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Last night, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste appeared on MSNBC’s “Countdown With Keith Olbermann.” Batiste has been a CBS News consultant, but last night it was disclosed that he has been asked to leave that position due to his participation in an ad criticizing President Bush. Says Batiste in the ad: "Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril." You can watch the "Countdown" segment here.

CBS News Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason confirmed to me that Batiste was asked to vacate his position.

“When we hire someone as a consultant, we want them to share their expertise with our viewers,” she said. “By putting himself front and center in an anti-Bush ad, the viewer might have the feeling everything he says is anti-Bush. And that doesn’t seem like an analytical approach to the issues we want to discuss.”

She said that Batiste's appearance in the ad marked a violation of CBS News standards, in which “we ask that people not be involved in advocacy.”

Added Mason: “We might still go to the general to ask about things, but not as a consultant to CBS News.”

UPDATE: Mason contacted me this afternoon to expand on her comments.

“General Batiste took part in a commercial that’s being shown on television to raise money for veterans against the war,” she said. “It isn’t just that he took an advocacy position.” She also said that the decision would have been the same had Batiste appeared in a similar ad in support of the president.

It's Thursday, and that means it's time for the Public Eye Chat. This week's subject is CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason. You can read excerpts and listen to the full interview below.

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Click here to listen to the interview.

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Brian Montopoli: Producers will contact you and say "can we do this?" Can you give me an example of that kind of interaction?

Linda Mason: Sure. We're doing a story on something and we want to go get pictures of the person in question. Where can we go? Can we go on the sidewalk outside his house? Can we knock on the door and ask him to come out? …Of course you can't go on somebody's private property, but you can stand on the public sidewalk and have your camera there. They were just looking to get some video. So that's an easy one.

A harder one is we want to go undercover with a hidden camera. We're looking at airport safety, and we have a story on airport workers who don't have to go through the strenuous system that the pilots and the hostesses have to go through. They have a separate door where they come through. Can we send a hidden camera there? We talk to the lawyers and depending on what state you are, etc. etc., yes, and we did it. And it was a very interesting piece.

Brian Montopoli: Recently, as you know of course, a producer was fired for writing a Notebook that was in part lifted from a Wall Street Journal piece. What actions, other than firing the producer involved, has CBS News taken in response to that?

Linda Mason: That's something that happened a month ago, and I'd just as soon pass. We've taken – we think we have fixed the situation.

Brian Montopoli: Has there been any change in reminding people about standards? Has there been anything like that?

Linda Mason: Well, every time something like this happens, whether it's at CBS, the New York Times, NBC, ABC, yeah, we sit down and say, "Hey, we've gotten a little too complacent, we have to pay attention to these things." Absolutely.

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NBC News has started calling the situation in Iraq a civil war. And the network has stressed that they didn't make the decision to do so lightly. On the "Today Show" this morning, Matt Lauer said this: "As you know, for months now the White House has rejected claims that the situation in Iraq has deteriorated into civil war. And for the most part, news organizations, like NBC, have hesitated to characterize it as such. But, after careful consideration, NBC News has decided the change in terminology is warranted -- that the situation in Iraq, with armed militarized factions fighting for their own political agendas, can now be characterized as civil war."

Over the past week, CBS News has repeatedly used the phrase "civl war" in reference to Iraq – but only when discussing what the situation might eventually become. "…one of the worst weekends of violence in Iraq since the war began, the debate is on: Is this a civil war?" asked Gloria Borger on "Face the Nation" yesterday. Here's Tracy Smith on Saturday's "Early Show": "Also in the Middle East today, Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Saudi Arabia, where he'll meet with Saudi leaders and with Iraq's prime minister. It's part of the diplomatic push by the Bush administration to prevent full-scale civil war in Iraq." And Elizabeth Palmer, on the Nov. 24 "Early Show": "Calm is holding for now. But once the funerals are over for yesterday's victims, Iraqis fear that reprisal killings could spiral rapidly into all-out civil war." Here she is on that night's "Evening News": "Iraq remains on the brink of civil war."

Appearing on CBS News recently, figures such as Henry Kissinger, John Murtha and Claire McCaskill have all referred to Iraq as a civil war. The Los Angeles Times, as Jim Romenesko notes, is calling it as such. But according to Linda Mason, Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects, CBS News does not presently see any reason to refer to the situation as a civil war. She said that any decision to do so would come from the network as a whole, not any individual program.

