The editorial scandal involving CNET, parent company CBS and its rival litigant DISH at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) took a turn for the worse on Monday, despite the show closing last week.
As The Verge reported Monday, CBS’s decision to force the staff of its technology blog subsidiary CNET to remove from consideration for its “Best of CES” awards DISH’s new DVR product, the “Hopper with Sling,” actually came after CNET had already voted that product to win the top award. CBS and CNET had earlier stated that the decision to remove the “Hopper with Sling” from consideration was due to CBS’s ongoing lawsuit with DISH over DISH’s commercial-skipping AutoHop technology, but declined to state that the decision came after CNET’s staff had already picked DISH’s product to be its grand prize winner. As The Verge reports:
Apparently, executives at CBS learned that the Hopper would win “Best of Show” prior to the announcement. Before the winner was unveiled, CBS Interactive News senior-vice president and General Manager Mark Larkin informed CNET’s staff that the Hopper could not take the top award. The Hopper would have to be removed from consideration, and the editorial team had to re-vote and pick a new winner from the remaining choices. Sources say that Larkin was distraught while delivering the news — at one point in tears — as he told the team that he had fought CBS executives who had made the decision.
Apparently the move to strike the Hopper from the awards was passed down directly to Larkin from the office of CBS CEO, Leslie Moonves.
Meanwhile, one CNET reporter has already taken to Twitter to declare his resignation over CBS’s move.
