Next week the autobiography of Melania Trump simply titled Melania. An important event given her status as ex (and possible future) first lady. This means that the media will want to talk about the book, and get interviews with its author. CNN says it contacted Melania Trump’s editor two months ago for an interview, and after “several exchanges” it was deemed a possibility – provided the news channel was willing to let go 250 000 dollars.
You read that right: CNN claims that last week, Skyhorse Publishing, the book’s publisher, sent them a document titled “Confidentiality and Nondisclosure Agreement.” The text set the conditions for “obtaining an interview and using extracts from the book”. As a conclusion, the publisher requested a licensing fee of $250,000. According to the document, the sum “corresponded to the price requested for an interview with a media as well as the right to use photos and extracts from the book”.
After a journalist questioned the publisher about this very high price, he pleaded error. “Neither Melania nor her team were aware of this document, which reflects an internal communication error,” said the president and publisher of Skyhorse. If CNN had signed a non-disclosure clause, we usually would have contacted Melania’s team to discuss the details. »
As CNN notes, it is absolutely unusual for a public figure to ask to be paid for an interview, let alone the wife of a presidential candidate. Editorial staff follow “rigorous processes that prevent this”. But, strangely enough, the figure requested corresponds almost exactly to the fees she had already been able to earn in the country.
Last month, CNN revealed that the former First Lady had given a speech at two fundraising events for the Log Cabin Republicans – an LGBTQ+ association that campaigns in the orbit of the Republican Party – and that she had been paid $237,500 for an event in April, according to the latest tax bulletin communicated by Donald Trump, a line described as remuneration for a “speech”.
Records also show that Melania Trump received $250,000 for an event from the same association in December 2022, one of three payments of the same sum received for speeches this month, just after the ex-president announced his candidacy for the presidential election, according to a financial bulletin communicated by Donald Trump.
Regarding the request addressed to CNN, the journalist Kate Andersen Brower, specialist on First Ladies in United States history believes “this is absolutely unprecedented. No First Lady has ever done that.”
Paying for an interview “encourages the subject to transform what he says to exaggerate, make his words more sensational or conform to what is expected of him”, indicates Kelly McBride, vice-president of the Institute of Journalism Ethics. “In interviewing someone, the goal is to find out their point of view, to get closer to the truth, and if you encourage them to distort their words, you are betraying your audience. It’s suspicious that the wife of a political figure could ask to be paid for anything. »
Contacted by CNNMelania Trump’s communications team declined to comment.
Originally published by Vanity Fair US
