While reading the New York Times this morning, I came across this well-reported story about the government's testy relationship with "free" credit report services. The Federal Trade Commission is struggling to fight back against private credit report services that lure people with the promise of a free credit score but then latch them onto a $15-a-month monitoring service. The FTC runs its own free credit report site, but few know about it because the private sites have commercials with catchy jingles.

To fight back, the FTC has made its own video spoofing the private spots. (Slate reviewed the spots back in April.) The song isn't nearly as catchy, but it gets the point across: Trust your government more than your fellow citizen. All good and fine, but why isn't the government fighting back on Google?

If you search for "free credit report," the first official return Google spits back is to the FTC's site, AnnualCreditReport.com. But it's superceded by three sponsored returns, all of which are the kind of private sites the FTC wants us to stay away from. Same issue when you search for  "credit report" or "free credit": The FTC site shows up first; the sponsored sites push it down the page.

So why isn't the FTC buying these ads, too? If the goal is to run the other sites out of town, surely they can scrounge up some funding to buy an ad on credit report keywords. (I have a call into the FTC for more comment. I'll update this post if I get any.) To push back only through video ignores the broader medium in which the private sites thrive. In the Google age, it takes more than a parody to fight the good fight. The FTC can do better.