The chairman of the Radio, Television and Digital News Association (RTDNA) has joined the chorus of criticism of CNN's decision to pay a reported $10,000 for an interview with Jasper Schuringa, one of the airline passengers who helped subdue accused bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aboard a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day. CNN has maintained it did not pay for the interview -- only a photo of the incident that came with the interview attached. RTDNA chairman Stacey Woelfel described the photo as "one in which you can make out the suspect only by the contrast of his white shirt to the darker ones around him." Woelfel went on to describe the interview itself as "not very good," saying that Schuringa talked about the incident "like he's describing the latest 'Die Hard' movie to a friend in an Amsterdam club." Eschewing the usual ethical arguments against checkbook journalism, Woelfel maintained that "in a time when we're wondering how we're going to keep the news industry afloat financially, it's unconscionable to think about a bidding war for sources on important -- or unimportant-- news stories." The same amount of money that a news organization pays for a handful of stories, she argued, could pay the salary of another journalist for a year -- one who could turn in hundreds of stories. Paying for stories, she concluded, buys merely "a ticket on a one-way flight to ruin for our profession."

01/01/2010