WASHINGTON, D.C. May 13, 2013 (DPI) — Last night’s segment of “60 Minutes” on the 2012 rescue of an aid worker in Somalia turned out to be another book promotion for CBS Corp. publisher Simon & Schuster.

That unseemly fact was ignored by producers of the popular long-running television show, which no longer discloses that book-based segments are little more than 20-minute commercials for new titles of a CBS-affiliated publisher.

In years past, “60 Minutes” disclosed those interviews and segments that promoted books published by CBS-affiliated publishers.

Promoting books on “60 Minutes” by producing dramatic segments  and interviews related to their content originated after Viacom acquired CBS in 2000; today CBS Corp., spun off from Viacom in 2005, continues to be controlled by Viacom’s chairman, Sumner Redstone.

But recently “60 Minutes” has abandoned any disclosure standards about book-related segments. Last night’s segment on the rescue of Jessica Buchanan from Somali kidnappers pitched the book, “Impossible Odds,” without disclosing that the publisher, Atria Books, is an affiliate of CBS-owned Simon & Schuster.

A call by DPI to CBS’s New York headquarters was not returned Monday.

But remarkably, there’s little criticism of the practice of a media company promoting its own business interests in its news programs. Media critic Howard Kurtz, among others, has made no mention of it, and readers and viewers themselves don’t seem to care, if internet search results are any indicator.

Out of 46 comments posted Monday, only two comments cited the fact that a book promotion spurred production of the Jessica Buchanan segment, and only one of those expressed criticism, poorly worded at that:

’60 Minutes’ only has lost its neutrality.
This segment be an endorsement, so to sell books. Sound familiar?
That’s what local media been doing for too many years, already.

Had that female not been a blonde, as blondes always are high-profile in media news.
As blonde$ $ell.
Would ’60 Minutes’ still have had equal sympathy to the female, so to present the segment?

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8601-500251_162-50146677-1.html?assetTypeId=58&blogId=

With all the disruption in the media industry – the collapse of newspapers, and decline of cable television, the routine theft of copyrighted material — the offense of not disclosing business motives embedded in a television news program may seem like a small matter.  After all, Oprah Winfrey for decades popularized book promotions, but she just as often promoted titles owned by independent publishers.

But the lack of disclosure of such relevant information suggests that major news outlets — even 60 Minutes – are more than happy to trade on their journalistic prestige to promote their own business interests.

Such double-dealing undermines the credibility of CBS News, which like all media outlets focus on all types of conflict-of-interest and disclosure matters. As experts rightly point out, how can CBS report on anonymous donors to American political campaigns when it is quietly failing to disclose its own conflicts of interest? And, experts add, disclosure of such business interests in a news segment would actually enhance the credibility of the news show generally and the segment itself.