Step Right Up

In the olde days, charlatans cruised this land offering homemade cure-all elixirs from the backs of covered wagons. Midway shows offered the once-in-a-lifetime chance, for a price, to view two real skulls--one of Napoleon when he was a child and the other his adult skull. Fifty years from now people may look back on our turn-of-the-century days and marvel that gullible galoots like us actually believed the claims of movie ads, mail-in sweepstakes, fake reality shows and now, it seems, unbiased Web search engines.

Commercial Alert, a consumer watchdog, complained to the Federal Trade Commission this week that some Internet search engines allegedly ensure that, for a price, a specific Web site will appear prominently in Web search responses, whether it’s the best search answer or not. This alleged Web payola has developed because of Web users’ skills at visually ignoring the banner ads that the search engines used to sell in abundance.

This should not be cardiac-arrest shocking, that some commercial enterprises in the troubled Web world desperately sell advertising to companies seeking large numbers of potential customers. It’s the secrecy that’s so disappointing. TV must now show disclaimers during infomercials. Why not search engines? True, moviemakers are paid to slip certain colas, cars and brand-names into the on-screen hands and dialogue of actors without flashing “ADVERTISEMENT!!!” Ever wonder why pro quarterbacks on the sideline are wearing a certain style hat? But commercially manipulating search results is plain payola, as if publishers slipped librarians 50 bucks to recommend their novels first, cloaked with the appearance of professional objectivity.

This is an important reminder. It’s surprisingly easy for modern-day information consumers to be spoon fed into a credulous trance. We often read food labels closely to know what we’re putting into our bodies. Each of us on our own should also examine closely what we put into our minds. We’ve had numerous glaring examples of forked-tongue commercial messages recently. Sony manufactured film critic Dave Manning to manufacture lavish praise for its movies. Sony and Universal used fake fans to love their latest release on-camera; others create fake fan Web sites and chat rooms generating positive buzz for particular films. Publishers Clearing House, among others, signed settlements with many states for misleading sweepstakes promotions. And anyone who thinks this current plague of reality TV shows is 100% real, well, they’re probably checking eBay already for both of Napoleon’s skulls.