WAIT! WAIT! Calm down! AH SAY AH SAY... 'THATS A JOKE SON'
Posted on 06/03/2005 8:19:23 PM PDT by neverdem
I hope Mark Felt and his family get the big payoff they want, but they've already hurt their chances by ignoring his famous advice as Deep Throat. They didn't follow the money.
They didn't appreciate how seriously we journalists take our ethical standards. We are bound by the sacred vow we make to our sources: if the information you give us turns out to be profitable, we will keep the money.
Mr. Felt's family tried profiting from his revelation, but the news cartel held firm. People and Vanity Fair both rejected the family's overtures and held to their policy of not paying sources for news.
The best their lawyer could manage for disclosing the greatest secret in journalism was a fee from Vanity Fair for writing the article. He got about $10,000, which is less than what the magazine has paid for articles in which movie stars disclose they have a major motion picture about to open in a theater near you.
The Felts' mistake, of course, was hawking the secret directly instead of persevering with the genteel approach used by celebrities and former presidents: laundering the news through a book publisher. You don't actually have to write the book yourself, but once your name is on the cover, you've joined the literary priesthood and are pure enough to accept cash offerings.
As a mere source, though, you cannot be trusted with money, at least not according to the keepers of journalistic ethics in America. They say the money would taint the media's image, inspire lies from mercenary sources and maybe even corrupt journalists. An editor once told me that if he bought an article, he feared he would overplay it to justify the expense.
But editors are already tempted to overplay some stories simply because of the...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I hope he dies broke and hungry.
Sweet.
May this wipe that stupid smile of his daughters' face. And may he trip with his walker.
Hilarious, and true (for once).
What a coincidence that Hal Holbrook played a vigilante in both "All the President's Men" and "The Star Chamber."
I almost stopped reading right there; if I had, I would have missed the punch line.
They didn't appreciate how seriously we journalists take our ethical standards. We are bound by the sacred vow we make to our sources: if the information you give us turns out to be profitable, we will keep the money.
Hah. Mercenary asses...Bob, Carl, Deep Cover...all of them. I guess it's true that there's no honor among thieves.
Tierney: "If People magazine hadn't been bound by the taboo against checkbook journalism, it could have exposed Deep Throat on its cover this week. Instead it gave its readers an exclusive story on Britney's craving for pickles and ice cream..."
On, Off, or grab it for a Media Shenanigans/Schadenfreude/PNMCH ping:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~anamusedspectator/
"...how seriously we journalists take our ethical standards..."
I think the addition of this humor section in Free Republic is most welcome. It's good for one's constitution to have a good chuckle now and then.
BTTT
PEOPLE???? They were going to tell their story in PEOPLE MAGAZINE???? The only thing reader's of People know about Watergate is that Monica and her mother lived there!!! Sophomoric!
Both Tierney and Brooks have a talent that setting up that kind of satire. They are not liberals or moderates. They are the only Times' OpEd columnists that I read regularly. I get tired of reading, "I stopped reading right there". It frustrates me to no end when people declare that they can't keep an open mind just to entertain an idea for a little while.
The present day pictures of this old man and his ugly daughter make him look like a monkey on the organ grinder's leash.
They are holding up a man in front of the camera who has already forgotten just what it is he did.
What story does he have to "tell" exactly?
This is all about capitalizing on dad's crime. Don't Son Of Sam laws prohibit this?
Didn't Monica also sell her story? How much was she paid in comparison?
Jason Blair had it right. When you make up your sources, they don't come around asking for money later.
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