ABC’s Jackson special included paid interviews

ABC News said it didn’t pay for interviews on last week’s Michael Jackson special -- but some of the subjects were paid nonetheless.

The news program, “Michael Jackson’s Secret World,” contained interviews conducted for a British documentary on Jackson that aired in that country earlier this year. ABC paid for the U.S. rights to the film, and the British producers paid for some of the interviews.

At least one of ABC’s competitors said it was interested in the documentary, but the arrangement left its executives uncomfortable.

“We screened it,” said Susan Zirinsky, executive producer of CBS’ “48 Hours Mysteries.” “We decided as a network news organization not to make a bid, because as a news program, the paid participation was a problem for us.”

ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider emphasized that the network made no payments of its own to sources and disclosed the arrangement to viewers.

“It is a common practice in Britain to compensate interview subjects,” he said. He would not say who was paid or how much but said appearance fees were generally less than $1,000.

A spokesman for Tiger Aspect, the British producers, referred all questions to ABC News.

ABC put “Tiger Aspect” on the corner of the screen during interviews with subjects including LaToya Jackson, Michael’s sister; biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli; journalists Maureen Orth and Diane Dimond; actor Emmanuel Lewis; and Terry George, a British man who claimed Jackson had phone sex with him more than 20 years ago. ABC correspondent Martin Bashir also interviewed George.

Paying news subjects for interviews is generally frowned upon in the United States, and ABC is a news organization that has a policy against it.

“We are certainly very wary of using material that involves payment for interviews,” said Bill Wheatley, NBC News vice president, who was unaware of whether NBC had been approached about the footage. “Any time you pay for an interview, you run the risk that the interviewee is in effect performing, rather than telling an honest story, to get payment.”

In a note to viewers at the beginning of the two-hour show, ABC News explained that individuals interviewed for the British documentary “received compensation,” but not anyone interviewed by ABC.

When ABC aired Bashir’s interview with Jackson during the February ratings sweeps two years ago, it was seen by 27 million people. But interest in the pop star has obviously waned. Thursday’s special drew only 8.8 million viewers, leaving ABC a distant third to CBS and NBC in the time slot, according to Nielsen Media Research.