CBSNEWS PUSHED BOOK IT OWNS; '60 MINUTES' DID NOT REVEAL PARENT COMPANY'S FINANCIAL STAKE

Drudgereport.com ^ | 3/22/04 | Drudge

[NYC Republican]

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MON MARCH 22, 2004 12:04:25 ET XXXXX

NEWS FOR SALE: CBS PUSHED BOOK IT OWNS; '60 MINUTES' DID NOT REVEAL PARENT COMPANY'S FINANCIAL STAKE IN CLARKE PROJECT

CBSNEWS did not inform its viewers last night that its parent company owns and has a direct financial stake in the success of the book by former White House terror staffer turned Bush critic, Dick Clarke, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.

60 MINUTES aired a double-segment investigative report on the new book "Against All Enemies" -- but did not disclose how CBSNEWS parent VIACOM is publishing the book and will profit from any and all sales!

ETHICAL BREACH

CBS even used heavy promotion for the 60 MINUTES/book launch during its Sunday sports shows.

It is not clear who made the final decision at CBSNEWS not to inform the viewer during 60 MINUTES how they were watching a news story about a VIACOM product.

60 MINUTES pro Lesley Stahl is said to have been aware of the conflict before the program aired.

[CBSNEWS.COM did add a disclaimer to its Internet coverage of the book over the weekend: "Against All Enemies," which is being published Monday by FREE PRESS, a subsidiary of SIMON & SCHUSTER. Both CBSNews.com and SIMON & SCHUSTER are units of VIACOM." And CBS RADIO did carry a disclaimer in its news coverage of the book.]

SIMON & SCHUSTER INFO-COMMERCIAL

Earlier this year, it was Stahl who also profiled another author on 60 MINUTES -- for another book owned by VIACOMCBS -- without any disclaimer!

"The Price of Loyalty" by former Treasury Secretary, turned Bush critic, Paul O'Neill was financed, produced and released [and rolled-out at CBSNEWS] by VIACOM's SIMON & SCHUSTER.

Coming in future weeks, best-selling author Bob Woodward is set to release his PLAN OF ATTACK, a fresh look at the Bush White House.

Will the Woodward VIACOMSIMON&SCHUSTER product debut on: VIACOMSIMON&SCHUSTERCBS's 60 MINUTES?

[EDITOR'S NOTE: STAHL'S INTERVIEW WITH CLARKE ON '60 MINUTES' WAS THE TOP-RATED SHOW OF SUNDAY NIGHT WITH 11.9 RATING/19 SHARE.]

[MoJoWork_n]

In the end, does it really matter which company owns what fragment of what other? With the Communications Act of Whatever Year it Was (95 or 96, I can't remember) it's gotten so much easier for all the big frogs to merger up with the little ones. How many mega-news-corps are really left now, if you count all the cross-ownership? If they were fingers on your hand, would it be a digit or two short?

But that's a digression... In the end, what's going to matter is the content of the message, and the messengers themselves -- Clarke, O'Neill, whoever comes along next. Clarke's been around for such a long time, and he comes off as more or less convincing on TV, when he says his book was written "for the historical record"... Who are people going to believe? Who was really saying what, to whom?

Pardon the heresy, but I'd honestly *love it* if the 9/11 commission did it's job scrupulously and thoroughly, and lived up to the President's original mandate, "to investigate all roads, no matter where they may lead"... or something like that. Without regard to politics, finger-pointing, or hysterical, partisan childishness. Just the best interests of the country as one united whole.

Like we originally were on Sept. 12th, and the 13th, and a few more days, and weeks and months after that.