Lessons in lifestyle journalism

Last December, my missus and I enjoyed a first-hand experience in lifestyle journalism, the soft news genre covering “all things, well, unabashedly consumer oriented” as one commentator notes. Here’s the format. In an effort to promote Flemish-speaking restaurants in the greater Brussels area, local television station Ring TV takes a couple out to dinner in exchange for rave reviews. Of course they don’t tell you that, but believe me, it is next to impossible to unleash your inner food critic when you’re being pampered for three hours straight. More wine, sir?