Rieder: At CBS, business trumps integrity

• CBS blocked CNET from giving prestigious award to Dish Network%27s Hopper
• Hopper with Sling recording device lets TV viewers skip commercials
• Veteran reporter Greg Sandoval resigned from CNET over incident

It's just so wrong.

CBS' decision to block a technology website it owns from presenting a prestigious award to the recipient of its choice because of the network's business interests violates the most basic of journalistic principles.

It vividly illustrates the problems that arise with conglomerate ownership of news organizations, when the financial concerns of the parent company can trump the journalistic integrity of a subsidiary.

It's particularly disgraceful in this case, given that CBS, as you may have heard, happens to possess its very own network news operation.

The decision had immediate ramifications as Greg Sandoval, the website's digital media reporter, resigned in disgust over the contretemps. "Sad to report that I've resigned from CNET," he tweeted Monday. "I no longer have confidence that CBS is committed to editorial independence."

Sandoval, a former Los Angeles Times and Washington Post reporter, was a seven-year CNET veteran.

The controversy erupted last week when CBS ordered CNET not to consider the Dish Network's Hopper with Sling, a recording device with ad-skipping technology, for the "Best in Show" award the site presented last week at International CES, the big electronics show in Las Vegas. CBS and other networks have sued the Dish Network over the Hopper, which allows viewers to skip over prime-time commercials.

Last week CNET tweeted the news that the Hopper was a finalist. But the recording device was soon kicked to the curb. On Thursday, CNET issued the following statement: "The Dish Hopper with Sling was removed from consideration due to active litigation involving our parent company CBS Corp. We will no longer be reviewing products manufactured by companies with which we are in litigation with respect to such product."

This is pretty outrageous stuff. How much credibility can a news outlet have if its editorial judgment is overridden by the commercial consideration of its corporate overlords? How seriously can consumers take its recommendations under such circumstances?

But it turns out the situation was worse, much worse.

The technology website The Verve reported Monday that the Hopper was not merely a finalist; it actually had been chosen as the winner of the "Best in Show" award by CNET's editorial staff. It was after CBS brass learned of that decision — before it was announced — that it decided that the Hopper had to be banished.

Lindsey Turrentine, editor-in-chief of CNET Reviews, soon confirmed that account. "Later that evening," she wrote on cnet.com, "we were alerted to the legal conflict for CBS. All night and through to morning, my managers up and down CNET fought for two things: To honor the original vote and — when it became clear that CBS corporate did not accept that answer — to issue a transparent statement regarding the original vote."

But that just wasn't going to happen. "Ultimately," she wrote, "we were told that we must use the official statement and that we must follow corporate policy to defer all press requests to corporate communications."

Turrentine and her staff had been placed in a terrible situation by the CBS honchos. Not only was their judgment rejected for reasons having nothing to do with the merits of their journalism. They weren't even allowed to give an honest account of what had taken place.

As Sandoval tweeted as he walked away from the company, the fact that "CNET wasn't honest about what occurred regarding Dish is unacceptable to me. We are supposed to be truth tellers." He added, "I believe CNET's leaders are also honest but used poor judgement [sic]."

Compounding the damage, CBS felt compelled to issue this self-serving statement Monday: "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."

That's reassuring, guys. In other words, we have the highest regard for journalistic independence, except when it's bad for business. Or, give us a break. We only misbehaved once.

Rieder is editor and senior vice president of American Journalism Review.