02/07/2024

Online Reviewers are Being Paid for Positive Reviews

Get used to it

Anyone who writes reviews for a living has heard it before, and plenty: "How much did you get paid to write this?"

I've been a critic of many things over the years: movies, wine and spirits, and all manner of tech gear, for WIRED and other publications. And, no matter what it is that I’m writing about, there’s always that one guy who pipes up in the comments suggesting that my opinions were bought and paid for.

It was invariably easy to dismiss these comments, but things got more complicated in September, when Vulture published a story that revealed the untold scale of the paid reviews industry. The story showed, among other things, how publicists were paying some independent film critics to review indie films and non-mainstream releases. These reviews, which were often published on independent film review websites, were then getting grabbed by Rotten Tomatoes. This meant, the story suggested, that a coveted Certified Fresh score on the hallowed "Tomatometer" could potentially be bought rather than earned.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.