On the illusion of truth

The New York Times has an article The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy on the activities of one Todd Rutherford, on his book review mill at GettingBookReviews.com.

Within the article, one has text:

Consumer reviews are powerful because, unlike old-style advertising and marketing, they offer the illusion of truth. They purport to be testimonials of real people, even though some are bought and sold just like everything else on the commercial Internet.

**Of reviews, see also IPBiz post
Evans and Gyulai escape misconduct charges at UPenn, with text

The critics said Emory University's psychiatry chairman Charles Nemeroff reviewed mood disorder therapies in the monthly journal Nature Neuroscience without revealing his ownership of a patent on one of the treatments.

On the "illusion of truth," contemplate the previous IPBiz post

Grassley tracking down physician/faculty who lend names to ghost-written articles , which included the text:

Concerns have been raised, however, that some medical literature may be little more than subtle advertisements rather than independent research.
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