# News Program Segements & Pay **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682 "2005-01-08T02:04:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/1 "2005-01-08T02:04:26Z")
The whole thing with Williams and the No Child Left Behind act stirred up a debate on another forum and raised this question: Do programs such as 20/20, Nightline, 60 Minutes, etc receive money from publicists and the like to have certain hosts or to air segments? Or is it a matter of “Hey, so-and-so sent out a press release that he has this exposé coming out, call his publicist and say we want to pay him to appear on the show?” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/2 "2005-01-08T02:52:25Z")
For the most part in the U.S. - there have been a few exceptions, almost all of which have caused controversy - legitimate news shows do not accept money for segments nor do they pay the people who appear on them. Publicists don’t get segments onto legitimate news shows. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/3 "2005-01-08T16:46:39Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > For the most part in the U.S. - there have been a few exceptions, almost all of which have caused controversy - legitimate news shows do not accept money for segments nor do they pay the people who appear on them. Publicists don’t get segments onto legitimate news shows. Yes, so it was a complete and utter coincidence on NBC-4 TV in Los Angeles on this past Thursday’s local morning news, when a segment featuring an interview, done by some anonymous off-camera entity rather than one of the station’s numerous reporters, with a university researcher who had found that the only weight-loss program out of over a dozen tested that actually worked was Weight Watchers, was, after the bumper by the anchors, followed by a Weight Watchers commercial. :rolleyes: Such practices have been well-known for years. > [@Unreliable Sources](#): > > It has long been a sacred edict among media professionals that news and advertising (“church and state”) are supposed to be kept separate. Most newspaper publishers maintain that their ad directors don’t shape the stories and columns produced by their writers and editors. They say it would be unethical for moneyed interests ti influence news choices, which ought to rest on unbiased objective cirteria. > > But this golden rule of journalism is broken all the time. “The wall of separation between American news and the business interests is being systematically dismantled at institutional levels of journalism”, asserts Ben Bagdikian, former dean of the School of Journalism at the University of California in Berkeley. “The practice of selecting news in order to make advertising more effective is becoming so common that it has achieved the status of scientific precision and publishing wisdom.” > > The blurring of distinctions between news and advertising raises troubling questions that aren’t being asked by the major media. Isn’t it misleading and ethically dubious for famous TV journalists to participate in commercials? Yet there was no outcry when ABC’s Sam Donaldson lent his voice and prestige for a slick new form of TV advertising known as the “video news release.” > > “Television segments that look like news spots but subtly tout products are flooding into newsrooms for airing as part of regular news programming,” wrote Pacific News Service (PNS) correspondent Susan Davis in mid-1989. Produced by corporate PR firms, these videos feature expert commentary, dramatic visuals and the voices of top TV anchors, punctuated by a glimpse of the company’s product or name. On one video news release, Sam Donaldson was heard introducing a segment on airport security systems that featured a new chemical sensing device for detecting plastic explosives. This well-produced piece was actually an ad for the Amercan Chemical Society. > > Every week, hundreds of local TV stations, beset by budget and staff cutbacks, air these free, ready-made news releases, which look increasingly realistic. Even veteran media observers often fail to distinguish between video PR spots and station-produced news. “It’s just appalling,” University fo California sociologist Todd Gitlin told PNS. “Most local news is simply a matter of reporters going to obvious sources and accepting waht’s spoon-fed. But this is one more step on the slippery slope to accepting someone else’s prefab news blip.” Remember, the idea of a TV show of any stripe telling you specifically and accurately when the programming stops and the advertising begins is a matter of convention, not law. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/4 "2005-01-08T17:42:31Z")
The OP referred to the network news magazines, which are a completely different entity than local news broadcasts. Apples and oranges. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/5 "2005-01-08T17:58:59Z")
I want to nitpick a small point, xap. It is, most assuredly, a publicists job to get face time on news shows for his or her client. He just can’t PAY to have it occur (or shouldn’t). But he can issue press releases, follow up with producers about ‘did you see our press release…isn’t that an important story?’, take producers out to lunch to build a relationship, sent Christmas baskets, etc. It happens all the time. My little side-project gets me every computer game ever released for free and loads of other free stuff just on the off chance that we’ll give them some ink. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/6 "2005-01-08T18:08:15Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > The OP referred to the network news magazines, which are a completely different entity than local news broadcasts. Apples and oranges. Sam Donaldson wasn’t on a local newcast, he was on a national news program. More like apples and bigger, fatter, juicier apples. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/7 "2005-01-08T18:09:29Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Publicists don’t get segments onto legitimate news shows. Getting segments onto news shows (and articles into magazines, newspapers, and Web sites) is a publicist’s _job_. It’s what they get paid for. As **Jonathan Chance** pointed out, they don’t (or shouldn’t) pay to get things aired, but they know who to contact and how to do it. I used to do some ghostwriting work for a publicist. He’d send me some drek slapped together by a CEO or CTO who wanted to get the word out on his company’s latest innovation. I’d turn it into a magazine article, and the publicist would get it into print. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/8 "2005-01-08T18:59:52Z")
