Tuesday, July 26, 2011

ABC to stop paying for interviews

The headline on today's dailybeast.com media page was intriguing, "ABC Bans Paying News Subjects." But the subtext was even more. ABC had been paying for interviews, even while denying the practice.

Seems ABC was following a common industry practice of not actually paying for interviews, merely paying for photos or videos -- thus passing money along to an interview subject. Following the practices noted in our Wisconsin Supreme Court justices' advertising, it wasn't actually a lie to say they weren't paying for interviews because they were actually paying for the photos. Wink, wink.

Sadly, other networks (and print and online publications) haven't abandoned the practice.

1 comment:

CHICON said...

It is common practice for 'news' companies to pay for interviews. If it is disclosed I think it is OK. It is the phone hacking that crosses the line.