaign.
[…]
Evan Tracey, an analyst at TNSMI/Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising, called the phantom ads — which have routinely been covered by The Washington Post and other news organizations — “political product placement. But they’re getting away with it, because the press is playing them. When the press covers a new Bush ad, the story always adds ‘and Kerry released an ad of his own.’ He’s getting into the news chatter.”
I’d like to think this has some negative impact on the credibility of Old Media, but the only people who care already don’t trust it.