Is Bass Fishing Media Nothing But A Shill?

That seems to be what is said Pete Weighs In Blog in his post Turn The Beat Around.

Then again, at least the mainstream sports world is having the conversation. In the bass fishing world, we take conflicts of interest for granted. In fact we revel in them. A Toyota-sponsored pro wins a tournament? The next day the lead story on half the major fishing websites is a puff piece written by Toyota’s PR firm. Reading a product review on any bass fishing website or perusing their gear guide? Chances are that most if not all of the products pictured are positioned relative to the amount of advertising dollars their manufacturers spent with that outlet. It’s as simple as connecting the banner ad to the review next to it. Not even a disclosure statement explaining that Company X advertises with the website. On the average bass website, you can’t tell the press releases from the news.


There obviously is truth to there being quite a bit of synergy between marketing and fishing media. I would hope the consumer of fishing media is sophisticated enough to recognize what is marketed information and what isn't. In fact I kind of think the default position probably should be to think information given has a marketing purpose unless there is a good reason to think otherwise.