Only two months after hiring him, CBS News has already botched a
report from its new science and environment contributor, allowing him to
interview a fire ecologist from The Nature Conservancy without
mentioning that the contributor is the lead scientist at the very same
group.
When CBS gave M. Sanjayan the job in May, a variety of critics argued that the network shouldn’t assign someone from an environmental advocacy organization to the green beat. I demurred, saying that in the modern media industry, reporting partnerships with non-journalists who work in the fields they cover are a fact of life. I reasoned that new outlets could ward off potential problems with transparency. In this instance, however, CBS failed.
In July, Sanjayan interviewed Nathan Korb, an ecologist at The Nature Conservancy, for a CBS Evening News report about the wildfires burning in the Western US. Korb was one of only two sources interviewed on camera, yet the fact that Sanjayan is the conservancy’s lead scientist never came up—not when host Scott Pelley introduced him in the studio, and not in the tape.
The substance of Sanjayan’s report is basically fine, but the lack of disclosure is a serious problem. It is becoming harder and harder to get objective, impartial coverage in today’s media, and consumers have a right to know exactly where their information is coming from—in fact, they need to know more than ever. There are already enough problems with transparency and advocacy without CBS fogging the lens even more.
Read more: http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/cbs_wildfires_sanjayan_nature.php
When CBS gave M. Sanjayan the job in May, a variety of critics argued that the network shouldn’t assign someone from an environmental advocacy organization to the green beat. I demurred, saying that in the modern media industry, reporting partnerships with non-journalists who work in the fields they cover are a fact of life. I reasoned that new outlets could ward off potential problems with transparency. In this instance, however, CBS failed.
In July, Sanjayan interviewed Nathan Korb, an ecologist at The Nature Conservancy, for a CBS Evening News report about the wildfires burning in the Western US. Korb was one of only two sources interviewed on camera, yet the fact that Sanjayan is the conservancy’s lead scientist never came up—not when host Scott Pelley introduced him in the studio, and not in the tape.
The substance of Sanjayan’s report is basically fine, but the lack of disclosure is a serious problem. It is becoming harder and harder to get objective, impartial coverage in today’s media, and consumers have a right to know exactly where their information is coming from—in fact, they need to know more than ever. There are already enough problems with transparency and advocacy without CBS fogging the lens even more.
Read more: http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/cbs_wildfires_sanjayan_nature.php
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