Though virtually unheard of nine months ago, "fake news" has quickly morphed into one of the major issues of the day, triggering a bit of a soul-searching crisis for the advertising industry. The problem isn't just that brand ads are appearing next to — and indirectly validating — fake content, it's that the money those brands are sending to sites that use fabricated articles to attract viewers is the biggest contributor to the explosion of fake news.
In advertisers' defense, many say programmatic media buying — specifically the ability to use cookies to follow and retarget a prospective customer around...