Bias, Marketing or Greed?

CBS has been getting flak from the Right because their flagship news show, 60 Minutes, has been doing high-profile interviews with the authors of anti-Bush books who also just happen to be published by a company owned by CBS' parent company, Viacom. The relationship blurs the line between news and marketing to a dangerous degree.

This week, 60 Minutes had an hourlong show devoted to CBS News anchor Dan Rather giving a soft-ball interview to Bill Clinton about his new book. In this case, although CBS' judgment might be called into question for the handling of the interview, the book was published by a non-Viacom publishing house.

That's OK, right? Maybe not. Turns out CBS has been hiding a business partnership with Amazon.com that helps the network profit from sales of the book, which CBS has had a big hand in promoting.

Objective and neutral? Not so much anymore....