When CNN U.S. President Richard Kaplan "instructed"
CNNfn's "Business Unusual" to produce a "feel-good feature
about" Philips Arena, which aired September 26 as a "special
edition," some "staffers thought the network had crossed the
line between news and corporate promotion -- and protested
in a small but significant way," according to Matthew Heimer
of BRILL'S CONTENT. Two CNN employees said that "some
business-news staffers raised concerns with senior producers
about what they saw as a thinly disguised infomercial," and
the staffers "opted not to attach their names to the project
by declining to use the credits that introduce" the show's
segments. In reviewing the show, Heimer writes that as
"balanced reporting, the show had mixed results," as it was
"direct, if a bit fawning, about the financing behind the
arena's lucrative sponsorship deals and skyboxes, but it
paid little attention to local controversies" over the venue
-- "most notably a brouhaha over" the arena's aesthetics.
Kaplan said that the "idea for the arena story was his but
pitching it was purely a matter of news judgement." Kaplan:
"If we could have realized a large economic benefit, we
wouldn't have done the story." More Kaplan, on the reported
objections of the staffers: "If anybody decided it was a
shitty show, they didn't tell me" (BRILL'S CONTENT, 12/99).
