Well, here's a clash of old and new media rules. Product placement on the news. We've seen bits and pieces of product placement in the past on entertainment shows such as American Idol showing coke and Numbers depicting Dannon yogurt (I think that's what it was). But we haven't before seen product placement on the news. What's next? TV news desk people wearing clothes with big logos on them? Will television sets begin to look like race cars with a gazillion ads on them? Are newscasters now walking advertisers? Are the backdrops on the sets going to be electronic advertising boards?

This blurs that line between objectivity and sponsorship. Granted, McDonald's has to advertise (well, maybe not) and the only way news media can make money is to sell advertising space because they can't produce the news for free.

But what happens when the news has to report a discrimination case against McDonald's or a hot coffee lawsuit or a you served me trans fat products and now I'm fat lawsuit? Credibility will be at stake. What's to keep a regular viewer from saying, they're not telling us everything because the advertising revenue would suffer if they told a story damaging to an advertiser. The news media might say they would still broadcast the story regardless, but the perception, and it's all about perception isn't it, will be otherwise.