CEA cuts ties with CNET over 'Best of CES' award snafu

[Shawn Knight]

The Consumer Electronics Association has cut ties with technology website CNET as the publication responsible for picking the “Best of CES” award at the annual trade show. The group feels that CNET’s parent company, CBS Corp, compromised the publication's objectivity when selecting this year’s winning product.

CNET initially selected the Hopper with Sling from Dish Network to win the Best of CES award for 2013. The Hopper DVR allows customers to automatically skip commercials that air between prime-time TV shows, among other things. The problem with that is that it undercuts a key source of revenue for networks in the form of advertising.

CBS Corp, the parent company of CNET, is currently in the middle of a legal dispute with Dish Network over the Hopper. CBS forced the technology publication to retract the award and select another product to win the accolade – which they did, the Razer Edge gaming tablet.

Yesterday, the CEA overturned the decision and named the Dish Hopper and the Razer Edge gaming tablet as co-winners of the award. Dish Network CEO Joseph Clayton said he appreciated the international CES’ decision to stand with the consumer in the acknowledgement of the award and regrets that it has to come in the face of the organization having to undermine CNET’s editorial independence.

The CEA generally doesn’t like to get involved in the awards process as they have relationships with a number of exhibitors which is why they hired CNET for the job starting at the 2007 CES. No word yet on who will replace CNET moving forward.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/51516-cea-cuts-ties-with-cnet-over-best-of-ces-award-snafu.html

 

[SNGX1275]

CNET named Hopper the 'Best of CES', then CBS told CNET no and CNET then said the Razer Edge is 'Best of CES'. I'm good through this part.

Then. CEA overturned the decision... How does CEA overturn a decision by CNET? I guess maybe its like the boss asking for advice, then ignoring it, but it just seems odd that CNET is the decision maker on who wins, and then CEA says no.

 

[Darth Shiv]

They hired CNET to do the job. They can make whatever decision they want as it is their award. The idea was CNET was to be impartial.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Then. CEA overturned the decision... How does CEA overturn a decision by CNET? I guess maybe its like the boss asking for advice, then ignoring it, but it just seems odd that CNET is the decision maker on who wins, and then CEA says no.

If I'm reading it correctly they are not overturning the decision, they are returning the decision back to its initial selection.

 

[SNGX1275]

They hired CNET to do the job. They can make whatever decision they want as it is their award. The idea was CNET was to be impartial.

That may be correct. It is just unclear. It reads to me like CEA gets CES put together, but to stay impartial (because they have relations with vendors) they let a 3rd party choose the winner. Seems fair. But now, they are disagreeing with who CNET names as the winner. Its like telling your girlfriend "hey, you pick what movie you want to watch tonight and we'll watch it", then when she picks Bridget Jones you say "ok, I don't like that, we are watching Terminator 2 instead".

From the ABC article cited in this article:

The association, which has hosted the gadget show since 1967, had contracted with CNET to pick the awards since the 2007 show. It normally chooses not to get involved, partly because of its relationship with its many exhibitors.

Who picked it before 2007?

Also, I'm not disputing that Dish shouldn't have had the reward removed by CBS, I'm just saying that if CEA appoints CNET to pick the winner, then they should accept the choice. If they don't like it, do exactly what they did, remove CNET from picking the winner in the future. The TS article says CEA overturned CNETs decision and named co-winners, they shouldn't have that power, since they apparently do then they aren't impartial anymore.

 

[BlueDrake]

The general issue is.. why should a parent company of the "impartial" suddenly say, that the award shouldn't be x because it ruins y? That's basically illogical I'm sorry. They feel butt hurt generally, because it hurts "their" bottom line. So they force the CNET to change the decision, against their wishes being they own CNET and their word is final.

CEA jumped in because CBS was pretty much butt hurt by Dish, for what they do outside of CES and want to strip their award for further insult to injury. Thus the whole snafu took place. Since Dish was named prior and CNET was forced to say Razer, they felt it would be better to have co-winners. Mostly to save face for the most part, since CBS was trying to be a bully outside their courtroom battle.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Its like telling your girlfriend "hey, you pick what movie you want to watch tonight and we'll watch it", then when she picks Bridget Jones you say "ok, I don't like that, we are watching Terminator 2 instead".

Yes but was Terminator 2 your girlfriends first choice? Would you be making that decision, because a third party changed her mind? And then there is a final decision of stripping your girlfriend of the right to make a choice in the future, because she is so easily controlled by third party sources.

 

[misor]

..."Its like telling your girlfriend "hey, you pick what movie you want to watch tonight and we'll watch it", then when she picks Bridget Jones you say "ok, I don't like that, we are watching Terminator 2 instead"...
but then your girlfriend's mother insisted that you both watch justin bieber concert.

cnet should have said no to cbs.
and cea should not have "overturned" the decision.
(kanye west, where are you?)

 

[Bluewr]

Except in this case, CNET wasn't impartial in the decision.
They reached a decision, the Hopper as Best of Show.
But CBS, Cnet's parent company forced Cnet to revote and remove the Hopper from the running, due to their beef with the Hopper, thuse corporate is putting itself into a news editorial mandate, and one reporter quit as a result, CBS loses respect in news quality, as if they can change this, what other news are they editing to suit their own need.

 

[cliffordcooley]

what other news are they editing to suit their own need.

How about everything you hear from a new reporter.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Yes the impartial pick was the first one. Which is why, for the integrity of the award, that CEA reinstated the original choice. It defeats the purpose of having a 3rd party because you wanted someone impartial then the impartiality is removed by someone else.

 

[Julio Franco]

The big winner here is Dish for all the extra publicity its product has received. Piss poor job on CBS part, not only for censoring CNET's editorial decision (error #1), but for making a huge deal of it all (and giving Dish the positive light they didn't want them to have in the first place) because of its horrible management about the situation.

 

[mrcavooter]

...stripping your girlfriend...

Now CNET is making our girlfriends become strippers. This has to stop, NOW! People, apathy is just as bad as committing the crime yourself. Stand up! If not for our girlfriends, then for our blow up dolls and our Fleshlights.

On another somewhat related topic, I can take over the responsibility and be unbiased.

 

[Tygerstrike]

The news has been heavily edited since pretty much the inception of TV. The news is also "spoonfed" to us. There are many things that happen in the world that we never hear about unless it makes a heavy presence on the web. How anyone can be surprised by this is beyond me. So yet again a major news broadcaster has edited in their favor. Not really surprised TBH. CBS is one of the major 3 in over the air broadcasting. Im actually expecting the FCC to investigate. Not that much will be done but hey it will be worth a laugh.