Why do they continue to put these people on TeeVee?
News networks are still booking Trump-backing guests without addressing their NDAs
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/08/31/news-networks-are-still-booking-trump-backing-guests-without-addressing-their-ndas/?utm_term=.17de0bfb9f0c
In the three weeks since former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman revealed (and President Trump acknowledged) the existence of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) signed by White House staffers, news networks have continued to book guests and paid contributors who have admitted to signing such agreements.
It is unclear whether the NDAs, which aim to prevent aides and associates from demeaning, disparaging and/or releasing derogatory information about Trump, Vice President Pence and their families, are legally enforceable. But they present an ethical dilemma for networks that regularly book guests and paid contributors to discuss Trump when said guests and contributors are potentially barred from speaking ill of the president — and by extension, logic suggests, being completely honest.
In August, news networks booked at least 11 Trump associates no fewer than 89 times who admitted to signing NDAs while in the White House or on the 2016 Trump campaign, according to closed-captioning records. Four of those guests were paid network contributors, and more than two-thirds of the appearances happened after White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told ABC News that the Trump administration “absolutely” makes staff members sign confidentiality agreements.
Despite this, few anchors even acknowledge to viewers the existence of guest and contributor NDAs.
It is also unclear whether any of the five major news networks have policies governing guests and contributors with nondisclosure agreements on the topics they are brought on to discuss. ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News and Fox News did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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Steven Roberts, a professor of media ethics at George Washington University, called the failure to disclose NDAs on air “journalistic malpractice.”
“You’re deceiving your audience if you don’t disclose that,” Roberts told the Daily Beast this month. “It’s a significant ethical breach because media ethics start with the principles of transparency: never confuse or deceive your audience.”
