Post ready to sell soul; pulls back at the brink

Well, they’ve done it a couple of times now, so it seems to be a policy. The Arts and Life section has a cover that looks like an editorial, but is actually an ad, this time (Tuesday Dec. 6), an ad for hmv for Amy Winehouse’s postmortem album. This is ethically dodgy enough to begin with, but when you open to the editorial page, there is a cover pic and review of the same album. Expecting an adman’s gush job on the album, I was pleasantly surprised that a proper, objective review of the album was done by Mike Doherty, noting as other reviewers did that this is an assemblage of outtakes and songs earlier not deemed fit for release, and hence for fans only. Still, I wonder how long it will be before the ad guys start “suggesting” lines for the editorial side. This is very close to the edge for the National Post.