I watched the Scott Pelley 60 Minutes story on Chevron's (Texaco) legal battle in the oilfields of Ecuador. The oil company did not come off looking very good. So what did Chevron do? The company hired former CNN reporter Gene Randall to shoot a story from its perspective.
Eric Deggan of the Tampabay.com's The Feed blogs this is becoming more common:
As more journalists lose jobs, this is a issue that will surface repeatedly. Like former Congressmen-turned-lobbyists, prominent journalists have a level of public name recognition, storytelling expertise and credibility that can be put to just about any purpose once they leave the Fourth Estate.CONTACT: Leave me a Houston or Texas media news tip | COMMENT: Click to leave your thoughts on this post here
CBS Sports anchor Greg Gumbel says he was tricked into a similar arrangement, paid $110,000 for two days spent recording introductions for what he thought would be educational programs, only to find they were used before infomercials for time shares and cellphone chargers. READ THE REST
