'Today' show promotes Vieira's husband - Emily Carlson

Hum. Always a question of conflict of interest. That is a big deal, viewers don't want to feel like they're being douped or tricked or manipulated. Did Vieira really have to do the interview herself? Kind of a sticky situation.

From David Bauder at the Associated Press:

NBC's "Today" show concluded a three-part series Wednesday that featured anchor Meredith Vieira interviewing her husband and the subjects of his new book on living with chronic illness.

While one expert questioned the ethics of the arrangement, the top executive at "Today" defended the series as worthy of attention.

Author Richard M. Cohen wrote the best-selling book "Blindsided" about coping with multiple sclerosis and colon cancer. His sequel, published this month, profiles five people living with illnesses such as Crohn's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Vieira disclosed that she is married to Cohen in the "Today" series inspired by the book, "Strong at the Broken Places." At the conclusion of a profile narrated by Vieira on Wednesday, she conducted a live interview with Cohen and four of the five people featured in the book.

"I get a little emotional on this subject," Vieira said after the interviews.

It is generally best to remove journalists from stories where they have such a strong personal interest, said Bob Steele, ethics chief at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank. In this case, it probably made sense for "Today" to turn the story over to Matt Lauer or Ann Curry, he said.

There's also the issue of providing Cohen with three days of publicity on the top-rated morning news show, arguably second only to "Oprah" in importance as a venue for authors. Did Cohen get an edge because of his personal connection?

"I'm not saying they did that, but you have to ask the question," Steele said.

Jim Bell, executive producer of "Today," said he considered assigning the story to someone else but decided against it. "In a way I think it would have drawn more attention to it if she did not do it," he said.

He said it was an important subject for "Today" viewers. The network drew a comparison to ABC News programs giving attention to the book written by anchor Bob Woodruff and his wife about the bomb blast in Iraq that nearly killed him.

"If the guy (Cohen) was writing a book on a topic we didn't care about, or if he wasn't an accomplished author or if it wasn't getting attention at other places, I think it would be an issue," Bell said. "But I don't think that was the case here."