Reading the Seattle PI this morning, I was surprised to find a flashing banner ad for Mike McGavick, Republican candidate for the Senate, across the top of a news story I was reading. I checked half a dozen other stories, and the ad was there, too. It seems to be tagged to all news stories in today’s edition. It doesn’t seem to be part of a rotating block, because it turns up every time I load the pages. It’s an exclusive.

I know it’s legal, but it seems slimey to me. As far as I know, the paper has not yet come out with endorsements in the senate races, but running this ad on every page of their website implies approval to me. Political ads in the print copies of newspapers are required to have a statement that they are put there for pay and list just who paid for the ad to distinguish them from editorial content. That line is fuzzy here. I’m sure the PI made a nice chunk of change in exchange for running it and in these days of dwindling revenues I’m sure that’s quite attractive. But I’m disappointed just the same. I expected better from my primary news source.

Are your online news outlets running banner ads for candidates? If so, how do you feel about it?