While Access Hollywood's Tony Potts confirmed on cable news shows that rival tabloid tv shows are willing to, and have, paid for first right to air 'exclusive' news, Entertainment Tonight's Mark Steines hit the cable news circuit in an effort to debunk the rumors.
Steines, accompanied by ET's Senior Supervising Producer Bonnie Tiegel, was first up on tonight's Larry King show and proclaimed "we've had a relationship with Howard K. Stern and Anna Nicole Smith" and "I found myself in a position to be on that (private) plane and asked Stern if I could do the interview." Steines and Tiegel insisted they did not and do not pay for interviews. Instead, "they hustled and got the exclusives."
So as far as ET is concerned, it just pays to be in the right place at the right time.
By the way, while we don't always know who is being paid what by whom for personal interviews, it is common for agencies to pay for photos or video that might accompany an interview. That payment, or licensing fee, usually goes to the owner or copyright holder of the images, i.e. the photographer or videographer, or in the case of, say, family photos, to the bank account of the person offering up the image for sale.
No comments:
Post a Comment