"We're just covering the war, and I think we're doing a good job," said Mason. "We don't see a need to characterize it one way or another right now." Mason noted that "that could change."

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As part of a report on the changing face of Congress on last night's "Evening News," CBS News Capitol Hill Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson followed a quote from Democrat Charles Rangel with this bit of analysis: "That might mean higher taxes on upper-income Americans and perhaps reinstituting the death tax."

Attkisson's use of the phrase "death tax" apparently raised some eyebrows, because last night CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason sent out an email on the matter. "It has been called to my attention that on Thursday's Evening News we referred to the estate tax as the 'death' tax," wrote Mason. "The government taxes estates after death, not the person who dies. Therefore we should refer to the tax as the estate tax."

People on both sides of this issue have tried to frame it through the use of terminology. Those who oppose the tax favor the phrase "death tax," which raises the specter of the government taxing people simply for dying. Some people on the other side, meanwhile, have referred to the elimination of the tax as "the Paris Hilton tax cut." Framing through language is an integral part of the political game – just think about the rhetorical impact of the "pro-choice" movement going by the moniker "anti-life," or the "pro-life" movement identifying itself as "anti-choice." On Tuesday, Mason gave Public Eye her explanation for why CBS News uses “late term abortion” instead of "partial birth abortion," arguing that the latter is "a color phrase for people who are anti-abortion rights."

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CBS News employees recently received a revised version of the CBS News Standards book. I talked to Linda Mason, CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects, about the revisions.

One change from the previous version: A rule forbidding contributions to political campaigns. Such contributions had not been prohibited before.

"We want our reporters to be absolutely pure when they interview candidates of either side or issues that relate to either side," said Mason. "Today, with the instant reporting of political contributions, it has become obvious who gives and to whom, and this we felt would compromise the people who were doing reporting involved with political issues."

I asked Mason why a reporter can't be balanced and still contribute to a campaign. Isn't there a concern that the organization is impinging on the right to free speech of its employees?

"That's fair to argue, and in fact it has been argued here," said Mason. "Our feeling is if you indicate in any way support for one party or another, your reporting will be challenged. Now, somebody took it a step further and said that if you looked at the whole organization there would be a certain number of people for Republicans, a certain number for Democrats, and they kind of cancel each other out. But the problem is each story is looked at as an individual story, and not everybody watches everything on CBS News, so we came to this conclusion."

Another new rule is that prior approval from Mason or CBS News President Sean McManus is required for any outside writing, speeches or blogs.

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The New York Daily News is reporting today that ethical questions have arisen around the large licensing fee paid by ABC News for footage of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin. The footage ran with Barbara Walters' interview with Irwin's widow, Terri.

ABC reportedly paid between the "mid-six figures" and $1 million for the footage, prompting questions about whether what the network was really paying for was the interview.

"We do not pay for interviews. Period," ABC News spokesman Jeff Schneider told the Daily News. "We paid a fair license fee for hours of exclusive material of Steve Irwin. Compensating rights-holders for their video is something that is a standard industry practice."

Also included in the Daily News piece is a claim that CBS News "offered more. They put $1 million on the table." Katie Couric, the source said, would have flown to Australia to conduct the interview.

I asked Linda Mason, CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects, about the report.

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Last week, in response to a question about CBS News paying a pair of Route 66 tour guides who appeared in an "Evening News" story, CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason said the following:

"We disclose when we've paid somebody. Sometimes we do it by saying that the person is a CBS News analyst. Or a CBS News consultant. That's code for we paid this expert. Otherwise we would just say they're an energy analyst."

The statement prompted questions from commenters. "Couldn't viewers reasonably believe that the consultant or analyst was appearing just because the person felt he or she had something important to say?" asked DYN175, adding: "If CBS News wants to be truly transparent, why use 'code'?"

Mason told me that she doesn't worry about people not understanding what CBS News journalists mean when they speak of analysts or consultants. "We think most people do [understand]," she said. As for using "code," it seems to me an imperfect but reasonable system. Certainly, it would be excessive to identify an expert as, for example, "CBS News analyst John Smith, who is paid for his availability," each time he appears. One could argue that an expert should be identified as "paid CBS analyst John Smith," perhaps, though it seems reasonable to assume that when someone is identified as a CBS News analyst, viewers know he or she is paid for the analysis, just as they know that someone identified as a CBS News correspondent is paid by CBS News.

