Turns out generosity has limits. Just days after the Northern Echo handed Cummins a free birthday fairy tale piece – sixty years of diesel rewritten as “community legacy” – they’re back on the payroll. “SPONSORED” content’s returned. “In partnership with Cummins”.
Last week it was civic pride; this week it’s a paid sermon about apprentices, STEM and “the power of the next generation”. Same by-lines, same borrowed sincerity, but now with a price tag. The Echo didn’t even let the balloons deflate before the invoice went out.
That’s how it works in Darlington’s press pen: one weekend of free flattery, the next a cash-backed encore. Cummins gets a steady drip-feed of positive noise; the paper gets to keep the lights on. Everyone wins except the reader, who’s being sold the same lie twice – first as “heritage”, then as “hope”.
The Echo calls it partnership. TCAP calls it dependency. Because when your business model relies on the same company you’re meant to scrutinise, journalism turns into product placement. And after years of this transactional worship, it’s impossible to tell where Cummins’ PR department ends and the newsroom begins.
The birthday was free. The follow-up was funded. And the stench? Getting worse, one article at a time.
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project
Source: The power of the next generation is seen through Cummins Apprentices