> [@scotandrsn](#): > > Sam Donaldson wasn’t on a local newcast, he was on a national news program. > > More like apples and bigger, fatter, juicier apples. All right, let’s look at your claim. One, your own source refutes you: despite the presence of Sam Donaldson, there is no indication that the “video news release” was used anywhere other than on local news broadcasts. Two, despite the no outcry claim, Donaldson did get slammed for lending his name that way. Three, the outcry lead to the ending of such participation, which may be why you had to go back 16 years for an example. I said in so many words that there were a few controversial exceptions. You didn’t actually point out one, and even if you had, pointing one out wouldn’t have negated what I wrote. Let me say it again. While local news often does accept “news” items from non-news sources - not just publicists: the Bush administration has been caught doing this at least twice - it is not now nor has it ever been a normal practice for the network news shows or magazines. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/9 "2005-01-08T21:09:13Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Publicists don’t get segments onto legitimate news shows. OK, let’s examine your claim. Go to the [Dateline](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/) start page. Now, if your claim is true, we should see nothing there that is not legitimate news, free from any influence of marketing. Indeed, we see the main story is the tsunami aftermath. No one claimed that publicists controlled the ENTIRETY of the content. Coming up on Sunday’s edition? A segment with an author of a brand new diet book. Newsmakers, the most important recent stories about people? Elizabeth Edwards, certainly legitimate. Each of the other four is someone on a publicity tour for some recent or upcoming project, and THREE of the four have strong ties to NBC Universal (Kirstie Alley has doen two series with them, Meet the Fockers is a Universal Picture, and Ellen Degeneres show is co-owned by NBC Universal. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. I’m sure all these stories would be produced and prominently featured WITHOUT the company ties. More Stories from Dateline? An extra plug for Meet the Fockers, a story on Billy Crystal’s one man broadway show, which was partially written by former Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, who I’m sure has not a single friend left at the network from his days at NBC. Coincidences all, that so much top-level news happens to be related to entertainment products from the same company that produces the show. Puh. Lease. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/10 "2005-01-08T23:25:29Z")
It’s one thing for a network news magazine to promote network shows, or other connections. They are, after all, about entertainment, and if they can entertain and promote the network, that’s fine. Some of the lighter pieces are chosen with factors like that in mind, no argument. But it isn’t outside publicists that put the shows onto the network. It’s the network’s own promotion department who suggests stories. The newsmagazines often take the suggestions, but they are free to ignore them. But if you were an outside publicist contacting the network, they aren’t going to listen, unless your client is newsworthy in a particular way (If, say, J. D. Salinger hired a publicist, the networks would jump at the chance for the interview). But they wouldn’t pay for an interview. For local news, there is a practice of various people of providing videotaped reports that are essentially, a free advertisement. This is highly controversial, and much criticized (often by the very people introducing the segments), but since the tape is free, management will insist on using them for filler. It is unusual – and considered highly unethical – for a journalist to accept money to run a story. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/11 "2005-01-09T00:03:26Z")
Thanks, **Chuck**. You’re more patient with someone who enjoys changing the subject whenever he’s proved wrong than I am. However, let me just remind him of the OP. Do programs such as 20/20, Nightline, 60 Minutes, etc **receive money** from publicists and the like to have certain hosts or to air segments? Or is it a matter of “Hey, so-and-so sent out a press release that he has this exposé coming out, call his publicist and say we want to **pay** him to appear on the show?” The answers, no matter how much **scotandrsn** obfuscates, are still no, and no. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/12 "2005-01-09T00:56:06Z")
Well, you’re certainly right that it **shouldn’t** happen. But as appears to be the case it **can** happen. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/13 "2005-01-09T01:20:20Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Thanks, **Chuck**. You’re more patient with someone who enjoys changing the subject whenever he’s proved wrong than I am. However, let me just remind him of the OP. > > Do programs such as 20/20, Nightline, 60 Minutes, etc **receive money** from publicists and the like to have certain hosts or to air segments? Or is it a matter of “Hey, so-and-so sent out a press release that he has this exposé coming out, call his publicist and say we want to **pay** him to appear on the show?” > > The answers, no matter how much **scotandrsn** obfuscates, are still no, and no. Point taken. Yes, the General Questions answer is as you have stated it. I was addressing what I perceived (perhaps incorrectly) to be the larger question behind the stated one: “Do marketers with something to sell to us have what might be thought of as an inordinate level of influence on what is presented to us as the key news items of the day?” The General Questions answer to which is “You better believe they do.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-program-segements-pay/283682/14 "2005-01-09T06:01:24Z")
That the networks do plugging stories on the behest of their corporate masters is trivially true, because that’s why they bought the networks in the first place. It ain’t much in the way of synergy, but it’s more than most mergers ever achieve. If you want to know next week’s stories, you don’t need any psychic powers: just read _The New York Times_, _The Wall Street Journal_, and the _Washington Post_. I guarantee that you will start noticing lots of duplication two or three days later on the nightly news programs. And the entertainment side of the system will certainly be capable of being swayed by the blandishments of publicists or anyone who can deliver the stars that are bigger than the networks. But. Yes, you know there had to be a but coming. But, you haven’t presented a single sentence of evidence that the actual news department controlled shows and magazines give “marketers with something to sell to us have what might be thought of as an inordinate level of influence on what is presented to us as the key news items of the day.” Not one particle. If you have a case to make, go ahead and make it. I’ll be very curious to see what and how much solid evidence you can muster for it. And how and if you break it down among network news, network entertainment, cable news, local news, syndicated shows, and the other various pieces of broadcasting today, as they each have separate rules and validations.