Here's a story about some folks wetting their pants because some NBC booker bought $80 of clothes for one of the 2 young women recently kidnapped and raped, I assume so she could look presentable for an interview.

[url]http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/3872238p-4897999c.html[/url]

Reading between the lines, it sounds like their rules amount to not paying any kind of compensation for the interview, in the name of "news standards".

It there some tacit agreement that none of the networks will pay?  Pardon my cynicism , but it sounds more like they got together and decided that they could save a lot of money if they all adopted such a "standard".

I suppose they could say they want to "raise the bar" to distinguish themselves from the tabloids.

What the hell?  The young woman has suffered plenty.  Why shouldn't NBC pay to get her presentable and even give her some money for helping them jack their ratings up?  It sounds more like "give us your valuable story for free".

Sure, you don't want people making crap up so they can get paid.  But think about this: Who
dug up a lot of the breaking news on the O.J. case?  Lots of times the tabloids got the story first.

And anyway, even WITH their "news standards", are we getting the highly ethical coverage they want us to believe they're delivering?

^

They are not allowed to pay their guests, but they are allowed to lavish generous comps, and this is what they do to entice people to appear. Comps include first class airfare, rooms in 4-star hotels with room service, limousine service, free coupons to the best eateries in town, etc. This issue was brought up on Fox and Friends yesterday. They don't pay actual compensation, but they do the next best thing. It's all BS.