Advertisements that appear on TPM and its companion sites are paid advertisements. The products, candidates, causes or whatever else is advertised comes with no endorsement from TPM, implied or otherwise.

Since first accepting ads in November 2003, we have adhered to the following ad policy: While we reserve the right to reject ads on the basis of taste and appropriateness, we neither accept nor reject ads on the basis of political content. Where ‘taste’ or ‘appropriateness’ may overlap with political disagreement we endeavor to err on the side of inclusion whenever possible.

We follow this policy because it is essential to preserving the editorial integrity of our product, which is news and information. Precisely because we are in the news and opinion business, advertising tied to ideas, issues or advocacy presents us with a particular challenge. If we reject ads that we disagree with, every ad we accept becomes, to one degree or another, a de facto endorsement. In other words, if we run ads only from candidates or causes we support, then the ad relationship also becomes an endorsement relationship. Even worse, a paid endorsement. That threatens the integrity of what we do — which is to report the facts we find and explain the opinions we have.

For further discussion of why we adhere to this policy see these earlier posts …

November 2nd, 2003

October 11th, 2004

October 13th 2004

April 10th, 2007