Word: haldemans
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Columnist James Reston of the New York Times led the chorus of criticism: "Isn't this a dangerous precedent? ... If CBS will pay this kind of money for Mr. Haldeman, won't other big shots or notorious characters demand their price...
...someone for an interview, especially if he happens to be a Watergate felon? Last week CBS News plunged into the midst of the controversy by admitting that it had paid "in the neighborhood" of $25,000 (perhaps as high as $50,000, said some sources) to H.R. Haldeman, former White House chief of staff during the Nixon Administration, for a 5½-hour filmed interview with Mike Wallace...
...uproar overshadowed the issue of the actual value of the Haldeman interview. The network refuses to reveal anything about its contents. But people who witnessed the filming by Wallace and his 60 Minutes crew at Haldeman's home in Hancock Park, the "old money" section of Los Angeles, claim that Haldeman talked "freely and very candidly" about Watergate. Other CBS sources concede that Haldeman was simply putting his own personal interpretation on old disclosures. Haldeman says only that "I was a part of an important historical period that has been grossly misinterpreted and grossly misunderstood, and I saw this...
...disagree. Both networks turned down the Haldeman offer last fall. Says ABC News President William Sheehan: "A newsmaker should not be paid for an interview, and in this shop H.R. Haldeman is a current hot news story ... Maybe in ten years it would be appropriate to pay for Mr. Haldeman's memoirs, not now." NBC News President Richard C. Wald adds: "It was not a thing I would want to do." Still, both men admit to a "gray area" where they might pay for an interview. Sheehan sees "a legitimate case for this if we are making...
Ironically, CBS drafted standards years ago, making a firm distinction between news and memoirs. Haldeman's reminiscences apparently slipped through the guidelines. Moreover, CBS News President Richard Salant ripped into NBC News for the quints deal...