[Infowarrior] - CNET Reporter Resigns Over CBS Interference In Dish CES Award

[Richard Forno]

(Dislosure: I know Greg and he's run pieces from me over the years.  KUDOS for his action!  --rick)

CNET Reporter Resigns Over CBS Interference In Dish CES Award

from the editorial-independence dept

Last week, in writing about CBS's unquestionably stupid decision to interfere with subsidiary CNET when it covered cover Dish's new DVR device, all because CBS is involved in litigation against Dish  over a similar device, I came very close to calling out reporter Greg Sandoval by name. Sandoval is an excellent reporter for CNET who has covered the Dish case in particular, along with numerous other copyright issues. I don't always agree with him, but I think he's a tough and fair reporter, and it seemed like CBS's decision would put his objective reporting in doubt. Minutes before posting the article, I pulled the sentence that included Sandoval's name, because I thought it was, perhaps, unfair to put him on the spot like that, and that each employee of CNET had to make a personal decision on how to handle the situation. 

Now it appears that Sandoval has made his decision, announcing that he's resigned from CNET due to this situation:

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As he notes, he no longer has confidence that CBS is committed to editorial independence. In later tweets, he notes that CBS never interfered with his own reporting, but that the situation was unacceptable and would lead others to call into question his own independence -- especially considering that Sandoval reported on the Dish case and other similar cases.

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This all comes out after further information on the story reveals that CBS didn't just bar CNET staff from considering the new Dish device for the "Best of CES" award, but actually forced staffers to re-vote after the device had already won the award:

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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130114/10270121658/cnet-reporter-resigns-over-cbs-interference-dish-ces-award.shtml


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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.