It's also somewhat insidious. I was watching my local morning news show when the anchors cut to a segment featuring a "tech reporter in Washington D.C." who was

It's also somewhat insidious. I was watching my local morning news show when the anchors cut to a segment featuring a "tech reporter in Washington D.C." who was going to give advice about buying tech gifts for the holiday season. Laid out on the table were a bunch of Microsoft products and the reporter proceeded to spew a hit piece aimed squarely at Chromebooks. Never was there any indication that it was a sponsored story but it was clearly a Microsoft backed segment. It was truly bizarre. I don't know how often companies pay news shows to pimp their stuff but I've never seen anything that blatant before.