Earlier this week, there was a lot of talk about the CBS’ programming surrounding President Clinton’s new book, “My Life.” The controversy began when it was pointed out by RatherBiased.com that CBS’ website had links to Amazon.com where readers could click through and purchase the book, earning money for the network with every book sold.
Is this revenue driver legit after what a lot of people have called “blatant promotion” of Clinton’s memoirs? Is there a transparency problem with how CBS is making money off of the book?
As of this morning, the answer appears to be closer to “yes”, RatherBiased.com is reporting.
CBS’s failure to inform viewers of this conflict of interest may place it in violation of FCC regulations against payola, the practice of secretly making money from the on-air promotion of a product.
It’s not just speculation on the RatherBiased.com folks, either. A staffer at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has been looking into the story, and has received word from the FCC that if someone complained about the lack of transparency in CBS’ actions, then they will have to “take a look at it.”
1 response so far ↓
1 Rex Hammock // Jun 27, 2004 at 12:12 pm
Let me start off by saying I am no fan of CBS, Bill Clinton or the FCC. However, as I’ve indicated in a comment here previously, there is no there, there when it comes to this faux-controversy. Granted, I enjoy seeing CBS having to do a two-step response to the kind of faux-controversy they perpetuate on programs like 60 Minutes, but that’s all this is. Does anyone really believe CBS ran the story on its website in order to generate revenues on book sales via its Amazon affiliate store? And how transparent is it when the URL reveals the relationship?
It is a controversy when CBS promotes a book and does not reveal the fact that its parent company is the publisher of a book (Hillary’s book, for example), but that is not the issue here. CBS.com’s link to the affiliate store was in a side-bar box and it linked to a clearly-marked third-party retailer of a book published by a competitor (Random House’s Knopf) of its parent company. That CBS.com derives a small commission for delivering the purchaser to the 3rd-party retailer in a manner that any website in America and many countries internationally can replicate on-the-fly is NOT a controversy.
So, to repeat my argument:
1. Promoting a Viacom-published book on a Viacom-owned media outlet without revealing the connection is unethical.
2. Promoting a book published by a competitor and linking to a third-party retailer (that allows even individuals access to its marketplace to sell the title) and derving an affiliate commission is NOT unethical.