Lawyer Toy Expert Wows TV News People, Disappoints Media Critic
Updated: Journalism can be profitable for those finding new ways to exploit the need for more information, but some media critics are questioning some of the tactics.
A lawyer and self-proclaimed toy expert goes on a TV media tour, plugging toys from companies that apparently paid the company she works for $11,000 each to get on her recommended list.
A company owned by an ex-con exposes corporate wrongdoing on a website that profits by short sales of stock in the investigated companies—sales that essentially bet the stock price will go down.
Both media practices are coming in for criticism in stories published by the Los Angeles Times and the American Journalism Review.
The lawyer, Elizabeth Werner, used to work for a toy company before she became a toy promoter. She tells the Los Angeles Times that the company hiring her for media tours — New Jersey-based DWJ Television — notifies TV stations that toy makers have paid for her endorsement; three TV stations contacted by the newspaper’s media critic denied they were aware of the payments.
Werner told the Times that she only promotes toys that she and her children have used and enjoyed.
“I am not going to include any toy that doesn’t do what it says it’s going to do, that isn’t fun, that doesn’t fit the theme of the tour,” Werner is quoted saying. “If I bring out crappy products, the consumers are not going to want to hear from me and the stations aren’t going to bring me back.”
In another example coming under criticism, ex-con is Barry Minkow, who went to prison because his ZZZZ Best carpet cleaning company was actually a Ponzi scheme, according to the story in American Journalism Review. His company, the Fraud Discovery Institute, owns the iBusiness Reporting website; Minkow and the website’s investigative reporter have both shorted the stocks of investigated companies—facts that are disclosed.
The article says the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Minkow after several companies complained. Another company, Medifast Inc., filed suit in federal court in California, claiming Minkow and his institute reap huge profits as a result of false and defamatory attacks on investigated companies. Minkow has denied the allegations.
Hat tip to Romenesko.
Last updated Oct. 26 to clarify that the $11,000 wasn’t paid directly to Werner, but rather the company she worked for.
