Photo: CBS

Next week marks the beginning of March Madness, which always comes with record lows in workday productivity. One study suggests the tournament costs U.S. companies at least $134 million in lost wages in the first two days alone. Now that CBS lets you stream the games on demand, though, so many workers watch at their desks that the added stress is actually starting to cause annual network crashes.

Well, the IT nerds aren’t going to take it from the jocks anymore. According to a survey from IT service company Modis, more than a third of IT departments will be taking some action, "including banning March Madness video, throttling video feeds, or simply blocking content altogether."

Modis President Jack Cullen defended the idea of blocking streaming services, saying that there is really no other option to stop millions of grown men and women from watching/gambling on a sporting event at work.

"March Madness is one of the most popular sporting events in the country, so many fans don't want to miss a minute of it — even if they're at work," Cullen said."However, streaming content can put a significant burden on networks and the IT professionals responsible for maintaining them. Instituting systems and policies to block or reduce access is really the most logical option."

But much like any part of a business, nothing's fair when it comes to the higher ups. The Modis survey also found that 66 percent of IT workers would make an exception for a boss or CEO, and that 52 percent would do the same for senior employees.

If you do plan on watching March Madness this year, just ditch work and head to your local bar, because IT guys are people too, and they would rather blow off work to watch March Madness like the rest of us rather than fix the problems it causes.

(Photo: Pornhub)

When it comes to advertising, it's hard out there for a porn company--not that one of the Internet's biggest porn websites really needs to advertise itself. As all those pearl-clutchy "Vine's Porn Problem" posts will tell you, porn is everywhere on the Internet, and most of those NSFW videos can be viewed on PornHub, a popular adult video streaming site.

Now, BuzzFeed reports that PornHub has created a totally SFW Super Bowl ad, only to have it harshly rejected by the bigwigs at CBS. (We've reached out to CBS in order to independently verify that it rejected the ad.)

The adorable ad features an elderly couple happily sitting on a bench. That's basically it. Then the Pornhub logo flashes on the screen at the end. Sure, kids could presumably see that and Google "Pornhub," but we'd argue it would be one of the least offensive Super Bowl ads (lookin' at you, GoDaddy).

Pornhub has created a (SFW) website where users can vote on whether or not the ad should've been rejected; so far 82 percent of people agree the ad should air.

Hopping into headlines, thanks to CBS.

This morning, The Verge published a damning report on an apparent conflict of interest in CNET’s “Best of CES” awards.

The post claimed that CNET's editorial staff, which votes on the award, crowned Dish Network's Hopper set-top box device the winner. But before the staff could reveal its decision, CBS--CNET's parent company--interceded because of litigation filed by CBS and other networks over the Hopper's ability to skip past commercials.

"Before the winner was unveiled, CBS Interactive News senior-vice president and General Manager Mark Larkin informed CNET's staff that the Hopper could not take the top award. The Hopper would have to be removed from consideration, and the editorial team had to re-vote and pick a new winner from the remaining choices. Sources say that Larkin was distraught while delivering the news — at one point in tears — as he told the team that he had fought CBS executives who had made the decision."

CNET's initial disclaimer about the awards did not state that Hopper had been chosen a winner, only that it was removed from the running. According to the disclaimer:

"The Dish Hopper with Sling was removed from consideration due to active litigation involving our parent company CBS Corp. We will no longer be reviewing products manufactured by companies with which we are in litigation with respect to such product."

The Verge says both Mr. Larkin and reviews lead Lindsey Turrentine "fought for full disclosure, but were rebuffed by CBS."

Not long after The Verge's report, Greg Sandoval, a veteran reporter who has worked at CNET since 2005 announced his resignation on Twitter under the handle @SandoCNET over concerns about "editorial independence."

He appears to be the first staffer to voice his misgivings about the actions of CNET's corporate parent. Judging by the last big dustup over conflicts of interest in tech reporting, we don't imagine he'll be the last. But like Buzzfeed said, this is pretty much every tech reporter's worst nightmare.

We've reached out to Mr. Sandoval for comment and will update the post when we hear back.

UPDATE: Both CBS and CNET editor-in-chief Lindsey Turrentine have responded to the controversy. CBS released a statement calling its interference in the CES awards "an isolated and unique incident in which a product that has been challenged as illegal."

"The product in question is not only the subject of a lawsuit between Dish and CBS, but between Dish and nearly every other major media company as well. CBS has been consistent on this situation from the beginning, and, in terms of covering actual news, CNET maintains 100% editorial independence, and always will."

Of course, as CNET's competitors have pointed out, according to their previous disclaimer, this means that CBS views product reviews as something other than "actual news."

So, according to CBS, product reviews aren't journalism. Good to know!

