Morrow Is Dead

When CBS paid Michael Jackson to do a fawning "60 Minutes" inteview, I commented that Edward R. Murrow must be turning over in his grave. Well now CBS is denying that it paid Jackson, apparently hiding behind the euphamism that having its entertainment division "sweeten" the deal for a prime-time special by $1M if Jackson did the 60 Minutes interview is not paying for the interview.

CBS Charges "Times" Printed "Colossal Lie" [USAToday.com]. "CBS shredded whatever remained of its news division's ethical standards," wrote Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times. "Checkbook journalism is a pretty dirty term, but it somehow seems inadequate to describe the arrangement. All that's missing is a wire transfer to a numbered account in the Cayman Islands." But again, a million dollars distributed from this budget or that budget doesn't necessarily taint CBS or the, uh, venerable CBS News any more than they have already tainted themselves by simply serving as Jackson's de facto marketing arm.

Maybe we should just all give up the pretense that there's anything left to journalism today. Morrow is dead and buried. He's never coming back.

 Posted by glenn