Once again...this time much closer to home...the idea of "wrapping" a newspaper in a fake front page is making news. First it was The L.A. Times with a full page ad for a TV show under the paper's official logo/banner. Now it's The Anniston Star, which wrapped it's "rack sold" papers in a full color page of mug-shots of people wanted by the cops, again underneath the Star's banner. The Columbia Journalism Review took critical note of the "marketing" effort. If the Star, of all papers, is sinking to that level to sell papers, there may in fact be no hope at all for the journalistic heart of newspapering. Much of this controversy would go away if the papers would leave their banner off the ad. Then it becomes really no more offensive than the soap samples that occasionally are secured to a Sunday edition. The News and Editorial departments need to claim ownership of that banner. Or the next thing you know it will be used to sell candidates.
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