What do the war in Ukraine, toilet cleaner, and the dying news industry have in common? In short: online ads.
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
Cherise Seucharan
Reporter, CANADALAND
Jonathan Goldsbie
News Editor
Tristan Capacchione
Audio Editor & Technical Producer
Sarah Lawrynuik
Senior Producer
Kieran Oudshoorn
Managing Editor, Podcasts
Hosted by Jesse Brown
The digital advertising industry is worth billions, but many companies don’t actually know where their ad dollars end up. Programmatic ad exchanges and other third-party platforms have enabled companies to buy ads without the hassle of going to each seller. But in doing so, these ad exchanges have opened the door for fake news and disinformation sites to profit. As reporter Cherise Seucharan finds out, it has become easier and easier for these sites to proliferate, while real news websites lose out.
Featured in this episode:
Nandini Jammi and Claire Atkin, co-founders of Check My Ads; Augustine Fou, anti-ad fraud consultant; Danny Rogers, co-founder and executive director at The Global Disinformation Index
“ It was hot girls having a blast. There's nothing wrong with that. I thought it was aspirational. I did not yet realize that we were in fact shooting porn and that that was actually happening in the back room of the bus that we were living on.”
- Courtney Kocak, former Girls Gone Wild “Merch Girl”
“ My brother, first and foremost, was a good person. He was very bright, he was educated, and he was autistic. And I think had he not met the creeper hunter, I think he would still be alive today.” -Brother of “John Doe #1”
“We need to start dis-entangling from the United States as quickly as possible, economically, politically, socially, militarily, and culturally.” -Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War
Jesse Brown is an ideological slut. Well, so he says. His past votes have jumped, in no particular order, from the Conservatives to the NDP “....maybe there was a fringe party or Parti Québécois vote in there somewhere, I can’t even remember who I’ve thrown in with over the years — I have no loyalty, I’m politically promiscuous.”
“ Here is what I would've done if I was Mark Carney, right? Just let it be out there. If you really have nothing to hide, don't hide.” - Professor Partha Mohanram
“...the tentacles of party discipline and party control have completely grabbed a hold of everybody and they have a really hard time breaking free. We just no longer have politicians who can speak their minds, politicians who can stand up on behalf of their constituents.” -Alex Marland, author of Whipped: Party Discipline in Canada
“ …the City of Pickering has witnessed a growing infiltration of alt right individuals, ideologies, and influences that have created an atmosphere of uncertainty, fear, and intimidation over our Council, our staff, our residents, and indeed the broader community.”
- Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe
