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A Free Lunch?

By Brian Montopoli

February 1, 2007 / 10:03 AM EST / CBS News

(AP Photo)

Move over, Munchkingate: There's a new food-related journo-scandal in town. Well, kinda. Tech for PR notes this passage at the bottom of a Domino's Pizza press release:

NOTE TO EDITORS: We love to feed the media! Call the Domino's Public Relations Department at +1-734-930-3741 to order a piping hot Domino's Pizza for your newsroom or studio.

As Tech for PR points out, it's somewhat unclear if the prospective pizza is actually free – though one wouldn't think the PR department would be the place to call for pizza you're going to be paying for. According to CBS News Standards, "CBS News employees may not solicit, accept or agree to accept anything of value given or paid for the purpose of influencing the content of any CBS News broadcast." The question, then, is this: Is a Domino's Pizza sufficiently "of value" to create a problem? This guy sure doesn't think so.