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ABC News has paid $215,000 for Casey Anthony scoops

avatar by Published June 29, 2011 9:48 am Updated June 29, 2011 3:51 pm

A witness at the murder trial of Casey Anthony testified Tuesday that he was paid $15,000 by ABC News to license a snake photo. Meter reader Roy Kronk, who eventually found the body of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony, discovered a dead rattlesnake in the same area several months before. ABC News interviewed Kronk just after the body was discovered. The interview touched on the idea that snakes might have initially impeded a police search for the body, but it would be difficult to argue the snake photo was critical to ABC’s story. In fact, Kronk reveals the motivation behind the fee. “I was paid for a licensed picture of a snake but I knew there would probably be an interview involved,” he testified.

This is the latest revelation that ABC News has paid licensing fees for access to interviews, including $200,000 to Casey Anthony while she was under investigation but before she was charged with killing her daughter.

The $215,000 paid in licensing fees to Anthony and Kronk are all that was paid by the network related to that story, according to Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News.

Those payments were made in 2008 and early 2009, before ABC News announced it would disclose such fees to viewers. The new policy is to “disclose that we have entered into a license agreement for material,” Schneider said by phone, but the policy does not include publishing the amount paid along with the disclosure.

Schneider points out that “the license fees are a miniscule part of a hundreds of millions of dollars news budget, and to describe our work in terms of those licenses is to miss the entire forest for a tree… It’s getting the exclusive interview with Commander [Mark] Kelly after the congresswoman [Gabrielle Giffords] is shot; It’s getting in to see President Mubarak on an absolutely historic day. It is the team coverage in Japan with the only anchor who goes there.”

Earlier this month, ABC paid Meagan Broussard for photos she sent Anthony Weiner as part of the scandal that led to the congressman’s resignation. Though ABC told The New York Times it did not pay a licensing fee in conjunction with its upcoming interview of Jaycee Dugard, the network did reportedly pay for family home movies last year. || Deggans: News organizations should disclose these payments || Previously: ABC’s Chris Cuomo defends checkbook journalism: ‘It is the state of play right now’ || Plus: 5 reasons broadcasters pay licensing fees for stories and why it corrupts journalism

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  • Anonymous

    I never could stand Nancy Grace and her holier than thou attitude!! I refuse to watch her or listen to anything she says. Such a hateful spiteful nasty ugly person inside and out!

  • Anonymous

    See how her State Supreme Court admonished her for prosecutorial misconduct.  Three or maybe four times.  State Bar should revoke her license to practice because she is not using her license ethically, inciting anger, which is not protected speech as anyone who went to law school or studied the first amendment would know.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MY6EEPNNSZ5YSQDUUO5S62NFIY kakashivandoom

    Nancy Graces Hatred addiction is out of control. She almost succeedded to destroy the Judicial system. It is not her hitman. Years back a simular case was on her show where she bullied an accused mom of foul play in the dissappearance of her child. she came to nancy for help hoping the show would find her child. bad move the Hate addict Nancy Grace immediately pounced like some vicsious predator calling the woman a child killer and aof disposing of the body. The woman already emotionally distraught killed herself over the bullying. Nancy still walks free. She is the perfect hypocrite.I feel her kids should be taken from her so they get raised in a more forgiving environment , in a more sutible example of human behavior. Nancy Graces public brainwashing has undermined the justice system. She made it almost impossible to select a unbiased jury. She is the reason this case was settled this way. They can’t say it publically but it they would have found casey guilty the appeal would have resulted in the media forever being altered to prevent this ever happening again. The woman almost destroyed the current justice and media standards of our Nation. She is a National Security Risk. She is a murderous Bully that should be arrested immediately. She should have to pay ALL casey Anthony’s court fee’s. and the saddest thing of all is how her getting away with breaking the law has caused other similar like minded Journalists to come into their own success namely Jane Valez Mitchell, both these women think they are Judge Jury and Executioner. They should both be in prison as we speak. I hate your show. I hate your message and I hate your network for enabling you to be so publically vicsious against the innocent until proven guilty citizens of this Great Nation.
    Your use of a legal loop-hole does not make you Hate speech against one of us justified. I am now beginning my boycott of all you are connected with. I will continue to post against you daily with the exact same level of venom that you have demonstrated. How do you like the taste of your own medicine? I invite al;l to join me against you. You are one incredible waste of talent lady. How can you stand yourself. What if someone like you were against your children. would you feel as doomed as casey anthony must have felt. All along she knew you had destroyed her chance of a fair trial. Thankfully the Florida Prosecuters Knew they better not win or everything gets scrapped, Justice media. are supposed to be entirely separate. You are no better than Hitler. accept you pick victims the public won’t mind seeing being abused. I hope you lose everything and your children too. How’s that for being the unfair accuser you have trained me to be. Happy yet?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000756776321 Grace Claridge

    does her death have anything to do with stardoll and how old was she grace0111

  • Anonymous

    It is truly a lack of priority.  In the end, our judicial system set her free.  Who cares!  I’m more concerned about my livelihood, whether it’s safe to leave my house, and how we are going to make our world a better place to live.
    M. Ireland, Austin, TX 

  • Anonymous

    This morning, while the President was speaking to the Nation about the economy, Libya, Afghanistan and what Congress might do to put Americans back to work, the “news teams” from the major networks were absorbed with the latest in the Casey Anthony trial. CNN was kind enough to carry the press conference which, interestingly enough, was attended by reporters from the same networks that would not broadcast the event live (as there were much more pressing priorities, what with Casey’s dad not co-operating with the defense team)…Truly a sad commentary on why the American public is so unaware of what’s truly important to them and their lives.
    Mike Goldstein, Portland, OR

  • http://www.poynter.org Poynter

    JT, there’s an ethical difference between paying a source and paying an eyewitness or outside observer. Though money is exchanged in both instances, paying a source potentially corrupts the information you receive. –Julie

  • Anonymous

    exactly what is the difference between a news organization paying the licensing rights for a picture (magazines do it ALL the time) and cable tv paying a whole lot of people “consulting fees”? does every person who appears on, say, CNN or MSNBC show up only because they like to be interviewed and see themselves on tv? or do they get paid to do it? how much do cable “consultants” (i.e. regular “analysts”) get paid a year? this obviously is not the simple black-and-white question some would have us believe.