Last month, CBS executives ordered subsidiary CNET to pull a product from consideration for a "Best of CES" award at the Consumer Electronics Show.
CNET was under contract with the Consumer Electronics Association to judge the competition.
But the executives at CBS didn't like the fact that CNET wanted to give the award to "Hopper," a new product that lets Dish TV subscribers skip commercials. (CBS, in fact, has sued Dish to stop the sale of Hopper.)
“I can never recall any major media company, much less a top-tier First Amendment protector like CBS, publicly mandating an editorial decision based on business interests,” writes Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, in USA Today.
The decision has destroyed CBS' reputation overnight, Shapiro says.
"CBS, once called the Tiffany network, will never be viewed again as pristine," he writes.
The CBS executives have earned a spot on the Wall of Shame alongside Lance Armstrong, Kenneth Lay, Bernie Madoff and Jack Abramoff.
They've also made marketers' jobs a little harder by adding to the "trust deficit" and strengthening customers' skepticism.
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