TV news folks endorsing products? How common is this?

[dixiehack]

I guess I’m just hopelessly out of the loop. Because I think this would be a clear enough red line for even the dimmest to avoid.

Nikki Burdine says she got fired from News 2 for plugging perfume on her Instagram account

Nikki Burdine revealed on her new podcast that she was fired from News 2 after seven and a half years for promoting perfume on her social media accounts.

On her podcast "Not the News" — co-hosted by her former News 2 morning show anchor partner, Neil Orne — Burdine conceded she violated the terms of her WKRN contract by providing a link to DIME Beauty perfume after receiving free product from the company.

"They did have cause. I did breach my contract. Let's clear the air. I'm not saying I'm innocent," Burdine said. "I'm saying, yes, I broke my contract, based on what they're saying I did and what's in my contract."

That isn’t all that interesting to me. This is.

Burdine, though, said on her podcast that many local broadcasters endorse or promote products on their individual social media pages.

"Everyone kind of does it. It's just like, don't be a jerk about it. Don't be obnoxious about it. You know?" Burdine said on the podcast.

Burdine also said News 2 issued warnings to two of her colleagues for doing the same things she did, but the stations didn't fire or suspend them. Burdine didn't identify who those two are.

Would love to hear from our TV folks if this is common or if she’s full of it.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I have no idea how common this practice is. But given the declining revenues of the local media outlets I think anyone who has a contract and knowingly violates it has just put a target on their backs.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

She's completely full of ****. Anybody caught doing that in my newsroom would be fired too.

She can GTFO with NIL for news anchors.

 

[MileHigh]

She's completely full of ****. Anybody caught doing that in my newsroom would be fired too.

She can GTFO with NIL for news anchors.

I've been out of a TV newsroom for six years and, yeah, this is an absolute no-go. It's an absolute red line.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Mark Johnson, longtime weatherman in Cleveland, got dumped from his channel for doing something similar.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

One of Nikki's first gigs was WHAG in Hagerstown, Md where I bumped into her on occasion. Never talked to her at any of those times. Doesn't sound like I missed much.

That's all I got.

 

[HanSenSE]

I remember when Sam Donaldson would pinch-hit for Paul Harvey (I was not a regular Harvey listener), he wouldn't read the spots Harvey would read himself.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Apparently Nikki didn't get the memo that these gigs are for putting yourself on display to marry up and find a rich husband so you don't need to hock perfume, beauty products or Me Undies.

 

[SixToe]

Perhaps these endorsements are just more overt today. I don't think it's any big secret that Billy Broadcaster or Annie Anchor weren't getting paid or receiving products when they read commercials for Big Mike's Roof and Gutter or Weight Loss World.

Weight Loss World is the best and greatest way to shed those unsightly pounds before summer gets here.

 

[maumann]

Maybe the advertising department was getting those, but all I got was a paycheck for reading commericals sponsoring the news. Just like the fact that because an ad for the dealer runs on the sports page doesn't mean you got a new car.

Promoting a product on social media as a pay-for-play? That's completely unethical.

 

[dixiehack]

I still feel guilty for taking a free T-shirt from the juco baseball coach I used to cover, 25 years after the fact.

I do wish I still had the Sunshine Network hat I snagged at FSU media day. Not only were there no coverage entanglements but it would have a retro cool factor by now.

 

[I Should Coco]

Closest I came to this: When I was a one-man newsroom at a weekly paper in the U.P., the owner would sometimes have me swing by the local Ford dealer to photograph the "Used Car Deal of the Week" if she was busy doing something else.

But all I got for my award-winning jalopy photos was an earful of local sports/politics commentary from the owner. Thanks a lot ...

 

[DanOregon]

I always hated the yearly "ethics" reminders we'd get in the newsroom, and then you see the whoring around that big-timers get away with. And lets be clear, the local station would be fine if it was a product the on-air staff was pushing on one of their "hybrid" programs with a lot of paid-for content.

 

[playthrough]

I still feel guilty for taking a free T-shirt from the juco baseball coach I used to cover, 25 years after the fact.

I do wish I still had the Sunshine Network hat I snagged at FSU media day. Not only were there no coverage entanglements but it would have a retro cool factor by now.

I covered an AJGA golf tournament many years ago (a teenage Kevin Na, now hacking it around on LIV Golf, blew it on the 18th hole) and the organizer insisted on giving a shirt to me and another scribe. I took it and turned it into a lawnmowing shirt, while darned near every time I saw that other scribe at a game, he was wearing it.

 

[dixiehack]

Late in my stay in Georgia, I did get a hat from what was then the Bruno's Memorial Classic in B'ham. With my graduation around the corner, I was a media center volunteer trying to get on with the events group that put it on. No qualms about that one, which is still in my closet somewhere. We never touched the Senior Tour beyond the AP copy we sanded down for capsules.

 

[Flip Wilson]

There's a news anchor - let's call him Joe Smith - in the market here who is also in a band. On the early Friday evening newscasts, he'll read a list of local bands playing that weekend, and his is always on the list. "The Joe Smith band plays Saturday at Lakefront Pizza and Burgers," or whatever.

 

[terrier]

It's always gone on. When I was kid, our lawn guy was a local TV weatherman. We had another weatherman who fronted a polka band. The backup sports guy on our most popular station had a video business on the side.
Local TV people, at least in a midsize market like mine, don't make as much $ as everybody thinks. As long as it passes the ethics smell test and they're not using TV time to pimp them, I don't have a problem with their side hustles.