On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 3:24 AM, I, Wesley (in Colorado), wrote:

> http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/10/3862558/cnet-parent-cbs-bans-coverage
>
> During the Consumer Electronics Show, CNet -- a technology website -- had
> announced that Dish's Hopper was a finalist in its" Best of CES" awards.
> Shortly thereafter, CBS -- who had bought CNet back in 2008 -- told them to
> pull them from consideration, as they were suing Dish over Hopper.
>

When I was coming up for the title of this email, I initially titled it
something like "CBS spikes award to Dish by tech website it owns", which is
a bit long. I wound up rewriting it to something longer and clunkier
because the story was then Dish's Hopper was just a finalist. I could have
kept the original title. Today, the media reported that Dish had earned
enough votes to win the actual prize, but CBS corporate pretty much vetoed
it, and essentially placed a gag order on the site about this. The
aftermath to this includes one CNET writer resigning over this
http://jimromenesko.com/2013/01/14/greg-sandoval-quits-cnet-over-cbs-interference/and
an editor posting this:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30677_3-57563877-244/the-2013-best-of-ces-awards-cnets-story/

The Verge is reporting that CBS's motivation may be to prevent Dish from
using a CNET award as though it was a CBS endorsement of the device, as was
tried in previous litigation CBS was involved in, in which the accuser
claimed CBS induced copyright infringement through articles written on CNet
sites about various P2P software.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/14/3874682/exclusive-cbs-forced-cnet-editors-to-recast-vote-after-hopper-win

Anyway, this was CBS' statement on the whole ordeal.

"CBS has nothing but the highest regard for the editors and writers at
> CNET, and has managed that business with respect as part of its CBS
> Interactive division since it was acquired in 2008. This has been an
> isolated and unique incident in which a product that has been challenged as
> illegal, was removed from consideration for an award. The product in
> question is not only the subject of a lawsuit between Dish and CBS, but
> between Dish and nearly every other major media company as well. CBS has
> been consistent on this situation from the beginning, and, in terms of
> covering actual news, CNET maintains 100% editorial independence, and
> always will. We look forward to the site building on its reputation of good
> journalism in the years to come."


This is sort of the Bush v. Gore of statement where CBS tries to argue that
except for this one time interference, we don't interfere with the
journalistic independence of a subsidiary. The thing is, it always gets
easier after the first time.

-- 
TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
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