'Significant conflict of interest': Experts say Savannah Guthrie should NOT have interviewed Amber Heard
A lot has been said and done ever since Amber Heard sat for an exclusive interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on her Today’s show. The interview came after the ‘Aquaman’ actress lost the defamation case to her former actor husband Johnny Depp. The explosive interview of Amber Heard has come under fire after Savannah Guthrie revealed that her husband had done consulting work for the Depp’s legal team. This came after she sat down with Depp's star lawyers Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew in the days after the verdict.
The experts weighed in on the matter with the intention to express their valuable opinion. Many felt that Savannah should have turned the Amber Heard interview as her husband Michael Feldman was involved on the other end. For the unversed, Feldman, 53, a public relations consultant and former Democratic political adviser, was part of Bill Clinton's election campaign in 1992 and has several high-profile projects under his belt. He currently works at the public relations firm FGS Global.
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Extending support to Savannah Guthrie, NBC News executive told The Daily Mail, “Savannah disclosed on air that her husband did consulting work for Depp's law firm. She did so in the interest of transparency because she was interviewing his clients. It had no impact on the interviews she conducted or on our reporting.”
The NBC executive added, “The fairness of each interview speaks for itself. Most importantly, before they agreed to the interviews, all parties, including Heard's team and Depp's team, were advised of Savannah's husband's work, which was for the firm, not the firm’s client” concluding, “With full knowledge and understanding, each chose to be interviewed by Savannah, not another journalist or network.”
Savannah Guthrie's appalling, unethical Amber Heard interview https://t.co/XZiilBVb1Q
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) June 17, 2022
Rebecca Aguilar, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, told the New York Post that even she feels Savannah Guthrie should have avoided the Amber Heard interview. “Ms. Guthrie was transparent by letting viewers know her husband worked for the Depp legal team before her interview aired on the 'Today' show,' said Aguilar adding, “Still, she could have avoided becoming part of the story by allowing another NBC anchor to interview the Depp team and later with Ms. Amber Heard. Ms. Guthrie should be far away from this story to show her viewers that she is fair, transparent, and ethical.”
Erik Wemple, a media critic for the Washington Post, too weighed in on the matter saying Guthrie had a “very significant conflict of interest” because of her husband. She said, “There is a financial stake and that is the most fair and narrow and un-puncturable conflict of interest, if it affects your family finances in some way.” Wemple added, “She is interviewing lawyers who presumably benefited from her husband's consulting. That is really close. The more I think about it, the more it seems a little nuts.”