— matt buchanan (@mattbuchanan) January 14, 2013

Like TechCrunch before it, however, CNET has covered the meta story in its webpages. Editor-in-chief Lindsey Turrentine confirmed that her editorial team had indeed selected Dish Hopper as the winner. She also called CBS' conflict of interest "real" because "a legal case can impact the bottom line of our company and introduce the possibility of bias," but expressed remorse about the lack of transparency in the process:

"If I had to face this dilemma again, I would not quit. I stand by my team and the years of work they have put into making CNET what it is. But I wish I could have overridden the decision not to reveal that Dish had won the vote in the trailer. For that I apologize to my staff and to CNET readers."

Everyone will knowwwww (Photo: flickr.com/jamiesrabbits)

Obama just signed into law a bill that makes it legal for Netflix to share what you watch on your Facebook page (provided you give them the okay, of course). [Gizmodo]

Yikes: CNET was forced to withdraw a "Best of CES" award by its parent company, CBS, which is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Dish, the company that makes the product in question. [Buzzfeed]

Hey, Groupon stock is trading at double its all-time low! Before anyone breaks out the champagne, that's around $5.20. [TNW]

GM is hiring a thousand high-tech workers--software developers, database experts, etc.--for a new "innovation center" in a suburb of Atlanta. [Wall Street Journal]

“We’re fucked. These guys don’t want to take over our land—they want to come over and take our water and go back. They like where they are.” [AllThingsD]

Ashton, you sly fox! (Instagram: @thatpatrick)

How hip is Ashton Kutcher? The actor-angel has a hand in many of the hottest social media startups around (as well as some mega-losers) and he loves to do them favors. After Mr. Kutcher subtly pimped his investments without disclosure in Details comes this clever touch of realism: Mr. Kutcher's tech billionaire character Walden Schmidt has two stickers each for New York startups Foursquare and Groupme on his--is that a Macbook Air?--laptop alongside stickers for his portfolio companies Flipboard, Chegg and Hipmunk. Anybody know what that other red sticker is for?

CBS was not pleased, Yahoo's Trending Now reported, vowing to blur out the plugs in the future unless the companies pay for the exposure. Considering the value of an eyeball impression is still very much in debate--and 20,000 people already saw the brands anyway--we doubt many startups would pony up for the product placement. But Mr. Kutcher is still basically the man when it comes to abusing his celebrity and wading into the waters of FTC scrutiny in the service of startups.

Social and the city

You know how it goes. Those first couple dates are full of excitement. Funny stories, new restaurants, a feeling of connection and spontaneity. "That's the way I feel about Google+ right now," says Shira Lazar, social media maven and host of CBS interactive news program, What's Trending. "People are really engaged with the conversations on there, in part because they are learning a new network, and so stuff doesn't just become white noise."  Considering Betabeat's idea of a good time is a warm fire, a bowl of popcorn and the complete GeoCities archives, things probably would't work out.

But we decided to pick Ms. Lazar's brain for a few more thoughts on the social media landscape. "Well, first off, I'm pretty sure we won't be calling it social media for much longer," she noted. "It will just be media, and everything will be social."

BETABEAT: It seems like a tension is developing between journalists and their employers, because platforms like Twitter allow a single person to create a very big broadcast network. You work for CBS and you're big on Twitter, how do you see that evolving?

SHIRA LAZAR: I think there has to be a balance between developing your personal brand and representing your employer. I’ve always had a foot in both worlds, relying on a corporate parent but at the same time developing my own following. But I do think in the near future we will see a lot more independent stars who are then contracted by the networks who want to tap the audience these individuals have built up.

Right. You can see that already with video stars like iJustine, Fred and Annoying Orange, who left Youtube, the platform that made them huge, in favor of Blip.tv, which gives them more control of their brand and access to a broader audience.

SL: The fact is the youtube stars of today are turning down the networks because they are making enough money and they own the audience, why give up complete creative freedom. Down the road I see more partnerships happening, but I think web stars look at traditional media as a way to market themselves and find a big audience funnel.

But isn't there a danger to relying on a social network as your working capital?

SL: The smart stars are definitely diversifying their networks. That's the real display of strength, not just having a million followers, but having engaged followers, who will follow you from one platform to the next. I mean, Tila Tequila was the queen of MySpace, but aside from a reality show, that fame hasn't really translated to the emergent social networks.

What do you do to avoid being lumped in with all the social media snake oil out there?

SL: You hear the word "guru" a lot these days, but if you're just tweeting a ton and calling yourself an expert, it won't last. Services like Klout are getting better at measuring who really has influence. And when we look back at this time period, social media will be like that MTV video about The Internet from 1995. It will just be part of everyone's lives, and treating it like this new phenomenon will seem quaint.

Check out Ms. Lazar live on today's episode of What's Trending with Twitter Maverick Mark Cuban.