Regardless, it's a safe bet NBC wasn't pitching frequent-flier miles.
When word leaked out, an embarrassed NBC bailed. ABC News, which had "considered" an offer of $100,000, according to an ABC rep, turned down Hilton for free. So did CBS News.
The end result: Hilton will discuss her hellish 22 days in the big house tonight at 9 with CNN's celebrity Velcro, Larry King. No money changed hands, both sides say.
Virtually all news organizations prohibit payments for interviews, beyond personal expenses or exclusive use of video, for example. Entertainment outlets, however, are under no such constraints.
For networks, it's the perfect bait-and-switch: The entertainment division offers a lucrative production deal. The news division stays clean because, technically, it's not involved.
"I think everybody knows what's going on," says Steve Friedman, head of CBS's morning news programming. "It's the fig leaf that news divisions use to maintain some sort of deniability. It's a joke."
So is the line between news and entertainment, which is so blurred it barely exists anymore. Moreover, as Friedman says, "the bigger the story, the blurrier it gets."
In our celebrity-obsessed culture, Paris Hilton is news. Celebrities market their services to the highest bidder. To get in the game, news divisions must bid, and bid high.
So why not stop the Kabuki dance?
In the name of the transparency that all the news divisions say they're trying to achieve, they should acknowledge that some "big gets" come with a price tag.
No matter how they're packaged.
"The news divisions are trying to have it both ways," says Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. "They're holding onto the facade of a system that's breaking down.
"The only way to do business in this environment is to do business."
