In this study, we employed ”in-depth interviews” to identify the taming and resistance strategies of newspaper and television journalists regarding paid news from production placement marketing projects in Taiwan. We found that news organizations frequently use four strategies that appeal to emotions, rewards, reason, and power to persuade their journalists to cover paid news from product placement marketing projects. Journalists usually pretended to be tamed by the power on the stage, then conversely tried to resist it off the stage. These journalists have used the ”hidden transcript” as their resistance strategy during the stages of ”receiving a product placement marketing project task,” ”gathering news,” ”postproduction,” ”prior to news release,” ”writing the news,” and ”postreporting” to struggle with the conflict of covering paid news while striving to maintain professionalism.