The Washington Post has an article about Corey Greenburg's appearing on
TV shows as a consumer electronics expert and getting paid for those
apperances by the companies whose products he touts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Apr19.html

--- An excerpt:

Corey Greenberg, tech editor for NBC's "Today" show, appeared last
July to praise Apple's iPod as "a great portable musical player . . .
the coolest-looking one" and suggested a compatible device to "share
your music with other people." "This is the way to go," he declared.

"Let's cut the Apple commercial here right now, okay?" co-host Matt
Lauer interjected.

Lauer was onto something. Greenberg, an NBC contributor, confirmed
yesterday that he has received payments from Apple as well as Sony,
Hewlett-Packard, Seiko Epson, Creative Technology and Energizer
Holdings, charging $15,000 apiece to talk up their products on news
shows. The contracts were first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal.

--- end of excerpt

The worst part of the story is that NBC will go on using Greenburg.

I doubt that the high-end audio inductry is large enough to warrant
large cash payments. However, it does suggest that magazines and
websites look at long term equipment loans and other perks that the
general public would not recreive.

Bill