Two-fifty for a headline, and a buck-and-a-half for a deck

OTTAWA -- Reader beware: the headline on your favourite Internet news site may have been bought and prescribed by a political party, candidate, lobbyist, corporation or TV show.

In fact, just about anyone with deep enough pockets can pay some private Internet web proprietors to highlight legitimate news stories of their choice -- along with deeply provocative, or flattering, headlines.

-from The Globe and Mail, January 15, 2007

I originally found this story in today's Metro (TorStar), so I expect it can be found across most of the major dailies. The story doesn't really point fingers at anyone in particular except www.bourque.com, a site I've never visited. Apparently, the site's owner is quite open about the practice of selling headlines. Must investigate.