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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (51130)	6/21/2004 7:05:01 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793991

CBS News Tries to Sell Clinton Book June 21, 2004, 06:30:24 EDT They hyped it for weeks. They bought ad space in USA Today to promote it. Star anchor Dan Rather appeared on numerous talking head shows to promote it. CBS News brass did all they could to get the word out about their exclusive interview between Rather and former President Bill Clinton. The purpose of the interview was to promote Clinton's new book, My Life. But who is be making money from whom? The CBS News division, always embarrassingly behind the other networks in terms of money and resources, is trying to earn a cut of the sales of the presidential memoir. On the CBS News Web site, in an article trumpeting the exclusive interview with Bill Clinton, there is an option to "Buy the Book." It says further, "Buy former President Bill Clinton's book, 'My Life.'" For CBS News, a self-proclaimed bastion of fairness, to explicitly promote a partisan book is bad enough, but it doesn't stop there. After clicking on the link, it goes to an Amazon.com listing for My Life. But this is a special listing. Falling on hard times, the News division decided earning cash on the side wasn't so bad. If one clicks on the link and ends up at Amazon there is a little "cbsnewscom" extension on the URL. For any sales of the book, CBS News will make a cut of the profits, through a pre-existing arrangement between CBS News and Amazon.com. After wasting money on promoting the interview, the execs figure, what's wrong with a little recouping? ratherbiased.com