How does this not violate some sort of journalistic standards?
Years ago, I had a boyfriend who was a journalism student. He was doing a story on a particular topic and was looking for a woman to interview who had some relation to the issue. I suggested he talk to my grandmother who had been quite involved.
He did, but I remember him saying that it wouldn't usually have been looked on that well to have interviews someone who you had that connection to, even with one degree of separation. There was too much potential for bias. (In this case it was a very light topic so not such a huge deal.)
How can picking up people from this kind of "service" be anything other than wholly problematic though?