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.
There's nothing illegal about the practice. But it does raise troubling ethical questions and opens a quagmire in Canada's election advertising laws, especially during campaign periods when parties' ad expenditures are supposed to be closely monitored.
If a political party pays a news site to highlight as a top story something that is deeply negative about an opponent, complete with a deliberately torqued headline, should that be considered advertising?
Make no mistake, this practice is occurring all the time.
A multitude of sources say this is precisely the business model of Bourque Newswatch, Canada's most popular private political news aggregator and the Internet news destination of choice for much of the federal chattering class.
In fact the site, run by Pierre Bourque, a one-time Ottawa city councillor and failed federal Liberal candidate, seems to openly advertise the practice.
The site (www.bourque.com), which some reports suggest gets more than five million visits per month, advertises its ability to provide "unique customized tactical messaging capabilities" and lists its services as "banners, headlines, pop polls, e-mail blasts (and) more."
Visitors to Bourque Newswatch see a page with a series of short, punchy headlines. Clicking on the headline links the reader to a story, usually on an external news site. The link may also be to a news release on a corporate web site, or a polling company survey.
Bourque did not respond to repeated e-mails and phone messages seeking an interview for this story.
Many of his clients, some of which he lists on the site, were willing to talk off the record, but very few wanted to speak publicly.
Tim Powers, a Conservative party strategist, is an Ottawa lobbyist who runs Summa Strategies which has employed Bourque's services on behalf of various clients.
Powers, one of the few clients who would talk on the record, sees no problem with what Bourque is doing because the site is up front about it.
"It's on the screen that you can buy the service," said Powers.
"There's nothing hidden, there's no small print. There's nothing wrong with an entrepreneur capitalizing upon his entrepreneurial abilities and the desire of the market to purchase."
Mike Donison, the executive director of the federal Conservative party, did not personally return messages about what his party receives as a listed Bourque client.
Instead, a recently hired party spokesman was given a single media talking point to deliver to all questions from The Canadian Press:
"I can't confirm anything but what I can say is we have commercial contracts with all sorts of individuals and businesses and it's not our practice to discuss the details," said Ryan Sparrow. "That will be the only comment we'll be giving."
The federal NDP and Liberal parties are also listed as clients.
Officials in both parties said they had purchased banner ads on Bourque in the past, although one party source said the Liberals also employed the headline service briefly in 2005 during the Conservative party's national convention in Montreal.
Media analysts connected to both the Liberal and Conservative parties said Bourque's readership is comprised of highly sought-after decision-makers and media, making the portal an effective tool. Depending on the issue, a well-placed Bourque headline and story link can be more effective than a half-page ad in a national newspaper, said one.
Even at up to $10,000 a month for the headline service "it's really cost-effective," said a political source. You can also buy the headline service for a day or two at a time, as issues or stories arise that you want highlighted.
Other political clients listed by Bourque include the B.C. Liberal party, Ontario's Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties, the NDP in Saskatchewan, John Tory's mayoralty campaign in Toronto and Belinda Stronach's federal Conservative leadership campaign of 2004.
While it is not known which clients specifically bought headlines, multiple current and former clients say that as a paying advertiser, it is understood you will get favourable news links on the site.
"It reflects badly on all the participants in the scheme, just like the American radio payola scandal in the 1950s," said one communications lawyer familiar with Bourque's services who did not want to speak on the record.
Norman Spector, a former chief of staff to Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney who runs his own popular, independent - and non-commercial - news aggregator called Norman's Spectator (http://members.shaw.ca/nspector4), said he had no idea Bourque's editorial content could be dictated on a pay-to-play basis.
"This is what's purported to be a news site having clients in political parties," said Spector.
"I would think the public would be concerned. There's so much concern on the part of the public now as to whether they're getting the straight goods and people are going to the 'Net, they say, because their confidence in the mainstream media has been shaken. So I think this on the web is quite problematic."
Spector, a former publisher of the Jersusalem Post, says good newspapers are religious about separating the publisher from the editor, and the editorial board from the newsroom.
But Internet news aggregators may have a single owner, publisher, salesman and editor.
"I think that on the web you can be completely independent - more independent than even the best quality newspaper," said Spector. "But I think it's the responsibility (of the site operator) to disclose" if they're selling headline space and links.
Elections Canada, which oversees the strict rules on transparency in paid political advertising during election periods, did not respond to inquiries about paid headline services.
Clandestine end runs around the independent news media are not new to political party strategists.
A huge controversy erupted in Washington in 2005 when it was discovered that a regular White House correspondent known for his softball questions to President George W. Bush was not a bona fide reporter but was working under an assumed name for a virtual organization, Talon News, owned by the Republican party.
The Republican party also got into hot water that year for secretly paying three high-profile conservative commentators to plug Bush administration social programs.
