Stephen Whitty, in his New Jersey Star-Ledger blog, goes after Errol Morris for paying for some of the interviews in his new film, “Standard Operating Procedure.” This is his argument against the practice:

Money, however, changes everything. Once cash is involved, all guiding lights are off, and it’s hard to even feel your way to the facts. Is this person saying this because he thinks it’s what I want to hear? Because he suspects it will make a better story? Will the fourth source hold out for more money, knowing what I paid the third one, and will he then feel obligated to exaggerate, so I feel I got my money’s worth?

Your guess is as good as mine—which makes my job, as a reporter, pretty much superfluous. Because if I can’t weigh motives and decide who may or may not be telling the truth, how dare I ask you to do that work for me?

I can think of several other reasons as well, which I list in a discussion with Hitsville commenter Jason Cohn here.

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Previously in Hitsville:

Does Errol Morris pay people to be in his films?