On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 2:55 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> This brings us to another thorny journalistic issue... > > If the documentary is produced by NBC's news division, standards are > supposed to be that no money was given to Murray for the piece. If the > doc was produced by the entertainment division, there is no limit to > the money that could have been paid. > > Does anyone know which arm of NBC produced the documentary? > There may be a technical distinction between the payment coming from the news or entertainment divisions (the linked article, and everything else I have been able to find, merely states that "NBC Universal" paid for it), but in the end I don't think it makes much difference. Excerpts and the interview have been shown on the Today Show, and the documentary itself is running on MSNBC. It is very clear that NBC News (the Today Show) got access to interview this guy because they paid for the documentary. NBC is insisting that it only paid the distributor, not Murray, and was assured by them none of their money would go to him. The film makers have insisted that they only paid Murray $1. But after that, everyone suddenly becomes shy about talking. As Bob notes in the initial post on this thread, Murray was deep in debt ($800,000) the day Jackson was killed, and suddenly was aim to afford a very high-priced legal team (and the lawyers do confirm that they have gotten paid - this was not done pro bono). What seems pretty clear is that the distributor has made a lot of money from the international rights, and that they (not the filmmaker) paid Murray lots of money. It is possible that, as an example, the distributor (Zodiac) gave Murray every penny they earned from non-US distribution rights, then kept all of NBC's money for their own profit. In such a case, everyone would have been telling the truth, and NBC still would have essentially paid for a news interview with a convicted man-slaughterer. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
