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Ethics and entertainment

By Gearhead, NetworkWorld.com, 08/04/05

Good arstechnica article on Sony's two recent ethical lapses (their fictional movie reviewer who gave the thumbs up" on several of Sony's recent bad movies and Sony's habit of using payola).

We're surprised that anyone would be surprised that a member of the Big Media would go to such ethically dubious lengths to push their product. Tell us this doesn't happen all the time albeit in less blatant ways.

And once again New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer rode out on his white charger to rescue fair public over the payola fracas -- he whacked Sony BMG Music for $10 million. There's no argument from us that Sony deserved the financial bitch-slap but one wonders about Mr. Spitzer's motives.

As Ryan Sager commented in the New York Post Online Edition, "Maybe Attorney General Eliot Spitzer should simply pay radio stations to mention his name on a daily basis as he gets ready to run for governor. That way, at least, we'd all be spared wastes of time and money like his recent investigation into music-industry payola." As they say in the British parliament with monotonous regularity, hear, hear!

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