Six years ago, I wrote a post for this here blog about how the Dallas Observer had sold its cover to Shiner. I was outraged. Outraged, I tell you! Had they no standards? And what was the world coming to?

Well, today the Morning News rolled out a paper with a fake front page full of redacted stories. It’s a clever ad for an Amazon movie titled The Report. Grant Moise, the paper’s president and publisher, says this is the first time the News has accepted a “frontpage wrap” ad. A couple of us at work stood around in the kitchen this morning, assessing the thing. My take: “Yeah, OK, whatever, good for them. Gotta make money somehow.”

How times have changed. Three years from now, Robert Wilonsky will get a “sexy teeth” Mint Dentistry tattoo ad on his neck, and I’ll shrug and say, “I guess that’s what it takes.”

God (and Amazon) help us.

