Chequebook Journalism.

[ESTEBEVERDE]

Should you pay to get an interview for a news story!?!?!?


It this ethical?!?!!?


What The Age says

"This newspaper does not engage in chequebook journalism. The instance of paying someone who may or may not have a story to tell produces a range of potential problems; nearly all of which rest on the question of credibility. Once payment is offered to interview a subject, word gets around and inevitably the currency is devalued. Years ago, the chequebook may have come out only in the case of, say, Lindy Chamberlain. Now it is opened up for survivors of a shark attack. And invariably the payments are cloaked in confidentiality. Even if a media outlet owns up to paying for a story, it won't say how much it paid. The news media - if they are to be about news and not entertainment - must be about disclosure, not private deals."

Editorial opinion, The Age, November 18, 2000


What's your opinion?

 

[Barry_Green]

Radical suggestion, but I don't think stations should be selling ads during the news. If part of the deal with the stations was that the public would receive news broadcasting in exchange for the right of the stations to use the public's airwaves, then where does advertising fit into that picture? And without advertising, the incentive for sensationalism disappears because stations wouldn't be trying to hype up their stories in order to attract a bigger viewing audience, and we would (perhaps) get back to factual reporting.

 

[mikkowilson]

The outlet paying for the story is one thing ... every videographer knows that if you capture something newsworthy, you don't just give the footage to every station in town .. you sell it. The same is fair game for a story of interest.

The problem comes when the outlet is payed to air a "story". For example a company paying a newspaper to print a press-report as an article, or a paying TV station to air your video-release/announcement as their news broadcast. At that point, it's not news any more, and if the audience isn't notified of this fact (for example the content is presented as original news) then that is extremely unethical. And Illegal in the USA; the FCC has fined TV stations HUGE amounts (tens of thousands of dollars) for doing that in the past when caught.

- Mikko

 

[ESTEBEVERDE]

Radical suggestion, but I don't think stations should be selling ads during the news. If part of the deal with the stations was that the public would receive news broadcasting in exchange for the right of the stations to use the public's airwaves, then where does advertising fit into that picture? And without advertising, the incentive for sensationalism disappears because stations wouldn't be trying to hype up their stories in order to attract a bigger viewing audience, and we would (perhaps) get back to factual reporting.

I like it!

Maybe we ought to make 2 hours of local news required for stations to license the airwaves and explicitly ban any and all commercial advertising?

 

[pmark23]

Some broadcasters and distributors will not buy a documentary unless you've signed a waiver that claims you've never given money or purchased anything from one of the documentary subjects (I know the CBC is very strict about this.)

However, most don't care.

 

[photolion]

Um... They are not talking about the newspaper paying a freelancer for writing a story. They are talking about paying a subject to be interviewed. This is something that has wiggled in and out of journalism for some time. Its something tabloids do, and lately some respectable mags have done it too.

As for no Ads on during newscasts, where do you think the money for the Gear/Trucks/Travel/Pay will come from? Most newscast lose money for the station (sans 1hour news mags... I.E. 20/20, 60 min).

 

[timbook2]

it all depends: if for example the person I interview is an ex mafia killer living under police protection and paying him is the only way to make him talk?

I could come up with more examples.....

 

[Fourth Line]

This is not quite the same thing in terms of local / national news, but I have paid people for interviews that would fall into the "expert" category. It's usually a very small honorarium, but I figure if I had asked them to speak at an event I would pay an honorarium and I am paying for their expertise.

 

[plexi]

If we're talking about $100 or $200, just to cover someone's time or travel expense, then I'm okay with it. But I generally don't offer money, and it's very rare that anyone I approach about being interviewed in a documentary asks what's in it for them.