[ajross]

OK, you're just misunderstanding. "Primetime Television" is a marketing term that refers to the traditional TV network programming scheduled between 8-10pm. This is where they put the sitcoms and dramas and reality shows. And "Product Placement" refers not to advertising per se, but paid placement of retail products (e.g. cars, sodas, whatever) into the scenes in the fiction, or to appear as prizes, etc...

It doesn't refer to news programming or other journalism, you just got confused. And I'll say it again: if NBC News, or any other major news media organization, ever got caught teasing a segment because of third party payment, it would be a much, much (seriously: much) bigger story than this minor nonsense about GameStop. They simply do not do what you are alleging, period.

[elif]

You say i'm alleging the opposite of your argument, while I'm merely commentating about the observable ethics of the company in question.

I'm not straw

[sschueller]

Does a free ticket to the exclusive event count as payment? You know like an apple event where new products are presented and then published in every paper around the world.