LAT pays people to watch paint dry!

...and, of all things, that's a good example of some quality reporting by the paper, IMO.

Turns out the paper was investigating claims that the city attorney, who is running for DA, hired firms to puff up his video views on YouTube. So to prove such companies, exist, well:

"To test how easy it is to buy views, The Times paid two online sites a total of $103 to generate views for a nearly two-minute video of paint drying. In eight days, the clip drew 60,000 views."

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/03/trutanich_campaign_paid_f.php

 

LAT hired the Hickory High basketball team?

 

Picket fences don't just run themselves.

 

Boy, this either further cheapens the value of web hits, or else, exponentially raises the stakes in getting them, no?

Given our other discussions on threads about Randy Youngman supposedly being victimized out of his job at the Orange County Register on the basis of web hits and some somewhat questionable coverage of NASCAR and other stuff by USA Today...god, what a business we seem to have going on here.