Kiss up or shut up Friendship or flattery
The firing of presenter Billy Bush on Monday from NBC’s Today show for taking part in a 2005 lewd conversation with Republican White House contender Donald Trump highlights the fine line celebrity media must walk in their bid to get access to the stars.
“The schmoozing of sources goes on in every beat and reporters often behave like chameleons around their sources to get them to open up,” said Mark Feldstein, a former TV reporter who is now a professor of journalism at the University of Maryland. “That said, Billy Bush took it way beyond the pale,” Mr Feldstein added.
Mr Bush, 45, was working at the time for NBC’s syndicated Access Hollywood, one of a plethora of American TV shows that mix celebrity gossip, entertainment and light-hearted interviews. Mr Trump in 2005 was riding high as the brash but popular host of NBC’s reality TV show The Apprentice.
After the emergence of the tape, Mr Bush apologised, saying he was “embarrassed and ashamed” by his behaviour. “Sometimes if you want to get an interview with an A-lister on a red carpet or at a junket, you can find there will be a publicist saying, ‘no questions about the divorce or about the kids,’ and 9 times out of 10 you will agree to it. It’s par for the course in that world,” said Sara Hammel, a former reporter for People magazine.
