Being Critical of Criticism

I found a very amusing page today called ThePoke that criticizes the front page of the Daily Mail.  I will admit that the Daily Mail is usually pretty terrible even for an internet news site but after viewing the page that was so critical of them I could hardly decide between giggles and tears.  Here is the picture satirizing the Daily Mail:

So, the Daily Mail is being criticized for using randomly sexualized content to grab attention, making up ridiculous things to try to excite readers, and fabricating news.  Sure, that sounds like them.

But.

When I looked at the sidebar for the site hosting this satire, it had six ads on the sidebar.  Two feature fat shirtless men as part of ads for a scam to lose weight with pills.  Two feature attractive, ripped shirtless men advertising other pills as a scam to gain muscle and for 'work at home make huge money' scams.  The fifth picture was shockingly not sexualized but was for more scammy lose weight pills, and the sixth picture was an ad for an auction website... also a scam.

The thing I really want to know is if the people who run ThePoke actually think they are somehow bringing the truth and don't see any contradiction between their criticisms and the ads they choose to run or if they are just evil and know it.

How do you criticize a news source for ridiculous and self serving schlock when you are advertising with fake news stories that sell worthless sugar pills?  How do you spend time moralizing about out of place sexualization on front pages while using ripped shirtless men to push several different kinds of scams on *your* front page?

At least their criticism of paparazzi isn't obviously hypocritical, so that is something.

Even the people trying to do a takedown of a piss poor news source are just trying to get you to give your money to disgusting scams.  I give you ... the internet.