Networks won’t pay Casey Anthony

By David Bauder

AP Television Writer

NEW YORK

Casey Anthony, acquitted in the murder of her daughter Caylee, likely will face a choice when she decides to grant an interview: Should she take the best chance for rehabilitating her image or the best chance for a payday?

Her consideration comes at a time when broadcast network executives are particularly skittish about the impression of paying subjects to talk. At the same time, networks wonder about sitting down with someone so deeply unpopular.

ABC, CBS and NBC have all publicly pledged not to pay Anthony to license photos or other materials if she agrees to an interview. Making such payments has been a way of getting around news division policies not to pay interview subjects; ABC paid Anthony a reported $200,000 to use some of her photos of Caylee in 2008.

“It’s a terrible practice,” said CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager. “For our organization, it goes against what we believe in.”

After receiving bad publicity for the Anthony payment during her trial and other instances, ABC News President Ben Sherwood said recently that ABC will no longer agree to such licensing deals. The network reasoned it was doing real damage to its reputation, with viewers and critics suspicious that ABC had taken out its checkbook every time it had a newsworthy interview.

After a social media uprising, NBC issued its own statement: “NBC News has not and will not offer money for a Casey Anthony interview,” including “no licensing or other arrangements.”

Tommy Joseph, a Pennsylvania man who had followed the trial and was angry about the verdict, said he doesn’t want to see Anthony profit from her time in the spotlight and suggested an interview could be accompanied by a wave of public disgust.