Commenter joycewest also raised questions after last week's post. She wrote in part: "Why does TV news choose to pay experts when I've never noticed newspapers doing so? I presume (tell me if I'm wrong) that paying an expert guarantees exclusivity and availability for live interviews when news breaks. Does the consultant offer advice or tips to news producers behind the scenes?"

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The New York Times' David Cay Johnston sent me an email concerning Wednesday night's "Evening News" story about Route 66. Toward the end of the piece, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi noted that "John and Lenore Weiss head a historical group that's trying to preserve Route 66." John Weiss said "We always say that fun begins at the off ramp," and then Alfonsi chimed in again, saying, "So we hired them to take us there." (You can click on the video box to watch the story for yourself.)

Johnston expressed concern about the fact that CBS News "hired" the couple for the story. We asked Alfonsi for a little background information, and she emailed the following:

"They are full time Route 66 tour guides, and drove us around about 100 miles in their car. We paid them to show us the road, like any other customer."

I asked Linda Mason, CBS News senior vice president, standards and special projects, whether paying for the tour was a violation of CBS News standards.

"No, of course not," said Mason. "Especially because we disclosed it. He knew Route 66 – he was a specialist – and by disclosing it we're being totally transparent with our viewers."

Mason said disclosure was the key issue. "We disclose when we've paid somebody," she said. "Sometimes we do it by saying that the person is a CBS News analyst. Or a CBS News consultant. That's code for we paid this expert. Otherwise we would just say they're an energy analyst."

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Last night we received an email from "DYN175" asking the following:

What are the standards at CBS News for reporting vs. editorializing?

On the "CBS Evening News" tonight, February 14th, [Capitol Hill Correspondent] Sharyl Attkisson gave a report on Homeland Security Secretary [Michael] Chertoff and his actions dealing with Hurricane Katrina. In the Q&A after the report, [anchor] Bob Schieffer turned to her and asked, "Do you think, Sharyl, that Chertoff's job is on the line here?"

Such a question clearly requires the reporter to state a personal opinion. It would seem to me that this would cross the line into editorializing. Does CBS News have any written standards on this?

I talked to Bob Schieffer about that issue and the question and answer portion of the "Evening News" more generally.

"We're not trying to have people give personal opinions," says Schieffer. "We're trying to explain, to put things into context." He added: "There has been all this behind the scenes questioning and whispering about whether Chertoff will lose his job, and that's why I asked her about it."

Schieffer compares the question and answer portion of the "Evening News" broadcast to a sidebar in a newspaper. "The main story covers the who, what, where, why, and when, and the sidebar offers analysis, color, some detail that you couldn't get into in the main story," he says.

Such offerings are essential, he says, if the "Evening News" wants to compete in a crowded news environment.

"If the evening newses are going to survive – and I'm talking about all of them, not just us – they have to evolve beyond what they have been. If all we're going to do is put on a minute and a half piece that's the same as the minute and a half piece that's been running on cable all day, we're not going to make it." He says the question and answer exchange with correspondents, which fall somewhere between straight reporting and cable news-style editorializing, makes for content that sets the "Evening News" apart.

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While she’s certainly busy (and not just with responding to inquiries from Public Eye) Linda Mason, senior vice president of standards and special projects at CBS News, has taken the time to answer our questions and yours as part of our regular 10 plus 1 feature. What did she do when Vietnamese dissidents threatened to assassinate Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf in the middle of a shoot in Saigon? What does she think of Mary Mapes’ new book? Read on to find out.


So, what do you do for a living?

I feel very lucky. I come to work most days to confront totally new situations at CBS News. I have a very varied portfolio made possible by my lengthy career at CBS News. I have worked at more than 10 broadcast units in various positions—from radio to television, from hard news to documentaries to magazine programs—and that gives me insight into numerous problems that occur in news production. I try to use that knowledge to help producers on all broadcasts on a variety of subjects—from standards, to legal issues, to how to go about getting critical elements. I just finished conducting more than 19 standards sessions with CBS News bureaus and broadcasts and am now tweaking the standards book. I screen all “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours” segments before they air. Because I was the first woman in most of the jobs I have had at CBS News, I feel an affinity for minority journalists and am very active in the CBS News diversity program. I also oversee the CBS News internship program. The CBS News Archives report to me and I head up the Decision Desk on Election Nights.

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