Is payola O.K.?

Compare this analysis-opinion piece in Slate with Mr. Figenshu's long ad lib, referenced below. This is a writer, folks. Bogus premise, but well prepared. Excerpt:

It's a truth universally acknowledged that manufacturers of everything from soap to computers pay the folks who control crucial distribution channels to display their wares prominently. It's legal, and no one minds. Viewers have accepted with equanimity the rise of (disclosureless) product placement in television shows and movies. In June, Randy Kennedy wrote an excellent brief dissertation in the New York Times on "co-op advertising," the process by which book publishers effectively pay Barnes & Noble for guaranteed placement at the front of stores. (No disclosure, no hint of illegality.) Why are Doritos bags stacked so nicely at the end of your supermarket aisle? Because Frito-Lay pays for them to be there. And the Web is one gigantic payola machine, from Amazon.com to the exploding realm of paid search.

I do agree that TV-movie product placement without disclosure and paid search on the Net are also payola activities, albeit benefitting corporations rather than crooked employees. In radio, it's illegal, so get over it. Mr. Spitzer picked the music business-stupid-radio-guy connection because it's a slam-dunk prosecution with guaranteed press coverage. Win-win.

[3:25 PM Afterthought For clarity: radio's federal regulation is based on the fact that an unique, finite, public resource (the electromagnetic spectrum) is being used to generate profits--the trade-off is, Congress and the government are supposed to make sure the benefitting companys' activity is within the law, and in the public interest. The uniqueness of the spectrum trumps all those potato chip arguments. The broadcasting business has found legal or political or lobbying workarounds for most government requirements and policies for seventy-plus years. Every few decades, somebody makes a stink and the FCC or the radio stations have to scurry around for a while, a few programmers or jocks get fired, lawyers get a bonus, and everybody goes on. Mr. Spitzer's focusing on the record business. Will the FCC or anybody in Congress haul the licensees up before them? TV guys, too? Or have cable, satellite and Internet radio and TV cancelled out the public interest and made bribery OK?]