What was that on Sunday night on the CBS 60 Minutes program? Charlie Rose interviewed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in a roughly 15 minute segment on the popular news show. In the now infamous interview, Bezos unveiled his vision for how drones might someday deliver Amazon products to people's homes. Rose swooned. But wait... did anyone at 60 Minutes even bother to think about the timing of the interview? It ran on the DAY BEFORE CYBER MONDAY! It amounted to a huge 15 minute infomercial for Amazon on the day before the biggest online shopping day of the year. Where is the journalistic integrity here? Did anyone at CBS even question the timing? Of course, Rose didn't ask much about a tiny little word that somehow conveniently never receives much attention when journalists swoon over Bezos (shhh... let's not talk about profit, or the lack thereof). I don't blame Bezos or Amazon here. They had an opportunity to participate in a feature on a highly popular news show. They took advantage of the opportunity for some great public relations. The fault here lies entirely with Rose and the 60 Minutes producers. When do the small independent merchants in every small town in America get there 15 minute infomercials on CBS?
2 comments:
I think if 60 minutes passed on the story or said they wanted to delay running it, Amazon would have taken it to another network.
I think if 60 minutes passed on the story or said they wanted to delay running it, Amazon would have taken it to another network.
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