Checkbook Journalism

ABC News was accused and admitted to paying Casey Anthony, who is on trial for the murder of her daughter, $200,000 for exclusive rights to photos and home video for television broadcast while covering the trial. The Society of Professional Journalists calls this "checkbook journalism", and it is becoming popular among major broadcast networks.

According to the SPJ, "checkbook journalism" is unethical. Paying a source for any reason gives the public rights to doubt the credibility of the news outlet. Not to mention the fact, if sources believe money is involved, they could embellish and exaggerate the story in order to get paid a larger amount. It is also not fair to other news organizations to pay for exclusive interviews.

ABC News is not the only major news network to be accused of "checkbook journalism." Other culprits that have been called out by the SPJ include: CBS, CNN and NBC.

Why do these organizations do this? Surly, none of the major broadcast networks would take money from sources because it would create a conflict of interest, which is one of the Seven Deadly Sins of Journalism. So isn't paying a source doing the same thing, but in reverse?

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Work of the Sob Sisters

Long narratives about disfiguring aiments, and fatal illnesses particularly involving young children pull at the heart strings. The lessons of redemption and spiritual stamina strongly tug at the emotional connection of the reader.

Today, like long ago, stories are manipulating emotions more than they are providing information. A study of trends in Pulitzer Prize-winning feature stories found that a significant amount of the winning stories were about illness or a death by murder.

Appetites for emotinal stories are growing. During a time of anxiety and recession, readers often find these tales comforting. Unlike its macho past, newspapers and journalism today is built on the emotional connection. In a competitive media market you have to deliver something "different". The need to find positive meaning in suffering and the redemption to over come is so strong that journalists tend to go overboard.

Matthew T. Felling, media director at the Center for Media and Public Affairs, attributes the trend to a "weep creep" from television to print. The "sob stories" have become a standard and have conditioned news consumers to look for them in every news product.

Does this emotional connection attract the otherwise less interested reader? Newspapers and other media outlets alike are taking the "shock jock" approach in order to maintain profit margins and business models.

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Advertising on the Front Page?

Page designers, editors and even reporters are grudgingly gaining acceptance of page-one advertisements. For years unfashionable, advertisements are slowly making their way to the front page.

In the past, they snaked across the bottom of the page as a column strip or they have graced the page in right-corner boxes. Increasing in size, changing in color and shape, they are slowly creeping to a front page near you.

Many journalists believe this tragic, distasteful event violates the true meaning of news and journalism. Their is a fine line and a sacred wall between news and business. Many feel they scramble to flow and order of the page. In an ear of decreasing newsholes, journalists feel they eat up space otherwise devoted to stories.

The San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and many other Gannett papers have published front page advertisements for years. Page-one ads net premium prices and drive revenue. Somes papers such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe have dabbled in ads on section fronts but have kept page one off-limits. Some of the larger papers which debut front page ads feel that this is just an evolution of multimedia news.

As more and more papers dive into this taboo trend, the designers are working to minimize how distracting they may appear. Opinions about page-one advertising continue to surface at a constant pace. Some believe that if the ads are guided by taste, they are acceptable. While others feel this is a sign of painful ecomonic times for newspapers.

As long as newspapers continue to deliver the latest relevant news, and put better stories on the top of the front page, who cares what you put in an ad at the bottom of the page?

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