How is paying for news considered journalism?

I'm sick to my stomach tonight from what played out on my story today. Here's the Reader's Digest version:

I was called to WKYC's Cleveland office to be an extra field reporter in the school shooting coverage. I could still anchor the Akron-Canton News from the Clevleand newsroom, so it was a win-win situation.

Around noon, CNN showed amateur video taken from inside the school Wednesday that shows a class of students having their door locked and then panicking as the shooting unfolded. The video doesn't show the shooter, the victims, or capture any of the bullets being fired. Still, it's the best video out there at the moment.

I began trying to locate the 17-year-old kid who took the video to see if we could get a copy for our newscast. A short time later, our News Director saw the boy talking live on CNN right in front of WKYC so I ran outside and made contact with Tereena Marks, the mother of 17-year-old Warren Marks.

She told me that her son would grant us an interview but that we were fourth in line behind another CNN crew, Inside Edition, and ABC. No problem, I can wait.

Long story short, after dragging the interviews out for more than an hour, Warren told the local reporters that if they wanted a copy of his video, then he wanted to be paid .. and paid well. He told us that Inside Edition had paid up to $2,000 for the tape and that he would make us deals as well.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I couldn't believe that this kid was looking to capitalize on an act of violence that left his fellow classmates and teachers with bullets in their bodies.

I reminded Warren that he'd already shared the video with one Cleveland TV station for free, so why couldn't he share the video with the rest of us too? Warren told me that that was before he knew he could make money.

I called inside to my News Director and managers who said we were not paying for the tape under any circumstances. I was glad they were backing me up on this ethical decision.

I went back out to try and be reasonable with Warren but he wouldn't budge. At this point, a reporter from one of my competitors began to negotiate for the tape .. starting at $200 .. then $250 .. then $300. Appalled, I looked at both of them and said "I'm out of here."

On the way out I asked Warren's mother why they were resorting to charging local media for the tape .. especially when a syndicated show had already provided a windfall. She told me that this was Warren's "15 minutes" and that he "deserved to be paid."

What's ironic is that Tereena works a block from the school .. and as she rushed to the scene to make sure her son was OK, guess where she waited for news? The Channel 3 lobby. Nice to know that our goodwill in her time of need was so quickly forgotten when she and her son could hold up our station for $$.

For what it's worth (pun intended), our station has paid for breaking news video in the past .. such as tornadoes, fires, or plane crashes. All of those are unplanned events. But this was different. This wasn't an amateur photographer who was in the right place at the right time; this was a kid looking to cash in on his classmates' misfortune.

So instead of giving viewers a glimpse inside the school through the use of this teen's video, I instead shared the story of a teen survivor-turned-entrepreneur.

After the 7 p.m. broadcast, I learned that the NBC network agreed to buy a copy of the tape and was now providing copies to all of the NBC affiliates -- WKYC included -- for use as they see fit. (Note: Gannett Inc. owns WKYC and not NBC) We'll show parts of his video at 11 while explaining that we were given a copy by the network but did not pay for it.

Still, for the organizations that did pony up cash to a 17-year-old and who regularly pay for interviews and private video, I wonder how they sleep at night under the umbrella of journalism.

Somehow cash-for-content turns hard news into hardly news.